Tokyo Babylon Vol 6-7 (end)
Err…not a problem for me since I knew the spoiler before starting the series, but the color foldout for this volume (there’s one for every volume) kinda majorly spoils the ending…
I’m glad I read this from the perspective of knowing how it ends. I’m not sure I would have found it as interesting not knowing where it was going as I did seeing how it got to where I knew where it was going. From the perspective of having seen X/1999, part of the tragedy is that X/1999, you’re allowed the illusion that Seishiro loved Subaru. Not encouraged to think that, but allowed to if you want. That it was love for Subaru is never in question, but with Seishiro, it’s left more vague. There is, of course the argument that what Seishiro feels for Subaru is love, but a twisted, possessive love that destroys, and it’s an argument that has merit. But it isn’t something that most would recognize as love.
In general, I tend to think that love (any love, not just romantic) makes a person better, but that isn’t always the case. Here, the seemingly-romantic love is dark and destructive and completely the opposite of what we expect from it. For Seishiro and Subaru, there is no salvation or bettering from it. The saving love that makes someone stronger is the love between siblings, something that (annoyingly) often gets overlooked.
And I’m glad that Tokyo Babylon never even hints that Seishiro is going to change, or that he’ll spare Subaru. To be honest, I got the impression that he accepted Hokuto’s sacrifice because he didn’t consider Subaru worth killing any more, but Hokuto, who realized he wasn’t everything he seemed even when she wanted him to be, and challenged him knowing she stood no chance, was. In a strange way, she died because, of the twins, she was the stronger of the two. (I want to say it’s a case of the woman saving the man from being refrigerated. Sure, it’s the root of a large chunk of his angst, but it isn’t because she was a victim. It’s because she was saving him from being a victim.)
Ultimately, I think (for me, at least) Tokyo Babylon is about Subaru and Hokuto’s love for each other. It’s Hokuto’s love for Subaru that makes her push Seishiro at him, but also that makes her aware that there’s something wrong with Seishiro. It’s also her love for him that ultimately saves him from Seishiro (I’m guessing she’s why the marks were removed from his hand?) and their mutual love that brings him back from his catatonic state. Later, it seems to be his love for her that keeps him going. (And the fact that her ghost would kick his butt if he gave up again.)
I admit, though, that I’m not completely sure what I think Clamp was saying with the mirrors. Mostly, I think they were saying that mirrors don’t really exist. Hokuto and Subaru are mirror images of each other, but as different as can be, and Hokuto stresses that they have to see themselves as different, not alike. Seishiro makes a point of saying that he and Subaru are the inverse of each other. Pretty much every mirror we see gets shattered, and when Subaru’s grandmother saves him from Seishiro, it takes on the form of a shattered mirror. I am certain there are many theories out there that I can be linked to.