#casswan ptotn

[shewritesallnight]

Here we go again... time for another Phantom Tales of the Night rant dump

⚠️ Warning for major spoilers up to Volume 11

From my previous notes on Vol 10 plus what we learned in Vol 11 there seems to be 5 incarnations of Sasaki that have been highlighted in the story.

Starting from the oldest incarnation...

Singing Bone: ~ we know this is the oldest version since Owner tells us that this is the first time they met.

Lover Sasaki: from volume 11 ~ was somewhat living with Owner and Owner stated that they loved him.

***Super Old Sasaki: from volumes 7 & 9 ~ this version is the Sasaki with Super Old Rei who reveals himself as a skeletal monster. This is the version that is the Author --- this is also the version that Yoshitaka Kudou sees and that Kaibara is researching.

Adult Sasaki: from volume 8 ~ this is the incarnation who was arrested for political writings and whose will-o-the-whisp moved on.

Current Sasaki ~ our present day kiddo.

For Saejima Rei, he does not show up until the Super Old Sasaki timeline. I believe this is where their souls or fates became intertwined. This is probably the only reason that Owner became involved with trying to 'change' the Saejima curse.

We see 2 Saejima Rei incarnations:

Super Old Saejima Rei/Mandarin Orange Rei ~ where their paths seem to first cross (I'm thinking more of Current Rei's grandfather or great grandfather) because Kaibara found the *old* writings of SO Sasaki.

Current Rei ~ teacher and newest incarnation of Rei, brother to Rin and cousin is Tousei, grew up with Yoshitaka Kudou.

With the info from Vol 11 it's not too far fetched to say that Owner feels that SO Saejima "stole" Sasaki from them. I was getting the impression that Sasaki cared for and maybe even loved Rei in that timeline. Perhaps Rei loved him back as he kept his skull with him.

So the one thing Owner wants (family/love?) is taken from them. When Owner kicked out Kaibara, they stated that they "did try to make a home once but couldn't do it."

SO/MO Rei tells Owner that "Only by speaking to others can we end this cycle."

By setting it up for Rei to cross paths with Current Sasaki, Kaibara, and Kudou again... (ppl who understand his family's curse) He is setting up the opportunity to "speak to others" and end the grudge/curse cycle.

The same goes for Sasaki, SO Sasaki wanted a true friend someone he could speak to freely without hiding the knowledge of his body. (Or so he thought...)

This branch goes back to Kudou's conversation with Owner at the waterfall. Owner states that Kudou loves Rei and then asks "what will you do with this knowledge.... if I say he is not happy... are you going to try and make him happy?"

To which Kudou responds, "That's not what it means to wish for a person's happiness. It's to hope for that person to be happy even when you're not there."

The showdown in Vol 11 is centered around Rei. Kudou wants to save him. Tousei wants to consume him. Sasaki relates to him.

Owner thought there was a connection building between them when Sasaki asked what he wanted to fill himself with so long ago. They reach out to him only to be left behind when Sasaki says it isn't about him right now.

Then again at the end of the volume Sasaki asks Owner to tell him what he's been searching for 'up until this life'. It looks like Owner is about to tell him when they are interrupted by Kudou and Rei 😩

Reviewing older volumes, I think Owner is sticking with the reincarnations of Sasaki to figure out what/where his "core" or soul is. It seems that he is hoping for the version that loved him back to return, based off my interpretation of Owner's convo with the Bone Monk in Vol 8.

That ultimately Owner is trying to rebuild their family/home with Sasaki as it once was.

[shewritesallnight]

Ohhhhhhhhohohohohohohohoho!!!!!!

It's all coming together now!!!!

Time for a long over due rant and some theories. Volume 10 was juicy 🧃🧃🧃

Spoilers below! I'm SERIOUS do not read if you aren't caught up to volume 10. I don't want to ruin anything for you!

This madness got loooooooooooong 😭

First and foremost the time line is fucked. Good luck getting everything in order but hey, I've tried here.

Let's break it down to the basics. The way I see it, we have 3 main characters.

