Chapter 315: Shinji: I Have a Special Way of Selling My Favorites
For most audiences, "invincible protagonist" stories were like cheap booze: sure, it gave you a buzz while it lasted, but once the high was over, all that was left was emptiness.
That was why web novels built around overpowered leads rarely lasted long. Readers got their dopamine rush, pulled up their pants, and walked away satisfied.
The handful of loyal stragglers weren't nearly enough to feed an author—at best, they could help him starve slower.
Movies faced the same issue. Build a whole film around an unbeatable protagonist, and you'd be lucky to squeeze out a single feature. Forget sequels—audiences had a low tolerance for hollow power fantasies.
In cinema, if you wanted to spin a series out of a godlike character, there were only two viable approaches:
Option one: Do it like One Punch Man. Flesh out the side characters, use the protagonist as a "deus ex machina" who drops in at the end to wrap things up.
Great for manga, anime, novels… not so much for films. A two-hour movie can't afford to sideline its supposed lead for half the runtime.
Option two: Strip away the invincibility.
That's the Hollywood playbook. Most superhero films did exactly this—give the hero a weakness. Physical, like Superman's kryptonite. Or psychological, like Tony Stark.
(Let's be honest: the guy's mental health spent a decade swinging like a wrecking ball between "nervous breakdown" and "on the verge of a nervous breakdown.")
Now, in The Garden of Sinners, Shiki Ryougi's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception were about as "broken" as powers got. The ability to reduce anything to "death" with a glance was, by most definitions, straight-up invincibility.
So what do you do with a heroine who can cut anything?
Easy. You make her cut herself—metaphorically.
Not her body, but her heart.
Give her mental fragility, psychological flaws.
And that wasn't even a director's hackjob—Nasu had baked it into the source material.
After all, the novels themselves were about Shiki, post-accident, slowly filling the hollow void inside her.
Even that shady priest Araya—trash though he was—served as a mirror image of Shiki in his own twisted way.
Through encounters with Asagami Fujino, Fujio Kirie, and others, Shiki experienced the whole spectrum of human suffering.
Piece by piece, she grew from an empty shell into someone complete.
Audiences walking beside her through that journey would naturally start to feel closer to her.
To them, the aloof heiress who seemed untouchable would gradually transform into someone familiar—someone they could reach out to.
Of course, if you slapped the original, unfiltered Nasu version of Shiki straight onto the big screen… well, most moviegoers would probably just write her off as a frigid, emotionally-detached doll.
It wasn't impossible to convey her inner world through acting, but it would demand mastery of microexpressions.
And considering Shiki's actress was still a newbie…
Yeah. No.
Shinji decided it was better to keep things practical.
In his design, Shiki wasn't a "demigod" protagonist like in Fate.
She was, essentially, just a normal girl who happened to carry a "one-hit kill" skill in her back pocket.
Sure, her personality leaned cool, but her reactions to life were very human.
She got jealous. She sulked. She flared up when someone she loved was hurt.
Just… muted. Softer, subtler.
That made her feel more real. More like the archetypal yamato nadeshiko.
At the end of the day, Shinji's guiding principle was simple:
Ryougi Shiki must be everyone's perfect waifu.
And her opponents? A parade of freaks, psychos, and monsters that made her shine all the brighter.
These antagonists weren't even magi, yet they displayed the ugliest, most inhuman aspects of humanity with terrifying clarity.
Take someone like Shirazumi Lio—prime-grade scum, a monster among monsters. He not only made audiences shiver in their seats, but also gave them the chilling illusion: "What if people like this exist in my world?"
That was where empathy kicked in.
Viewers, almost against their will, began to feel affection for Ryougi Shiki, the shining contrast.
Some would even slip into the shoes of Kokutou Mikiya in their minds—imagining themselves as the ordinary man whom Shiki would always protect.
That was immersion.
For most films, it was a bonus. For a commercial series? It was everything.
Whether people came back for the sequel depended on whether they wanted to live inside that story.
But while Shiki's combat poses looked sharp enough for an action magazine spread, her actual acting lagged behind.
It took nearly ten takes just to nail a single scene of her collapsing in front of Touko.
Shinji could tell—Shiki's grasp of her own psychology was slipping. She wasn't connecting to her role.
Not because she was careless. Far from it—her attitude was as earnest as ever.
From all their talks, Shinji knew she truly believed in her dream of becoming an actress.
The issue was subtler.
She seemed to be treating The Garden of Sinners as though it were another branch of Fate.
Trying—perhaps unconsciously—to steer her performance closer to Arturia's regal, fantasy-infused vibe.
But The Garden of Sinners had already been set on a different track.
Here, she couldn't walk Saber's path.
The most crucial difference?
Ryougi Shiki bore an identity crisis Arturia never did.
That night, after wrap-up, Shinji spotted her brooding. He resolved to talk with her properly—not like a director barking orders, but like a person, a confidant.
He even went so far as to draft a "pseudo-date" strategy, dusting off some of his old Clock Tower pick-up routines.
(Yes, the infamous tricks he once used to charm some of his teachers.)
But before Shinji could finalize the plan, the next morning Shiki beat him to it.
"...Shinji. Shinji-kun. Want to… go for a walk?"
The way she fumbled for closeness, deliberately trying out the nickname, caught him off guard.
So he scrapped his scheme and simply took her by the hand, leading her out of the hotel.
They walked side by side through streets veiled in dawn mist, the skyline of tall buildings blurred ahead.
