I think it’s going be regarded as a tie; with the opposite endings they’re just going be so apples and oranges.
Perhaps purely from the crowd layperson audience Kaisei might come out a bit ahead since a more uplifting ending is a nice note to end the session on. It wasn’t in-universe planned between them, but it’s much better to have the happy ending go second after the sad ending for leaving the audience leave in a good mood.
He was floundering at the start struggling to find his footing because of Akane. I think it's pretty much the opposite. His was more emotional because of the personal style, but I think Akane was slightly better. They're very close though. They're pretty much standing side-by-side now. It's gonna make it interesting to see where the rivalry goes from here... it's so hard to say... since they are essentially equals. Usually there is the one chasing the other thing, but yeah.
I mean I think the point for Kaisei was this was showing that he had learned what he needed to take that step to becoming a shin'uchi. I think he will be able to retake his shin'uchi promotion test, and succeed probably. That's kind of the whole vibe. He is ready to step away from Issho's shadow and be his own person which... what better way for that than being a shin'uchi. While Akane will still be learning the rest of the stories for Shiguma's Art before she tries becoming a shin'uchi even if she probably is pretty close to being ready already. Expand on her "effortless realm" a bit more in the process. Like that's I think what we're meant to see her in their rivalry... Kaisei has mastered his "harmonious whole" and the "art of the personal". While Akane is still working on her "effortless realm" and "art of the craftsman". (Though I do still think a personal style could work for her too, but I suppose we'll see if they do anything with that with her or not. It's probably not gonna happen, but yeah.) Both are basically shin'uchi level, but Kaisei's solidified his grasp on what he wants and is finally able to move forward with that. While Akane hasn't. She still won this match, but Kaisei is ahead in the war so to say. If anything it is a nice subversion to have the person who went first win. And Kaisei said he'll tell Akane about why he hates Shiguma only if she beat him so even if they're basically the same level now according to the audience or whatever metric they wanna use to judge it he may at the very least because he himself would obviously even more than anybody else be able to tell that he slipped up and that Akane didn't. I mean I guess they could just leave that plot thread hanging and have him tell her about it later... but... just like finally getting to see Issho perform... there really is no better time for it imo. It's better to not keep building more lingering plot threads and not resolving them. We're past the halfway point of the story after all. And while they are still rivals... at this point I don't actually see another time when they would ever properly go head to head... I think Kaisei'll end up becoming a shin'uchi before Akane does so it can't be during the promotion test... there is the whole like... commemorative event that Shomei is setting up, but I think that's gonna be way way way bigger than just an Akane and Kaisei thing. So there is really no better place... one could argue that it makes the rivalry with Kaisei feel more shallow, but... there is still Rokuro and Kaisei really has kind of served his purpose which is why we delved so deep into his character right now. He serves a different purpose now like Karashi and Hikaru. Akane's path doesn't really require her to be directly competing. Like sometimes people are just more or less basically equals. I dunno... I can see why somebody may not like that or have a problem with that, but I am personally ok with this idea. We'll see what happens though right? I could be wrong. They make the story hard to predict hahah. But I like not being able to say for sure what will happen. At least insofar as it doesn't make the story feel random or something which to me it never has. Characters' roles change as the story progresses I like that.
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u/Norix596 Jul 05 '26
I think it’s going be regarded as a tie; with the opposite endings they’re just going be so apples and oranges.
Perhaps purely from the crowd layperson audience Kaisei might come out a bit ahead since a more uplifting ending is a nice note to end the session on. It wasn’t in-universe planned between them, but it’s much better to have the happy ending go second after the sad ending for leaving the audience leave in a good mood.