Angelic Countenance With Ripped Wings (Tohma, Gravitation)
Had to do this in a bit of a rush, but I hope it's not too bad.
Title: Angelic Countenance With Ripped Wings
Subject: Seguchi Tohma, Gravitation.
Author: darksidestories
Caution: Contains spoilers for those not familiar with Gravitation in its entirety.
Introduction and Background
Seguchi Tohma is one of the most powerful characters in the Gravitation universe. President of a very successful record company and keyboardist of the famous band Nittle Grasper, he is charming, polite, and at times, very manipulative. He is often called a genius, and can silence grown men and women just by walking into a room. His age is thirty-two, but he has the soft features of a child. Little is known about his actual background, other than he is married, more than likely comes from a wealthy family, and has a rather dark past with his oldest brother-in-law.
In the manga, Tohma is first thoroughly introduced when Bad Luck performs with ASK. A hopeful Shuichi thought Tohma was scouting him, when he really just wanted to know why famous romance novelist Yuki Eiri was at the concert. He appears as little more than a sunny businessman.
In the anime, things are a little bit different. He is one of the first characters to be shown. At almost at the very moment he is shown, one can tell that this man holds a very commanding presence.
Nevertheless, Tohma is one of the most hated, bashed, and misunderstood characters in the Gravitation fandom.
Where No One Can Touch
At first glance, Tohma seems to be a very pleasant person. Further exploration reveals that that's not quite correct.
Tohma is a person who smiles most of the time. This smile rarely has any real meaning behind it, and seems to be a sort of emotional barrier. When he's pushing Aizawa Taki in front of a car, he does so with an eerily calm expression on his face. Tohma is not often seen smiling in true joy unless he's with Eiri, and he shows his grief even less. (Although, it should be noted that in the manga Tohma can have some ridiculous facial expressions.)
Tohma has a dark side, something that only those who know him can see. He is protective of his loved ones to the point of being dangerous. He has shown that he is willing to resort to homicide - or almost homicide - to ensure the safety of one he cares about. He is also prone to blackmailing and manipulation in order to get his way.
But he is not a heartless bastard, as people often think. He has faults, like any other believable character. He can get jealous, but he can also hurt. He carries a heavy burden - his own unbearable guilt. Because of this, while he seems polite, he is actually quite distrusting. He does not want to be betrayed or vulnerable ever again.
Love, Friendship, and Everything in Between
Yuki Eiri - Tohma's relationship with the novelist is perhaps the one given most depth. They were close even before the series started. Because of his un-Japanese appearance, Eiri would often get picked on, to the point where it was damaging. When Eiri was sixteen, Tohma took the boy to New York, hoping he would be happier. There he set him up with a seemingly innocent tutor, Kitazawa Yuki, unaware of the disaster that would soon occur.
Young Eiri grew to adore his teacher, and eventually developed a romantic interest. Kitazawa was also fond of the boy, but he was an alcoholic. One night, when he was seemingly drunk, he attempted to rape Eiri. He was not alone, and offered his company a chance to take him first for a small amount of money. Something inside Eiri snapped, and he shot them all, even Kitazawa, to death. Tohma came running into the scene, and held a bawling Eiri. Neither of them were the same after that.
Few realize that this event affected Tohma - at least - almost as much as it did Eiri. He trusted Kitazawa to take care of his brother-in-law, and Kitazawa smashed that trust into little pieces. By what we can see, before these events occurred, Tohma seemed to be a genuinely happy, normal person. People react in different ways to trauma, and they did - Eiri hides himself behind a glare, Tohma, a smile.
The actual relationship between them is perplexing. Tohma, a married man, openly says: "I love him more than anyone else in the world." Is it romantic love? In the manga, Tohma certainly goes out of his way to break Eiri and Shuichi up, which seems to the unknowing eye like a fit of jealousy. Or is it a case of a brother-in-law complex gone horribly wrong? Tohma blames himself for Eiri's past, and while he obviously cares deeply about him, his obsession with keeping him safe might have something to do with himself, as well. He feels extreme guilt, and no matter what he says or hangs on to, a part of him no doubt wants to be vindicated from it, by protecting the person he thinks he wronged. In a way, Tohma is dependent on the person he thinks is dependent on him.
In the final scene of the anime, Tohma and Eiri are at the cemetery where Kitazawa is buried. Tohma asks Eiri where he is going, who replies, "I'm going back home." The look Tohma gives him as he walks away seems one of heartbreak.
Regardless, they have some sweet - and in the manga, sometimes comical - moments between them.
