Today while watching the second half of the Entertainment District Arc at the theater (for context: in Japanese with no subtitles, but I'm relatively fluent in it as a second language), I had a bit of a startling moment as Tengen recalls his ninja past.
"Huh?" I thought, "Did I miss something? Was it that seven of the Uzui siblings simply died of the harsh training that their father put them through?"
Like, the importance seemed to be placed on the fact that the lifestyle and cruel mindset was what killed them, and that Tengen did not want to live like his father and surviving younger brother. Emphasis was not placed on Tengen having killed any of them himself.
"Was this one of the edits made for the film version?" I pondered. "No, I think this scene was always like this. Why did I remember his back story differently though? Did I miss a more archaic word for them having been put up against each other to kill each other?"
But as I kept watching, it kept bothering me.
Like, "But that all really only made it sound like they happened to die due to harsh training. That's really different from being put against each other to cull each other. Did the manga say more in that scene? I need to check when I get home, because that is a big difference... Maybe Tengen will mention something about it in the grave scene. After all, at least a couple of them are dead because of him. Right...?"
But there was nothing to imply guilt in the grave scene. Just that he regrets they are dead at all and that he needs to live it up for their sake. I had always assumed this scene was set after the Fanbook #2 detail of how he used to say he was going to hell until his wives got mad at him for it. But he said that because of the guilt of killing his siblings, right?
Or... was it just general guilt over going along with the shinobi lifestyle and killing people???
But... but he did unwittingly kill a couple of his siblings without knowing who they were because their faces were covered and he was just following his father's orders, right? After all, I... I mentioned that in a fanfic. I mentioned that in timelines. I mentioned that in meta. I mentioned that in so much meta.
I grew more and more bothered as I kept watching the movie, wondering if, all this time, I had attained some false memory. I've been wrong before; I am but one nerd on the internet. It's not a big deal to be wrong. But, but if I wanted to avoid leaving false info out there, I would have to fix so much. I would have to completely reevaluate the way I have interpreted Tengen's character for years.
Where did I even get such a far-fetched idea with no basis in that flashback? Because Japanese is so contextual, did I completely misattribute Tengen's father's fault onto Tengen himself? But where did I assume those details about him not knowing they were his siblings until after he killed them? Was it fanon? Was it a mistranslation somewhere (I've come across a few widespread ones, after all)? How did I fool myself into this? How will I go back and amend all those posts???
So anyway. I got home and checked the original flashback text (in Japanese). Pretty much the same as the anime. Gulp.
Checked Fanbook #1. Basically a recap of how he did not want to live like his father and remaining brother. An extra tidbit about being given three wives when he turned 15, as was their culture. Nothing to justify my vivid memories.
But finally--in content that wasn't published until months after the manga ended--Fanbook #2 had it!!! Every detail as I felt I had already accepted as canon long ago, and then some--three Uzui siblings died beforehand, and the remaining six were put against each other, Tengen killed two without knowing who they were, his remaining brother killed another two without caring.
So why am I telling you all this?
So that you can appreciate the relief I felt as I said,
"I'm so glad Tengen killed his siblings!"
