Hi, I love your posts especially the Undertaker ones!He has been absent from the manga for months And reading your blog somehow makes up it for me😍
My question is, is it possible that Tanaka is not human?! It seems that he is aware of Sebastian's nature. He is also shown to be strong in the manga .For example, when he protected Earl from an attack by his guest in the book of murder arc And was the only survivor of the attack on the mansion on the night of vincest's murder
I might be crazy, but I think it might be something (something other than demon or Shinigami)
I'm glad my blog helps you deal with Undertaker's hiatus in the manga!
What is Tanaka?
Tanaka might realize something is off about Sebastian, but I think that's simply the fact that he is very perceptive... and while Sebastian is around, Tanaka has time to sit back, sip his tea, and observe.
I don't think Tanaka is non-human. Sebastian doesn't even seem to notice there's anything particularly off about him, and he typically leaves Tanaka to his own devices. And even his strength might have more to do with decades of honing his fighting skills. In some martial arts, it's not about size or even brute strength; speed, agility, good timing, and proper aim can be mistaken for physical strength. That's not to say there are no mysteries about him, though.
Usually when I'm talking about Tanaka, it's about his parallel to Leder in Mother3. Leder stands out in a crowd, but he's quiet (he literally only speaks in one scene in the entire game) and unassuming and pretty smart. He's the only one with the background information that Lucas needs, so that Lucas will understand his own role in saving Nowhere Islands... even though it ultimately requires the destruction of his older mirror twin brother, Claus. Leder was the only villager to keep his memories preserved when they started their new lives in Tazmily Village on Nowhere Islands.
I see Tanaka very similarly. He stands out because 1. he's the only Japanese character we've met (so far), and 2. because he was depicted early-on in a super-deformed style. He's very observant while saying very little. When he does speak, he typically gives words of advice or displays humility as the humble servant he's supposed to be. Unlike the newer servants that have been hired-on, he's highly capable of his job (steward) and seems to have played that role since the time that Cloudia/Claudia was the queen's watchdog. (Or at least butler back then.) He's already been the one to explain about the birth of the twins, and I'm hoping he will fulfill his role as the parallel to Leder by giving our earl the knowledge he needs to destroy his own older mirror twin brother, the real Ciel. He is the only person (besides the twins) who survived the attack and fire... that we know of. However, it must be said he claims he didn't recognize any of the attackers, and he doesn't seem to have given our earl any useful information about the attack and fire. At least not yet. I'm still holding out for him to finally give our earl and Sebastian useful information about that day. Perhaps he hopes our earl isn't really seeking revenge; eventually he should realize that's what our earl needs to do.
But I have doubts about him, too, even now. Not that he's something other than human... but about where his true loyalty lies. I think he's sticking around with real Ciel to gather intel on how to defeat him, but we have yet to see him pass along any information since our earl and the others left the manor.
There's also the fact that (when they are reunited at the hospital) our earl asks him if he recognizes any of the attackers, and he says he doesn't. But I'm not entirely convinced he's telling the truth. Somehow, a number of things managed to survive the fire that probably shouldn't have, like the signet ring that Madam Red hands to our earl. Idk if she found it there or if Tanaka did, but I'd have expected the golden ring to melt, particularly if it was on Vincent's finger or in his office (where attackers might have also wanted to destroy evidence to cover up the reason for the attack). Then there's the huge ledger of employees from Vincent's time, as well as a family collection of recipes. I suspect that Tanaka somehow kept a lot of things safe, hidden away somewhere the attackers didn't look and the fire didn't reach. In the anime, Tanaka presents Vincent's personal diary to "Ciel", and I think it has an entry where Vincent says he expects an attack. How he's entrusting Tanaka to keep certain things safe. Well, Tanaka hasn't whipped out any diaries (yet), but so far this is all in keeping with the whole Leder parallel.
Even for real Ciel, he's been the one to pull out that ledger and explain to him (and us) more about Vincent's time as watchdog, even if it's just about the servants. But I believe that to be important! Because I theorize that Polaris is one of the butlers shown in various chapters, like ch133, ch134, and ch151. Tanaka, therefore, likely would have trained him.
What surprises me is that Tanaka worked quite closely with Vincent, and it feels odd (because of that fact) that he wouldn't recognize any of the attackers. Hired thugs, perhaps? Idk. But here he is -- the one survivor who should have a pretty clear memory of the attack -- and he doesn't seem to have any useful information about it. That's fishy to me. Perhaps his recollections are fuzzy because he was stabbed? Maybe he's lying because he doesn't want for his young master to seek revenge? Like... it's a waste of his life to try? Assuming Tanaka doesn't know that Sebastian is a demon contracted specifically to help our earl seek that very thing.
The crackiest theory I have seen (and have had to consider myself) about Tanaka is that he's in league with the queen. There's a joke scene in an OVA for s2 of the anime, where he gets into one of those giant mobile robot suits... along with the queen and Lord Randall. It's absurd! But... what if he was planted with the Phantomhive family two generations ago, and he's been keeping tabs on them the entire time? What if he's only sticking around with real Ciel to report back to the queen how she could possibly control real Ciel -- to finally have a bizarre doll as an "ally"? Either way, he does seem to be genuinely disturbed by real Ciel as a bizarre doll who is so unkind to the servants.
Yana-san once tweeted that our earl is so twisted because he has largely been raised by Sebastian, and she goes on to say how Vincent had quite the evil streak (as Phantomhives are expected to have) and vaguely suggests that some of its expression comes from being largely raised by Tanaka. She cuts herself off from telling us what that means about Tanaka. We can infer that he's also got quite the evil streak. But what does that possibly mean regarding his loyalty? 🤔
TL/DR: I think he's human, but his loyalty is up for debate.
