#Ichiro Osabe

[memory-echo]

No child, no matter what path they may have chosen, should be abandoned by the people who should love them the most. When two people come together and make the conscious decision to create a life, they have an obligation to protect and love that child until death.

S.L. Jennings, Dark Light

[idontthinkimokaymentally]

Hello there Osabe Ichirō fans.

[memory-echo]

Ichiro Osabe

Ichiro Osabe always struck me as someone who wanted to be a good family man. I’m sure he believed he was one by bringing home the paycheck, but that was obviously not enough. He didn’t have a good marriage, and his denial makes him responsible for all this tragedy. 

If only he had listened to his sister and paid a little more attention to his son, he would’ve noticed the abuse taking place right under his nose. Unfortunately, his epiphany came too late. His wife walked out on him, and on the kid, and he was left to pick up the pieces. 

I give him credit for trying to help his son after he came out of prison, but he needed help himself, because he had no idea how to take care of that boy. 

Seiichi gives him way more credit than I do, since he doesn’t seem to hold his dad accountable for anything. So, after all is said and done, what’s unforgivable is that this poor kid’s life is destroyed, and there’s no way back for him now.

[memory-echo]

A word or two about ch. 116

First of all: may I just say I've never been prouder of this kid (except, may be in chapter 30). Well done! 🎉🎉🎉🎉👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Secondly, I saw this one coming miles away, which is odd for me. Anyway, the reason I saw this coming is because I’m well aware there is a delicate balance between the % of happiness versus the % of pain that human beings can sustain before they start considering suicide.

Different people have different thresholds. Some can endure 90% of misery if only they can have 10% of happiness. Others feel like 40% of misery is too much to endure.

Ichiro Osabe had a certain joire de vivre: he enjoys a good meal, a nice cigarette, a cold beer, an afternoon with his son. His life was fraught with difficulty and tragedy, yet he still found happiness in simple things. In a way, he reminds me of Will Freeman from “About a Boy”.

Seiichi is nothing like Will Freeman. It’s awfully strange that this kid doesn’t watch TV, listen to music, eat exotic foods, spend time on social media trying to connect with people, or doing anything to vent his anger or sadness…

Most importantly, that the reason he clung to life was simply to spare his father from yet another tragedy… If the kid wants to 💀 himself, far from me to tell him he should keep living, because I’ll never know the amount of pain he is enduring.

But it is interesting that the threshold was not overcome, and that something as simple as “my father is watching over me” was enough to keep him going. So, was the main fuel guilt or hope? 

If the guilt is bigger than the pain he feels over the events of the past, then the pain is not that big. If it’s hope, then there’s hope for a happier ending, because if he can fake it, he can make it for real. He just needs a damn good reason to live. 🤔