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November 15th, 2017
Sasha's White Steel Scythe
Anime Relations: Seikon no Qwaser, Seikon no Qwaser II
When Sasha first uses his white steel scythe against Jinkai, his entire scythe becomes pure white. During Sasha’s fight with Grisha on the train, Sasha also uses the white steel scythe and, once again, the entire scythe becomes pure white.
Once Sasha comes back to save Mafuyu and fight Grisha, he never turns his scythe pure white. However, the contrast between its edge and its “body” is more pronounced than in any other part of the manga.
“White steel” is a type of steel characterized by the purity of the iron in it. White steel knives are known for cutting very well and being easy to sharpen once they become dull (Sasha can easily sharpen the blade with his powers) but they also oxidize easily and white steel isn’t as structurally strong as other types of steel.
When Sasha turns his scythe into white steel he’s using his 5th qwaser power stage abilities to purify the iron in his scythe. Turning his entire scythe into white steel isn’t as beneficial as just turning its edge into white steel (white steel isn’t as good in structural terms as the steel his scythe was made out of previously).
During his “coma”, in which he thought about his previous fight with Grisha and theorized ways to better face him; Sasha also realized that turning just the edge of his scythe into white steel is a better idea than turning his entire scythe into it which is why the edge of Sasha’s scythe is completely white while the rest of the scythe is black when he comes back to save Mafuyu.
Once Sasha comes back to save Mafuyu and fight Grisha, he never turns his scythe pure white. However, the contrast between its edge and its “body” is more pronounced than in any other part of the manga.
“White steel” is a type of steel characterized by the purity of the iron in it. White steel knives are known for cutting very well and being easy to sharpen once they become dull (Sasha can easily sharpen the blade with his powers) but they also oxidize easily and white steel isn’t as structurally strong as other types of steel.
When Sasha turns his scythe into white steel he’s using his 5th qwaser power stage abilities to purify the iron in his scythe. Turning his entire scythe into white steel isn’t as beneficial as just turning its edge into white steel (white steel isn’t as good in structural terms as the steel his scythe was made out of previously).
During his “coma”, in which he thought about his previous fight with Grisha and theorized ways to better face him; Sasha also realized that turning just the edge of his scythe into white steel is a better idea than turning his entire scythe into it which is why the edge of Sasha’s scythe is completely white while the rest of the scythe is black when he comes back to save Mafuyu.
Posted by puppetcopper | Nov 15, 2017 1:20 PM | 0 comments
Milk, "Whisper Bomb"
Anime Relations: Seikon no Qwaser, Seikon no Qwaser II
The purpose behind whispering is to not be heard; to not be noticed.
Milk’s element is hydrogen, which is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and non-toxic gas. Due to these properties, hydrogen is almost impossible to notice when it is present (it can’t be seen, it has no smell nor taste and being around it won’t immediately have negative side effects on someone’s body).
Hydrogen is also extremely combustible; it reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere easily and causes an explosion.
Milk’s nickname comes from the fact that she can effectively control unnoticeable bombs.
Milk's cartoon-y bomb balloons:
When she was first introduced, Milk was surrounded by balloons shaped like cartoon-y bombs. These also show up when she appears in the Water Sanctuary arc. However, after that arc, the bombs are never seen again.
When Milk and Aoi fight, Aoi is surprised by Milk’s ability to separate hydrogen from water despite them both being members of the Adepts and Milk being able to do that when she fought Katja in the Magnolia Invasion arc.
Another detail in Milk’s encounter with Aoi is Milk mentioning that she “woke up one day and decided to follow Grisha’s orders”. It should be noted that we do not know where the some of the Adepts where during a few of the arcs; especially during the Lightning of Magdalene arc: Wan Chen and Jiita were tracking down the Magdalene; we see some Adept monks trying to track down the Golden Noah; so it can be assumed that other members of the Adepts were tracking down the other High Ancient Circuits, one of which is the David’s Resurrection.
We do not know when the Adepts came into the possession of the David; but we do know that the Theosis Project had it before them and, in fact, temporarily gave it to them to frame them for bringing back Ootori: according to Fool, the David’s Resurrection was meant to be inside the Theotokos of Tsaritsyn but it couldn’t be there because Yuudai only got his hands on the Theotokos after the Water Sanctuary arc where Milk, a regen created with the David’s Resurrection, was an important character.
