Character Analysis: Kanato Sakamaki (2025)

This post is a few months old but I’d still like to contribute to it.

Disclaimer: I am not a translator for DL and I am not an expert on Kanato. I played through his route in HDB a while ago and partially MB – he isn’t my bias so I’m not particularly interested in playing his routes in detail. For this reason, most (if not all) of my argument will be using the same evidence presented in the previous post, unless someone would like to introduce new material.

Disclaimer 2: I am also not a doctor or a psychotherapist but I am a philosopher partially invested in medical [psychiatric] ethics, so I would like to think that I know some things about what I am commenting on. *During my summer research I spent a bit of time on necrophilia, so I definitely know some things about that.

All that said, I’m only commenting on your “Mentality” section where you make the claim that Kanato is possibly schizophrenic.

This comment is on behalf of that particular community because I think that this claim rests unfairly on many stereotypes of schizophrenia and should be reexamined. I’ll go in the order that you present your argument:

I actually need to start a bit before your argument where you are talking about Kanato’s fascination with corpses and how this pertains to psychopathy and serial killers. Unfortunately in this statement you are equivocating people with antisocial personality disorder with serial killers, which is quite a nasty thing to say. Those with antisocial/dissocial personality disorder (psychopathy/sociopathy) are not inevitably violent. If you are attempting to categorize Kanato as such, resting on the evidence that he creates these dolls as a child, you are relying upon an argument of harmful stereotypes.

I would invite us instead to have a discussion about Kanato’s necrophilia. There are different classifications of necrophiles and those who murder to obtain a corpse for sexual purposes are always set apart from necrophiles who use already dead bodies or necrophiles who fantasize about corpses. This is a fairly logical explanation for Kanato’s murderous tendencies. If Kanato is attracted to corpses, then it would follow that he kills to obtain them, even as a young child (does not necessarily have to be sexual but necrophilia outside of fiction is classified in this way).

In your supporting evidence you also ignored the panel in which Kanato says, “Since mother said that you did not need those people anymore, I made use of them.” Kanato is very attached to Cordelia and craves her attention, no matter how twisted it is. It is also logical to draw a connection between Cordelia wishing particular people dead and Kanato getting rid of them for her (and then making dolls out of the bodies). I would also note that necrophiles sometimes (psychologically) are attracted to corpses because there is no risk of rejection (as opposed to live partners). Kanato grew up craving his mother’s attention and was always rejected - which may very well correspond to the dolls he creates.

Delusions and Hallucinations: In this section you tell us that Kanato’s relationship with Teddy serves as both a delusion and hallucination – again, equivocation. These two words are not the same thing and should be examined separately. If we use your example of Kanato talking to Teddy as if he were real, this only classifies as a “hallucination,” as you say. Schizophrenic delusions are false beliefs of events or their meaning to an extreme. These beliefs are usually not consistent with a person’s culture and are illogical. For example, “the TV is sending special/symbolic messages to me.” I would argue that Kanato’s behavior does not follow this manner of delusion because the thoughts he has, as extreme as they are, still follow a particular pattern and are somewhat logical. For example, he might be jealous that Yui talks to Azusa/[insert anyone here] and assume that she likes them more than him and that she absolutely hates him. This is an extreme reaction, but we can still follow where he is coming from in this line of thinking.

As for Kanato’s conversations with Teddy – while it would classify as a hallucination if we heard Teddy speak, we never do. We don’t know if Teddy actually speaks back to Kanato, we only know that Kanato speaks to Teddy and seems to at least pretend that Teddy is speaking back to him. You do point out that Kanato’s behavior is common for children to act out with their toys, but inappropriate now that he is grown up. I agree and disagree. While Kanato is grown up and should have outgrown this stage of development, it is clear that his overall character is very childish, so the behavior isn’t entirely out of place. We might say that Kanato simply isn’t as mature as his brothers and this is another way of reflecting that difference to set him apart.

Disorganized and Catatonic Behavior: As I stated earlier, I disagree with you that Kanato’s thought processes are random. I think his ideas are very much related and should not be written off as illogical and unclear simply because he is emotionally volatile. That being said, in this section you further perpetuate one of the biggest stereotypes of schizophrenia – that schizophrenics, when in these delusional states, are violent/dangerous. Please strike this idea from your brain entirely. A person with schizophrenia is more likely to harm themselves than another person.

Furthermore, as I stated earlier, Kanato’s behavior does not fall under what the DSM-IV classifies as “disorganized” (Criterion 3/C). Kanato’s speech is not disorganized as his ideas follow a path that we can follow (and arguably predict). Unfortunately you did not address catatonic behavior in your argument, which I would argue that Kanato also does not exhibit. Catatonic schizophrenia is characterized by movement disorders: switching between immobility and excessive, purposeless movement.

Cognitive Symptoms: To be honest, I don’t follow your argument in this section because you have no supporting evidence to back your claim. “Cognitive symptoms” for schizophrenia are not simply making impulsive decisions. These symptoms include understanding/processing information to make decisions, problems with attention, and problems with memory/information retention. I’m not sure what your last sentence for this section has to do with this category.

I’ve covered quite a bit in this and noted at the top that while I’m not a doctor or therapist, I’m responding to this post because the arguments therein function on harmful assumptions about mental illnesses and should be contended. I’m going to repeat again: people with schizophrenia are not inevitably violent, even when they are hallucinating. A person with schizophrenia is more likely to harm themselves than another person.

Additional Reading:

Rosman, Jonathan P., MD, and Phillip J. Resnick, MD. “Sexual Attraction to Corpses: A Psychiatric Review of Necrophilia.” Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law 17.2 (1978): n. pag. Web. http://www.jaapl.org/content/17/2/153.full.pdf