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opinions
Why Firuze Khanume devotes her life to the White Tiger, and why she will defend him to her death.
(SPOILER WARNING)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/all_about_yukishiro_enishi/message/94
The first thing I loved from RK was the historical background. (RK is the first SERIOUS contact I had with animation, Japanese style. I ran away from Pikachu and its hordes, and from Dragon Ball Z too, after these, I wasn't very optimistic about the quality contends of anime/manga. But alas! My daughter one day sat to watch this series with a redhead who happen to have strange and wide purple eyes... and the plot was developed around historical settings!!! That blew my mind....).
The second one, and probably the one which changed my views completely about
anime/manga is the more realistic conflicts within the characters. They are
shown as people who made mistakes, but can change, people of the gray. Not
white, not black. Gray. As real humans are. People, even those who do evil
things, are not evil per se, but because of bad choices, bad circumstances, lack
of appropriate guidance...They, the good boys as much as the bad ones, have
something very important: motivations. There are few exceptions of pure evil
characters, being Kanryuu the most notorious to me. His only motivation was
money and power, and in a way, he reminds me of certain shadows in the mega
corporations of present times, who do not hesitate in stepping over dead bodies
to reach the top of the ladder. In that age, there were lot's of entrepreneurs
like Kanryuu, in the American West, in the East Asia, and in the South of
Africa... and why not? in the Central and South American rainforests... Kanryuu
represents to me some the embodiment of the dark characters born in the shadow
of the great Imperialisms of the age. Shishio is similar, but he has every
reason to hate the Meiji... Not that he hadn't decided before being burnt alive
that he'd take power for himself...
But, lets' go back on track... Now, as I said, even the dark 'evil' characters
have motivations, reasons that have pushed them to the point of choosing more or
less twisted paths to get some satisfaction concerning the evil done to them
(real or imaginary).
Aoshi, Anji, Soujirou, Sano... all these walked the same path. But then, I
discovered that fans were prone to forget and forgive (even Soujirou) in all
these cases, while they were venomous against Enishi. And I still wonder why.
Why it's easier to imagine that Soujirou can become a sweet wanderer, like
Kenshin, while Enishi is condemned beyond the chance of salvation?
After all, when Sou broke in front of Kenshin, he doesn't look like so sane to
me... if sanity is a measure for future redemption, I mean. Not to mention his
creepy smile all the time, and how he repressed his emotions.... Was Aoshi sane
when he give himself to the path of pure violence and revenge? If so, why Sano
and Kenshin make a point during Kenshin/Aoshi fight about how Aoshi had changed,
reverting himself to the same man who Kenshin had fought at Kanryuu's manor? To
me, it means that the Aoshi who left Takeda's mansion wasn't the same man that
had fought a short while ago with Kenshin. Rage, and guilt had maddened him.
Anji... Was him sane after watching his protégées been burnt to death? Well, I
don't think that wanted to destroy the world to its roots to bring a better one
could be considered very 'sane'...and Sano... was he really balanced before
meeting Kenshin, looking for fights just to vent his rage for the unfair death
of Capt. Sagara?
To me, it's clear that after Kenshin broke his watou in the beach, Enishi was
still ready to fight him, with or without sword. He had risen to his feet,
calling Kenshin by his old 'Battousai' name. To me, he was ready to die before
giving up. But then, Wu changed it all. And when he saw Kaoru in poised in front
of Kenshin, ready to give her life for him, the images flashed and everything
clicked into place. The difference between the man who stood up before Kenshin
and the one who leaves in chains is notorious, especially after Kenshin's words
(when he stopped Enishi from killing Wu). Well, this is my perception, at
least...
Now, though those words said by Kenshin might imply that Enishi would kill no
more, I don't think he'd do it. I think he'd kill, if it means to protect or in
self-defense. He just would not kill unjustly anymore.
Anyway, the point is, that he escapes police, and finds his own father. And if
you add Kenshin's words about Tomoe protecting Enishi always, this leaves IMO a
clear path of redemption and atonement for him, even more clear than in
Soujirou's case, who will wander to search his answer. Enishi is left alone by
police (Saitou don't consider him a risk anymore), finds his father, and
realizes of his mistake reading the diary, after the shock at the beach.
Is he lost in self delusion in Kyoto's version of Rakimumble (Thanks wombat for
the magic word!!!) [Rakuninmura]? There is no indication of such a thing, which would have
been the more logical consequence of such a shock... This is an interesting
indicator, at lest, to me.
Now, if we pay attention to Watsuki's subtle ways of telling things, we'll
notice that while Kanryuu is taken in chains, to be put on trial for a capital
offense, Shishio burst in flames, Jin'e kills himself, Sadoshima dies to follow
Shishio into Hell, Usui is cut in nice halves by the Wolf, we see on the other
hand that Anji chooses to serve term in Hokkaido (which meant hard work building
roads, cola mines, etc), the Juppongatana members who survived, (except Sou)
find post with the government, Aoshi comes back to the Oni, Sou wanders off
through Japan in search of an answer, etc, etc. To me this means that those evil
characters beyond redemption are put out the picture by the author himself,
while he allows hope for those who could find a path to redeem themselves.
After all, that's what happened to Kenshin himself, ne?
I don't know if Watsuki gives Kenshin too much credit. He is at the end of the
road of his own path, the others have just begun it. But one thing is for sure,
Kenshin fans give him too much credit, being oblivious to the other characters.
So, as I consider unfair that everyone else is given a way out by the fans, and
while Enishi is given his by Watsuki himself, I thought that this mysterious,
intriguing and genial character should be put in it's real light to the fandom,
at least in the VERY little role I am able to play. After all, most Kenshin's
fans are oblivious to the fact that it was Kenshin who created Enishi's hate,
and wish of revenge. After all, accident or not, he did kill Tomoe.
I'm very Latin in this, but even when death are caused by accidents, the
surviving participants who 'caused' the tragedy are never forgiven by their
relatives... So... I think ‘Nishi-chan hate is completely believable. Why had he
to 'forgive' Kenshin? Because he is cute, with that purple eyes and all? After
all, Kenshin didn't crashed accidentally a car... He SLICED through Tomoe. Being
a well known assassin didn't help to rise Kenshin's image in Enishi's
perspective...
The irony of all this, is that Enishi followed the same path of destruction and
death for a 'just cause' than Kenshin. He, as Kenshin, lost the track of what he
was doing in some part of the road. Kenshin woke up after the experience of
living in Otsu and Tomoe's death, Enishi after the battle at the beach.
To me, to write about him is to write about these 'facts'. It seems terribly
unfair to me that such a powerful character (one of Watsuki's favorites,
alongside Misao and Hiko), with such story behind of him is always portrayed as
a flat maniac, who after escaping the police, will go once again bent on
revenge. Or will kill little girls on rampage, or violently rape and beat women,
etc, etc, etc... There is no indication in canon to any of these, at least to
me.
The more one analyzes his motives, his 'modus operandi' his mind, the more
attractive the character is. And he has a very charismatic, devilish
manipulative, intensely clever personality. It's one of the most interesting
guys in the RK fandom, being Saitou a close second and Aoshi/Hiko in third
place, at least to me.
So, the question is more, why not? He has all the attributes to make a good
story centered around him. And bad boys with tragic pasts initiating a path to
redemption have sex appeal too!!!