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linkspooky · 4 years

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The Characters of Nisioisin (2)

Trickster - Ii (Boku)

This is a post in an ongoing series about the common character archetpyes used by Nisioisin. If you want more information check out the previous post, here. Consider this a part two of that same post. Today we’ll be looking at the nonsense user, and deceiptful protagonist from the aptly titled series “Zaregoto” or in english “Nonsense”. More underneath the cut.

I established the four criteria we are going to be dividing this post into in the previous post, as well as introducing what the idea of the trickster archetype is. Using Kumagawa as the UR-example we’re going to compare Ii-chan with those same tropes.

Introduced as a Villain

Subverts Expectations

Lying, Liar who Lies

Inherent themes of Nihilism

1. Introduced as a Villain

So, next Iichan. He's a special case out of these three because he's actually the series protagonist. But he still kind of fits the criteria because in his series the basic premise of every book is that iichan goes somewhere and a murder happens and then he tries to solve the murder for like the whole book and he sort of kind of solves it and then Jun Aikawa whose much more of a "hero" character than him, the coolest, sickest, strongest detective ever shows up out of nowhere and lectures him.

The sort of conflict set up between Ii-chan and Aikawa as two detectives of the story reminds me of a quote by Maiji Otaro, author of Jorge Joestar (among other things).

“Two detectives, one true. If both are detectives, then both must arrive at the same truth. But does that happen in the novels of this world?” “Most novels with two detectives have one solve it and the other discover the real solution hidden behind it.”

“At that point, are they both still detectives?”

“Hmm.. they’re treated like detectives but certainly, within that novel, the latter is the real detective. But they might switch places in the next novel.”

(Jorge Joestar).

Ii-chan is never introduced as an antagonist from the start of the series he is and always is the narrator. However, he’s still introduced as something he is not. Kumagawa is introduced as a villain and goes on to become a deuteragonist. Iichan is a main character but he doesn’t affect the story like a main character ought to, nor does the story really revolve around him.

So there’s still an inherent lie to his introduction. He is introduced as the center of the story but he is not the story’s real center. However, there’s another subversion implicit in Iichan’s character from the first novel to the second novel.

The first novel is the one where Iichan plays the role of the detective the most straightforwardly. He figures out the trick, solves the case, corners the murderer, but doesn’t solve it all the way and gets lecture by Aikawa at the end. However, there’s a strange way that all the characters react to Iichan despite the fact that he constantly makes himself out to be just a completely harmless, and incapable normal guy.

“Ther’s no meaning. Just like there’s no meaning in your actions. You know, you’re, wow, so you’re the kind of guy who’ll get angry for the sake of a complete stranger. That’s not a very good thing. It’s not bad per se, but it’s not good. [...] That’s because people who can expose their emotions for the sake of someone else are the same people who blame things on others when something goes wrong. I despise people like you.

It had to be the first time in quite a while that someone had spoken that harshly right to my face. Slowly, she brought her glaring gaze to meet my eyes.

“You just let yourself get carried along by other people. You’re the type wo ignores traffic lights just because everyone else is doing it. You’re an abomidable excuse for a human being. They often say ‘Harmonize without agreeing’ but in your case, young man, it’s like you’re agreeing without harmonizing. I won’t say that’s bad. I won’t say anything as to that. One’s identity and worth are not always connnected. A train that runs along a track is better than a train that doesn’t. So I won’t say anything as to that. But I hate people like you. I despise them. People like you always blame things on others, never acknowledging their own responsibility.”

Ii-chan as a character who is introduced as harmless, and passive, never making any choices until we are shown explicitly in the second book that he is not. It’s with his choices in the second book that his true character is revealed.

2. Subverts Expectations

Though for Ii-chan it should really be “avoids any and all expectations.” The Zaregoto is a series that continually asks if the actions of its protagonist are meaningless or not. If any action that Iichan takes effects the outcome of the story in any way.

In Strangulation Romanticist, Ii-chan gets involved with a group of friends who all end up dead or in prison by the end of the story. The central question is what role did Iichan play. Here are some things Ii-chan does in the book, meet with a serial killer and then lie to cover up a police investigation and a private investigator tracking him down giving him time to kill more people, destroys police evidence of another investigation, taunts one girl who murdered another girl into killing herself to atone, knew another murder that was going to take place and did nothing, and then taunts a second girl who wanted to kill herself into killing herself who only survived because the police talked her off a ledge.