Seguchi Mika - Mika is Tohma's wife, hence the last name. Their relationship, even though they are married, is much less clear. It's never defined how they met, or even why they got married. One wouldn't even guess they were spouses, they certainly don't act it. Was it arranged? Mika, the daughter of a Buddhist monk, comes from a traditional family, and it's entirely possible Tohma does too. Did he perform his duty to society and propose to her because she was the closest thing he ever had to a female love? He does seem to care about her, if only in a friendship way. Did he do it to get closer to her brother? Or maybe her really loves her after all.
It's even unknown if Tohma knew Mika or Eiri first. It's unlikely that Eiri's father, while not the best dad in the world, would let some man he didn't even know take his son out of the country, though.
Many fans of this pairing argue that they must be in love, because they it's implied that they're expecting a child in the manga. However, many loveless marriages have produced children, so this isn't really concrete evidence.
A lot of times, this relationship is portrayed as Mika being hopelessly in love with Tohma, clueless to his infatuation with her younger brother. This seems unlikely, as Mika is a strong and intelligent woman, who seems to almost share in this infatuation. She's far from being weak-willed or clueless. The way I see it, there's no more chance of Mika being in love with Tohma than the other way around.
More than anything, they seem to be good friends who get along well. Marriages have been built on far less.
Sakano - One of Tohma's more comical relationships. Sakano is a freakishly devoted N-G employee, who seems to have a huge crush on the alluring shacho. If he had to sell his soul or sacrifice his life to gain Tohma's approval and admiration, Sakano would probably do it. When Tohma fires him, only to give him a new position, he faints.
Tohma, on the other hand, seems to be either unaware, ignoring, or he may just be using the man's affections to his advantage. It's not known how he feels in return, or if he even thinks of Sakano as a friend rather than a mere employee, though he seems to be genuinely kind towards him.
It's also been speculated whether Tohma has taken advantage of Sakano's devotion and slept with him. How's that for scandal?
Sakuma Ryuichi - Ryuichi is Tohma's bandmate and close friend. Ryuichi, for all his oddities, seems to be one of the few who can tell when Tohma is sad or upset. There's an adorable scene in the anime where Ryu, sensing that Tohma is pushing himself too hard, uses his beloved bunny companion Kumagorou to tell him: "Don't forget, you're an important member of Nittle Grasper!" He earns a smile - one that seems real - in return.
Ukai Noriko - Another Nittle Grasper member, Noriko is one of the few who can boss Tohma around...and get away with it! They are good friends, though she isn't as affectionate (or as abusing!) towards him as much as she is to Ryuichi.
However, like Ryuichi, she can read Tohma's emotions. There's a scene in the anime where she worriedly says, "That smile...he must be pretty angry." Either she has a remarkable woman's intuition, or she knows him as well as he will let her.
Misc. Relationships - A common misconception is that the reason Tohma tries to butt in on Eiri's love life is because he hates Shindou Shuichi. This is not true at all - he might have been jealous, but ultimately, he only did what he thought was best for Eiri's health. Shuichi could have been anyone, and he still would have done the same thing. Rather, Tohma seems to be fascinated by the bubbly musician, and finds him interesting. He also knows deep down that Shuichi is the person who can make Eiri happy.
The only one of Tohma's blood relatives who is revealed is Fujisaki Suguru, his cousin. At age sixteen, the boy is remarkably talented and mature, perhaps to a ridiculous extent. He's rather keen on surpassing his older cousin as a famous keyboardist.
They get along fine - Tohma even put him in Bad Luck without telling anyone. They are also similar in that they are both organized, polite, and professional. They even share the same fearsome Seguchi smile!
Tohma also has another brother-in-law, Uesugi Tatsuha. He's a Buddhist monk (probably only because of his father's wishes), but this teenager is also everything parents don't want their children to be. He drinks and smokes, is bluntly bisexual and perverted at that, and has a thing for older men. Tohma and him only interact once, in the manga - and that's even over the phone. People commonly portray them as hating each other, which is rather far-fetched. They seem to tolerate, if not like each other well enough. And Tatsuha would never really be rude to his brother-by-marriage, for he's a key link to getting what he wants more than anything else...Sakuma Ryuichi, of course.
The Sexuality Spectrum
The actual sexuality of N-G's president is somewhat of a mystery. Some fans believe him to be completely homosexual, caught in a marriage brought on by pressure. Some even believe him to be straight, and that his feelings towards Eiri are nothing more than brotherly love. Most reckon him to be bisexual, which is probably the most logical. The fanbooks certainly support the theory.
