u/Unzodiac

I started reading Kagurabachi around chapter 3-4, before that I was reading through the online videos that the official shonen jump released, those voice acted comics with occasional animation.
I fell in love almost instantly and rode the highs and lows of early Kagurabachi with all of you, which is a feeling I wish we could experience again, not the almost getting axed but the more early memes such as Tenoi and all that.

My favorite villain has always, and will always be Kyora Sazanami, though I never knew why.
I knew I liked him for his Sorcery, the themes that he presented and the cool animations I made of him in my head.
Well, I have been doing a reread of Kagurabachi through my friend who is reading it for the very first time, they always screen share and I read alongside them, we just finished the Rakuzaichi arc and I can finally actually put into words why I love this proceeding man so much.
So I decided to make this gigantic analysis piece on him for you all to read, since I figured I might as well make my first gigantic analysis post on my favorite villain, so sit down and please enjoy 🙂

KYORA SAZANAMI VS SAZANAMI KYORA
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We know that at least in one point of Kyora's life, he was a genuinely good father to Enji, Tamaki, Soya, Hakuri and Tenri plus all of the other Sazanami children or cousins that lived in the manner.
The story presents it to us as Tenri was the gifted child while Hakuri was subconsciously keeping the storehouse active, making it so the Isou was locked away behind a mental barrier making Hakuri appear to be one of the only, if not THE ONLY Sazanami without Isou or really any potential.

Though this, in the beginning at least, didn't seem to affect Kyora who still loved his kids and wanted the best for them.
Where I think it started to go downhill is when he obtained the storehouse but not immediately, obviously this put him more into the mindset of needing to be more professional and continue the Rakuzaichi but he wasn't all gone yet.

He still cared enough for his family to have 1 on 1 talks with them, still caring enough about Hakuri to call him his son, even with how much of a "failure" he was, he still held them close and told them how much he loved them.
But overtime, his own hubris, his ego and insane dedication to the Rakuzaichi started to grab more and more of a hold on him, which is when we see the shift into modern day Kyora!

A man who would look at his own son's death, the son he helped bring into this world and cared for, yet he looked at his death and just saw it as a stepping stone that would bring him closer to continuing the Rakuzaichi tradition for decades more.
This is where I put the "Sazanami" before Kyora, since at this point he was just another Sazanami leader instead of being both Kyora the father, and Kyora the Sazanami.

I personally think kyora represents the themes of Kagurabachi perfectly, the reason being this interaction right here.

Kyora talking to his father Sora

There's very little if any warmth here, it is fully transactional of "Kyora, you ARE the patriarch" and talking about life as if it is a duty, it could genuinely just be talking about his duty as clan leader, but with how old the person looks here?
I can assume he probably died not too longer after this, which is why I think it is a double-sided meaning of both duty as in "duty as the leader" and "duty as in my life".

One of the main themes of Kagurabachi is "the sins of the father", which Chihiro, Hakuri and Iori represent by doing better than their fathers, or if not better at least trying to make up the wrongs that they did.
Kyora is the dark version of that, he could've tried to be a good father and husband WHILE commanding the Rakuzaichi, which he did for awhile!
(minus the husband part but we don't know when she died)

I'm thinking to the scene where Soya, Hakuri and Tenri are in the shrine room where Kyora is genuinely happy and telling them how much he loves them, like for the first little while after getting Storehouse, he was doing a good job of multitasking being the leader and father.
But even in this scene, you can already see how devoted he is to the Rakuzaichi and already see how he is starting to become disconnected.

A fathers cold glare

See how cold he is, no padding, no softer words to maybe soothe these...like at most 7 year olds who just lost their grandpa.
Yes, after this he hugs them and tells them how much he loves them, showing that he still did care at this point, and to a large degree but it shows how quickly acquiring the storehouse started to change him and started to morph his huge love into more...transactional love.
I mean even Soya points it out.

But again, as time went on, as mentioned earlier his own hubris got the better of him and he started becoming even more like his father.