“Charges? What charges?” “Falsifying information in regards to the Emoto case, encouraging Aoii’s suicide, not to mention concealment of evidence, plus withholding information and having that little rendezvous with Atemiya. Normally they’d have your ass for that, which I’m sure you’re well aware of, but I’ll take care of it for you. Althought, I suppose even if I didn’t Kunagisa probably would...” (Zaregoto Volume 2)

Therefore, Iichan is someone who acts but doesn’t really face any real consequences for his actions, and that’s because he’s a master of avoidance.

In psychology, avoidance/avoidant coping or escape coping is a maladaptive coping mechanism characterized by the effort to avoid dealing with a stressor. Coping refers to behaviors that attempt to protect oneself from psychological damage.

Iichan is subverting a lot of expectations. He is the protagonist, but the story is not about him. He goes through all of these stories, but he doesn’t ever seem to grow or change from them. He’s a detective, but he never really solves the case or even cares that much about reaching the real truth. He’s written to be a subversion of everything the main character of a detective novel should be.

However, Iichan is also very aware of how a detective should act and deliberately playing with and subverting those tropes. Not only does he subvert the expectations of the reader, but also of the characters around him. He is avoidant, in that way it means he avoids any kind of contfrontation.

I didn’t hate losing. I hated compettition. I was thoroughly put off by the idea of vying for others over something. I hated fighting as well and thus never made friends.

This is a line that gets reused for Kumagawa as well.

Which helps to illustrate the difference between them. Let’s say there is a problem, Kumagawa will charge head first at the problem and it will explode in his face, and Iichan will do everything in his capacity to never confront the problem or deal with it in any way possible.

Iichan is deliberately aware and sensitive to the expectations of the other people around him, and he feels like he will always be too inferior to fulfill them so he doesn’t even bother to try.

“I have been doing so.” I said. “But you know I have limits, too. It seems like everyone and anyone harbors some sort of expectations from me, and of course I would love to meet their expectations, too, but I cannot meet the expectations if I lack the capability. So to have someone say you failed my expectations is nothing but bothersome.”

Zaregoto Volume 4.

The way he avoids the expectations of others is rendering himself as ambiguous as possible, which is where we get to the next part.

3. Lying, Liar who Lies

Iichan is an unreliable narrator who never tells the truth in a straightforward manner, and even lies for half of the second volume. However, there’s more than that, there’s a deliberate trick to the lies he tells.

Iichan is someone who defines himself as ambiguously as possible. He acts like someone who others cannot possibly understand. Despite narrating from the first person, Iichan is only comfortable when he is not known by anyone. Iichan acts like someone who is barely present in his own story.

Answers have no real point. They’re vague and ambiguos and unsound, and things that are fine that way. In fact, they’re better. Causing real change is a role that should be left up to the true “chosen ones” outstanding individuals like that scarlet Mankind’s Greatest, and the Blue Savant, it was never my responsibility. It was no job for a common loser. For the comic sidekick.

Zaregoto volume 2.

Once again we see the contrast between Kumagawa and Iichan, if Kumagawa is a character who shows how strong and capable one loser can be, then Iichan often waxes poetically in his narrative about how weak and incapable he is. If Kumagawa is a good loser, than Iichan is a sore one.

Iichan defines himself as ambiguous on purpose to avoid responsibility for his actions. In less fancy words, if nobody can understand Iichan than nobody can call him on his shit. That’s his goal, essentially. He doesn’t want to work hard to change, or be confronted about any of his actions, because for him merely the act of living takes all of his effort to tread water without making any progress.

Avoidance is a trauma response, Iichan spends all of his time distancing himself from his own actions rather than confronting any of it. However, Iichan is more complicated than that because Iichan’s ambiguity has another side effect making him out to be something that he is not.