This inconsistency foreshadows Grisha’s true identity in the sense that he had to be around during the time Jesus Christ was alive to be able to take the David before it was put in the Theotokos.
The events through which the Adepts acquired the David probably involved Yuudai (who we see give information to Jiita and Joshua and is a key member of the Theosis Project) giving the Adepts information regarding the whereabouts of said High Ancient Circuit; Grisha instructing Milk to go find it; Milk being caught by some member of the Theosis Project; “reprogrammed” by the David’s Resurrection to “follow Grisha’s orders”; given the circuit and sent back to Magnolia.
Yuu’s qwaser powers were somehow “enhanced” when he was brought back by the Theosis Project. Jinkai and Ganzen Roushi also enhanced a qwaser’s power (Sasha and Aoi, respectively). Grisha was Ganzen Roushi’s disciple alongside Jinkai and, as such, probably knows the process necessary to enhance a qwaser’s powers, which he must’ve used on Yuu and on Milk when he “reprogrammed” her; making Milk able to separate hydrogen from water.
Although we never know what the cartoon bombs are filled with, it is likely that they were filled with pure hydrogen. After gaining access to the 5th qwaser power stage, Milk wouldn’t need the balloons as a source of pure hydrogen, so she stopped carrying them around. This logic fits with the fact that, up until the Water Sanctuary arc, Milk had the balloons but, when she shows back up, she doesn’t have them anymore: because she has already been “reprogrammed” and “enhanced” by Grisha.
Milk’s element is hydrogen, which is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and non-toxic gas. Due to these properties, hydrogen is almost impossible to notice when it is present (it can’t be seen, it has no smell nor taste and being around it won’t immediately have negative side effects on someone’s body).
Hydrogen is also extremely combustible; it reacts with oxygen in the atmosphere easily and causes an explosion.
Milk’s nickname comes from the fact that she can effectively control unnoticeable bombs.
Milk's cartoon-y bomb balloons:
When she was first introduced, Milk was surrounded by balloons shaped like cartoon-y bombs. These also show up when she appears in the Water Sanctuary arc. However, after that arc, the bombs are never seen again.
When Milk and Aoi fight, Aoi is surprised by Milk’s ability to separate hydrogen from water despite them both being members of the Adepts and Milk being able to do that when she fought Katja in the Magnolia Invasion arc.
Another detail in Milk’s encounter with Aoi is Milk mentioning that she “woke up one day and decided to follow Grisha’s orders”. It should be noted that we do not know where the some of the Adepts where during a few of the arcs; especially during the Lightning of Magdalene arc: Wan Chen and Jiita were tracking down the Magdalene; we see some Adept monks trying to track down the Golden Noah; so it can be assumed that other members of the Adepts were tracking down the other High Ancient Circuits, one of which is the David’s Resurrection.
We do not know when the Adepts came into the possession of the David; but we do know that the Theosis Project had it before them and, in fact, temporarily gave it to them to frame them for bringing back Ootori: according to Fool, the David’s Resurrection was meant to be inside the Theotokos of Tsaritsyn but it couldn’t be there because Yuudai only got his hands on the Theotokos after the Water Sanctuary arc where Milk, a regen created with the David’s Resurrection, was an important character.
This inconsistency foreshadows Grisha’s true identity in the sense that he had to be around during the time Jesus Christ was alive to be able to take the David before it was put in the Theotokos.
The events through which the Adepts acquired the David probably involved Yuudai (who we see give information to Jiita and Joshua and is a key member of the Theosis Project) giving the Adepts information regarding the whereabouts of said High Ancient Circuit; Grisha instructing Milk to go find it; Milk being caught by some member of the Theosis Project; “reprogrammed” by the David’s Resurrection to “follow Grisha’s orders”; given the circuit and sent back to Magnolia.
Yuu’s qwaser powers were somehow “enhanced” when he was brought back by the Theosis Project. Jinkai and Ganzen Roushi also enhanced a qwaser’s power (Sasha and Aoi, respectively). Grisha was Ganzen Roushi’s disciple alongside Jinkai and, as such, probably knows the process necessary to enhance a qwaser’s powers, which he must’ve used on Yuu and on Milk when he “reprogrammed” her; making Milk able to separate hydrogen from water.
