Tokko

Dear Readers,

WARNING: 

Content may not be suitable for younger readers, parental discretion advised. 

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Today I wanted to talk a little about the first "anime" I ever watched. One of my favorite channels was always the Scifi channel. At one point, they began having something called "Ani-Mondays", during which they would have animes on Monday nights. Now, I have watched other "cartoons", for in my mind that is what they were, before like Yu-Gi-Oh, Avatar the Last Airbender, Pokemon, Digimon, etc. However, the anime Tokko was the first anime that I watched realizing that it was indeed anime. Oddly, I really enjoyed it.

Millennium Puzzle from Yu-Gi-Oh Image Link

Tokko Puzzle Box of Dirge

Hellraiser Lemarchand Puzzle Box crafted by Destro2k on Deviantart

The premise of this anime is that some alchemists forged a puzzle box, similar to the Millennium Puzzle from Yu-Gi-Oh, that would grant the user control over demons, though the anime calls them phantoms. This ability, coupled with the square shape, similar to that of the puzzle boxes from Hellraiser, leads me to think that there is a justifiable comparison to be made between discovering and putting together truth and a equivalent resistance or persistence from the Adversary.

Anyway, much like the puzzle box in Hellraiser, it ended up making a portal to hell allowing the phantoms to enter our world and posses human bodies. However, there is another aspect, a phantom possesses someone locking a piece of the box inside of them. Thus, the point is to kill all of the phantoms to collect the puzzle pieces for the purpose of sealing the spirits back inside the box. The plot has holes, I admit, but I have found the concept quite fascinating.

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Now, when a phantom enters a body, it is usually through some kind of physical and psychological trauma, and the inhabitation of the phantom changes the person into a carnivorous monster. This state could easily be compared to a demoniac from the Holy Bible, a Deadite from Evil Dead, a Cenobite from Hellraiser, or some other demon possessed being.

Ranmaru Shindo and his inner Phantom Image Link

However, when an individual is first infected or possessed, they can fight for control. Does the phantom "eat you"? or do you "eat" the phantom. Essentially it is a fight for control over one's self for dominance of the body. This is much like fighting inner demons. If an individual is successful in "eating" their phantom, they maintain control of their body and gain powers from the phantom. These individuals are called symbiotes, which I would compare to Jaffa from Stargate who have snake like larva living in their guts.

Sakura Rokujou's Sword

These powers I could easily compare to a zampakuto from Bleach, which you could read more about on my blog post on the subject here. Similar to how a zampakuto is pulled out of one's spirit body, a Tokko sword, or knife, is manifested through blood.

Ranmaru's Sword Power

These swords have unique powers, much like a shikai or bankai from Bleach, which I go into more here.

When swung, these blades create waves much like Ichigo's Getsuga from Bleach which could be compared to a release of reishi or spirit matter. Though, since it is in a physical body, it could either be seen through spiritual eyes, or be more along the lines of chakra from Naruto which you could read about here. In either case, the same principle remains of inner power being released along the blade as it is waved.

There are even seals or spells that are used, like the defensive spell that appears while blocking.

Alas, similar to how the body is changed to allow the manifestation of the blade, there are other changes to the body, like increased healing. In this case, the wounds steam and burn as the energy is used to seal and mend the wounds.

Sakura's tattoo

Indeed, the greatest, or at least the most visually noticeable change is in a tattoo that forms.

Though, the tattoo does not reflect the phantom itself. As with Sakura's tattoo, it is in the shape of a Chinese dragon.

However, her phantom is a female version off Ranmaru's. By this difference, I could easily say that the tattoo is more a representation of the powers that individual gained. Almost like the tattoo represents the zampakuto which is now physically awakened while the phantom remains as a separate being.

Anyway, as one last point I would like to make, for those individuals who are "eaten" by their phantoms, they do exercise control over lesser phantom spirits, creating physical forms for them to spread and infect others. This holds true when one realizes that there are greater and lesser evil spirits (Matthew 12:45, Luke 11:26 ).

This is quite apparent in the first episode where a phantom created an army of ghouls who were being controlled by phantom parasites. One last criticism to go with this, I don't understand why the cops did not realize that they needed to shoot the little parasite faces after shooting the host bodies several times failed.

I hope that you have enjoyed my take on this anime. I do recommend it, however, I advise watching it censured. There are some scenes containing nudity, luckily for me, the Scifi channel, now Syfy, was very good at censuring those scenes. Feel free to leave any comments you may have!

Love,
Jacobugoth