“Just by being there, you startle others, just by being there, you make people lose their grip on themselves.. ther’re a bunch of people like that. You can’t relax when you’re with them, it annoys you, things don’t go as planned, people like that, you know, they’re even scientifically explainable. In other words the missing part. Because the missing part for the observer ends up looking the same, it feels like the person is having their ineptitude pointed out at them, and it startles them [...] You’re just like everyone, and that picks at people’s subonscious, that’s why you’re aimless. And yet you still manage to come out on top. [...]”

Zaregoto Volume 3

All of these things Jun points out in this scene are Jungian ideas of the trickster. Iichan is an inferior person who seems to exist to point out the inferiorities in other people, and use it to play tricks on them. While viewing him as this role of the trickster, Aikawa is not really treating him like a person. (Aikawa’s very dramatic).

Which is where Iichan finally gets his trick. It’s a trick in two parts. He constantly underplays his own agency, while at the same time overplaying his suffering.

In other words, while insisting that he is the least improtant person on earth, Iichan at the same time hems and haws like the main character of a tragedy. IIichan wants people to empathize with his suffering, and he wants to be important, but he doesn’t want any of the responsibility of being important. He doesn’t want to take any degree of control of himself or others, so he tries to balance himself between these two conflicting ideas.

1) He is not a protagonist, and therefore the events in the story have nothing to do with him. 2) He is the main character of a tragedy. The world is centered around him, he is someone special and important, and that makes him suffer, but he takes no agency in the role.

Doing this he gets the best of both worlds. He gets to always be involved and important to others, while at the same time uninvolved and is never held accountable for his actions. He’s never challenged or forced to grow or change in any way.

These are the two lies that Iichan tells, and those lies form a narrative. Iichan is lying to give a narrative to his own trauma, and therefore try to extract some kind of meaning from it.

4. Inherent Themes of Nihilism

We once again return to the sacred image.

Iichan is a moral nihilist. He’s on the elft side of that image.

Moral nihilism (also known as ethical nihilism) is the meta-ethical view that nothing is morally right or wrong. It is built on three principles.

1. There are no moral features in this world; nothing is right or wrong. 2. Therefore, no moral judgments are true; however, 3. Our sincere moral judgments try, but always fail, to describe the moral features of things.

Iichan’s view is basically that of, if there is no meaning to this world then any attempt to define meaning is pointless. He (let’s say it again class) usually uses this as an attempt to evade any and all responsibility for his actions.

Iichan doesn't want other people to look at him, he doesn't want to be at fault when things go wrong, but he also wants to be important. So he's continually on a tight rope walk with those two very conflicting desires.

So basically Iichan sees no value in his own actions. He sees no value in the world. He doesn't really have any set of morals, except that he thinks murder is bad. Except sometimes he doesn't really care if certain people are murderers. Zerozaki is a murderer and Iichan hates him but doesn’t actually make any sincere attempts to stop him. Kunagisa commits murder in volume 4/5 and Iichan goes out of his way to cover it up. He apparently doesn’t consider goading a girl into suicide to be a form of murder. But at the same time he's so desperately searching for meaning, because he wants to feel fulfilled.

Iichan thinks that talent and genius are perhaps one thing that could give the world meaning. His best friend is a super genius, and he kind of clings to her and is jealous of her because she's someone special. See he thinks there are people whose lives have meaning despite being a pretty blanket nihilist, but because he's not talented he's not one of those people. Talent is something that could possibly give life meaning but being outside of the talented people it makes no difference to him he can only gaze at it from afar

Iichan is someone who is constantly downplaying his own meaning, while at the same time trying to find some meaning vicariously through others, like Aikawa and Kunagisa who he considers to be the real heroes of the world. Despite Iichan insisting there’s no meaning, he also has an attraction to narrative view of the world. Which is something that you know... has meaning, because stories are written with intent and purpose by an author.

In the sixth volume there’s a concept called “The Story” which one character belives that everything is pre-destined, like it’s all some pre-written story. Therefore while you can make small changes in your own actions it never effects the big picture in any way.

This is once again a very convenient idea for Iichan, who avoids responsibility to believe in. He’s very attracted by this idea because it takes control out of his hands and means his own actions aren’t really his fault.

