Kazuho Yoshii

Kazuho Yoshii
Information
Kanji Name	吉井 一穂
Kana Name	よしい かずほ
Age	28
Affiliation	Surface
First Appearance	ROGUE: 01 Stranger
Final Appearance	ROGUE: 20 Hades
Voiced by	Takashi Inoue (Japanese) Sam Riegel (English)

“

True freedom can't lean on anything. It's transient, lonely, and arduous.

”

Kazuho Yoshii is a traveler who appeared in Lux from the surface world. Ran first takes Yoshii to the village of Gabe. Who he is, and for what purpose he has come to Lux, was a mystery for some time. However, he is more than what his gentle demeanor indicates. Intrigued by life in the city and the potential that the people of Lux appear to have, Yoshii decides to start a war among the factions in Lux to stir the passions of the residents.

Appearance

He is a brunette with short hair. Yoshii often wears a blue hat. He has a moustache under his nose and is one of the few characters to have a facial hair in the series. Yoshii is wearing a blue golf shirt and an orange jacket. He also wears orange pants and black gloves. Yoshii almost always carries his backpack, wherein holds many useful things, including a gun. A large part of his body is texhnolyzed. He usually has a nice smile on his face.

Personality

Yoshii came from the Surface world to see the city of Lux. He seems to be intrigued by humanity's emotions, and the way the city of Lux works. At first he seemed to be a very empathic and positive person with mysterious but good intentions. Soon it turned out that he has the nature of a sociopath who can easily kill people with a calm smile on his face. He proves himself to be as murderous as he is mild-mannered. At some point he starts to be a provocateur, who rebels against themselves all the groups in the Lux city. Yoshii has fun observing human's emotions and reactions. It takes a while before he is revealed as the villain of the first story arc.

Yoshii causes chaos to bring out the passions and the wills of the people of Lux, or so he claims. It's made even worse by his placid and rational demeanour throughout the whole event. Yoshii's main motive is probably that the upper world could not handle humans problems and ultimately just gave up. All the humans in the upper world have been reduced to ghosts who do the same things over and over out of habit, finding any change (even death, which they are all very close to) to be too much effort. Yoshii was once very optimistic and believed deeply in people but then the upper world became a literal ghost town, so he tried to prevent Lux from becoming that by making people as passionate and violent as possible, the complete opposite of the upper world. Still, a part of him probably did it for amusement.

He is a person who can't be stopped by anything to achieve his goal. Nothing will get in Yoshii's path when he sets his mind to it, and he is a man who has no scruples. He threatens Oonishi's wife, Mana, to draw him out to fight and kills her. Yoshii even rents a room with a prostitute who turns out to be severely mutilated, but only to get information about the city. Later he does sleep with her and finally kills her and her pimp. Yoshii may be a manipulative sociopath who tried to cause chaos on a grand scale, by he's very polite and soft-spoken throughout the show. The fact that Yoshii's voice never seems to alter its gentle tone makes his actions all the more monstrous.

Yoshii is in fact one of the only characters in Texhnolyze that does not want to know his future. We could say it is out of fear of his mission failing, but this would stand in contradiction to his death, where he is seen smiling. Perhaps the best explanation is that Yoshii embodies the Nietzschean ideals of ‘amor fati’ and ‘eternal recurrence’. Briefly, ‘amor fati’ can be understood as a ‘love of one’s fate’. One who embraces amor fati does not live in regret, rather they embrace fate and all the suffering that comes with it. Firstly, it suggests that it is not so much that Yoshii does not want to know his future, but that he does not need to know it. He is so sure of his life and his actions that he embraces his fate, knowing that when he dies, he would happily relive his life over again; this is indicated on his deathbed when, even though his death is unexpected, he dies with a smile on his face. Moreover, these are not just ideals that he embodies but ideals that he feels are important for the whole of humanity if we are to avoid the fate of the surface world. He is not hesitant to create suffering with his spectacle as he knows that suffering is a part of our fate which we must come to terms with.

Yoshii's way of thinking is another subject on which one can make his own theories. At first glance, he's just a "monster" who brought a city to its knees over a delusional desire to see everyone at each other's throats. Given his willingness to murder a prostitute in cold blood for no pragmatic reason, and his demands towards Oonishii, it's certainly a likely portrait of his character. However, one can come up with a theory that he is in fact, a well intentioned extremist who saw what an ugly mess Lux was, and sought to help the people of Lux through extreme yet possibly necessary methods. Given his general politeness, his willingness to protect Ran at his life's risk early in the series, and his actions towards Tatsuya, Shinji, and Oonishii, it's an unusual, yet equally possible interpretation. And despite everything he has done and has proven to be, Yoshii's death is treated in an incredibly somber manner, to the point that any possible catharsis is drained out of the scene. The fact that the penultimate episode depicts how he used to be helps significantly.

Biography

Yoshii is seen as a stranger descending a staircase. He stops along the way, suggesting his journey is a long one. When he reaches the bottom, he sits and rests in some ruins, where he is approached by Ran, a young girl wearing a kitsune fox mask. They do not engage in conversation, instead the girl beckons him to follow her. She leads him to the Gabe, some mysterious village. In first episodes, Yoshii character is shrouded with mystery. As much as he is a stranger to the residents of Gabe and citizens of Lux, he is at first a stranger to the viewer, an enigma that is only really unravelled later.

