Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
One area where I differed with Sayaka was her overall reaction to the soul gem reveal (in general, I felt that that anime as a whole overplayed it a bit). I can certainly see where it would be... discomforting, but I myself never really saw why it would mean that she couldn't be with Kamijo romantically.
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Perhaps Japanese culture influences people's perceptions of how bad this would be, or so I am told (I am not a specialist). From what I understand, the Western notion of a body-soul duality makes it easier to see the two parts as relatively independent: your body is just the clothes that your soul wears, and having your soul wear a different set of clothes (soul gem), while maybe somewhat 'disconcerting', is not such a terrible deal.
Now (and those who know Japanese culture better, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong), my understanding is that the soul in Shintō culture is much more directly connected to the body; not a dual essence that is conceptually independent form the body itself, but as a living part of said body (see Kyubey's claim that 'your souls are in your bodies, in your bloodstream, in your bones...' etc.). In a sense, removing Sayaka's soul and placing it in a soul gem would then be not unlike performing an operation to remove one of her internal organs, preferably a very important, meaning-laden one (e.g., her heart), place it in an external container and then have her carry it around. I think even Westerners would be very disturbed at the thought of a person who carries his/her heart in a jar hanging from his/her neck? I feel there would be something very creepy, perhaps even way beyond creepy, in such a situation.