Why I Like Sensui Shinobu

 

Or...Fanboy Musings You Don't Necessarily Have to Take Seriously

 

1.) I was attracted to his character via reading Volume 14 of the manga in Japanese. I was coincidentally working on a project about good and evil in Buddhism for a Philosophy of Religion class, and a lot of what I read in my research resonated with Togashi's viewpoints concerning Sensui. That's what pulled me in...that someone like him could exist, that saw the world in only black and white in a world of shades of grey, someone who had decided their word on morality was law and whose viewpoint on "right" and "wrong" could be changed by experiencing the ambiguities of real life.

 

2.) Pretty soon after that, I noticed that (to me) he was very attractive physically...he and Young Genkai are, in my view, the two sexiest people in YYH. (I'm not a pretty boy fan, even though I mooned over Kurama for a while, I'm ashamed to admit. I like masculine guys and tough chicks^^.) Plus the voice...I think his Japanese voice is HOT. It's very persuasive *cough*, and I'm surprised it was done by someone who has 30+ years on the character he plays. (And sometimes his English voice reminds me of Henry Rollins. >D)

 

3.) Enough with the blatant fanboying. >3 I kind of feel sorry for him...his life must have been hell with his abilities, having youkai and spirits after his life because of said abilities, becoming a Tantei with an absolute cause, and then later finding out he's no better than anyone else who goes around murdering others for "right" against "wrong", or simply because they feel that have the privilege to do so. I sometimes wonder if his insanity is a Faustian bargain of sorts for the spiritual prowess he was born with...that selling one's soul to the gods is as bad as or worse than selling it to the Devil.

 

4.) He gets Itsuki...and he changes his viewpoint slowly but surely thanks to the youkai~_^. The character dynamic in between the two of them is awesome.

 

5.) Hypocrisy interests me to no avail. Sensui is THE hypocrite, much like others who are embroiled in religion/cult-like beliefs, and I want to know how he functions. (Were he a real person instead of an anime character, I would hate his guts, but I take comfort in the fact that he's fictional and I can analyze his motives to no end without feeling guilty or confused.)

 

6.) Related to #5...Human beings are far from wholesome. I like him because he reminds us that we are capable of going down the same spiral, that we are hypocrites at some point, imperfect, not the gods we like to think we are. (The genocidal thing is a bit extreme, but I understand his motives. If you were brought to believe that humanity was flawless, that you were their savior from "evil" [that didn't turn out to be as unambigiously evil as you were taught], your failth in your position was absolute, and you saw what he did...what would you do?)

 

7.) I'm a psychology geek, and it's nice to see an antagonist in a manga/anime series who has a mental disorder instead of being undisputably "evil". You get to see another motivation that's beyond their control. (Mad props to all seven of Sensui!!! All of his personae are cool!)

 

There we go...seven reasons I like Sensui. He's not "OMG TEH EBIL!!!" or anything like that, in my eyes. Just sort of...depraved and insane...or something like that.