To be honest, this must be one of the most boring conversations to be listening in on. It had gone so far into the conceptual, that even for myself, participating in the conversation, the words of the man with the fox mask seemed as hazy and illusory as a dream. You could say I do not understand what he is saying. However, then why. Then why does what this person says strike so deep? Why does it resonate? [...] Then, no. I do not want any part of such importance. I do not want anything to do with the core of the story.

Here we go with Iichan’s double negative, he denies having any role or agency in the story and yet at the same time believes that such a thing as the story exists because it means to some extent his actions are out of his control because he can’t accept that they are.

Is Iichan’s role in the story ultimately meaningless? No. There are always clear and distinct consequences for his actions. In the same volume (6 - cannibal magical) where the concept of the story are first introduced that everything is predetermined and you can’t change the big picture, the events of the story disprove that assertion.

Iichan is given like, a million warnings not to go to a lab. Aikawa tells him not to go to a lab because she has a bad feeling about it. The literal assassin sent to that lab talks to Iichan and says “Yeah, I was sent here to kill people.” Another person who was in the same situation just walks away from the problem. Iichan sees the assassin going out to kill people in the middle of the night and just chooses to... go to sleep.

Then he wakes up to everyone dead in the morning. The point being Iichan had a million chances to avoid this situation, takes absolutely none of them, and then acts like this was a completely unavoidable fate. He hems and haws about having no choices, but he’s clearly given choices, he just doesn’t take them, or makes exclusively bad ones.

Iichan wants to avoid consequences by not choosing, however the choice to not choose is still a choice in itself. Everything is a choice. Even avoidance is a choice. Which is why Iichan’s actions do actually have meaning, just not in the way he wants them to. He’s not a special person, and he’s not anyone extraordinary, but he is someone who has to face the consequences of his actions no matter how many narrative tricks he pulls to avoid them.

The actual trick of Iichan’s story is that he really is the protagonist, he just doesn’t want to be.

#zaregoto #zaregoto meta #nisio meta #nisioisin #iichan #boku (ii)

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mirroredtranslations · 7 years

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Jinrui Saikyou no Netsuai - Chapter 2

Jinrui Saikyou no Jun'ai – Nisioisin p. 11-15

[Previous Chapter]

Well, I've gotten busy again. Not quite enough to say I'm in vogue, or that I'm working nonstop, but I've been receiving so many commissions lately that I can talk about the time when I was cut off from work as if it were a fond memory. Nah, it's a bit much to call being shunned by the whole world a fond memory; but, in any case, it was definitely an extraordinary experience. A lot happened after that; I very nearly got banished from Earth in the guise of contract work. Too much happened, enough to make me do some rare self-reflection about whatever the heck I did to become so disliked. Well, I might do self-reflection, but I don't do self-restraint; isn't that one of my charm points? But they say gossip only lasts 75 days, and when all the commotion had died down, some real work, the time when I can feel my life's purpose, started coming back to me. That said, though; I know it's odd—or rather, I know it's selfish—but the busier I get, the more I think it'd be nice if I had a bit more free time.

“I wonder about that, my dear friend. One could say that the world is more stable when you're busy.”

That's how the great thief Kouta Ishimaru appraised my current situation, when we met on the job (as enemies). Are you one of my critics? No, you're just having a laugh at me, aren't you. Even so—well, if I can maintain world peace by working hard, then it would be my honor.

“No, that is not what I meant, my dear friend. If you aren't working, then aliens start arriving, and God himself becomes desperate to keep you occupied. You really ought to have something to do, regardless of what it might be. It seems God is aware of how unpredictable you are when bored.”

God? Hmph. That's not like you. If a wonderful guy like him exists, then people like you and me would never have been born in the first place.

“Gods are not omnipotent, after all. Surely he feels responsible for producing a failed creation like you, and has devised various measures to keep you fenced in. So you won't destroy the world in a fit of boredom.”

That is the purpose for which you were originally created.

Said Kouta, as if I were some kind of ultimate weapon. Well, I can't argue with that point. But if you say I'm a failed creation of my fathers', and a failed creation of God's... I think a ladylike phantom thief liable to steal the halo off of God himself would be more of a failed product, one created on a whim, than me.

