/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>21166317
Your interpretation is certainly a valid one, but I can't condone it. I have reread Higanbana more times that I can count, in part while translating it, and I don't think Higanbana has a character arc. The reader is only peeling away layers of her character. By Utopia she hasn't meaningfully changed: she's still the same Higanbana you see in The Spirit Camera, punishing the wicked and overreacting to threats. You only gain a slightly better understanding of her character by watching her answers to changing circumstances.

Her entire character arc is in the last chapter of the Second Night. While I dislike the Second Night, and this chapter, it spells for you what Higanbana believes in first her meeting with Marie. She believes in making the night darker in order to brighten the day. She's cruel and wicked, but only to people who deserves it (weak included). Takeshi deserved it: he made a girl kills herself. She went after him because he was deserving of her wrath, and the entire chapter is her wicked way of taking reparation.

It certainly could be said that she lost herself to her duty, and that Marie acts as a pet who brings the best of her. I would absolutely agree to that.

I wouldn't agree that Marie changed Higanbana in any way, and certainly not that she pushed her into an anti-hero path on a character arc of her own. It only seems superficially that way, but the good ol' Higanbana from chapter one hasn't changed from the good ol' Higanbana from Utopia. Marie tries to bring the best of her, and Higanbana drags her feet, but it's all a superficial dance. Smokes and Mirrors.

My point is that by Chapter 1 I had an understanding of Higanbana: she was wicked to the evil, but good inside. And by the last Chapter I had the exact same understanding of her. She didn't meaningfully change, the readers were just shown more of her, the layers peeled. I can understand how it could appear like she changed, but it's all an illusion.

As for Ryukishi trademark psychology, it's there. Higanbana is a fascinating character for what she believes and how she acts. She doesn't need to change: people are still talking about her either way. The depth is in the interaction between Higanbana and Marie, and the pull between the intermingling layers of Higanbana, not in the growth of her character.