The Case of Kuji Toi

Sarazanmai episode 4 “I Want to Connect, but You’re So Far Away” is our first episode dedicated to Toi, revealing his secret and the person most important to him. We’ve seen hints at what is happening in Toi’s life the past few episodes but only now do we start to unearth the extent of his situation and his relationship with his brother, Chikai. Without doubt, there is more to be revealed later in the show. This post will be discussing themes of abuse, child grooming, and the implications of incest within this episode with reference to Ikuhara’s other works. Spoilers regarding the episode are also within.

The first conversation between Toi and Chikai shows a greatly different relationship from the one we will later see in the flashback. First of all, throughout this conversation, Chikai is killing (or at least waterboarding) a man, making no attempt to hide this fact from Toi on the other end of the line. In contrast to this action, Chikai says to Toi that he’s concerned about getting him caught up in his crimes, to which Toi expresses he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care that he’s involved in crimes, he doesn’t care about how others around him see him, he doesn’t care about being friends with them. He seemingly either feels indebted to Chikai or connected to him for saving their soba shop when he was younger. Toi expresses that he wants to be with Chikai despite the dangerous situation, that he wants to live with him and not be apart from him.

Despite Toi expressing this wish, it doesn’t particularly seem he has a reason to want to be away from where he is, which seems a rather safe place aside from his guardians disapproving of his connection to his brother, and instead live an extremely dangerous life of crime by his brother’s side.

Chikai claims he is worried about Toi having issues because of him getting caught up in his crimes. However, the past few episodes we have seen him include Toi in waterboarding a man, and we know that Toi grows and deals marijuana on his brother’s behalf. Despite his supposed concern, he actively has Toi participate.

These words are most likely something Chikai said to Toi years ago, back when he first got Toi involved or when their parents died. He told Toi something simple. People don’t care. They wont care about him. If he can’t make his way and survive without others, he will have no option but to perish, and those around him will forget and replace him without a care. His existence will have been meaningless to them. In being the one to tell him this, Chikai in a strange way makes himself feel like the exception; someone who cares enough to tell him this “truth”. Who cares enough to tell him to make the effort to survive without others.

This is part of how Chikai has separated Toi off from others. With this thought continually in Toi’s mind, the wise words of an older brother, he wont be able to fully commit or trust others, because he wont trust them to care about him. Toi will isolate himself to grow strong and survive without kids his age, without adults who could otherwise help him when he’s going down the wrong path. Stop him from seeking ways out because helping his brother and dealing drugs is allowing him to survive without anyone but his brother. Toi stays close to him as the only one he feels he can truly trust, backed by the fact Chikai was the one with him when he killed a man.

Seaweed

Our flashback brings us to when Toi was at his most vulnerable, 10-years-old, his mother having died and his father having committed suicide. Toi is alone in the house, no one there for him until Chikai comes in.

Chikai doesn't show any care for him. He throws him some crumpled up change, and tells him, a 10 year old, to use it to care for himself. He then proceeds to start taking their parents' belongings to sell, upsetting Toi as they're most like the only comforts he has and reminders of better times. When Toi tries to fight him on it, Chikai hits him and threatens him. He tells him that bad people are the ones who survive in this world. By suggesting to Toi that being a good person means he isn't going to survive, it allows him to place fear and doubt into him.

Toi can’t rely on the morality his parents taught him. His parents were good people, and they died, leaving him alone for now. Toi does his best at this point to stand by his morals, not yet doubting them as they’ve been all he learned.

Despite the fact Chikai took all their parents’ stuff to sell, they can’t keep the shop open. The suggestion over all is that Chikai hasn’t helped out at all, and there’s been no suggestion Toi ever saw money from him besides the change Chikai gave him. At this point, Chikai is involved in with organised crime but even with that on top of the money he made selling the stuff, made no effort to save the last place that was a connection to their parents for Toi. It isn’t until the very last minute, when they’re packing up to move out, Chikai arrives with stolen money to pay off the debt.

This action is one that has set himself as a hero in Toi’s mind. The moment he went from an abusive, uncaring brother to one that pulled through. That saved the shop that meant so much to him. Chikai waited till the last possible moment when all hope seemed lost and then came in and saved the day. He left their relatives in charge of Toi and the shop and Toi was able to start doubting his perception of his brother as a bad person.

Leak

This leak we have Toi trying to find Chikai, and finding that the group Chikai had been a part of and then stolen money from is looking for Chikai. The guys say they’ve already been to the shop and their uncle has disowned Chikai despite him buying them back the shop. Toi overhears that they plan to kill his brother and goes back to the shop where he knows Chikai left the gun in the drawer under the shrine.

Since this gun was placed, a picture has been added to the drawer. Toi is about 14 since he’s in the second year of middle school, this is 2019 so in 2007 he’d be about 2-years-old. This picture serves a very particular purpose as it shows Chikai as a happy part of a loving family.