“Hmm. Still, that is quite perfect. Failure and success are just different perspectives, after all—either way, if the business is thriving then all is well. While you gaily toil away, my dear friend, I simply sneak around taking your leftovers.”

The leftover she was stealing was a bronze statue valued at several hundred million dollars—though, for a bronze statue, it was as big as a building. What part of that is “simple”? Is she some kind of magician? Even I couldn't do that. ...Anyway, I don't know how serious Kouta was being (in the first place, it's rather doubtful whether that ill-natured, slippery woman is ever really “serious”), but if world peace is brought about by me being swamped, then my work starts seeming more and more meaningful. I took any sort of job I could get my hands on, big jobs and small jobs, from mediating wars to looking for lost kittens. And then, one day...

“You Jun Aikawa?”

During one of the teensy bits of free time I had between jobs, someone called out to me—with a voice precise enough to pass through the eye of a needle, but still rough.

“You're so red, I could tell from five kilometers away.”

Liar. No way you could tell from five kilometers away; I'm not luminescent. I wanted to give that as a retort, but I held back. Why? Because I was happy—happy at the respect the guy was showing me. As if to snarl, he was glaring at me through glittering sanpaku eyes that looked like they might really be gazing from five kilometers away. His hair was garishly spiked, as if prodding the heavens themselves; it seemed to be a vivid analogy for an aggressive personality.

“What are you grinning for? Something funny?”

He looked puzzled, so I apologized. Sorry, sorry, I just got a little happy; I couldn't help it. I mean, work has gone back to normal, but it's been a while since a character appeared who knew who I was and still was this hostile.

“You trying to say I'm young?”

Well, actually, I'd say he's very young. With the exception of the sanpaku eyes, nothing about his appearance suggests he's anything but a young teenager; there's no doubt he's a youngster. One of those kids from the generation that knows nothing of the Great War, where I started being called “Overkill Red”. These generations are advancing smoothly, aren't they... So, what do you want to do? Gonna fight right here?

“If I didn't want to change location, I'd have attacked you from the back without saying anything. I waited for you to be done working.”

Hmph. That's pretty stalker-ish. I didn't sense him watching me while I was working, though... Doesn't seem like concealing his presence is a specialty of his, but does this mean he's a pro player? Which family are you from?

“I'm me. Just me. I'm not from the Killing Names or the Cursing Names, or the Kunagisa Organization, or the Four Gods and One Mirror—just a private citizen. Same as you and Kouta Ishimaru.”(1)

Oh, he knows about Kouta too? Really? So there are youngsters like that around. He's got some backbone in him, for a youth these days—even if saying that makes me seem all the more grown-up. And it's my nature to want to smash that backbone of his to pieces (I really haven't grown up). All right, fine. Escort me to wherever it is you want to go. Ah, before we go, can I ask your name? Even if there's no one to tend to it, a gravestone needs a name, right?

“Matsuri Shimegiwa. Seventeen years old.”

Young, aren't you. And that's a good name too.

[Next Chapter]

Footnotes: (1) In the Zaregoto-Saikyou-Ningen universe, there are four “layers” of society. Those not born into special power are the “outer” layer, which is where most people are, including Ii-chan, Jun, Kouta, most of ER3, etc. The “economic” layer consists of five large business conglomerate families (zaibatsu), together called “Four Gods and One Mirror” after the characters in their family names. Iria Akagami is an exiled “princess” of one of these zaibatsu. The “political” layer also consists of several zaibatsu, all of which are under the control of the Kunagisa Organization. Tomo Kunagisa is of course a member of the Kunagisa family that operates the organization, and her older brother Nao is its leader. The “violence” layer is made up of a large number of assassin clans and their branch families, who generally work as mercenaries and boast near-supernatural powers. The “Killing Names” clans kill people up front—though the Zerozaki clan is an exception, as they mostly kill for sport—while the “Cursing Names” clans kill more indirectly, through deception and poison and such. Hitoshiki Zerozaki and the Niounomiya siblings are members of Killing Names clans.