Interestingly, he doesn't embody the gay or bi man stereotype society has set. He may like his fashion, but who dares to mess with him?
Educated Fangirlism
My first impression of Tohma was not hate so much as indifference. I read the manga before I saw the anime, where his entrance is not as effective. I thought, "Oh, he's cute" and that's about it.
Then I got into the fandom a bit, and came upon some merciless and sometimes downright cruel hatred. I was extremely confused...he didn't seem the type of character I expected people to hate. He's pretty, and certainly doesn't act completely straight - things I expected people to JUMP at in a shounen-ai/yaoi series. And yet, people seemed to hate him more than they hated the females, who are usually the ones who get tormented in shoujo anime and manga. What was wrong?
I tend to adore hated characters (guess who's an Ayaka fan, too?), so I wanted to see what inspired the bashing. So I read some more, and watched the anime. And gradually, I found myself falling completely in love with the person everyone detested.
For a fictional character, Tohma is completely believable. He has his faults and his moments of weakness. He has a darker side. I can relate to him - there's a bit of Tohma in everyone, even those who hate him. What drew me to him was his less-than-perfect nature and these faults - a strong contrast to what others thought. A character I took for granted at first starting climbing up my favorites ladder, and now he's not only one of my favorite Gravitation characters - but one of my favorites in anime in general.
I can say that I personally felt worse for him in the end than I did for Eiri. Eiri was liberated, in a sense...while the slight stability in Tohma's life was broken. He was dependent on the writer, when all along he thought he was the one who was depended on. I can only hope that he eventually finds the happiness he so deserves, and that he let go of the guilt for something that no one but himself blames him for.
Tohma can be harsh, manipulating, and sometimes seemingly downright deluded, but more than all that...he's human.
The Man Who Owns Japan and the Internet - Tohma Links!
The Totally Biased Tohma Site - As you can tell from merely the title, this is an extremely witty and fun site.
Occasionally Evil - This shrine has got some fantastic written content.
Adorably Manipulative - A cute site with good-quality media and information. And I simply *adore* the title.
Persuasion - The Tohma fanlisting!
Nittle Grasper.com - A downright awesome fansite for the band. Contains just about everything.
tohma_x_eiri
tohmaxryuichi
graviology
Title: Angelic Countenance With Ripped Wings
Subject: Seguchi Tohma, Gravitation.
Author: darksidestories
Caution: Contains spoilers for those not familiar with Gravitation in its entirety.
Introduction and Background
Seguchi Tohma is one of the most powerful characters in the Gravitation universe. President of a very successful record company and keyboardist of the famous band Nittle Grasper, he is charming, polite, and at times, very manipulative. He is often called a genius, and can silence grown men and women just by walking into a room. His age is thirty-two, but he has the soft features of a child. Little is known about his actual background, other than he is married, more than likely comes from a wealthy family, and has a rather dark past with his oldest brother-in-law.
In the manga, Tohma is first thoroughly introduced when Bad Luck performs with ASK. A hopeful Shuichi thought Tohma was scouting him, when he really just wanted to know why famous romance novelist Yuki Eiri was at the concert. He appears as little more than a sunny businessman.
In the anime, things are a little bit different. He is one of the first characters to be shown. At almost at the very moment he is shown, one can tell that this man holds a very commanding presence.
Nevertheless, Tohma is one of the most hated, bashed, and misunderstood characters in the Gravitation fandom.
Where No One Can Touch
At first glance, Tohma seems to be a very pleasant person. Further exploration reveals that that's not quite correct.
Tohma is a person who smiles most of the time. This smile rarely has any real meaning behind it, and seems to be a sort of emotional barrier. When he's pushing Aizawa Taki in front of a car, he does so with an eerily calm expression on his face. Tohma is not often seen smiling in true joy unless he's with Eiri, and he shows his grief even less. (Although, it should be noted that in the manga Tohma can have some ridiculous facial expressions.)
Tohma has a dark side, something that only those who know him can see. He is protective of his loved ones to the point of being dangerous. He has shown that he is willing to resort to homicide - or almost homicide - to ensure the safety of one he cares about. He is also prone to blackmailing and manipulation in order to get his way.
But he is not a heartless bastard, as people often think. He has faults, like any other believable character. He can get jealous, but he can also hurt. He carries a heavy burden - his own unbearable guilt. Because of this, while he seems polite, he is actually quite distrusting. He does not want to be betrayed or vulnerable ever again.
