"Are we Gowa the pioneers of a new era, or …?"
GASARAKI
Gasaraki is a complex story told mainly about seventeen-year-old Yushiro Gowa’s quest to find out who he is and where he fits in the world.
Yushiro: "I thought that participating in this operation might help me figure out some things. Where I come from. Where I'm going. Who I am."
But Gasaraki is also a story of a family's desire to recapture its long abandoned past. It is a story about a scholar of Japanese history who also wants to turn back the clock on Japan. It is a story about a man, who, when failing to be born a certain way, uses others to get what life did not give him. It is a story of friendship between test subjects and the people who try to protect them. It is a story about a 2,000 year old ghost who manipulates events to relieve him of life. It is a story about an ancient love remembered and reborn.
And it is, in the end, a thoughtful and extraordinary work.
Yushiro's current life was created for the sole purpose of realizing the ambitions of the Gowa. They stole the memories of one boy and replaced them with the memories of a dead boy. But it is not that simple because Yushiro and his predecessor were both kai; those born with the ability to dance the dance of the Gasara and become the soul of the kugai.
An SSDF Recon helicopter hunts for Yushiro on the Path of the Kai.
Yushiro: “My brother’s agents.”
Miharu: “Why would your brother be hunting you down like an animal?”
Yushiro: “I don’t know. No, I lied. I do know why. I’m a test subject. Yes, my brothers think of me only as a means to an end.”Yushiro is the subject of ongoing human experimentation by the Gowa. Likewise, Miharu is being used by Symbol. They are both from a long line of Monoyose kai. They are both survivors of an ancient clan.
Kiyotsugu: “I’d like to have both of your cooperate with us.”
Miharu: “Cooperate? You make it sound as if we have a choice.”
Kazukiyo: “Well, if you realize that much, then we should have no problems working with each other.”
Miharu is the pilot of the bipedal weapon developed by Symbol called the MFX-02 Metal Fake, which is a variant of an earlier model. The Fake is more better developed and more efficient than the Gowa TA, although it has less growth potential because it lacks the high quality of the Gowa's sample. Symbol's sample was reportedly found in China and is less complete in structure. Because of this, the improvements in the unit's capabilities following a phase shifts are not as pronounced. Symbol, like Gowa, is a privately owned corporation.
Yushiro is a captain with the JSSDF and the civilian pilot of the Type 17 Tactical Armor Raiden, or TA. This bipedal weapon is made possible by the use of the adaptive artificial muscle tissue known as "Mile One," which is believed to be a collection of subatomic motors. It is a compound molecule comprised of several billion atoms fused as one -- thereby breaking all the laws of physics. The Mile One seems to store within its structure an unfathomable amount of data. In that way, it is not unlike a DNA molecule.
The Mile One's exact nature is still unknown. But if Gowa had in its possession a complete strand, they could, in theory, create a kugai from scratch.
Kazukiyo: "That's why we have Yushiro. ...We will supplement the missing parts by using him."
What seems to be true is that the artificial muscle tissue reacts only to Yushiro, making him the best of the TA pilots and better than Miharu -- despite the fact that he loses in a fight with her. The changes in Mile One, because of Yushiro's ability phase shifts, are reflected not only by his TA, but in the other TAs are well.
Kazukiyo: "Have you checked Yushiro's data?"
Kiyotsugu: "The data on his physical condition sent by the SSDF covers all of the last year. Overall, I have to say it's pretty amazing. He's had at least five documented mental bursts during that time. ...With each successive generation of Yushiro's mental bursts, a phase shift occurs in the TAs. I can't say why this happens. But a kai might be a unique form of medium."
According to Miharu, Symbol considers the Fakes an intermediate step toward reaching Nada, which is absolute nothingness. Symbol’s goal is not to develop the Fakes for combat, but to use Miharu and the Fakes to summon the Nada, which is another name for the Gasaraki.
Master Sorachi: "To summon the terror that we, the kugutsu, left behind over a millennium ago; to garner the power of the Gasaraki once again."