Although we never know what the cartoon bombs are filled with, it is likely that they were filled with pure hydrogen. After gaining access to the 5th qwaser power stage, Milk wouldn’t need the balloons as a source of pure hydrogen, so she stopped carrying them around. This logic fits with the fact that, up until the Water Sanctuary arc, Milk had the balloons but, when she shows back up, she doesn’t have them anymore: because she has already been “reprogrammed” and “enhanced” by Grisha.
Posted by puppetcopper | Nov 15, 2017 1:18 PM | 0 comments
Ootori, "The Phoenix"
Anime Relations: Seikon no Qwaser, Seikon no Qwaser II
The first assumption one would have about the reason behind Ootori’s nickname, “The Phoenix”, is that it comes from the fact that his fighting style involves fire and his name means “Big bird”.
However, there is a far more interesting reason behind said nickname. To understand it we need some basic information regarding a few topics:
1st- A phoenix is a mythological flame-covered bird that turns to ash once it dies and, from the ashes, a new phoenix is born. The flames turn into ashes and, from those, flames appear again.
2nd-During Lizzie’s last fight with Ootori’s regen, we learn that the original Ootori used mono-atomic wires made from sodium chloride.
When sodium metal is in contact with chlorine gas it reacts (usually requiring some energy to be applied, most commonly in the form of heating up the sodium or dropping water on it). The reaction creates a flame and results in sodium chloride which, in a way, is the “ashes” of the sodium.
The 5th qwaser power stage allows the user to separate their element from compounds containing it. Ootori is most definitely at that stage since he has to make elemental sodium inside someone’s body to make them spontaneously combust.
When Ootori uses fire, without making someone spontaneously combust, it follows his sodium chloride wires (easy to see in chapters 18-20). That happens because Ootori is using his qwaser powers to separate the sodium from the chlorine, resulting in metallic sodium and either chlorine molecules (Cl2) or chlorine radicals (both are very reactive). Immediately after separating the elements, he makes them react again, which makes the sodium burn, creating flames.
Ootori’s fighting style is based on him taking the “ashes” of the reaction between sodium and chlorine and creating a new flame from it, which turns back into “ashes” from which flames are born once again. That is the reason behind his nickname of “The Phoenix”.
However, there is a far more interesting reason behind said nickname. To understand it we need some basic information regarding a few topics:
1st- A phoenix is a mythological flame-covered bird that turns to ash once it dies and, from the ashes, a new phoenix is born. The flames turn into ashes and, from those, flames appear again.
2nd-During Lizzie’s last fight with Ootori’s regen, we learn that the original Ootori used mono-atomic wires made from sodium chloride.
When sodium metal is in contact with chlorine gas it reacts (usually requiring some energy to be applied, most commonly in the form of heating up the sodium or dropping water on it). The reaction creates a flame and results in sodium chloride which, in a way, is the “ashes” of the sodium.
The 5th qwaser power stage allows the user to separate their element from compounds containing it. Ootori is most definitely at that stage since he has to make elemental sodium inside someone’s body to make them spontaneously combust.
When Ootori uses fire, without making someone spontaneously combust, it follows his sodium chloride wires (easy to see in chapters 18-20). That happens because Ootori is using his qwaser powers to separate the sodium from the chlorine, resulting in metallic sodium and either chlorine molecules (Cl2) or chlorine radicals (both are very reactive). Immediately after separating the elements, he makes them react again, which makes the sodium burn, creating flames.
Ootori’s fighting style is based on him taking the “ashes” of the reaction between sodium and chlorine and creating a new flame from it, which turns back into “ashes” from which flames are born once again. That is the reason behind his nickname of “The Phoenix”.
Posted by puppetcopper | Nov 15, 2017 1:15 PM | 0 comments
November 10th, 2017
Seikon no Qwaser Manga Analysis
Anime Relations: Seikon no Qwaser, Seikon no Qwaser II
I feel like a spoiler-free review of Seikon no Qwaser doesn’t allow me to properly explain why I love this manga so much so I decided to do an analysis of the series. If you care for spoilers don’t read any further.
The fights in SnQ are very interesting, mostly due to the way qwaser powers work. They allow the user to control a specific chemical element and there are 5 stages of control over said element: the 1st stage (and the lowest) is the only one to never get a direct explanation as to what it entails, but there is one important detail that allows us to easily figure it out. When Aoi meets Yuu’s regen for the first time she remarks that, when he was alive, Yuu never discovered his specific element, he could only emit qwaser wave forms. Since we know that the 2nd stage is control over the pure form of the element the logical conclusion is that the only form of control lower than that is the ability to emit qwaser wave forms without controlling your element, that being the 1st stage.