Love, Friendship, and Everything in Between
Yuki Eiri - Tohma's relationship with the novelist is perhaps the one given most depth. They were close even before the series started. Because of his un-Japanese appearance, Eiri would often get picked on, to the point where it was damaging. When Eiri was sixteen, Tohma took the boy to New York, hoping he would be happier. There he set him up with a seemingly innocent tutor, Kitazawa Yuki, unaware of the disaster that would soon occur.
Young Eiri grew to adore his teacher, and eventually developed a romantic interest. Kitazawa was also fond of the boy, but he was an alcoholic. One night, when he was seemingly drunk, he attempted to rape Eiri. He was not alone, and offered his company a chance to take him first for a small amount of money. Something inside Eiri snapped, and he shot them all, even Kitazawa, to death. Tohma came running into the scene, and held a bawling Eiri. Neither of them were the same after that.
Few realize that this event affected Tohma - at least - almost as much as it did Eiri. He trusted Kitazawa to take care of his brother-in-law, and Kitazawa smashed that trust into little pieces. By what we can see, before these events occurred, Tohma seemed to be a genuinely happy, normal person. People react in different ways to trauma, and they did - Eiri hides himself behind a glare, Tohma, a smile.
The actual relationship between them is perplexing. Tohma, a married man, openly says: "I love him more than anyone else in the world." Is it romantic love? In the manga, Tohma certainly goes out of his way to break Eiri and Shuichi up, which seems to the unknowing eye like a fit of jealousy. Or is it a case of a brother-in-law complex gone horribly wrong? Tohma blames himself for Eiri's past, and while he obviously cares deeply about him, his obsession with keeping him safe might have something to do with himself, as well. He feels extreme guilt, and no matter what he says or hangs on to, a part of him no doubt wants to be vindicated from it, by protecting the person he thinks he wronged. In a way, Tohma is dependent on the person he thinks is dependent on him.
In the final scene of the anime, Tohma and Eiri are at the cemetery where Kitazawa is buried. Tohma asks Eiri where he is going, who replies, "I'm going back home." The look Tohma gives him as he walks away seems one of heartbreak.
Regardless, they have some sweet - and in the manga, sometimes comical - moments between them.
Seguchi Mika - Mika is Tohma's wife, hence the last name. Their relationship, even though they are married, is much less clear. It's never defined how they met, or even why they got married. One wouldn't even guess they were spouses, they certainly don't act it. Was it arranged? Mika, the daughter of a Buddhist monk, comes from a traditional family, and it's entirely possible Tohma does too. Did he perform his duty to society and propose to her because she was the closest thing he ever had to a female love? He does seem to care about her, if only in a friendship way. Did he do it to get closer to her brother? Or maybe her really loves her after all.
It's even unknown if Tohma knew Mika or Eiri first. It's unlikely that Eiri's father, while not the best dad in the world, would let some man he didn't even know take his son out of the country, though.
Many fans of this pairing argue that they must be in love, because they it's implied that they're expecting a child in the manga. However, many loveless marriages have produced children, so this isn't really concrete evidence.
A lot of times, this relationship is portrayed as Mika being hopelessly in love with Tohma, clueless to his infatuation with her younger brother. This seems unlikely, as Mika is a strong and intelligent woman, who seems to almost share in this infatuation. She's far from being weak-willed or clueless. The way I see it, there's no more chance of Mika being in love with Tohma than the other way around.
More than anything, they seem to be good friends who get along well. Marriages have been built on far less.
Sakano - One of Tohma's more comical relationships. Sakano is a freakishly devoted N-G employee, who seems to have a huge crush on the alluring shacho. If he had to sell his soul or sacrifice his life to gain Tohma's approval and admiration, Sakano would probably do it. When Tohma fires him, only to give him a new position, he faints.
Tohma, on the other hand, seems to be either unaware, ignoring, or he may just be using the man's affections to his advantage. It's not known how he feels in return, or if he even thinks of Sakano as a friend rather than a mere employee, though he seems to be genuinely kind towards him.
It's also been speculated whether Tohma has taken advantage of Sakano's devotion and slept with him. How's that for scandal?
Sakuma Ryuichi - Ryuichi is Tohma's bandmate and close friend. Ryuichi, for all his oddities, seems to be one of the few who can tell when Tohma is sad or upset. There's an adorable scene in the anime where Ryu, sensing that Tohma is pushing himself too hard, uses his beloved bunny companion Kumagorou to tell him: "Don't forget, you're an important member of Nittle Grasper!" He earns a smile - one that seems real - in return.
