Characterization Essay #2
or, Why Chizuru Doesn’t Deserve Your Hate
I’ve been fortunate enough to avoid any overt Chizuru hate during my time in this fandom, but I’ve seen quite a few people telling her off for ‘getting in the way’ of them and their man, as though she isn’t—you know—integral to the plot. As though she’s somehow ‘less than’, or unworthy of their attention, or otherwise ill-suited to her possible love interests.
Basically, I’ve seen many people treat her as though she’s in the way, rather than the central character through which we see the rest of the world. Today, I hope to show you why I at least think that Chizuru fulfills her purpose as both a protagonist (meta) and a deep character (in-universe). As seems to be usual, I’ll be including sections from my wiki, and those are as objective as I could make them—but again, I can’t vouch for my interpretation.
Now, are you ready for yet another character study?
This is an amazingly deep analysis. I never ventured this deep into Chizuru’s character, so thank you for writing all this!
I always accepted her the way she is, because… Even in the anime, she is at least relatable and the situations in which she struggles to defend herself are understandable. Whenever somebody asks me of my opinion, if I was ever annoyed by Chizuru or found her useless - and that happens a lot when I show up on conventions cosplaying Okita, believe me - I tell them about the game. (Most people in Hungarian conventions either don’t know about the series at all or had only seen the anime.)
An addition about Chizuru’s fighting ability: I’m entirely with Okita in this aspect of hers. Remember when he told her that Saitou is actually right about her technique not being bad, and that her bravery is a good thing? He also tells her the only problem with her abilities: they are what’s called dojo ken amongst kenjutsu masters. (Let’s not forget he - as many other capitains - is a skilled kenjutsu instructor, and in charge of training new recruits, he sure had encountered it before.) This is important. Dojo ken basically means that, however knowledgable or skilled you are with fighting techniques, you could not hold up well against someone who’s actually out to injure you.
In a dojo environment, pupils get used to simulated scenarios, where a forefront attack like how Chizuru charges at Saitou is completely okay, because both parties follow the kata (premade sets of movements for attacking, defending or turning tables). Which normally doesn’t include knocking the blade out of your attacker’s hand just with strategically and swiftly unsheathing your sword. (Except in maybe Batto-ryuu, which is a separate style of it’s own, and in which Saitou did practice in. It’s called the art of unsheathing for a reason.) It takes long years, a lot of dedication and many of the less controlled kind of training matches to get over the boundaries of thinking inside these boxes called kata.
I was once a sufferer of this, because I knew fully well it exsists and I’ll get better with time, but the frustration of not living up to my expectations caused me to quit anyway. It takes a lot to keep your determination and push away insecurities if you know what’s happening.
Chizuru, however - as the conversation between him and Okita suggests - did not realize such phenomenon exsists, so she was at least confident in what she knows, which actually helps a lot, but can’t win her a fight as much as experience in uncontrolled combat could. That’s the reason why her blade is not hesitant, yet she still gets in a pinch faster than any of the capitains ever would.
(Or at least I thought, before Okita vs. Kazama came to my mind. But it’s a bit different where demons are involved. Oh, wait a minute, she’s sometimes up against fellow demons, too… Well, figure how that changes the equation.)
To add something about kendo as a kyusha.
Being determinate is an important thing if you want to win a jigeiko (kendo duel). It’s the time where we fight and try to applicate the kata in a real fight. It’s the time where you doesn’t simulate scenarios but you fight more “freely”. If you’re insecure, the sensei or you opposent could read all your movements. At least, I can tell practice kata is something where you can be confident when you know them but when you’re in jigeiko everything is so different and I swear it’s a little bit frustrating when you attack confidently (or think that) and receive a shinai’s punch without understand what happen. It’s something different and the time where you take opportunity to grasp your abilities under unrestricted situations like kata. Also if jigeiko or shiai geiko (which is the competition fight) is the time where you are more “free” concerning your fight, you need to keep the spirit in your techniques.
Moreover when you watch some kendo competition between Japanese police officers, you can see that their way of fighting has nothing to compare with how we fight in Dojo or others competitions. It’s a way of fighting to injure as you said.
That’s why the confident of Chizuru is interesting. Because it show us she know her dojo skill but never use its in a real fight or to be more clear in a fight where someone want to kill her.
Honestly, as someone who practice kendo as a kyusha and have some fights with my sensei (who are like the captains skill kenjutsu instructors), I can tell Chizuru is more confident than me and that’s why I don’t find her weak or useless.