Takopi's Original Sin & Fallibility
Close to the end of His Ministry on Earth, Jesus Christ and His disciples have a lengthy dialogue in which Jesus tells many parables to the disciples. One of last parables recorded in this conversation is the Parable of the Ten Virgins [Matthew 25:1-13]. It is a parable about being vigilant for Christ's return after his ascension into Heaven, as of the ten virgins, five did not bring spare oil for their lamps, and could not see late into the night when the bridegroom came and therefore could not be with him. An interesting detail of this parable, though, is that the other five virgins, those with enough oil, were unable to help the foolish five. There was nothing the prepared virgins could do to save them, to help them, to make things even marginally easier or more comfortable for them. The prepared five, though prepared for themselves, were powerless to do anything else.
In Takopi's Original Sin, Neuinukf (who everyone else generally calls Takopi,) a Happian, is sent from his planet, Planet Happy, so that he can make other people happy. Neuinukf is a child, though, both literally and metaphorically, and cannot comprehend human conflict and violence. He learns over time how to deal with human conflict and violence – or rather, that he can't deal with it. Neuinukf is powerless to help the people he finds himself with.
The story starts with Neuinukf landing on Earth and meeting a fourth grade girl in Japan named Shizuka. Some events have transpired before this, but Neuinukf's memories of it won’t come back for some time, so as far as his experience goes, he has none. He knows nothing about dealing with conflict when he first meets Shizuka, and he knows nothing about Shizuka's situation in general. His first go-to, knowing nothing, is to give Shizuka one of many of what he calls “Happy Gadgets.” The first one he presents is a set of wings that enable flight. Shizuka's response: "Even if I could fly, it wouldn't change anything. See you tomorrow."[1] Nueinukf is taken aback. He can't understand why Shizuka would say such a thing unless she can already fly. He can't comprehend Shizuka's mindset, or the circumstances that would create that kind of mindset, so he has trouble making an impactful change. When Shizuka takes interest in a happy gadget that's a long, unbreakable ribbon, Neuinukf cannot begin to imagine that Shizuka's intention is to hang herself with it, that someone would want to end their own life, so he gives the ribbon to her against the rules of his home planet, and she kills herself. At this, Neuinukf realizes that he's missing an awful lot in Shizuka's situation and realizes he needs to know a lot more about Shizuka to help. Thankfully, one of the Happy Gadgets, the Happy Camera, has the ability to turn back time ad infinitum, so Neuinukf uses this to go back and accompany Shizuka throughout her days.
Through the Happy Camera's do-over's, Neuinukf is able to try many things to make Shizuka happy: helping Shizuka answer homework questions, finishing meals for her so no one makes any rude comments, stopping a girl from stealing Shizuka's school books. None of this really helps, though Neuinukf is able to realize that Shizuka and Marina, the girl that stole Shizuka's school book, are not coming along. When Shizuka is unwilling to meet Marina in private, he uses a gadget to transform himself into Shizuka and experiences firsthand the complexity of human conflict – though he wishes to amend with Marina for Shizuka, Marina will not talk with him and just beats him up and stabs him with a pen. Neuinukf then, after rewinding time again, transforms into Shizuka and has teachers come and help. Shizuka experiences a little relief due to being partially spared this one encounter, though is still not happy. Neuinukf does not experience any relief. He thinks to himself, "You're wrong, Shizuka. The reason you got hurt today was because of the things I did. I was too afraid to do anything about it. So I just watched it happen."[2]
As time goes on, Neuinukf starts to piece things together. He realizes that the reason Shizuka killed herself was because she lost her pet dog, Chappy. Marina intentionally makes Chappy attack her so animal control will take the dog away and euthanize it. No matter what Neuinukf does, he is unable to ignore this interaction. After Chappy is taken away, and with the fight from before put off, Marina then takes Shizuka out into the middle of the woods to try to beat and stab her again.
At this point, Neuinukf is paralyzed by fear and has exhausted every available resource in his efforts to help Shizuka. . . every morally righteous resource. He is still determined to make Shizuka happy, but there seems to be nothing he can do except watch Marina beat on Shizuka. His heart is grieved, but in his attempt to intervene, he has tried all righteous things and has only one untouched option. He kills Marina. He bashes her over the head with his Happy Camera, destroying it and removing the possibility to turn back time again in the process. This works. At the death of Marina, Shizuka is, for perhaps the first time the reader has seen, properly happy.
