I feel like Ozaki knows Seishin better than Seishin knows Ozaki, oddly enough. Although it's Seishin that always muses about human nature, we also talked about him having Ozaki as a sort of ideal: respected by the village on his own terms, hardworking, honest, etc. But somehow when Seishin leaves Ozaki to go to Kanemasa later, I get the impression that he doesn't really know Ozaki that well. he seems shocked that Ozaki would go and exterminate all the Shiki. In fact, throughout the whole story, I feel like the outbreak is a good opportunity for Seishin to finally get to know his friend--and he realizes that he's not perfect after all and does horrifying stuff that is against Seishin's beliefs. The more that Ozaki tries to fight the outbreak, the more disgusted Seishin is by him. The beginning of it was when Ozaki kept the existence of the outbreak a secret, and now Seishin is also seeing a new side of Ozaki with his vampire theory; perhaps he never thought that Ozaki of all people would believe in vampires.

On the other hand, Ozaki seems to have Seishin figured out. He recognizes his inner darkness and is his friend despite it. And he's not surprised when Seishin leaves for Kanemasa; that moment when they each realized how different they were, they took it very differently. Seishin was betrayed, maybe heartbroken by how different Ozaki turned out to be from who he thought he was. Whereas Ozaki, although he maybe expected Seishin to help him with taking down the Shiki, once Seishin left he was calm about it, like "yeah, that's something that Seishin would do."

And I don't know any significance about this off the bat, but didn't it seem like after they separated, Seishin cut himself off from Ozaki quickly, while Ozaki kept thinking about Seishin? After all, the only time Seishin really mentions Ozaki is when he warns Sunako that he's very capable. It's like he's given up on him. And Ozaki thinks about Seishin a few more times. A scene I have in mind is when Ozaki's truck passes Seishin's car with Sunako in it after they've escaped Kanemasa. Ozaki looks at Seishin, sort of betrayed but unsurprised. Remember, Ozaki never did know about Seishin's interactions with any of the Kirishikis; I like to think that in that moment, he understands a lot. "Aah, so he probably formed ties with those Shiki, I should have guessed--that's Seishin all over." Meanwhile, Seishin stares straight ahead, which shows that he's focused on his new mission and realized that since he's no longer compatible with the humans, he won't count himself as one of them. Perhaps he avoids thinking of Ozaki because it's so painful?

Yeah, I don't think that Seishin absolutely doesn't care about Ozaki, either...but we can look at his hanging out with him as a duty too. I'm thinking maybe Seishin hates Ozaki a little and this goes hand in hand with his resentment of Ozaki for being his 'ideal'. Perhaps he feels like Ozaki is great and it's Seishin's duty as his friend to keep him in line (who else can do it except his childhood friend?) and protect him from committing sins. It's actually similar to how Ozaki views Seishin, isn't it? Ozaki sees Seishin as fragile and sometimes keeps things from him to protect him. In this case, the way they respond to one another is similar.

Also, like how it's ironic that Seishin, although an atheist (or believing in his own God) is still more spiritual than many people. He has a very strong moral code and it seems like out of all the characters, he is the one that values life the most. Ozaki values human life, and is willing to kill every Shiki to protect it. Sunako values Shiki life, and she is willing to kill every human to have the Shiki survive. And yet both of them are religious (Ozaki -> Buddhist; Sunako -> Christian) while Seishin is not. I also find it very fitting that Seishin replaces Tatsumi in taking care of Sunako; Seishin values all life, while Tatsumi values no life. Although they almost don't interact, they're good foils to each other and are united in protecting Sunako.

I like the idea that Seishin became a monk because Ozaki became a doctor! I remember that one flashback where they're in school and Seishin tells Ozaki that they should be able to do what they want in life. Ozaki doesn't quite look like he disagrees, but you can see his rebelliousness is not quite on par with Seishin's. Perhaps Ozaki's idea of doing what he wants is different than Seishin's; if I were Ozaki, maybe I'd want to go and study law in Tokyo. But I'd also want my parents' approval, and I'd want Sotoba to have a doctor who took good care of its citizens. I'd want to stay close to all the people I grew up with. So while this is Ozaki's idea of doing what he wants, Seishin's is breaking away completely and going off on his own. In fact, at the beginning of the series Ozaki is the one that has what he wants (a stable career, and respect while still being himself), and at the end it's flipped because Ozaki has lost all that and Seishin finally gets to go out and be himself with Sunako. But I feel like Ozaki will take it well, due to his personality.

Seishin is definitely on the way to being strong and independent; I believe the ending implies this. I'm actually hoping the novel ending will give us more closure and hints about their future to talk about, but the anime and manga have Seishin making independent decisions (saving Sunako, killing Ohkawa). Actually, maybe he's so assertive because he's finally doing what HE wants. He wants to protect Sunako, therefore he doesn't hesitate in taking the actions necessary to achieve this goal. Really, it's not too different from how Ozaki must have felt while carrying out his goal of saving the villagers.

Maybe the reason I'm a little less than fond of Seishin is because I'm just jealous of his chemistry with Ozaki XD I do have a Tumblr--it's 11cat, follow me!! Let me know who you are so I can follow you too~