| Gōzaburō Seto | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name in Japanese | 瀬戸 豪三郎 |
| Rōmaji Translation | Seto Gōzaburō |
| Appears in | Anime, Manga |
| Voice Actor (Japanese) | Kenta Miyake |
| Voice Actor (English) | John Swasey |
| Personal Info | |
| Gender | Male |
| Affiliation | Seto Group |
Gōzaburō Seto (瀬戸 豪三郎 Seto Gōzaburō) is the boss of the Seto Group, the husband of Ren Seto and the father of Sun Seto.
Personality
Gōzaburō is a headstrong, short tempered, and all around emotional guy in his everyday life who takes matters to extremes and resorting to his anger rather easily. He is also shown to be quite ruthless when he feels provoked, spending the entirety of the series trying to murder a fourteen year old boy and beating him. It takes little to provoke him and it takes even less to send him on a blind rage, especially when it comes to his daughter whom he dotes on lovingly. However their are instances where his love for his daughter is taken to an possessive/obsessive degrees and he takes rather unpredictable and insane turns, such as trying to be "moe" for her, much to Sun Seto's embarrassment. At one point he even agreed to Saturn using the students as slave labor after being told they were being used to build monuments to Sun, despite initially being against it.
Gozaburo has an old-fashioned view when it comes to women and marriage. Specifically that, as Sun's father, he has the right to decide if/who/when his daughter gets married and to who, while seeing him blessing the union as him "giving" his daughter away and making the daughter part of the husbands family and no longer his.
Therefore, he see's Sun getting married as loosing her to the other man, or them being betrothed against his wishes as the man stealing Sun from him and his family. Thus, due to his insanity/psychotics and possessive/obsessive love for his daughter, he refuses to EVER let Sun get married (to ANYONE) or even have a boyfriend as he wants to keep his beloved daughter by his side forever, and sees such as her being taken from him (with Sun spending time with the other man and/or moving in with him and reinforcement of such in his eyes). Furthermore, he believes that said husband would try make Sun love them more than him, which causes him even more fury. All of which causes Gozaburo to develop a pathological, psychotic, and murderous hatred for any man who shows interst in Sun, or vice-versa, wanting instead for his beloved daughter to remain husband-less and by his side forever. Furthermore, he believes his daughter is too good for most if not all other men, which he uses to justify refusing to "give" his daughter to any of them.
The mere thought of Sun ever getting a husband causes him great distress, such as burst into over emotional tears of sadness followed by homicidal rage (or go straight to homicidal rage). During Nagasumi's forced wedding to Lunar, he recalls experiencing restless sleeping because the thought of his daughter being married caused him such distress. At one point, he even threatened to murder any boy she gives chocolate too on Valentine’s Day, only to back off when she threatened not to give any chocolates to him either. The first time he met Masa, he knocked straight into stone and give him amnesia upon his innocent suggestion Sun would get married someday, though in this case he was intoxicated. Throughout the series, this is all directed at Nagasumi Michishio for being Sun's betrothed and later Husband, being against it from the start and was even unwilling to disclose the loophole for both of them to live because it involved marriage and wanting to just kill him instead. Resulting in him developing an insane, psychotic, and murderous hatred for the boy.
His hatred toward Nagasumi, merely for being Sun's betrothed, can make him act extremely petty, spitefully cruel, irrational, and immature. In his mind, Nagasumi has sinned for “stealing” Sun and deserves everything Gozaburo does to him, from harassment and physical pain to death. He often goes out of his way to torture Nagasumi when he isn't trying to murder him. He often projects negative aspects onto Nagasumi to justify his attitude, always making him willing to believe that Nagasumi wants to do something wrong to Sun and calling him a "maggot" and a "snot". He even convinced himself that Nagasumi was a pervert so he could spy on and harass him during his first date with Sun. This, combined with his overprotectiveness, can lead to him being completely blinded to situations involving Sun and Nagasumi. Often assuming that Nagasumi was trying to do something inappropriate with Sun (when he is usually trying to keep her secret from being exposed) and attacking him in response. He also readily assumes that Nagasumi is trying to cheat on Sun and attacks him in fury for "betraying" his daughter without listening to his explanations or verify his suspicions. He also celebrates anytime it looks like Nagasumi might die and gleefully takes any opportunity he can to get Nagasumi killed without either noticing or caring that it makes Sun upset. Furthermore, he is extremely unapologetic even when he realizes he is wrong and when his actions have unexpected consequences (like nearly harming Sun). When Sun called him out on attempting to harm Nagasumi under a false assumption which nearly got her injured, Gozaburo refused to acknowledge his fault and accused her of turning her back on the family due to her relationship with Nagasumi and attacked the boy again. He also stubbornly refused to apologize to Nagasumi when Sun asked him to, even when she told him she couldn't respect a father who doesn't act like a man.