The 3rd stage allows metal users to control alloys where their element is the main component and, since Jiita achieved the 3rd stage during the Golden Noah arc and was then able to control carbon dioxide and organic molecules, it can be said that this stage, in general, allows the user to control any substance where their element is present in considerable quantities.
The 4th stage is the one that gets the most literal description, being defined as “the ability to control microscopic amounts of one’s element and manipulate electromagnetic forces at an atomic level to gain control over substances where one’s element is present in very small amounts”. In simple terms, the 4th stage allows a qwaser to control their element when it is present in microscopic quantities or when there are trace amounts of it in a more complex substance.
Lastly, the 5th stage allows a qwaser to separate their element from compounds.
Besides these 5 stages it should be noted that “qwaser wave forms” mean that qwaser powers behave like waves, having all of their properties, and as such qwasers don’t have a telekinesis-like control of their element because waves take time to travel. Attacking a qwaser before their powers have the time to reach the target is one of the main weaknesses pointed out in the series and one of the reason why fights stay interesting: despite having special abilities, humans can still take out a qwaser if they are smart about it. Qwasers aren’t just stronger than humans, they need to use their intelligence to be able to fight.
The reason I wrote down a list of all 5 qwaser power stages is because it should be noted that simply being at a higher stage doesn’t immediately make a qwaser stronger than they were before or stronger than a qwaser at a lower stage.
Getting to a new power stage doesn’t mean getting a “10X” multiplier, that ends up being purely nominal, added to their strength. It means the qwaser gains new ways of using their abilities and lets us actually see their increase in strength when they do discover new ways of using their power (like Aoi starting to use water) or have more refined ways of using old tricks (initially Sasha had to use the Schikorr reaction to cover his weapons in Fe3O4 and fight Aoi but later, after gaining access to the 4th stage, he was able to make his iron selectively oxidize into Fe3O4).
The simplest example of the importance of knowing an opponent’s fighting style and element in this manga is the contrast between Katja and Milk's two fights: the first time around, Katja is completely oblivious as to what Milk’s element is, as well as the fact that she is at the 5th stage and because of that she is defeated in practically one attack. The second time around, because she knows Milk's fighting style, she finds a perfect counter for it and defeats her in one attack (clone army notwithstanding).
One of the most gripping aspects of the series is the characters and how they grow throughout the story. Two examples of character growth would be Katja and Tasuku.
From the beginning Katja is very prideful, proclaiming that she is an empress and such. However, when she gets into a situation where she might meet her end (chapter 8) she completely accepts her fate and stands down. She is taken aback when Miyuri stands up to try to defend everyone because, unlike Miyuri, she wasn’t able to maintain her demeanor in that situation. It was probably from that point onwards that Katja decided to let Miyuri be her “older sister” (chapter 64) and it was definitely that event that changed Katja’s personality. During her fight with Milk and Gijou (chapters 106-108) Katja finds herself in a similar situation to the one she was in in chapter 8: she can’t use her powers, is surrounded by enemies and her servants aren’t by her side. However, unlike in chapter 8, she decides to face death by standing tall and proclaiming that she is an empress and will die as such, taking a page from Miyuri’s book so to speak.
Another of Katja’s personality traits initially is that she is torn between helping others and keeping herself safe at the same time. During the Golden Noah arc she is clearly worried about Miyuri and wants to help but instead gives her puppet to Joshua once she discovers he plans on going to Miyuri's school and doesn’t do anything else during the arc, the reason being that, while she could go and directly help Miyuri, doing so would put her at odds with Meteora, who she is supposed to serve, which would mean that if she failed she would be left without protection from anyone (Sasha directly opposes Meteora partly because he’s less concerned about such matters and partly because he’s technically employed by Archbishop Mansory while Meteora and Katja are employed by Archbishop Smirnoff). Much later in the story however, Katja is willing to sacrifice herself for her goals, as seen when she is the one to suggest using the same elemental circuits on her that changed Joshua’s element to change her's from copper to gold and save Sasha, fully knowing that doing so would damage her body.