Gowa is also using the SSDF to test an improved version of the TA that is equipped with an expanded capacity fuel cell batteries, which allows for 36 hours of usage. The TA's AI can rewrite the program architecture on its own because the AI was built on a philosophy of bilateral self evolution.
The AI of the Type 17I is designed on a multi-user platform, so that it is adaptable to a wide range of pilots. This multiple pilot system, however, has less combat efficiency than the original TA. The of pre- set configurations offer pilots a selection that comes close to his or her combat style.
Because the TA is based on the kugai and the TA pilot is analogous to a kai, Gowa's scientists under the direction of Dr. Yonetani -- not Kiyotsugu -- are experimenting on humans. The Type 17I pilot has been biologically enhanced to withstand a longer amount of time in the cockpit. More than a single hour in a TA would be torture on the physiology of a human being, but these Type 17I's have 36 hour power pacts. The Type 17I test pilots were injected with matter a substance from the Mile One.
Obviously, Kazukiyo's hope, in secretly conducting human experimentation, is to replicate Yushiro's capacity in normal humans. Perhaps, having been found not to be a kai, has influenced him. If he can create the same kai-like reactions in normal human beings, then he could use that knowledge to alter his own body. Because he is a kugutsu, he is close to being a kai physiologically, so the biological enhancements would probably be less severe on his mind and body.
Symbol and Gowa, however, go about trying to call upon the Gasaraki in different ways. Symbol's methods are solely based on science. By placing Miharu in this kind of neural receptor web, they try to control her psyche. They pump her full of drugs and they monitor her with internal devices. They don't call her a kai, but an Invitator.
Gowa uses ancient practices. When Yushiro dances, he is monitored by external devices. No drugs are used, only the trance-like state of the Noh dance through which his mind, body, and spirit are focused on the practiced movements of the dance. When a dancer has entered the trance, he is not supposed to be able to stop dancing on his own. But Yushiro can.
The beat of the kugai’s rhythm takes them to the past.
Long ago, there was a group called the kugutsu, who held wide influence ever the creation and consolidation of the Japanese nation. They were a warrior clan who remained hidden within this shadows of history. The story of the kugutsu is deeply tied to the story of the terror of the Gasaraki and the vessels of chaos, the powerful deities called kugai.
The kugutsu held wide influence over the creation and consolidation of the Japanese nation. They they protected the sanctity of the kai.
The kugutsu were a part of the Watanabe Clan, which was the shadow power behind the nascent Imperial Court. That is until the Court wanted to take that power from them. It has been said that the kai killed each other off in an orgy of slaughter. Others found salvation by casting aside their powers and survive to this day. The Gowa family are those survivors. Yushiro's memories connect to the true memories of an earlier Yushiro, who lived back in the ancient past of Japan, the Heian Era, when he lived a one of the two Watanabe kai. Back then, he was in love with a girl named Miharu. The same Miharu he is in love with now.
A clan dispute is started when the Imperial Court demands the Watanabe to turn over the kugai. It has been 800 years since the time of the great wars and 300 since the new gods took root at the Imperial Court. And the Watanabe has almost forgotten the ceremony of Gasaraki. The era when they were the leaders of ceremonial affairs of war has passed. The Watanabe were no longer the shadow power that supported the Emperor. They became simply royal guardians, mere intimate protectors of the court.
Lord Kiou was the leader of the Watanabe Clan and was opposed by his subordinate, Lord Tsuna, who wanted the people known as the kugutsu to return to their old ways.
Lord Tsuna: “After establishing this power and authority the Court has forgotten us, they loathe us, we, who fought on their behalf with our lives. We must make them remember once again what we are to them, our true form.”
To resolve the dispute, the lords called on the kugai; the resulting death of the kai within the kugai was like a divine verdict. Lord Kiou was master of Yushiro. Lord Tsuna was brother to his kai, Miharu. Yushiro defeated her in combat, but he could not bring himself to kill her. This caused Lord Kiou to be defeated and the rise of Tsuna as master of the clan. Because Yushiro broke the ceremony, the kugai would no longer represent the will of the gods. The kugai were once again tools of war.