Despite this, in the manga, he was persuaded by Lord Yoshiou to fight for him so that Sun would be forced to marry him because he planned to replace Terra (the god of this world) with Sun. Gozaburo’s mannerisms showed that he still wasn’t happy with his daughter getting married, but also that he would be willing to tolerate it for the sake of making his beloved daughter revered as a goddess and worshipped in the way he wants for her (like how he supported Saturn forcing other students to build monuments of Sun). While he said he was doing it for Sun's happiness, he dismissed the fact that Sun was actively fighting against Yoshiou, and therefor was forcing her to get married to him against her will. Once again showing that he can be extremely dismissive of what Sun wants for herself in favor of what HE thinks is best for her.
Its not hard to see that the Yakuza boss has a bit of a drinking problem at times, and when in such a state he loses most of the self-control (regardless of how minimum he has) and goes on rampages from a simple comment or tiny sight of something displeasing.
Due to an accident where a cat bit his ear when he was a child, Gozaburo never grew out of the mermaids childhood phobia of cats and has a crippling fear of them, even harmless ones like a kitten. The mere sight of a kitten is enough to terrify Gozaburo and even keep him away from Nagasumi. His fear/hatred of cats is so great that he cheered when one of his elite threw a cat Nagasumi was using to keep him away into cold water where it would drown.
He has a rather immature ad selfish side. His immaturity is noticeable by his refusal to acknowledge his own faults and his cruel spiteful treatment of Nagasumi as mentioned above. Furthermore, he once pulled a nasty prank on Masa as payback for something he did in a later chapter. His possessiveness and refusal to let his daughter have a husband is an example of his selfish nature, as he continues to try and harm Nagasumi despite Sun's objections and rationalizes her being attached to Nagasumi as her "turning (her) back on the family" to justify his attempts, pushing aside Suns feelings (and anything else for that matter) as long as he gets what he wants (his daughter all to himself).
Despite his attitude toward Nagasumi, the idea of Sun getting married in general, and insane overprotectiveness, Gozaburo genuinely loves his family, cares about his subordinates and can be fairly reasonable and even kind in most other situations. Gōzaburō's protectiveness is an aspect of his own kind heart, an unbecoming trait for a boss of organized crime, but something that Gōzaburō possesses in spades. He took the amnesiac Masa in and protected both Masa, and the Seto Group from the examiners wrath and kept him well hidden for many years, and commands a great respect from his subordinates that is closely knit to the point of friendship as opposed to any fear-based loyalty. He was also prepared to rescue his elite members from a fire, showing genuine concern for them. Also of note was that he initially was going to spare Nagasumi of any repercussion and ignore the situation and had not a Mermaid Examiner happened to enter at that ill fated moment then Nagasumi and Sun would not have been engaged to begin with.
In spite of his considerable rage, battle prowess and repetitive beatings of Nagasumi, Gōzaburō is a bit, daresay, comedic at times in his attempts to protect Sun, dressing up as a "moe" videogame character to "understand Sun's heart". Finally even though he is the Yakuza head of the Seto group as well as a powerfully built man with a formidable attitude, he has an overwhelming fear of cats (or kittens) due to an incident that happened in his childhood (which parodies that of Doraemon's fear of mice, both in its origins and his reaction when seeing the object of his phobia).
