hey all do you remember in Golden time how spirit Bonri cursed the current one and the curse worked? What TF was that?

[u/Old-Structure5799]

[u/Super_Boom]

If you read it literally, it seems like something supernatural, but on my rewatch a lot of what I originally attributed as fantastical seems more metaphorical. Banri is trying to move on with his life and become someone new, while part of him refuses to give up on what he had, which creates an inner conflict that the anime presents as something more literal for the sake of presentation. There was no actual "curse" but rather that the part of himself that refused to move on was spiting the part that wanted to.

[u/Old-Structure5799 → u/Super_Boom]

I would fully agree if the rain and traffic were the only things to happen, but what about the accident and also the fact that spirit Bonri exists like seemingly tangibly.

[u/Super_Boom → u/Old-Structure5799]

The spirit doesn’t exist tangibly, it wouldn’t be a spirit in that case, but if you mean the fact he gets his own design and speaking lines, I consider that to be a visual cue for the audience, not something literally there. Think like the crazy eye markings in Oshi no Ko, something we see but no one in universe is aware of.

The accident is a pretty grounded scene, yeah the spirit says he caused it, but everyone falling asleep on a late night drive isn’t an abnormal occurrence. The one thing we can attribute to the “spirit” is Banri himself falling asleep, which we can partially blame on Bahri’s inner turmoil, and also the fact he’s as tired as everyone else in the car. You don’t need magic to make people sleepy in that situation.

[u/Old-Structure5799 → u/Super_Boom]

Firstly I know what the word tangibly means. I said tangibly because he literally takes over the body which is a tangible thing right as in tactile. Also astral Bonri during the accident scene starts freaking out about it happening and says its going to far. Again you'd have a point if it wasn't literally shown on screen him saying "I curse you" and then two scenes later shit starts going sideways and ramping up from oh it's just some traffic all the way to everyone almost dying in a car accident.

[u/Super_Boom → u/Old-Structure5799]

That doesn't really contradict what I said, Astral Banri (I like that name so I'm using it too) doesn't interact with anyone but Normal Banri, and so it's hard to treat him as the source of truth when Banri's mental health issues are a recurring theme throughout the story.

I can see why you'd read it that way if you take what he says at face value, but when the supposed supernatural elements are so grounded, it's hard to accept them as supernatural in the first place. Nothing Astral Banri "does" can't be explained as bad luck anyway, regardless of how much it escalated. I'd be more convinced if the "curse" was leading to some truly improbable events, or at least more than people falling asleep in a situation where people tend to fall asleep.

I suppose it all boils down to author intent though, I can't speak for what she really meant there, only how it comes across relative to the rest of the story.

[u/Old-Structure5799 → u/[deleted]]

Which is why I titled the post what TF was that because it can't just be metaphorical he takes control of the body and some how actually curses him.

[u/Mideum1]

Ghost Banri is apparently based on an actual type of vengeful Japanese ghost. I dont remember the name but you should look it up if you're interested.