All business and his mind purely on "what would be best for the Rakuzaichi" instead of "what would be best for me, what would be best for the Sazanami family?".
Since in his need to PROCEED! He also started neglecting the Sazanami clan and just wrapping them into the Rakuzaichi as a singular entity, a singular entity representing the whole.

"Oh my son is about to die?...HERES A TOOL THAT WILL KILL YOU BUT HEY, GO GET EM SON!"
Manipulating his own kids by using them as bargaining chips, tools to proceed, not telling them that they are guarding an empty room purely due to the fact that he knows it will lure in the people that Kyora is hunting.
Which, yes we see barely any of Kyora before the Rakuzaichi becomes his only priority, I can assume he wouldn't just give Tenri the Datenseki and let him kill themself.

Even his "love" changed, as I mentioned he now saw his kids as just tools to progress the generations, not really caring how they grew or the issues they obtained like Soya's obsession or Tenri's need for approval.
Tenri was just going to be the next Tou captain and Soya was the next Patriarch, that's it, they aren't Soya and Tenri, they are Sazanami Tenri and Sazanami Soya which turned the clan that they held in so much respect, into a curse, even more than before.

Though then again, maybe Kyora was always destined to just become another leader of the rakuzaichi...

His wife's final \"will\"

Or maybe as his wife mentions, maybe he could have been a better person, maybe he could've had the Rakuzaichi going and been a good father and husband.
Maybe he could've been the leader to reform the Rakuzaichi, maybe he could've kept it how it was but just...sat down for a dinner with his family, a warm loving dinner.

Oh what could've been

But we all know that Kyora is one of the most stubborn, most strong willed characters in the entire manga, his will was for the Rakuzaichi and so he continued it with an iron fist, continuing the "legacy" that was handed to him.
The interesting thing about these flashbacks though is he has three flashbacks as he is dying to the Magatsumi, his memories of his wife, the dreamed up "what could have been" had he just continued being a good dad, and then the memory of being handed the storehouse.

Even with all this brainfog, even with the immense, insane mental strain he is going through, he is still thinking about his wife showing that on a deep, subconscious level, he still thinks about her, still respects her due to him calling her "His wife" not "that woman" or other rude names like maybe some other anime villains or villains in general, his wife.
But immediately afterwards, we get the flash to him obtaining storehouse and he himself breaks the memories of his family and the good times with his gavel, the signature tool that we have seen him use to represent the Rakuzaichi's will to proceed.

Breaking his own self to continue a hopeless dream

Another interesting detail is both Hakuri and Soya's faces are shown but Tenri is fractured in a very particular way, we can not see his eyes or barely so, we can only ever see the face edge of his eyeball.
Kyora is regretting, trying to force himself to proceed even though he is ruining the lives of everybody around him, he knows what he did to Tenri and yet he can't face his own son face to face, can't even look at it through fractured glass.

Kyora, had he tried to change himself or fix the storehouse probably would've been able to, we know how strong willed and capable he is when he puts his mind onto a singular goal.
And yet, due to the fact that the memory that broke him was his father giving him the storehouse, it backs up the idea of Kyora having these ideas and wants put into him from a very young age.
Being groomed to be the perfect Sazanami, a never moving pillar that will sacrifice all for tradition.

We can look to real life cults, racists, sexists, homophobes who instill these ideas into people early so that it is harder for them to grow out of it.
Hakuri was lucky, he probably would've grown up to be like Kyora, Soya or Tenri but he had the woman to ignite his fire and Chihiro to keep his fire burning even harder.
Kyora, assumingly only had his wife but his wife probably never tried to take him out of those thoughts, since on her death bed she says "now I might as well be honest" implying this is the first time she's mentioned anything like this.

So, even though his wife's memory looked to maybe help even a tiny bit due to Kyora's inner monologue saying "why am I remembering this?", his father's words will obviously have a much stronger effect, which they did!

