An in depth analysis of Kasa7 (and why Sakaki is a bitch-ass groomer) PART 2: ANALYSIS
PART 1: SUMMARY
I think something important to address about Tsukasa in light of this new event is that he is not as reckless as some readers think he is. In his side story for his Nene6 card, after his method acting for Prince Bless, he mentions that he struggled with the lingering feelings of depression and had insomnia as a result. To prevent Nene from meeting the same fate, he reads a lot of books to try and understand the human mind and depression. For his acting for William, too, he doesn't go head-first into intense obsessive emotional acting head-first and seems to be calmer about his practice in the beginning.
AND THEN Sakaki comes in.
What makes Sakaki a groomer? While Sakaki telling WxS to imagine killing their loved ones is seriously out of left-field and inappropriate, that alone is NOT an immediate sign of grooming. What makes his actions manipulative and inexcusable is his repeated lack of concern and a safety net when it came to Tsukasa's well-being. He brushes Rui's concerns about the safety of the method acting in regards to Tsukasa's mental state not once but TWICE, and he does not offer WxS anything like therapy or counselling after forcing them to confront their deepest and emotions. Had he given them the appropriate tools to self-regulate and make sure Tsukasa could come back to the correct headspace after his acting, he could have position himself as a somewhat eccentric but caring mentor.
INSTEAD, he says Tsukasa seems to be "doing fine" when seeing him in his angry, homicidal trance-like state and leaves him alone. Why? Because Sakaki is the type of director that "crushes" his actors to obtain a good performance. It doesn't matter to him if they are rendered useless after, or if they cannot adapt and repeat the process healthily in the long run, because all he needs is the performance. Sakaki mentions to Tsukasa that all great actors struggled with difficult thoughts and emotions during their acting process.
Another major red flag to me was Tsukasa's self-isolation throughout his training process. It's a fairly common trait for groomers to isolate their victims and keep them in a vacuum chamber so they don't listen to anyone else.(I did an ungodly amount of research on this topic when I was....uh....bullying Mafuyu) Sakaki didn't discourage Tsukasa's behavior and didn't help him like the rest of WxS tried to. All of these were signs that he didn't care about any part of Tsukasa other than his performance, which are all extremely alarming considering the means he took to get Tsukasa into that state.
By means I mean making him imagine killing his family. Which leads me to:
Was Tsukasa Neglected?
"Of course he is! His parents completely forgot of and abandoned an 8-year-old child alone in their house to wait far into midnight! And now he's traumatized for life!"
A reader's first impulse might be to think of this, and yes, it is true; the Tenma parents' behavior in this case is horrible and inexcusable, and we can clearly see the damage that it caused to Tsukasa's psyche. However, he mentions multiple times that it only happened ONCE and that his parents felt extremely guilty and apologized to him profusely afterwards.
Even if they had no ill intentions, the incident itself clearly stuck to Tsukasa so hard that he used it as ammunition to try to make himself want to kill them, even if he "forgot" the initial feelings of resentment he held towards them during the incident.
This evidence leads me to believe that while Tsukasa was not physically and intentionally put through neglect often in the Tenma Household, he most likely experienced emotional neglect, leading his negative emotions to be discredited and suppressed by a very small child who didn't know any better. The amount of responsibility Tsukasa felt at such a young age ( trying to prepare dinner when he first noticed his parents absent, telling himself that he had to 'protect' the house until they returned) was unhealthy, and his parents were unfortunately not present enough to realise this or to help him cope with these emotions. Ultimately, it's an unfortunate situation in which the Tenma parents were forced to prioritse their very ill child for their 'healthy' one, and Tsukasa didn't have anyone in his life to help him cope.
Why shoving?
When Tsukasa imagines killing his family (or specifically, always his mother) he very consistently imagines shoving her down the flight of stairs leading from his loft bedroom to the first floor. The reason that it's his mother seems relatively straightforward—it was her phone he called as a child when he was scared and lonely, only to go ignored, and he clearly cannot hold resentment against Saki because of his brotherly, fiercely protective nature.
But why shoving?
If Tsukasa wanted to get as close to the role of William as possible, especially his emotions when he tried to kill his daughter Amelia, he wouldn't have picked shoving. We don't know how William was planning on killing her, but considering they were on flat, even land when he confronted her, I'm assuming it was by something like stabbing or strangulation.
The clear reason is that Tsukasa is kind, and he loves his family—he cannot imagine doing something so cruel and evil, so he picks the most passive route. I do think that there is a lot deeper we can go with this, though.
For example, in japanese, Tsukasa mentions in his trance-like state:
もう少しで, 背中を押せる
This I think was at Episode 7, when Rui tries to talk to Tsukasa and he asks him if it can be later. He says this sentence specifically. The phrase
背中を押せる(senaka wo oseru, a form of the phrase senaka wo osu) is an idiomatic expression meaning to push someone forwards, or to encourage someone. [Source: I'm japanese] It's a common phrase, and a lot of the pjsk characters have used this phrase in the context of supporting their friends in realising their dreams.
There is also, of course, the literal meaning, which is literally pushing someone's back. Pushing them, so they fall down the stairs and die.
The dual meaning definitely stood out to me and chilled me to the bone when I was listening to the event story. I expected for Tsukasa to use it in the first meaning as the dependable leader that helps everyone, and that's why it's more terrifying when he says it with raw, homicidal intent. Him muttering this was definitely what scared the rest of WxS to act urgently to convince him that they were there for him so he could snap out of it.
Another possible reason is that, unlike stabbing and strangulation, pushing someone doesn't need much force or the ability to overpower another person. It is fast, and all it needs is a little force, balance, and luck. It's so easy a child could do it. An angry, neglected, child, in the heat of his emotions....ahahahahaha....
Anyways. That's all that stood out to me. I hope the Tenparents get a Live 2D model soon, because I need more of their family dynamic.
If you liked this analysis pls pray for my gacha luck because it is in shambles.