𖢺 Our resident skeleton boi ~ Sasaki

ຊ Our resident snake boi ~ Rei, who I will refer to as Rei (present day Slayer); and Adult Rei (past adult life)

℘ Owner 🖤

For today we are gonna focus on Sasaki and Owner with a dash of Rei

⊱⋅─────────────────────⋅⊰

From what I can tell, there have been 4 versions of Sasaki (that we know of)

𖢺 Oldest version: Singing Bone ~ we know this is the oldest version since Owner tells us that this is the first time they met.

𖢺 Super Old Sasaki: from volumes 7 & 9 ~ this version is the Sasaki with Adult Rei who reveals himself as a skeletal monster. Adult Rei blows him on the spot you KNOW what panel I'm talking about!

𖢺 Adult Sasaki: from volume 8 ~ this is the incarnation who was arrested for political writings and whose will-o-the-whisp moved on. He even stated himself that it was in his previous life that he was a novelist (obviously he is aware of his own reincarnations (at some point in each life))

𖢺 Then there is Sasaki ~ our present day kiddo.

What we know so far about Sasaki & Rei:

~ Sasaki & Rei have been reincarnated multiple times (tho so far we've only seen 2 reincarnations of Rei)

~ They have a history as far as their lives shown in volumes 7 & 9 (possibly more)

𖢺 Sasaki our sweet walking bag of bones does die (tho it's not clear how long each of his lives are) and then is reborn. Presumably due to Owner burying him each time.

ຊ Rei comes from a cursed family line that there are so many curses now that they must continue the family line in order to prevent the curses/malice from taking over.

ຊ In order to become an "adult" and gain control of the malice the males in the family have to eat their fathers.

What we know about Owner:

℘ They are a "trueborn monster" per the mermaid huntsman in volume 6

℘ They have no true form as mentioned by Owner multiple times thru out the series and most recently reiterated in volume 10: "long ago I was merely darkness" and that they had no face or body.

℘ But now they can manipulate their form/body (tho there is nothing under the skin) yet they can't age. We see this in volume 5 where the fox spirit stole Owner's adult body after a bet and Owner never appears as an adult.

℘ They are immortal (it seems) based off of Owner's own words in volume 7 that they "have all the time in the world"

Now the reoccuring theme of Saskai's existence is revolved around "people feeling complete by filling the void that is him". (Which I find interesting since Owner has no true form... little bit more on this at the end)

Super Old Sasaki was a student wanting to become a writer and was working on a manuscript so he frequented the Inn to focus on his writing.

Now in volume 10, when Owner employs Sasaki he starts by having him clean his old room (which has to be 100s of years old by now) I THINK Owner was hoping to maybe jog his memory and get some sort of reaction from him.

Also in volume 10, Owner tells Sasaki that he went looking for SO Sasaki/Adult Sasaki and that "No matter what form he takes I will always be there to greet him. After all, I want to keep playing together."

In a previous post I mentioned that I believe that Owner thought of Rei in a parental way and that I was unsure his thoughts on Sasaki.

My feeling now is more that Owner is in love with Sasaki's soul. Hence why they reject anyone who confesses their love to them. But they keep coming back to Sasaki during each of his lives.

Owner is also very cautious about all the Sasakis. They always come to his aid, so much so that present day Sasaki states that he's not worried about being cursed because he knows that Owner will help him.

For Rei, I'm still getting parental vibes from Owner. I also think that the only reason Owner stepped in to assist (or whatever he is doing) with Rei's family is ultimately for Sasaki. It seems that they are connected and perhaps Owner is trying to set up the breaking of the curse to free Sasaki's entanglement with it so that they can be together.

If we wanna get weird, would Owner take over Sasaki's body?? They would truly be together then- Sasaki would be "filled" and Owner would have a true body.

All in all, I absolutely love this series. The artwork BLOWS MY MIND EVERYTIME!!!! I wish we could see it animated 😩 and I'm excited to see where Matsuri takes it.

TELL US OWNER'S SECRETS!!!! 🖤