His fathers words igniting the hurtful flames in his heart

His father's words reignited his will to keep going, even as he is bleeding through...well his entire body, he is continuing to push forward which shows, even without any words, how much of a deep rooted control his father had over Kyora, even through simple memories.
The sins of the father are rooted so deeply in him that they literally give him the power to cheat death, Kyora is powered by sin through and through.

https://preview.redd.it/d27id5i7j18h1.png?width=755&format=png&auto=webp&s=336ef83a335234e3941f570d597dce11f1ccadc8

https://preview.redd.it/zyle9dg9j18h1.png?width=478&format=png&auto=webp&s=fb7e612b4710cecf692a0c1c71ba7d8f69684ef2

Kyora's death has so many layers just in these simple panels, this is one of the only times in recent memories that he has actually looked his "failure" of a son in the eyes, and yet he has no idea how his son grew to be this strong because he had always turned a blind eye to all of it.
He failed as the leader of the Sazanami for not protecting clan members, he failed as the head of the Rakuzaichi for not protecting it and keeping it going even after his death like he said he would.
But most of all, he failed as a father for letting his son die and his other son, to his knowledge die, even though Soya is alive but he doesn't know that.

He failed as a husband for not making sure his wife was happy, he failed as a father again for letting these awful and self destructive thoughts grow into personality traits for his kids.
He failed as a leader of the Sazanami for not helping all Sazanami, he failed as a father for not helping Hakuri in his darkest moments.

He failed in every possible way, he died as a 100% failure and he realizes that.
Had he tried harder, tried better, tried period in any way that wasn't just fueling the Rakuzaichi, he may have been able to succeed in something.
BUT NO!

He died and left behind nothing but ruins, the Rakuzaichi, the prized tradition of the Sazanami is GONE! His wife died unhappy and feeling hopeless, his sons died, he is leaving behind a broken family of innocent little children who just want their father to come home.

They will never be able to run up to him again

No more headpats from a fathers hand

Sure, Tamaki and Enji will be there to care for them, along with the maids but their father, the man they idolize and need in their life will be gone forever.
Not only had he killed their older brothers, Tenri and Soya, he had helped them commit suicide by giving them the item and letting the mindset grow.

And even worse?
He can't even say that he at least was in control of his death, which I mean he was but he was playing into somebody else's hand the entire time!
The man who always was one step ahead, playing this huge game of chess, WAS GETTING PLAYED!
He played into Yura's hand perfectly due to his own his own hubris and ego, his need to continue!

Yura wanted to see if the Magatsumi could be wielded and Kyora not only proved it could be wielded, he proved you can tame the Magatsumi due to Akemura genuinely struggling to take control over Kyora, there were moments of the fight where it was genuinely just Kyora commanding Magatsumi like the first time he used Centipede.
Kyora forced control and showed that you can tame the Magatsumi for at least a few seconds, which, when you are in a high takes, one action equals death fight? A few seconds is insane, especially when you have the Magatsumi.

Which let Yura eventually do the same thing in the Kamunabi Invasion arc, Kyora not only wasn't even one step ahead of his own death, he literally helped a terrorist without even knowing about it which you know is something he would hate if he was alive.

Had Kyora looked at Hakuri and saw that, "hm, whenever Soya uses a tool on Hakuri, it disappears" maybe he could have developed Hakuri to a point beyond even Tenri!
Imagine a world where Hakuri never became a good guy and grew to be like his father and the Tou, Kyora could've never even been challenged and yet...he didn't.

https://preview.redd.it/hurcf7iho18h1.png?width=268&format=png&auto=webp&s=89f16bb9e9e5137d9354946490b55fae91d52587

https://preview.redd.it/3okcm0pjo18h1.png?width=269&format=png&auto=webp&s=982dd28863ef504efd982c89d8430ce67196ffd5

Kyora was so quick to throwaway Hakuri as just an enemy after he reached the bidding room, didn't even really look at him.
"it's my fault for failing to discern your talents" once again, admitting where he fell flat which is another reason why I love Kyora because of how he knows his limits, and is not afraid to admit when he is wrong.
He even failed to do better then his father Sora at the minimum, cause at least Sora raised the next Sazanami leader in Kyora, at least he kept the Rakuzaichi going.

