☆∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿ ☆

OGATA

Sugimoto admits to dehumanizing people in his head in order to justify their deaths. He did it with the Russian soldiers in the war, and he does it with the Abashiri convicts and the 7th division soldiers, and I think that the fact that he admits to doing it points to the idea that he’s questioning whether or not he is justified in talking all these lives. Did all of those people really deserve to die? Is he a bad person for killing them? I think these questions are very much prompted by his encounter with Ume after the war, he can’t assume a normal life because he doesn’t have the answers yet, and searching for them is a big part of his character arc.

Tsukishima is similar to Sugimoto in that he didn’t really have a life before the war. Both of them were living without much of a purpose, and joined the army simply to stay alive, Sugimoto to escape poverty and starvation and Tsukishima to escape death row execution. And while Sugimoto was given purpose by Toraji’s death and later by his friendship with Asirpa, Tsukishima was given purpose by Lt Tsurumi. He fully believes that he doesn’t deserve to live for himself or be anything other than Lt Tsurumi’s pawn. Being a soldier is Tsukishima’s entire identity, and he doesn’t concern himself with moral questions because there is no life for him outside the army. This relates to the philosophical idea of private use of reason, that reason must be restricted in the case of a contract or obligation like being a soldier. Because of his obligation, Tsukishima doesn’t have the luxury of independent thinking. Being a soldier allows him to remove himself from the moral dilemma.

While being in the military raised questions of morality for Sugimoto, it gave Tsukishima an excuse to suppress those very questions.

it's so bad I genuinely feel bad and sad that he didn't get a happy ending and he had to go that way which is like very tasty angst-wise but he was just another war vet who really had it bad that he was able to suppress so much guilt he couldn't take just so he could live with himself I'm so sick that he literally killed himself when he had to face it he literally killed his family for this self-justification... war has shaped him so much I fear it was because he was just really too good of a sniper/soldier (also mentioned Hanazawa fam has good soldier genes military geniuses or whatever mentioned on Barato was it? arc yeah) that he also clung to that soldier mentality.

Have we ever seen this man relax. No. He's out there. Being a good tool for EVERYBODY. For the damn military. Acting like a soldier every step of the story, always scouting the perimeters, NEVER leaving his gun out of reach, always distrusting of everybody, always ready to abandon the trenches and throw bombs and even use the corpse of his comrades to survive. Ready to betray before he himself gets betrayed. All for the sake of one personal goal, searching for the validation of parents long gone and dead. But to him, that was his war, and so he fought without considering anything else but how to reach that goal, no matter what.

Being a commander of the 7th division was his idea of a high achievement he could ever reach in his life which is, in his perspective--valid and really highly regarded, but in the grand scale of things it's just so shallow and it's really not everything but for HIM, whose only real talent or skill he had been applauded for being his skill as a sniper, this was his only shot at being great. His only shot at being loved. Which is why I now exactly understand why he detested Koito. He was not only a rich boy who could have anything he wanted---he had great support from his parent AND he was loved.

Can't imagine being young Ogata, already going out hunting ducks for his mum and she wouldn't turn his way. "Be a great soldier like your father" was the standard she had set for that lil guy. And he was considered an impurity in their puritist society just cause dad's a bigwig general and mum's a prostitute. I can't imagine how else Ogata would find any importance on anything else that isn't violence, because that was the system he lived in that time. Be a soldier, join the war, climb the ranks, and be someone great. That was what most children and young boys and adults had at that time as an idea of "Greatness" and for this boy who really had nothing, guns and violence was all he had.

Granted, he had been given many chances to change and turn over... but yeah. His self-justification further numbed by the war and his goals were just too bad. It took actual tweaking of the man to truly tweak. He had to be beat up lotsa times, escape death two times, lose an eyeball and be screamed at with profanities and to reach the end of the line where he had been stabbed in the heart, the side, and be struck with a poison arrow to tweak and break.

That ending really gave way to how fragile he had really been, but also---to turn to murder everytime he wanted to prove something? That is--was, also a sign of how vulnerable he was.

Breaks my heart that he carried that burden by himself to the end, and if, by chance he had survived---I wonder if he'd be able to bounce back again, or will he be truly broken this time? I for one think the man would be emotionally, mentally, and physically crippled, cause it looks like it's either that or death that would stop him from his path of self-destruction.

And speaking of self-destruction, very obviously--it did also look like, despite his ability to survive life-threatening situations twice---that he too was looking for a place to die, grinning manically at the thought of being killed by someone who absolutely refuses to kill. poison arrow to the eye was a near death experience that really told me that.

Some may feel disappointed with his ending--which is indeed, I feel like it's rushed and the fact that he chose to khs is not always a pretty thing to happen to a fan favorite, but actually---it was good. It went back through all the times he appeared as he back tracked and finally faced his guilt. And the double spread page is still stuck behind my eyelids when I close my eyes.

But yes... my man deserved something more. But I guess that's only something I can dream of, cause it also makes sense for him to not be able to take the burden at all. If I had killed my family trying to prove I was a capable killing-machine immune to guilt because that's the only way I can be of use to my current society with my specialty, only to find out I'm not so "invincible," the question of "Then what was it all for?" would drive me insane too.

Read from right to left.

Did you know? That now I’m an Ogata lover?

A very hand selected bunch of Ogata’s from 2021 to 2022 for the Same Character Meme.