Lord Tsuna led his clan and the two kugai to Kyoto to present themselves aggressively to the Imperial Court. Lord Tsuna showed them the dead in the streets as the plague took the people. He criticized the Court for seeking the power of the kugai to expand their power rather than caring for the people. He called it corruption to show them the just nature of their rebellion.
Yushiro: "When the kugai stands, many fall to the blade it brandishes. If that is all part of the ceremony of war, then we are no different from the plague gods that robbed the lives of these resting along the road."
Miharu: "Even so, I must follow! For that is the fate that has been laid upon me."
Yushiro: "Fate? It’s a disheartening fate."
Miharu: "Disheartening?"
Yushiro: "Disheartening to be an accursed pestilence, to be fated to sow destruction and death by our ancient code. Is this the only path that awaits us? No, time is not unchanging. Fate is not carved in stone. Such are the words I am made to hear from within this soul of mine, over and over. I do not know from when I gather the voice has been calling out to be across the years."
Miharu: "I am not sure, but no matter. For I am not alone any longer. I have always been alone. I was always looking to my older brother. Then one day it dawned on me; all that I’ve been looking upon was my older brother’s back. Absolute desolation greeted me. Since then, I have devoted myself to the kai nature within me. To myself alone. Even if the battle tonight seals my fate as a pestilence upon others, there is bliss in my servitude for I know I am not alone. A bliss envelopes me as I know our lives overlapped in this life." She takes his hand. "This bliss envelops me in rapture!"After decimating the Imperial forces, Yushiro stopped fighting, refusing to kill. He left the body of the kugai and made the descending Gasaraki depart. Lord Tsuna tried to stop him, shooting him with arrows in the thighs. To save Yushiro, Miharu killed her brother and lost her soul.
The Yushiro of the past is the current Yushiro, for the old memories are his. The kai are the bearers of history.
Yushiro: "Thousands, no, returning after being adrift for tens of thousands of years, so that I might regain my time, my life, to lead it to celebrate this life. Infinite power and immortality ... they are nothing more than a mirage. Humans are born as humans, and they shall die as humans. Letter from afar known as the Gasara, I cast you aside out of spite, for thou art a cursed message...."
It is not until she commands the Gasaraki to leave that she realizes who she is and accepts the past.
The past, the true nature of the kugutsu, is what Yushiro's eldest brother craves.
It has been said that the kai killed each other off in an orgy of slaughter. But the kugutsu survived by finding salvation when they cast aside their powers. The only kugutsu who survive to this day are the descendants of the Watanabe clan, the Gowa and their retainers.
Daizaburo: "Kazukiyo doesn’t intend for Gowa to compete against Symbol alone. He’s setting it up so that Japan itself will confront Symbol. Is it for lust of power?"
Kazukiyo: "I do not pursue such a hollow illusion."
Daizaburo: "Then are the words of Hiraku Nishida a hollow illusion as well?"
Kazukiyo: "Long ago, those empowered by the kugai and the Gasaraki sought something."
Daizaburo: "To be the puppet master and rule from the shadows. A deluded ambition. The kai sought out their path toward survival by leaving behind their role as masters of the Gasaraki ceremony, 1,500 years ago."
Kazukiyo: "But in the end, our clan is but a military power."
Daizaburo: "Long ago, someone like you held the same ambitions you hold now."
Kazukiyo: "Then man could not distance himself from power and brought about internal strife. We are the only descendants of the kai. Who will fight against us? You have grown old. We follow who we believe to be worthy to lead us. That’s the way of the Gowa."
Hiraku Nishida, a scholar of Japanese history, calls upon the leaders of the Defense Force and the Gowa Corporation Group to aid in his plan to protect Japan from itself. He gave up his sight because he was disgusted by a Japan corrupted by decadence. He wanted the Japanese people to ask for more from life than simply securing their material well-being. He wanted to return Japan to a time of nobility, to an imagined state of grace. He saw only opportunism, irresponsibility, and selfishness in modern-day Japan. He believed that by forcing poverty on the Japanese people and by closing all but the ports -- as during the Tokugawa Shogunate -- that the Japanese would be made pure.