Kyora failed in every step as I have shown and told you all, which is why his death is so perfect, he doesn't shy away from anything and fully admits everything he did wrong.
For the first time in years, for the first time in a long time he isn't Sazanami Kyora, he is just...

Kyora, the failed patriarch

Kyora sazanami, the failed patriarch.

CLOSING NOTES!
I truly love kyora sazanami so much as you can probably tell, yes Yura is great, yes Akemura, Ariu, sojo, they are all fantastic, but Kyora represents the themes of Kagurabachi perfectly to me in a way that I couldn't describe for so long!
I still can't put all my words into this post, it's probably very messy and scattered but I love Kyora to a (Admittedly) probably unhealthy degree.
His sorcery is also perfect for him, a closed off world that he always has control over and can do anything to at any time? It's basically a canvas that he can paint on and add more easel whenever he wants.

It represents how closed off and how much of a control freak he was, I also think his death pose is representative of how sorry he was in his final moments.
He always held his head high with a powerful demeanor, and yet look at him, shoulders slumped, his head bowed, he looks...pathetic which is how he saw himself in his final moments.
Sorry for how scattered and maybe repetitive some of the points made were, I was kind of just spitting all my facts at once.

So yeah! Thank you all for reading, it truly means the world to me since this was, again the first time I'd ever done a huge post like this but it was really fun diving into one of my favorite characters.
I hope you all have amazing days!

TENOI!

PROCEED MY BROTHERS, PROCEED YOUR SHIT!

Obviously I am not six years old anymore, duh.
I've always been a lurker on this subreddit, watching Emkay and other youtubers similar to them look at the posts has been a comfort activity for me, well recently it finally hit me that years and years ago...
I ACTUALLY HAD AN ENTITLED MOTHER MOMENT!!
so now we are here lol.
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So me and my family are travelers, taking work from all over the world but I would say I have two main homes in california and oregon, since we are there the most often with homes purchased in our names.

Any who, we were in Oregon visiting some family friends from my mom's college days, well this family friend not only had a husband but also a daughter who was (give or take) around five months older than me.
We instantly hit it off, taking about pokemon cards, (since my cousin got me hyper fixated on them around that time, still going strong all these years later) and overall just being goof balls as kids do.

Well, we all got hungry so we headed to this local restaurant that's a bit of a hole in the wall establishment but well loved by the town by those who actually go there.
We sit down and keep being kids, just chatting and talking when something happened, i forget what since it was so long ago, but the girl's mom took her outside with the husband following.

They started to berate her and tell her stuff, the key thing I remember them saying is going "How DARE you, how could you embarrass us like that!?".
Well, me being a little curious kid, looked out the window since where we were seated happened to be next to a gigantic glass window and the glass doors that lead out to a balcony, the balcony being where EM, EF and daughter were at.

The mom crooked her neck around like an owl, obviously not to the same degree but you get the idea, and spooked me a ton so i ducked downwards and just went back to drawing with my crayons.
Eventually they come back inside, we wrap up and then say our goodbyes.

Well turns out, a week after that my mom got a very ANGRY text from the EM saying that my mother was raising me awfully, because I was a creep for looking out the window at them when they were having "Private family time".
She also said that I was a "Perverted brat who will probably end up in prison when he grows up" since she assumed, deadass, that I wasn't staring at the family but at her daughters ass when I looked out the window.

When my mom rightfully defended me, the EM then hit her with, "WELL THAT DOESN'T EXPLAIN WHY HE HUGGED HER!" referring to me and the daughter hugging each other when we were saying our goodbyes, reminder we were both around 6 years old and, for even more irony, the DAUGHTER initiated the hug.

We haven't seen them since, really sucks too since me and the EM's daughter really hit it off, if that shitshow didn't happen we could've probably been friends to this day.
My mom loves telling the story at dinner tables as a "what the fuck" moment nowadays though, which I will probably continue as a fucked up family tradition.
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If you read this far, thank you so much for reading it really does mean the world to me.
Before you go, I have one question for you: If you could have any superpower that isn't obvious, such as superflight or superspeed, what would it be?

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A deep look into my favorite villain - Kyora Sazanami!

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