"You know I [Shizuka] don't believe in magic and stuff, but the truth is for the longest time I thought how much better things would be if Marina were gone. Then I wouldn't hate school. . . but I couldn't do anything on my own. I thought my wish would never come true. But it has! My wish came true! This is awesome. . . it’s like magic!"[3]
Neuinukf is distraught. Though he recognizes what he did is wrong and is grieved over Marina's death, he is ultimately more affected by Shizuka's happiness and is more than willing to go along with hiding Marina's body, pretending to be Marina himself, and helping her go to Tokyo in the hopes that her dog is with her father and not dead, because it would appear that doing this is accomplishing what he's been trying to do, make Shizuka happy. Neuinukf also helps Naoki, another kid in Shizuka's grade who also helps with hiding the body and planning a trip to Tokyo, attempt to steal Naoki's brother's ring out of pure spite and jealousy, to try and make Naoki feel bolder and happier. Of course, Naoki doesn't get the ring, doesn't feel better about his brother, Chappy is dead, and Shizuka's father has remarried and barely recognizes Shizuka, and of course doesn't have Chappy.
Shizuka is obsessed with finding Chappy and kidnaps her father's new kids to try and find the dog. Shizuka is not happy. Though Marina contributed to Shizuka's misery and ultimately pushed Shizuka over the edge to suicide, Shizuka's unhappiness did not stem from Marina in particular but from Shizuka's life in general, her home life. Shizuka's mother is a prostitute who was divorced by her husband, and one of her main clients is Marina's father, hence the dynamic between those two characters. Neuinukf learns all of this during his time pretending to be Marina. He begins to understand the depth of the situation and of his actions, and is left even more confused and directionless than before:
"Marina. . . I'm sorry Marina's daddy and mommy. I'm sorry I'm not Marina. I'm sorry I can't stay with you. Marina. . . I'm sorry for killing you. . ."
"[In his thoughts] I have to think! Where did I go wrong? What should I have done differently? What do I do now?! I need to talk with Shizuka again. . ."[4]
He did every right thing he could, and nothing helped. He turned towards that which was wrong, and that did not help neither. Marina is dead, Naoki is in juvie, and Shizuka is a wandering vagabond. Neuinukf's knowledge and experience enlighten him to the human condition and the situation of his friends, but it doesn't empower him to help them. Neuinukf is powerless to help his friends. He realizes this in an epiphany, after everything is said and done:
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Shizuka. I'm sorry I couldn't do anything to help you. I'm sorry I kept trying and failing. I didn't understand the first thing about how you felt. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you-pi. I'm sorry I didn't try to understand you-pi. Shizuka. . . I left you all alone. I'm sorry-pi."[5]
It is only in this realization of his powerlessness and failures that Neuinukf is able to affect anything at all. At this point, Nueinukf has remembered everything, and among these things he remembers that a Happian can "give up [its] happy powers"[6] to fix a broken Happy Gadget. So, Neuinukf gives Shizuka everything he has, his life, to try and set things right, no longer just for Shizuka but for Naoki and Marina too. Unfortunately, even when giving everything he has, there is not much Nueinukf can do. Naoki now no longer spites his brother and has people who wants to play games with him sometimes. Marina and Shizuka no longer fight. That's more or less all, but nonetheless it is a change and it does matter in the characters' lives.
The reality of life is just as unfortunate. We are unable to direct even ourselves towards salvation, and we are much more unable to direct others towards this salvation on our own accord. The Holy Spirit empowers us to our own sanctification, but we ourselves are unable to direct anyone else, and the enlightenment the Holy Spirit through and with Scripture provides us does not help us in this end. [Isaiah 64:5-12; 1 John 5:13-21; Ephesians 2:1-10] In thinking otherwise, we fill ourselves with pride, believing us to have power over sin as only Christ can, thinking we can direct hearts and minds as only the Lord can, thinking we can persuade and empower as only the Holy Spirit can. Only in recognizing our own fallibility can we accept the direction of the Holy Spirit and put all of our being into a nudge into that direction.