Buraiden Gai Chapter 5 Discussion

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                        I'm getting some seriously mixed feelings and I love that.  The way Gai so easily comes out on top in the fight or here with logic and then smirks and snickers feels like villain behavior!  I instantly thought he felt antagonistic so for Abe to confirm that it wasn’t just me feeling that was nice.  I do feel as Abe has been the main character so far that we’re supposed to relate with him and not Gai and perhaps that’s influenced me.  I hate Gai when he’s self satisfied over the little moments, he feels like he’s rubbing in Abe’s losses or even making fun of all public servants with a little delinquent smile on his face.  He feels like a punk and I suppose he literally is one so it’s no surprise.  But I love him sometimes.  The first time was the confliction I felt when I thought it was so cool that he was going to blind five cops and go down knowingly, but I hated that he was going to make dudes simply doing their jobs blind and still go down knowingly.  Like jerk move man!  I loved how he actually stepped down there too.  Here I hated his self satisfied snickering but I liked where it was coming from and I liked how he made that allegiance with Abe.  “I feel a lot better this way.  We both are ourselves.  I like it, let’s do it that way” while smoking Abe’s cigarette as a metaphorical acceptance.  It’s so rad.  But man I also wanna smack him!  It’s awesome.  Meanwhile one could say, well why do you like Abe if he’s such a dirty, self interested dude, but I love dirty, self interested, charismatic dudes and we are seeing it through his somewhat sympathetic eyes.  So, I like this.  I like feeling mixed feelings.



Gai hinted at a troubled past of fake kindness and tricks.  I take it adults have probably used him as a pawn for their own benefit while preaching their good nature before.  We already see that someone framed him for murder, he was a chess piece not that long ago and he hates it.  So, to have a greedy and openly self interested man on his side is someone he can actually trust as he can actually know his motives.  That’s a unique and cool dynamic right there.  I loved Abe’s page of deliberation on whether he should say yes or no continuing to show his skill in navigating conversation and I liked how his confidence was regained when he left.  



His reasoning for why Gai isn’t a murderer is perhaps a little flimsy though.  In a fight he wanted it to be equal, he doesn’t like unfairness, he said using a weapon is cowardly against him because he was unarmed.  The old man was killed unarmed and by a knife, but you can’t know someone that good from a meeting or two in my mind.  Just look at Abe, giving amazing and courageous words and risking his sight while stating he doesn’t even believe them a moment later.  Then again perhaps that was the true Abe deep down under his damaged psyche.  I also like Gai pushing his buttons to ask him if he really knows he didn’t kill the old man, that was good and super evil looking.