Even Okaya as a baby looks evil

Im curious, how did you and some people interpret okaya's feelings towards kiritaka as love? Maybe im just slow but i couldn't think of a single moment where it felt like love, even in a twisted form. Could you mind telling me how you feel about this dynamic? I dont mind spoilers. Or did you read the original source somewhere before hand?

I cannot speak for everyone so take what I say with a grain of salt. All of what I have to say here are my own personal interpretations & I heavily encourage to read the manga & have your own takeaways from it, but if you’re still reading I shall indulge in your questions.

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Chapter 51: As Okaya is being chased by Ajiki & his goons Okaya goes on this rant where he discusses Ajiki not knowing love. How Nagare is involved in this conversation is quite interesting. At first, Okaya comments on how Nagare had the choice to jump or not but he inevitably jumps for his mother, that, in Okaya's words, is love. This is where I would like you to bring your attention to page 9 to which this gets absolutely fascinating. This is where Okaya confronts Ajiki not knowing love, the way Okaya confronts Ajiki is intriguing because it's as if he's trying to one up him, it's as if Okaya knows love better than Ajiki. This becomes even more interesting if we pay attention to the way Okaya frames his sentence: "That's because you've never loved anyone." Curious, does this mean Okaya think he knows better when it comes to loving a person?

Maria & Okaya's parallels: The manga doesn't shy away in paralleling both of these 2 characters. Both characters are hauntingly beautiful, strangly & eerily similar in appearances to one another, both are mentally not well by any means, torture their victims, & they're both connected to Nagare. Obviously in this section I will be paralleling the 2's relationship with Nagare. How both characters deal with Nagare's death is fairly interesting to me. Maria seeks revenge on those who drove Nagare to his demise & makes sure Nagare's suffering is known, Okaya on the other hand, misses his toy, he longs to play with it again. His plan is for both of Nagare's parents to get back together & make another Nagare so he can play with them. Simply put, with all this paralleling I would be surprised if paralleling the 2's love for Nagare wasn't already on the table.

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It kinda seems like I'm just rambling at this point but that's just all I had to say on the matter, just my personal views & what not. I definitely have more to say but I wrote all of this extremely tired. I thought it would be better to answer you sooner rather than later. I hope you found this entertaining at least. Feel free to point out any inconsistencies I've made here.

To answer your last questions. I see their dynamic as deeply twisted & honestly interesting. It's fun to analyze stuff like this. It's not the worst thing I've seen but still messed up. It still baffles me that they were kinda friends back then. Next question: All information I take are from the translations here alone so I can't speak on the Japanese side or other translations. I'll leave this with saying: Have your own opinions, I'm just sharing mine, & you're allowed to not listen to me.

Dang, thank you for taking time out of your day to write such a long and detailed response even though you were tired. I really appreciate it! And sorry too.

But yeah, i think i should go back and reread this series since i think i might have missed some stuff. Your insight helped me gain a better understanding of some things that i didn't grasp before. Again, thanks a lot! (●'◡'●)ﾉ

You're really welcome & really dw about it, writing this essay of a comment in a way was refreshing. Through your reread I hope you can hold your own understanding, a story is far more interesting with different interpretations from the viewers. & thank you for taking time to read my rambling I appreciate. Enjoy your reread ^^