One of Tasuku’s defining characteristics is that he doesn’t like hitting women, in fact, he believes women shouldn’t be injured. However, throughout the course of the series, he injures Theresa severely and threatened to injure Katja and Wilma’s regen. This is due to the fact that he is very hot-blooded and, as his master put it “refuses to think when doing so is the only thing that will allow him not to fight”. Tasuku’s flaw is that he doesn’t think things through and gives into anger so easily that he forgets his own morals; something he only realizes right before his fight with Sasha during the Panagia’s tournament. His fight with Lucrezia marks his growth by the fact that he doesn’t actually injure her; he manages to convince her not to fight by using his brain and examining everything around him, more specifically, by noticing the look in Lucrezia’s eyes and being reminded of the look in his mother’s eyes. In this fight, Tasuku shows that he has grown by not letting his anger distract him from his morals.
“Seikon no Qwaser” has philosophical themes related to two main topics: free will versus determinism and utilitarianism versus deontology.
In this case, I’m using “determinism” in the sense of “fate” and “God’s will”, which the series states to not be real. These concepts are tied to the idea of God who, in the context of SnQ, does not exist. Jesus, the supposed son of God, is mentioned as having a normal human body and the only thing about him that’s different from others is that he was an extremely powerful qwaser.
Grisha is the character who most seems to believe in fate and in a deterministic world or, more correctly, he wants to trick himself into believing that fate exists because it’s the best way he can justify his actions.
One of the arguments against determinism is that, if everything in the world is pre-determined, then we shouldn’t punish people for their crimes since they didn’t do it of their own volition; they were only acting out as the universe intended them to. Grisha is fully aware of this counter argument but actually chooses to use it to justify his plan to cause the biblical apocalypse. When Jesus himself stops Grisha’s plans he starts breaking down because if anyone would know about “God’s will” it would be His son; which means that his main argument to justify his actions is invalid.
SnQ has a deontological mindset, that is to say, the reason behind the character’s action is given more importance than the action itself. Sasha’s fights against Ootori, Wan Chen and Jinkai, as well as Jesus’ intervention against Grisha all try to showcase the idea of a deontological mindset being superior to a utilitarian one (or, in the last case, show the series’ belief that an utilitarian mindset is wrong).
Ootori’s plan is to kill Mafuyu and Tomo, destroying the Sword Maria and preventing Grisha’s plan from coming to fruition, which is a utilitarian mindset (by killing two people Ootori is saving everyone else). Sasha objects, initially out of anger and a desire for revenge, which are selfish goals, and because of that, he fails to even hit his opponent. After Ootori tells him that he shouldn’t focus on what he’s already lost, but instead should focus on what he can still lose, Sasha gains access to the 4th qwaser power level and manages to hit Ootori. Because his motivation changed from something selfish to something self-less he gained strength and was able to win. On top of that, this is when Sasha’s mindset starts basing itself off the deontological idea that human life is precious and should be protected; and that no one should ever have to die for the sake of achieving someone else’s goals.
Wan Chen believes that killing a few hundred people is trivial when doing so will make the lives of billions happy. Sasha interjects by saying that “there was never anyone who it was ok to kill” and presents the argument that utilitarianism sees people as numbers which is far too dehumanizing in his eyes (to Wan Chen, Miyuki and Tsubasa are just another two people he sacrificed for his goal but to Sasha they are friends and people he cares about).
Sasha’s fight with Jinkai is interesting because it presents him as being somewhat utilitarian: Jinkai keeps asking Sasha what he thinks sacrificing himself for others will achieve until he comes to the conclusion that his life also has value and that he shouldn’t be so willing to throw it away for the sake of others. If he’s not willing to sacrifice others, he also shouldn’t sacrifice himself.
Lastly, Grisha’s second argument as to why he is in the right is the idea that even if he kills everyone on Earth, if he just repopulates it with people he deems more useful for mankind, he is actually doing the world a favor. Once again, Jesus’ intervention disproves Grisha since he believes he was following mankind’s will with his plan, however, Jesus, as the messiah of the world’s most practiced religion, is far closer to representing mankind’s will than Grisha.
I could continue talking about all the aspects of “Seikon no Qwaser” that make me love it, but I believe this analysis is enough to at least make people reconsider the way they think about this manga.