After a pause, Shiki spoke quietly:
"I reread the script last night. Thought about it a long time. The Shiki in there… she's more complicated than I imagined."
"Don't treat The Garden of Sinners as another Fate," Shinji replied, tugging his collar against the wind. "I'm making this to be different."
She lifted a brow, surprised at his certainty.
"If you saw The Garden of Sinners as a crime mystery," Shinji continued with a grin, "you'd notice something else."
Shiki pouted. "Detective stories don't have mystic eyes. That's not scientific at all."
"Science isn't just about wires and electricity." Shinji wagged a finger.
"Science is a method—a way to study the laws of everything. To find patterns, and apply them to life."
He smirked, leaning closer.
"On that front? Magi are way more damn scientific than most scientists."
Shinji wasn't exaggerating.
When it came to the study of "laws," magi were far stricter than most so-called scholars.
Honestly, if the world of the supernatural ever became mainstream, who's to say it wouldn't count as a form of science?
"Then let's just drop the word 'magi' and call ourselves scientists," Shiki muttered, half sulking.
"…Are you seriously here just to pick a fight with me?" Shinji shot her a sidelong glance.
"Sorry! I got carried away!"
Hands pressed together in an instant, Shiki apologized with the speed of someone who knew she was in the wrong.
The corners of Shinji's mouth curled up. He reached out and ruffled her hair.
"Mm-hm. Good girl, good girl."
"..."
If she hadn't needed his help just now, Shiki would've already planted a Perverted Bastard Banishing Kick square into his jaw.
As though he'd predicted her murderous impulse, Shinji chuckled and asked:
"See? Feeling a lot more relaxed now? Not as tense?"
"…Shinji-kun," Shiki said, her gaze unexpectedly soft, "are you seriously using 'helping me relax' as an excuse for harassment?"
"Haha~"
He let out a sheepish laugh and withdrew his hand from her head.
Then, slipping into his role as director, Shinji began laying out what he really wanted to say.
If the actress had come to him for guidance, he'd meet her halfway with the proper tools.
"Shiki, what do you think lies at the heart of Ryougi Shiki as a character?"
She answered without hesitation.
"You mean her origin? That's obvious—'Mu.' Emptiness."
"Exactly. That's her core," Shinji agreed, eyes drifting toward the rising sun.
"But it isn't the whole picture. Right now, she's trapped in an identity crisis."
Shiki rubbed her chin, thinking over his words.
"The other self inside her, SHIKI, died in her place. And SHIKI chose to do that because he wanted her to be happy."
"But when she woke up, with him gone, all she felt was emptiness. No purpose. Just… being lost."
"All this time, every ugly, negative feeling inside her had been carried by SHIKI."
"Now that he is gone, she has to face everything on her own. It's like a baby chick suddenly shoved out from under the mother hen's wing—its first time facing the world, scared and helpless."
"The most important part," Shinji continued, "is that when Shiki woke up, she awakened the Mystic Eyes. To everyone else, those eyes are priceless treasures. But to her? They're nothing but a curse—pressure she can't even bring herself to face."
"That's why there's that scene where she tries to destroy her own eyes."
Shiki's expression shifted—like something had finally clicked into place. She gave a small nod.
"Exactly. From the moment she wakes up in the hospital, she's got no goal, no sense of self-worth, and she's lost the other half that had always been with her. In simpler words, her entire worldview has collapsed."
"She follows Touko because she's got nowhere else to go. She reaches out to Kokutou because, aside from him, there's no one left to connect with."
"The Shiki who wakes up in that hospital bed is nothing but a hollow shell. The point of the story is how, piece by piece, through all these encounters, she fills that emptiness. That's why she isn't a flat, one-note character—she's someone constantly growing."
"…Shiki."
Shinji placed a hand on her shoulder, his voice steady.
"In the opening act, your job is to show that loss and confusion about the future. But by the climax—when you're standing before Fujino—you need to show her what it means to live. That's the mark of Shiki's maturity."
"I'll… give it everything I have," Shiki said firmly, nodding.
By now, the sun had fully risen. Their early morning stroll had left them both hungry, so they ducked into a small diner to grab breakfast.
They ordered a few simple dishes and sat facing each other, eating slowly while continuing their conversation about the role.
To passersby, they must have looked like a picture-perfect couple—the kind of stunning, natural pair you'd see in a romance drama.
But instead of sweet nothings, every word out of their mouths was work-related.
Of course, as director, it was mostly Shinji talking, with Shiki listening closely.
"That about covers it. The rest is up to you—blend today's points into your acting."
Shinji drained his glass of milk, signaling the end of his lengthy lecture.
"Mm… it all sounds so complicated. And even after hearing it, I still don't really know how to actually do it."
Shiki stuck her tongue out in frustration. After all that, her head was spinning.
"You're right," Shinji admitted with a grin. "A practical example would be better. So how about this—I'll show you what it looks like when a character's drowning in an identity crisis. Lucky for us, I know one that's almost a perfect match for early-movie Shiki."
Shiki tilted her head, puzzled at his smug expression.
"…Huh?"
One hour later—
"Minna-san! Magical Illya is starting, desu yo! (´∇｀)★"
"…Shinji-kun."
Rubbing her temples as she watched the newest episode of Magical Illya flicker across the TV screen, Shiki let out a sigh.
"So every example of yours is just going to come from your own shows, isn't it?"
<+>
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