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Chouijn X, Chapter 38: Opium Thoughts

One of the longest and most eventful Choujin X chapters in awhile. There is a lot of worldbuilding to go through, and everything from the title of the chapter to the facts we learn about Zora’s backstory and how Chouijn powers work tie into some pretty heavy nihilism themes once again. Finally, we learn a lot about the Choujin X and how it could connect to both Azuma and Tokio as characters. 

1. The Opium of the People

Nietzsche famously rejected the religion, because of the values he believed it instilled in the public. 

“Religion is the opium of the people. It is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of our soulless conditions.”

He wrote in his projected but never finished A contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s philosophy. Nietzsche’s critique on religion wasn’t really about whether or not god exists, but rather the effect christian values had on society as a whole.  

Christianity in Nietzsche’s account, emerged in the late roman empire in minds of timid slaves who lacked the stomach to get hold of what they really wanted and so it clung to a philosophy that made a virtue of their cowardice. He called this sklavenmoral (slave morality). 

It’s a recurring theme in nietzsche’s work, particularly in the first essay of his book On the genealogy of morality. Nietzsche believed that Christianity invented a moral system, to justify their own powerless in their society and unwillingness to go after what they wanted in life. Slave morality is based on resentiment - devaluing what the master values but the slave does not have.  Sexlessness turned into purity, weakness became goodness, submission became obedience, and not being able to take revenge forgiveness. 

In opposition to this slave morality was master morality, the morality of the strong willed. If slave morality is instilled in the masses by christianity, then master morality is created by one self. Master morality puts selfishness and pursuing one’s goals even above the so-called common good, something that Nietzsche doesn’t villify but rather encourages. 

"The noble type of man experiences itself as determining values; it does not need approval; it judges, 'what is harmful to me is harmful in itself'; it knows itself to be that which first accords honour to things; it is value-creating."

Nietzsche, Werke in Dre Banden. 

One final lesson before connecting this to Choujin X, Nietzsche describing christanity as “opium” is important, because opium is famously a drug that people get addicted to, to avoid pain like morphine. 

Nietzsche avoided all narcotics and alcohol on top of that. He hated alcohol for the same reasons he scorned christianity, both of them numb pain, both encourage us to be fine with our lives for now instead of changing it for the better. Nietzsche encouraged people to never avoid pain and instead confront it head on. 

“How little you know of human happiness - you comfortable people. The secret of a fulfilled life is live dangerously, build your cities on the slopes of mount vesuvius.”

You can make a connection to Nietzsche’s aversion of narcotics, and the exposition this chapter that both Queem and Zora became opium addicts in order to deal with the pain of constant transformation, regeneraing wounds, and healing during their war against one another. 

Nietzsche belives the aversion to pain, and numbing yourself down will prevent you from living a fulfilled life, because pain is essential to life. In the story, Zora’s opium addiction is linked as a key cause for the slow loss of her own humanity. 

Which is why drugs are bad, kids! 

2. Tokio vs. Azuma

There are pretty significant leaps for Tokio in terms of character development in this chapter. For the first time Tokio wants to confront Zora head on and talk to her to answer her question, rather than avoiding it or running away from it like they did in their first conversation. 

Tokio also shows clear doubt in front of the current prophet / diviner of Yamato Mori. When she tries to tell him that Zora’s powers no longer function and there’s no point in speaking to her, Tokio’s pause indicates that he doesn’t fully trust that statement. 

This is clearly development on Tokio’s part, because in nietzschian philosophy accepting the decisions or morality of a higher power than yourself is what leads to complacency, whereas discovering your own morals and thinking for yourself helps you become a better person. The story even advocates for Tokio questioning the people above him as a sign of his growth. 

While Yamato Mori isn’t really shown to be an oppressive organization yet, there are some indiations that it might not be a good thing joining a collective group of Choujin all following law and order. At some point in the story we may explore the point of view of the opposite side, Batista and his allies who seem to be pursuing their own selfish goals instead of using their powers for the greater good. 

Either way, both of the prophets so far seem extremely dubious / untrustworthy, because in Nietzschian philosophy submission to a higher religious authority = bad. Zora is a cult leader who’s massacred her followers, and Tsukiko Mado ordered Sandek to do something as heinous as kill his own brother... and we don’t fully know if she’s being honest about Zora’s powers no longer functioning. 

This is just an aside, but for Tokyo Ghoul fans, Azuma is giving serious Arima vibes in this panel where Ely talks about how he’s currently been bringing in the law-breakers nonstop. Azama’s chouin power, is unsubtly a pair of handcuffs around his wrists connected to chains. Azuma’s current character reminds me a lot of one of my favorite discussions about Arima from Tokyo Ghoul: re. Fura pointing out that it’s not a good thing, that Arima flawlessly carries out orders like a machine without much struggle over his actions. 

At this point Azuma has integrated into Yamato Mori like a well-oiled machine, whereas Tokio is struggling on the outside of things and bouting the people around him. He’s also, once again to reference this Fura scene, extremely bothered by the death that’s happened around him. 

Tokio even rejects the poppy seed operation in front of everyone else, even though he’s not someone who really has the authority to do so. 

Finally, the chapter talks about three significant Choujin X who decided the fate of a great war in the early 1920s. There’s a parallel to the war Choujin in Azuma, and Sora / Zora in Tokio 

Azuma’s had visual symbolism connecting him to warfare in general, but also Queem specifically before, especially around the awakening of his powers. The story even implies that Azuma seems to have inherited his powers as the iron choujin because of his fixation with violence and warfare. 

 When he’s fighting against Tokio, the story even quotes the war choujin Queem.

While Tokio is the beast choujin who specifically inherited Sora’s wings. He can also use the same scythe / sword she’s shown using when combatting queem. Tokio is also the one who Zora believes is capable of inheriting her mark, and has the most potential of all the choujin’s she’s awakened by infusing them with her blood. 

Which puts them on opposite sides of the conflict, as the story even states that Zora existed to be the perfect counterbalance to Queem, with her allegicance with the third Choujin X being what pushed him back. 

So, once again even more foreshadowing that the boys are going to fight each other. Tokio abandoning Azuma without a word maybe the straw that broke the panels back in regards to their slowly decaying relationship over the course of the story. Azuma’s even depicted slowly walking away from Tokio  with his back turned to him on panel, and they haven’t even looked at one another on panel in two chapters. 

In Nietzschian philsophy avoidance = bad and Tokio’s still being avoidant in terms of his relationship with Azuma. Finally, I’m not actually sure what end of the conflict that each will end up on. Tokio is being more disobedient of Yamato Mori, and wants to see things from Zora’s point of view and he’s also the favorite to inherit her mark. On the other hand, Azuma is someone who is paralleled to Batista and who Batista has taken a certain interest in, along with all the other negative foreshadowing surrounding his character. I guess we’ll see as Azuma and Tokio’s relatoinship is one of the developments I’m most excited for.