i’m sure someone has said this before me & better than me, but i find max’s comment in episode 11 that eiji is a nice & comforting person but largely lacks a strong personality to be the funniest & most inaccurate assessment of this incredibly chaotic child i have heard in my life
like, more or less as soon as eiji gets to new york, he gets kidnapped & held at gunpoint by a bunch of bloodthirsty gang members who have killed & will kill again, and instead of reacting like any regular human being would & running as far as possible in the opposite direction, he’s like “no, you know what? i’m gonna befriend this gang boss who everyone is out to kill & throw myself directly into the middle of this massive turf war.” then ash gives him a secret message when he visits him in prison, and instead of, i don’t know, discussing it with the many police officers directly at his disposal, he just goes on this stupid fetch quest & nearly ends up dying. AND THEN HE KEEPS COMING BACK FOR MORE. that’s literally the entire series. time and again, he gets put in increasingly batshit insane & unbelievably dangerous situations, nearly dies, and then picks himself back up & continues to run directly at whatever raging stupidity he’s gotten himself mixed up in this time.
i know that with ash as a foil, eiji looks pretty tame, but i’d argue that given how eiji had never seen a real gun before coming to new york, his total willingness to get involved in these absurd shenanigans is in fact more impressive than someone who’s been involved in gang violence for most of his life. the idea that he is by any stretch of the imagination a passive, unassuming shrinking violet is hilarious to me. that boy is vibrating with a metric ton of utterly chaotic energy at all times. eiji okumura is always completely and totally down to fucking clown.
ofgeography