The fights in SnQ are very interesting, mostly due to the way qwaser powers work. They allow the user to control a specific chemical element and there are 5 stages of control over said element: the 1st stage (and the lowest) is the only one to never get a direct explanation as to what it entails, but there is one important detail that allows us to easily figure it out. When Aoi meets Yuu’s regen for the first time she remarks that, when he was alive, Yuu never discovered his specific element, he could only emit qwaser wave forms. Since we know that the 2nd stage is control over the pure form of the element the logical conclusion is that the only form of control lower than that is the ability to emit qwaser wave forms without controlling your element, that being the 1st stage.
The 3rd stage allows metal users to control alloys where their element is the main component and, since Jiita achieved the 3rd stage during the Golden Noah arc and was then able to control carbon dioxide and organic molecules, it can be said that this stage, in general, allows the user to control any substance where their element is present in considerable quantities.
The 4th stage is the one that gets the most literal description, being defined as “the ability to control microscopic amounts of one’s element and manipulate electromagnetic forces at an atomic level to gain control over substances where one’s element is present in very small amounts”. In simple terms, the 4th stage allows a qwaser to control their element when it is present in microscopic quantities or when there are trace amounts of it in a more complex substance.
Lastly, the 5th stage allows a qwaser to separate their element from compounds.
Besides these 5 stages it should be noted that “qwaser wave forms” mean that qwaser powers behave like waves, having all of their properties, and as such qwasers don’t have a telekinesis-like control of their element because waves take time to travel. Attacking a qwaser before their powers have the time to reach the target is one of the main weaknesses pointed out in the series and one of the reason why fights stay interesting: despite having special abilities, humans can still take out a qwaser if they are smart about it. Qwasers aren’t just stronger than humans, they need to use their intelligence to be able to fight.
The reason I wrote down a list of all 5 qwaser power stages is because it should be noted that simply being at a higher stage doesn’t immediately make a qwaser stronger than they were before or stronger than a qwaser at a lower stage.
Getting to a new power stage doesn’t mean getting a “10X” multiplier, that ends up being purely nominal, added to their strength. It means the qwaser gains new ways of using their abilities and lets us actually see their increase in strength when they do discover new ways of using their power (like Aoi starting to use water) or have more refined ways of using old tricks (initially Sasha had to use the Schikorr reaction to cover his weapons in Fe3O4 and fight Aoi but later, after gaining access to the 4th stage, he was able to make his iron selectively oxidize into Fe3O4).
The simplest example of the importance of knowing an opponent’s fighting style and element in this manga is the contrast between Katja and Milk's two fights: the first time around, Katja is completely oblivious as to what Milk’s element is, as well as the fact that she is at the 5th stage and because of that she is defeated in practically one attack. The second time around, because she knows Milk's fighting style, she finds a perfect counter for it and defeats her in one attack (clone army notwithstanding).
One of the most gripping aspects of the series is the characters and how they grow throughout the story. Two examples of character growth would be Katja and Tasuku.
From the beginning Katja is very prideful, proclaiming that she is an empress and such. However, when she gets into a situation where she might meet her end (chapter 8) she completely accepts her fate and stands down. She is taken aback when Miyuri stands up to try to defend everyone because, unlike Miyuri, she wasn’t able to maintain her demeanor in that situation. It was probably from that point onwards that Katja decided to let Miyuri be her “older sister” (chapter 64) and it was definitely that event that changed Katja’s personality. During her fight with Milk and Gijou (chapters 106-108) Katja finds herself in a similar situation to the one she was in in chapter 8: she can’t use her powers, is surrounded by enemies and her servants aren’t by her side. However, unlike in chapter 8, she decides to face death by standing tall and proclaiming that she is an empress and will die as such, taking a page from Miyuri’s book so to speak.
Another of Katja’s personality traits initially is that she is torn between helping others and keeping herself safe at the same time. During the Golden Noah arc she is clearly worried about Miyuri and wants to help but instead gives her puppet to Joshua once she discovers he plans on going to Miyuri's school and doesn’t do anything else during the arc, the reason being that, while she could go and directly help Miyuri, doing so would put her at odds with Meteora, who she is supposed to serve, which would mean that if she failed she would be left without protection from anyone (Sasha directly opposes Meteora partly because he’s less concerned about such matters and partly because he’s technically employed by Archbishop Mansory while Meteora and Katja are employed by Archbishop Smirnoff). Much later in the story however, Katja is willing to sacrifice herself for her goals, as seen when she is the one to suggest using the same elemental circuits on her that changed Joshua’s element to change her's from copper to gold and save Sasha, fully knowing that doing so would damage her body.
