#so i tend to keep celsius to a purely... sober thing

[drivestraight]

do you prefer red bull over celsius? any suggestions on which one is better to mix w alcohol?

Do Not mix caffeine with alcohol

[gofancyninjaworld]

So. Conflicts of interest? With who/what else?

Note: I personally detest Tumblr.  I had this post finished and then accidentally clicked out of the editor and Tumblr ate it without trace! GAH!  That took me hours to type.  Round 2 then. 

So, yes, Dr Kuseno, the benefactor of Genos and Scientist of Justice (even though he’s an engineer), is someone who has more conflicts of interest than is really healthy for a person to have.  I think this needs a snazzy title, don’t you?

The Man With Too Many Hats 

A: The Justice Junkie

I could have used the word ‘crusader’ but it carries connotations that take away from the point I want to make.  ‘Hero’ doesn’t fit either.  The first way we know Dr Kuseno is as a very principled seeker of justice, the ‘Scientist of Justice’ so to speak. Seeking to stop wrongdoing and to redress past injustices is a set of values that both he and Genos share. Most specifically, they’re united in wanting to stop the Mad Cyborg at nearly any cost.  How deep their shared values run can be seen when he empathises with Genos: “Your state yesterday made me think of my youth. Possessed by a mad drive towards justice, fearing nothing... just recklessly putting myself through anything...” (chapter 80, Mangastream).  

It’s the Justice Junkie who agreed to turn Genos into a cyborg when the latter begged for body modifications.  Age may have sobered him, but that troublesome conviction that nearly any price is worth paying for principle hasn’t gone anywhere.

It's been interesting to see how hard he doesn't work on upgrades for Genos. It's like a reverse Spider-Man: instead of 'with great power comes great responsibility,' he's been like 'with great responsibility comes the need for great power'. The first significant upgrade (the arms mode) doesn't come until after Genos has signed up to be a pro-hero, which Dr Kuseno is super happy about.   And it's only since the Monster Association showed itself to be a threat that the old man has shown how fiendishly fast he can work when he's motivated.

The Justice Junkie is the one role who can accept Genos dying.  It’s the last thing he’d want, but being a hero means accepting the possibility of sacrificing yourself for others.  

B: The Investor

We don’t need Glasses to tell us that body modification is the preserve of the filthy rich.  We don’t really need to find out that Jet Nice Guy sunk his lottery winnings into body modification (what a bad investment). We can surmise it quite handily for ourselves that becoming a cyborg is very, very expensive.  Even by those standards, Genos is something else --  his extremely advanced weaponry, active development programme and frequent breakages mean that money literally goes up in smoke.  And yet, Kuseno has not hesitated to invest heavily in Genos.

Genos is very aware of The Investor; he sees himself as being indebted to Kuseno and feels that his debt is discharged by killing the Mad Cyborg as he promised.  That’s all very well: it’s clear that The Investor doesn’t want money for there is no realistic prospect of Genos ever repaying him. But what does he want?  What will make all this worthwhile to Kuseno?  Is the platonic knowledge of righting a wrong sufficient?  Is it settling a score?  Is the blood of a single individual, no matter how odious, really sufficient to justify the outlay what must run into millions of dollars?  Is there something material to be gained at the end, such as even more money, power, influence?  What will it take for him to cut his losses?  What does loss cutting look like? 

Unlike The Justice Junkie, The Investor sees no benefit to Genos dying.  It’d be a dead loss. 

C: The Engineer

We also meet The Engineer, the part of Kuseno that just loves the pure technical challenge of it all.  If the Justice Junkie got him working overnight to return Genos to the battlefield ASAP to meet the threat the Monster Association posed to mankind,  The Engineer made the challenge a pleasure. And Kuseno makes no bones about it: “...this has proven to be quite stimulating!  It’s been a long time since I felt my mind brimming with new ideas.” (chapter 80, Mangastream). 

For the pure technical difficulty of one item, nothing in OPM touches Genos. The first challenge in building a cyborg is that it's got to keep a very fragile human being alive. No matter what happens, the central temperature of that body must be 37 degrees Celsius, no more, no less. We definitely know he has at least his brain, which compounds the difficulty: it's the consistency of set jello and is very unforgiving of shock. Of all the weapon platforms Kuseno could have chosen for a cyborg, the extreme heat of the cannons and high voltage, high amperage system that drives them are the worst possible choices (seriously, a good blade is much, much safer!). Add to that the extreme acceleration (planned and unplanned) that body undergoes and you have the most life-unfriendly platform ever.

Shonen (and other stories aimed at a young adult audience) tend to be about finding one’s talent, setting goals, what one has to do in order to get good. OPM starts from a more mature premise: Okay, you got good.  Now what?  The Engineer wants extreme challenges and when we see Genos get upgrades, we are also seeing an old man fulfilling himself at the expense of a young man.  It’s something a lot of fans do feel, sensing that there is something off-kilter and yet can’t quite put their finger on. 

D: The Doctor

The Doctor is the guy who actually concerns himself with the person inside the machine. Naturally, Kuseno is interested in Genos being biologically well, but it goes beyond that.  As Genos remarks on “Dr Kuseno has put in a lot of effort so I can live like a human being.” (chapter 40.2, Neiru translation).  It’s a non-trivial ask as it requires that Genos stay human-sized, human-weighted, human-shaped, be able to eat, communicate both verbally and non-verbally, all of which is very important for long-term psychological well-being, but which adds significantly to the technical challenge.  We have already met other full-bodied cyborgs, like Drive Knight and Jet Nice Guy, but they haven’t received anything like the same level of care for their humanity. 

E: The Parent

Finally, The Parent, the part of Kuseno that is most concerned not just that Genos is well, but that he is happy. It really changed my view of Kuseno when he showed up in person at Saitama’s apartment, rail gun in one hand, meat in the other. He was aware of the great personal risk he was running and that he could send a drone instead, but to him, it was worth it.  Not just to retrieve Genos, but also to see just how the latter lived.  Who this master of his was -- was he really a good man?  What friends he had.  What he ate.  And he was so happy to see that Genos could make friends and was even beginning to open up a bit. 

There’s the bits of humour inherent in the little things he makes for Genos at times, like like the vegetable peeler inbuilt into his domestic arms and the ice shaver he took to the party. They’re clever, well-made and nominally practical, while being completely unnecessary. They serve to visually tell us that Dr. Kuseno might not be effusive, but there is love in these little gifts and in the joy with which Genos demonstrates them.   There’s no question that the pair are very deeply bonded: they talk like one another. Have the same penchant for over-generous gifting. Even smile like one another. Much as he loves Saitama, the moment Dr Kuseno showed up at the apartment, Genos went straight to his side and stayed there. No question where the centre of this young man’s world lies. 

F: That’s a bit of a mess

As you would imagine, these various roles both reinforce each other and clash. There is no way to be a good parent and yet do harm to your ‘kid’, expose him to harm, and send him to do harm to others.  No matter what The Justice Junkie says. We don’t let parents do surgery on their children or be their drill sergeants at boot camp for damn good reason.  Chapter 80 is pretty illuminating.  As we move from panel to panel, you can spot all five roles each taking their turn in wonderfully self-contradictory fashion, culminating in Kuseno asking Genos to fulfill his duty as a hero *and* to stay safe.  The role Kuseno plays in Genos’s life should by rights be split between at least two different people, even three.  But, each other is all they have. 

Just how this is all going to go wrong remains to be seen. It will.