The Skull Man Episode 4 - A Wandering Ghost
Hayato’s investigations lead him to suspect a link between the victims and a strange new religion known as “Byakureikai”, or “The White Spirit World”. Suspecting Ootomo Pharmaceuticals to be involved, the net begins to close around the creepy, Nietzsche-obsessed Dr Usami after he is linked to the murder of an official on Ootomo’s monorail system which bears the hallmarks of the Skull Man attacking. Hayato pursues Usami to the subway, but the Skull Man lies in wait for him there - or does he?
It seems fairly clear to me that Usami is masquerading as the Skull Man here. For one, the Skull Man has already spared Hayato’s life once before when he stumbled upon him; why would he come after him now when realistically he still poses no danger to him? As others have pointed out from the previous episode, the Skull Man that killed Sayoko uses blades, whereas here we see the “Skull Man” attacking using a gun instead, so I do think it’s possible that Usami is faking being the Skull Man in order to dispatch his enemies rather than the mutants the Skull Man himself seems to be hunting.
Anyway, this episode brings us Nietzsche! Those kerazzy pretentious Japanese sure do love their nihilistic German philosophy. I presume the theme that Izubuchi is trying to develop in The Skull Man is that of the Ubermensch (insert umlaut where appropriate) - Usami presumably sees the Skull Man persona as someone who not only surpasses others in strength but also breaks free of established cultural norms in his indiscriminate killing etc. The true Skull Man is a shadowy figure existing outside of society and law, and has presumably created his own set of laws and judgements rather than relying on the standards Nietzsche recommends avoiding. With that said, the quote from Nietzsche is that the Ubermensch is “judge and avenger of [his] own law” (thank you, Wikipedia) - should the Skull Man really be imposing this on others?
I’m not sure if this is really what Izubuchi wants The Skull Man to be about; it’s an interesting idea, but I’m a little wary as anime/manga/games have a tendency to mangle Western philosophical concepts and I’m a bit worried that it’s just name-dropping as the Ubermensch concept is one that seems to be frequently applied to superheroes and the like. If the show can successfully explore what exactly DOES make the Skull Man tick I’ll be very impressed; I guess we’ve got a lot of rather tedious “Hayato investigation” to get through before we really learn what’s going on, though.
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