One of Tasuku’s defining characteristics is that he doesn’t like hitting women, in fact, he believes women shouldn’t be injured. However, throughout the course of the series, he injures Theresa severely and threatened to injure Katja and Wilma’s regen. This is due to the fact that he is very hot-blooded and, as his master put it “refuses to think when doing so is the only thing that will allow him not to fight”. Tasuku’s flaw is that he doesn’t think things through and gives into anger so easily that he forgets his own morals; something he only realizes right before his fight with Sasha during the Panagia’s tournament. His fight with Lucrezia marks his growth by the fact that he doesn’t actually injure her; he manages to convince her not to fight by using his brain and examining everything around him, more specifically, by noticing the look in Lucrezia’s eyes and being reminded of the look in his mother’s eyes. In this fight, Tasuku shows that he has grown by not letting his anger distract him from his morals.
“Seikon no Qwaser” has philosophical themes related to two main topics: free will versus determinism and utilitarianism versus deontology.
In this case, I’m using “determinism” in the sense of “fate” and “God’s will”, which the series states to not be real. These concepts are tied to the idea of God who, in the context of SnQ, does not exist. Jesus, the supposed son of God, is mentioned as having a normal human body and the only thing about him that’s different from others is that he was an extremely powerful qwaser.
Grisha is the character who most seems to believe in fate and in a deterministic world or, more correctly, he wants to trick himself into believing that fate exists because it’s the best way he can justify his actions.
One of the arguments against determinism is that, if everything in the world is pre-determined, then we shouldn’t punish people for their crimes since they didn’t do it of their own volition; they were only acting out as the universe intended them to. Grisha is fully aware of this counter argument but actually chooses to use it to justify his plan to cause the biblical apocalypse. When Jesus himself stops Grisha’s plans he starts breaking down because if anyone would know about “God’s will” it would be His son; which means that his main argument to justify his actions is invalid.
SnQ has a deontological mindset, that is to say, the reason behind the character’s action is given more importance than the action itself. Sasha’s fights against Ootori, Wan Chen and Jinkai, as well as Jesus’ intervention against Grisha all try to showcase the idea of a deontological mindset being superior to a utilitarian one (or, in the last case, show the series’ belief that an utilitarian mindset is wrong).
Ootori’s plan is to kill Mafuyu and Tomo, destroying the Sword Maria and preventing Grisha’s plan from coming to fruition, which is a utilitarian mindset (by killing two people Ootori is saving everyone else). Sasha objects, initially out of anger and a desire for revenge, which are selfish goals, and because of that, he fails to even hit his opponent. After Ootori tells him that he shouldn’t focus on what he’s already lost, but instead should focus on what he can still lose, Sasha gains access to the 4th qwaser power level and manages to hit Ootori. Because his motivation changed from something selfish to something self-less he gained strength and was able to win. On top of that, this is when Sasha’s mindset starts basing itself off the deontological idea that human life is precious and should be protected; and that no one should ever have to die for the sake of achieving someone else’s goals.
Wan Chen believes that killing a few hundred people is trivial when doing so will make the lives of billions happy. Sasha interjects by saying that “there was never anyone who it was ok to kill” and presents the argument that utilitarianism sees people as numbers which is far too dehumanizing in his eyes (to Wan Chen, Miyuki and Tsubasa are just another two people he sacrificed for his goal but to Sasha they are friends and people he cares about).
Sasha’s fight with Jinkai is interesting because it presents him as being somewhat utilitarian: Jinkai keeps asking Sasha what he thinks sacrificing himself for others will achieve until he comes to the conclusion that his life also has value and that he shouldn’t be so willing to throw it away for the sake of others. If he’s not willing to sacrifice others, he also shouldn’t sacrifice himself.
Lastly, Grisha’s second argument as to why he is in the right is the idea that even if he kills everyone on Earth, if he just repopulates it with people he deems more useful for mankind, he is actually doing the world a favor. Once again, Jesus’ intervention disproves Grisha since he believes he was following mankind’s will with his plan, however, Jesus, as the messiah of the world’s most practiced religion, is far closer to representing mankind’s will than Grisha.
I could continue talking about all the aspects of “Seikon no Qwaser” that make me love it, but I believe this analysis is enough to at least make people reconsider the way they think about this manga.
Posted by puppetcopper | Nov 10, 2017 3:18 PM | 0 comments