Given how Chikai was disowned and his lack of care for his parents deaths, this probably hasn’t been how their dynamic has been for a long time. At a time like this, when Toi is starting to see his brother as someone he can depend on, planting something like this allows Toi to connect Chikai with the happiness he experienced with his parents. He will very quickly accept his brother.

The group is aware of Toi and his connection to Chikai, now wanting to catch him and use him to get Chikai. The leader of them is the first to find Toi and when he tries to approach him, Toi panics and shoots him. When the man falls, at the end of the tunnel, Chikai is waiting, watching the events unfold. He carefully takes the gun from Toi and fires the killings shots. In this action, he puts them together as partners in this action. This is their secret and their bond now.

Chikai will take the blame for the murder, they’re the only ones that ever have to know Toi took the first shot in self defence. This is an ultimate action that will stop Toi being able to connect with others. They can never know his secret, he assisted in a murder, no one will ever love him when he did something so horrible. His brother knows and still loves him. His brother swears he’ll love him and protect him and be the one to help him survive. His brother is the only one he can trust now. He’s not a good person anymore, good people don’t kill people. The guilt will stop him connecting to others so his brother is the only one left. This situation over all seems like a partial set up by Chikai. Obviously, he had no control of the group, but he was prepared for it. They are aware of Toi as the only relative with significant meaning to Chikai that could potentially be used against him. He’s left the gun in the drawer under the shrine where even if he didn’t notice Toi was awake at the time, he could be sure it would be found. He had also since planted the family photo to soften Toi to him. Finally, we have them finding Toi in the tunnel, where Chikai seemingly watches this man approach his little brother and does nothing. While he couldn’t guarantee Toi would take the shot, he could of otherwise defended him at the last minute, making himself the hero when Toi realised how much danger he was really in. In the end, he would be the one to finish him off, making himself Toi’s hero and making Toi rely on him. He allowed for Toi to be brought into his crimes and in doing so cut off his other connections to the rest of the world. In present, Toi knows he did it to save himself, can justify that this man planned to kill his brother, and accept that the others aren’t required to like him for it. He doesn’t care for connecting with them anyway, he’s already given up all the connections he has other than his brother. He wants to be by his brother’s side for his brother’s sake now.

Zombie

This week’s zombie is a man who stole the bath water from a female regular’s bath, having wanted to use it to make soba. Now, obviously, this is a disgusting concept. However, the zombies have related to our characters’ desires. Given the reveal in the episode 4 post credits, we could assume the man wanting to be a cat his girlfriend would play with is Kazuki wishing he could have the attention of those he loves instead of it being on Haruka. A man wanting to be surrounded by brides feeding him fish (or giving him kisses) is Enta wanting a fluffy romance with Kazuki. This one reflects Toi’s wish to be close (soba) to his brother. Through out this we are never shown a point in Toi’s life where Chikai lives with him except for a photo from when Toi was clearly very young. When he tells his brother he wants to be with him, his brother claims to feel the same, that he wants to be by Chikai’s side, but never is.

Toi wants to be close to his brother who has not stayed with him, who when their parents died showed no empathy or sympathy, who sold the comforts Toi had, who hit him, who told him that good people like he had always tried to be will perish without anyone caring, who left a gun under the shrine Toi had for their parents, who got him involved in crime unwillingly, and so much more. He has made himself Toi’s saviour through his actions, the one who despite all this bad Toi can rely on. Toi’s relatives weren’t able to save the soba shop, but Chikai did. Chikai helped him when he shot a man. Chikai is the one he can trust, who has always pulled through for him.

The other thing with this zombie is it is potentially more sexual than previous. Our other zombies ultimately have been about wanting to hide, wanting attention, wanting a kind of soft love. This one is inherently perverse and gross. It’s our first one where the people shown are nude, and there’s a sexual nature to the idea of a man stalking a woman and wanting to use the bath water she used to be something he consumes. It’s the action of a gross sexual deviant. Which why when put in the context of Toi with Chikai, we also find something completely disgusting. This may be hinting at something that could come into play later in the series, as previous works by Ikuhara have focused around broken families and incestuous abuse by siblings when they’re in such situations and one is left vulnerable. It would not be out of place for this to also come up in Sarazanmai. It could alternatively just be referencing how their relationship is messed up, Toi’s need to follow his brother, and Chikai’s interest in waterboarding.

In Conclusion,

Chikai has isolated Toi from the world. The only one Toi relies on, the only one he trusts, the only one he wants to connect with, is Chikai. Toi has been groomed by his brother. Chikai continues to involve him in crimes, profiting off how Toi wants to be by his side and how Toi feels needed by him. The distance he puts between them keeps Toi wanting and keeps making Toi aim higher to please him.

Now continued in Episode 8!