#jinrui saikyou no netsuai #jinrui saikyou no jun'ai #saikyou series #translation

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recentanimenews · 7 years

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Senjōgahara And Shinobu Dress Up To Attend To Your Visit To Nisio Isin Exhibit

On February 5th 2002, write NisiOisiN made this novel debut debut with Zaregoto, Book 1: The Kubikiri Cycle. Among celebration festivities is"Nisio Isin Daijiten", which in Japanese reads as a pun combining the characters for "dictionary" and "exhibition". The installation is presented like a giant dictionary of Isin's work, and it explores the author's writing experience. This week, previews an included a look at anime character designer Akio Watanabe's art of Monogatari's Senjōgahara And Shinobu in elevator attendants uniforms, plus Zaregoto's Jun Aikawa.

The exhibit will be presented from July 27 - August 07, 2017, at the Event Square venue on the 8th floor of the Matsuya Ginza department store in Tokyo, and from August 09 - August 21, 2017, at the Event Hall venue on the 14th floor of the north building of the Daimaru Shinsaibashi department store in Osaka.

★開催まで残り2週間！★ 【描き下ろしイラスト公開⑦】「西尾維新大辞展」用に描き下ろされた新たなイラストを紹介！今回は百貨店での開催に合わせて、エレベーターアテンダント風の衣装を着た忍野忍です。アニメキャラクターデザインの渡辺明夫さん描き下ろし！！ http://pic.twitter.com/L2StWel6qE

— 西尾維新大辞展 (@nisioisin_ex) July 13, 2017

★開催まであと13日！★ 【描き下ろしイラスト公開⑧】「西尾維新大辞展」用に描き下ろされた新たなイラストを紹介！百貨店での開催に合わせて、エレベーターアテンダント風の衣装を着た戦場ヶ原ひたぎです。アニメキャラクターデザインの渡辺明夫さん描き下ろし！！ http://pic.twitter.com/eS4rZKs1fM

— 西尾維新大辞展 (@nisioisin_ex) July 14, 2017

【描き下ろしイラスト公開⑥】「西尾維新大辞展」用に描き下ろされた新たなイラストを紹介！今回は百貨店での開催に合わせて、エレベーターアテンダント風の衣装を着た哀川潤です。アニメキャラクターデザインの渡辺明夫さん描き下ろし！！ http://pic.twitter.com/n0KW45xuKr

— 西尾維新大辞展 (@nisioisin_ex) July 12, 2017

The event will feature audio tours by Araragi (CV Hiroshi Kamiya) and Shinobu (CV Maaya Sakamoto), Zaregoto's I (CV Yūki Kaj) and Tomo Kunagisa (Aoi Yūki) and Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku's Kyouko Okitegami (CV Yui Horie) wtih Zaregoto's Jun Aikawa (Yūko Kaida)

Other new event character art

【描き下ろしイラスト公開①】「西尾維新大辞展」用に描き下ろされた新たなイラストを紹介！『新本格魔法少女りすか』より、水倉りすかです！！ http://pic.twitter.com/W3LSSHi1RG

— 西尾維新大辞展 (@nisioisin_ex) July 7, 2017

【描き下ろしイラスト公開②】「西尾維新大辞展」用に描き下ろされた新たなイラストを紹介！『世界シリーズ』より、病院坂黒猫です！！ http://pic.twitter.com/pxkqCFGuEK

— 西尾維新大辞展 (@nisioisin_ex) July 8, 2017

【描き下ろしイラスト公開③】「西尾維新大辞展」用に描き下ろされた新たなイラストを紹介！『刀語』より、七花＆とがめです！！ http://pic.twitter.com/hf1444ag3e

— 西尾維新大辞展 (@nisioisin_ex) July 9, 2017

【描き下ろしイラスト公開④】「西尾維新大辞展」用に描き下ろされた新たなイラストを紹介！『美少年シリーズ』より、美少年探偵団メンバーです！！ http://pic.twitter.com/0w0obkO2PE

— 西尾維新大辞展 (@nisioisin_ex) July 10, 2017

【描き下ろしイラスト公開⑤】「西尾維新大辞展」用に描き下ろされた新たなイラストを紹介！『〈物語〉シリーズ』より、忍野忍です！！ http://pic.twitter.com/V5D7Lgf6bE

— 西尾維新大辞展 (@nisioisin_ex) July 11, 2017

Event goods

------- Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.

By: [email protected]

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