There Yoshii meets the Gabe Elder. There's an assassination attempt on the village sage. After Yoshii successfully protects the village from the assassins, he is welcomed by the village elder. They engage in conversation, Yoshii explaining to the elder that there is no particular reason for him travelling to Lux – "It’s just, I wanted to come here". The elder tells Yoshii about Ran’s abilities as the seer. He reveals that she is able to see visions of the near future, but only one version of many possibilities.

As thanks for Yoshii’s help, the elder offers for Ran to escort him to the city. He tells Yoshii that he is unable to look into his heart and know who he truly is. He asks, "Is your journey down to Lux a good thing for you as well as us? Or a bad thing for you as well as us?" to which Yoshii responds that Ran must already know one of the answers. Later, on the train to Lux, Yoshii attempts to engage in conversation with Ran. She mostly replies with silent nods, except to tell him that she sells flowers. After attempting to make brief small talk, Yoshii asks Ran about her abilities to see the future and asks for a favour. He requests that she does not reveal his future to anyone, even himself: "I don’t want you to tell anyone about my future. Including me." Ran silently agrees, to which Yoshii is satisfied. The pair finally arrive in Lux, where they go their separate ways.

Yoshii ascends an escalator from the station to the city. Looking around him with seeming inquisitiveness, he calmly utters "I see…". We then see the car belonging to Keigo Oonishi pass Yoshii, who sees Oonishi through the window. Whilst probably not recognising Oonishi personally, Yoshii clearly recognises this as someone of significance.

After Yoshii meets Tatsuya Sakimura, he gathers information on the conflict between the Salvation Alliance and the Organo and assassinates Organo council member Takuya Nakahara and executive board representative Kyousuke Ishii; resulting in a declaration of war and sowing division and chaos between the two sides. After burning the Salvation Alliance's headquarters, he then contacts Oonishi, executive director of the Organo, informing him that it is too late to remediate the conflict and that retaliation from the rival group is imminent.

When the Salvation Union discovers their fortress is destroyed, Yoshii is seen observing another faction, the Racan, partaking in nighttime festivities and has a brief conversation with their leader Shinji. Yoshii acts oblivious to the events that have unfolded and accuses the group of orchestrating the attack, to which Shinji replies in defense that it was the "Organo hoods who did that." The two exchange words of departure as Yoshii leaves the leader to himself.

He then crosses path with an agitated Ichise and Ran in an alleyway and has an altercation with the group. After Yoshii attempts to greet Ichise, he swiftly delivers a series of strikes at a wall and near Yoshii's head. A confused Yoshiii then asks Ichise "What did I do to offend you?", and informs him that he is wasting his anger and power. The following morning, Yoshii undertakes a covert operation and plants a bomb inside a Racan hideout where several members are sleeping, killing several members of the group and pitting the factions against one another. Afterwards, Yoshii spies on a meeting between the three factions (Organo, Racan, Salvation Union) with binoculars and witnesses a violent spectacle take place.

As the clash between the three factions continues, Yoshii is seen from a distance with a sniper rifle aiming at the vehicle that is being used to escape by Oonishi , his assistant, and Ichise. He contemplates who to keep alive before firing a few unsuccessful shots as the group evades and escapes and remarks that things are "getting interesting." Subsequently, Yoshii tracks down the location of Oonishi's apartment and finds his wife Mana Oonishi on the telephone with him and interrupts the call. While holding a pistol against his wife, Yoshii tells Oonishi that he is too petty-minded and will force him to partake in a spectacle with all of Lux.

Yoshii is then attacked with a pair of scissors being held by Mana but is able to knock the weapon out of her hands with his cognition. He then delivers a powerful kick to Mana's abdomen with a force so great that she slams against the glass wall behind her and dies. After murdering Mana, four members of the Organo breach into Oonishi's home but Yoshii is able to incapacitate all members. He then taunts one member, asking him about the current status of the spectacle before escaping from the scene.

Yoshii, who is fed up with unchanging nature of life in Lux, then has another encounter with Ran and Sakimura and informs them that "The people on the hill will be coming down pretty soon." and that his mission is to enlighten the residents of Lux so they "may give meaning to their meaningless lives." He then travels with the group by train to visit Shinji at his hideout whom he believes he will be able to form an alliance with against the Organo. Later on, Yoshii is seen together with Shinji, Ran, and Sakimura outside of a cathedral as he assassinates several high ranking members of the Organo. He then prepares to kill an important member of the class before being interrupted by Shinji, who discovers that he is the one who has been committing the series of crimes in the city.

Yoshii then sets out to kill Oonishi as he rushes towards the cathedral but is quickly discovered and protects Hirohisa Gotou, a high ranking member of the Organo from being shot. Yoshii retalliaties and sprays dozens of bullets at Oonishi to no avail and as a result of his frustration, taunts Oonishi about the death of his wife, reflecting that her death was pitiful and she died too easily. As the clash continues, Yoshii is able to gravely wound Oonishi with his arm-blade, but is rescued by Ichise who delivers a punishing strike to Yoshii's jaw and sends him falling backwards from the top of the cathedral. After falling to his doom, a mortally wounded Yoshii is executed by Sakimura as Ran looks from behind.

Abilities

He is seen carrying a bag with him containing an assortment of valued items. Almost half his body has been texhnolyzed. Yoshii's prosthetic arm doubles as a retractable arm-blade.

Gallery

Trivia

• The way Yoshii manipulates the gangs into killing each other has shades of Yojimbo, especially in the scene with the gang members fleeing their burning headquarters.