Ukai Noriko - Another Nittle Grasper member, Noriko is one of the few who can boss Tohma around...and get away with it! They are good friends, though she isn't as affectionate (or as abusing!) towards him as much as she is to Ryuichi.
However, like Ryuichi, she can read Tohma's emotions. There's a scene in the anime where she worriedly says, "That smile...he must be pretty angry." Either she has a remarkable woman's intuition, or she knows him as well as he will let her.
Misc. Relationships - A common misconception is that the reason Tohma tries to butt in on Eiri's love life is because he hates Shindou Shuichi. This is not true at all - he might have been jealous, but ultimately, he only did what he thought was best for Eiri's health. Shuichi could have been anyone, and he still would have done the same thing. Rather, Tohma seems to be fascinated by the bubbly musician, and finds him interesting. He also knows deep down that Shuichi is the person who can make Eiri happy.
The only one of Tohma's blood relatives who is revealed is Fujisaki Suguru, his cousin. At age sixteen, the boy is remarkably talented and mature, perhaps to a ridiculous extent. He's rather keen on surpassing his older cousin as a famous keyboardist.
They get along fine - Tohma even put him in Bad Luck without telling anyone. They are also similar in that they are both organized, polite, and professional. They even share the same fearsome Seguchi smile!
Tohma also has another brother-in-law, Uesugi Tatsuha. He's a Buddhist monk (probably only because of his father's wishes), but this teenager is also everything parents don't want their children to be. He drinks and smokes, is bluntly bisexual and perverted at that, and has a thing for older men. Tohma and him only interact once, in the manga - and that's even over the phone. People commonly portray them as hating each other, which is rather far-fetched. They seem to tolerate, if not like each other well enough. And Tatsuha would never really be rude to his brother-by-marriage, for he's a key link to getting what he wants more than anything else...Sakuma Ryuichi, of course.
The Sexuality Spectrum
The actual sexuality of N-G's president is somewhat of a mystery. Some fans believe him to be completely homosexual, caught in a marriage brought on by pressure. Some even believe him to be straight, and that his feelings towards Eiri are nothing more than brotherly love. Most reckon him to be bisexual, which is probably the most logical. The fanbooks certainly support the theory.
Interestingly, he doesn't embody the gay or bi man stereotype society has set. He may like his fashion, but who dares to mess with him?
Educated Fangirlism
My first impression of Tohma was not hate so much as indifference. I read the manga before I saw the anime, where his entrance is not as effective. I thought, "Oh, he's cute" and that's about it.
Then I got into the fandom a bit, and came upon some merciless and sometimes downright cruel hatred. I was extremely confused...he didn't seem the type of character I expected people to hate. He's pretty, and certainly doesn't act completely straight - things I expected people to JUMP at in a shounen-ai/yaoi series. And yet, people seemed to hate him more than they hated the females, who are usually the ones who get tormented in shoujo anime and manga. What was wrong?
I tend to adore hated characters (guess who's an Ayaka fan, too?), so I wanted to see what inspired the bashing. So I read some more, and watched the anime. And gradually, I found myself falling completely in love with the person everyone detested.
For a fictional character, Tohma is completely believable. He has his faults and his moments of weakness. He has a darker side. I can relate to him - there's a bit of Tohma in everyone, even those who hate him. What drew me to him was his less-than-perfect nature and these faults - a strong contrast to what others thought. A character I took for granted at first starting climbing up my favorites ladder, and now he's not only one of my favorite Gravitation characters - but one of my favorites in anime in general.
I can say that I personally felt worse for him in the end than I did for Eiri. Eiri was liberated, in a sense...while the slight stability in Tohma's life was broken. He was dependent on the writer, when all along he thought he was the one who was depended on. I can only hope that he eventually finds the happiness he so deserves, and that he let go of the guilt for something that no one but himself blames him for.
Tohma can be harsh, manipulating, and sometimes seemingly downright deluded, but more than all that...he's human.
The Man Who Owns Japan and the Internet - Tohma Links!
The Totally Biased Tohma Site - As you can tell from merely the title, this is an extremely witty and fun site.
Occasionally Evil - This shrine has got some fantastic written content.
Adorably Manipulative - A cute site with good-quality media and information. And I simply *adore* the title.
Persuasion - The Tohma fanlisting!
Nittle Grasper.com - A downright awesome fansite for the band. Contains just about everything.
tohma_x_eiri
tohmaxryuichi
graviology