What he neglected to see was that the desires, for good or for bad, of any person are timeless. Greed, Selfishness, Cruelty, and such did not suddenly appear with the Meiji Restoration.
Phantom: "The succession of the gods … The clan, which was robbed of their gods and nation, is about to rob the nation to make it their own.”
Kazukiyo: "And rob the world as well."
Phantom: “The karma of desire … You represent the karma of desire resident in all humans.”Nishida's plan was to create a military dictatorship in Japan. He believed that the only instance in Japan's history, where reform tried to alleviate the suffering of the masses and establish order, was when the samurai class rose up and led the government. By this he meant the Tokugawa Shogunate, which lasted from 1638 to 1864. During that time, Japan enjoyed freedom for warfare at home and abroad. Japan experienced significant political, social, economic, and cultural change during the Edo Periods, despite an authoritarian administration and a policy of National Seclusion (Sakoku).
Nishida's plan was for Japan to be governed by a military dictatorship for a period of three years, in which time a political body based in ideals and resolve would be established. At the end of those three years, the leaders of this dictatorship would step aside and allow the masses to judge if what they tried to do was just and proper.
Kazukiyo: "You were too true to your ideals. And you knew delicate structures made up of pristine ideals cannot house real people for any length of time. In the end, I am alone."
Nishida's plan fails when the US decides to cast aside its hegemonic power over the globe and to abandon its position as leader of the world. Having failed, Nishida kills himself and his fellow conspirators work a fixing things. But not Kazukiyo. He wanted Japan under a military dictatorship, but only if he was the puppetmaster in the shadows, controlling things.
Kazukiyo: "Ideals are so very delicate. Nishida-san, you’ve tried to bring closure to this farce of a play by taking your own life. But ... unfortunately, I’m not about to let this farce end any time soon! ”
His ambitions were far beyond anything Nishida with all his wisdom and intelligence could have foreseen. To him, true creation only takes place in the midst of destruction. And by assuming control over both destruction and creation, he would become a puppeteer with history at his fingertips. He seeks to negate everything; to destroy Japan's order and structure, so that he could become the new reigning lord.
The difficulty of Gasaraki is Nishida's diatribe about America's "true goal," while he wished make Japan xenophobic and fall back into the Great Seclusion. Nishida seems to be speaking from two mouths. One venerates the ancient ideals of the Japanese people -- as if such spirituality and nobility are not found in all human beings, no matter their nationality. The other mouth then says he will force Japan to bend to his will, his vision, by any means necessary. He seems to desire the state of society that was created under the Tokugawa, but that world took many years to be established and accepted. He wants to do it in three years.
Nishida works with Kazukiyo Gowa to create a military dictatorship and to plunge Japan -- and the world -- into noble poverty. He cannot preach nobility and grace and truth when he is advocating a military dictatorship, which would use weapons created by questionable means -- human exploitation and experimentation. His blindness seems to give him uncanny insight, but only to what he wishes to see.
There is something vain about Nishida, more so than in Kazukiyo. Nishida wants to history to record his attempt at remaking Japan in his vision. One person can change the course of history, but does that person have the right to make a world solely based on his ideals, as if he is the only one who counts.
In the end, the moral of the story is not the duel between Yushiro and Kazukiyo, but that of Yushiro and Nishida -- a tale of two ideals, two ways of viewing life. Yushiro lives his life, not matter the pains he must suffer. Nishida in his arrogance removes his sight, so that he can only judge how others live their lives, not how he could better his own. Nishida tries to force others to his will. Yushiro covets individuality for all. Nishida wants history to mark his words and to honor him. Yushiro seeks no acclaim at all. Yushiro fights for his life and the lives of others. Nishida gives of his life to save face.