Plot
By pulling strings at the ministry of education, Gōzaburō, together with many of the Seto Group members, Ren Seto, Masa and Shark Fujishiro, enrolls in the staff of Nagasumi's junior-high school in order to watch over Sun, thus becoming Nagasumi and Sun's homeroom teacher.
Powers and Abilities
As the head-honcho of the Seto Group, Gōzaburō is the top dog and one of the most influential merfolk in organized crime. Gōzaburō is the leader of an organization of powerhouse fighters like Sun Seto, Shark Fujishiro, Masa, and Maki. He seems to be well connected as he arranged for he, his wife and his compatriots to enroll as staff members mid-semester (summer break does not signify the end of school year in the Japanese school year) and possibly even posses some clout in the Merfolk government to aid him in covering up Masa's pre-amnesiac identity and keep his group from being arrested for being yakuza.
In terms of hand-to-hand combat he is strong enough to defeat powerful foes, some while in an intoxicated state such as pre-amnesia Masa (though he was caught by surprise in this case) and go toe-to-toe with Lunar's Papa who had effortlessly defeated Shark Fujishiro before hand. He was the only one who could force his way through the rocks of the noble's prison. He is immensely durable staying conscious when forced through a urinal with enough force to break the wall, and get up with only slight damage, and break through walls on whims, in one instance uprooting a bathtub en process.
As a Merfolk he can breath underwater, and swim at incredible speeds.
In the final arc of the Manga, it is revealed that his mermaid form is a "true sea dragon". When Gozaburo takes his true form, he becomes a massive and powerful dragon with immense strength. Even when Nagasumi was empowered by the Song of the Heroes, he was still nothing compared to Gozaburo, claiming that his attacks did not come close to even his softest punch. According to Terra, the "god" of the word, if all of humanity and their nuclear weapons went up against Gozaburo's true form, they would loose.
Relationships
Family
Sun
Sun is Gozaburo’s one and only daughter who he loves more than anything. However, his love for his daughter is rather obsessive, unhealthy, abnormal, and often causes his more possessive, insane, and psychotic attributes to manifest, which Sun finds both embarrassing and morally reprehensible.
While it is clear that Gozaburo loves his daughter dearly, he (like many others that Sun knows) doesn’t always respect her wishes and is more prone to doing what HE wants for her while dismissing how Sun actually feels about his actions. This is best exemplified by Gozaburo repeatedly attempting to kill Nagasumi despite her objections. While Gozaburo was eventually swayed to avoid killing Nagasumi outright to spare Suns feelings, he still selfishly attempts to get Nagasumi killed indirectly, whenever he has an “opportunity” (such as when Nagasumi became a mindless giant, he insisted Nagasumi had to be “put down” while hiding the cure from Sun), or when he has “justification” (when it LOOKS like Nagasumi is being unfaithful to Sun). This shows that, regarding his murderous attempts on Nagasumi, his attempts to spare Suns feeling only correlates to whether or not she would be upset with HIM or if Gozaburo thinks her anger with him would subside in time.
Though, at the same time, Gozaburo is dismissive to a degree on how much Sun is saddened by Nagasumi’s near-deaths and his actions. When he briefly got rid of Nagasumi by blasting him to the moon, and Sun begged him for a way to reverse it, Gozaburo attempted to convince her that there was no way and she had to move on while his expressions showed that he was EXTREMELY happy. Placing his happiness over hers in such instances (and being grateful that she didn’t blame him given the circumstance).
Gozaburo sees Sun being with Nagasumi, from spending time with him on a date instead of being with the Seto Clan to moving in with Nagasumi, as her turning her back on the family. Which fuels his hatred for Nagasumi more. Gozaburo desires to be the only important man in his daughters life and for her to stay by his side forever, which conflicts with Suns desire to find love and start a family of her own (which Gosaburo sees as her leaving him and causes her great distress).
Aside from his attempts on Nagasumi, in the manga, Gozaburo supported Saturn using the entire class as slave labor to build monuments to Suns greatness despite Sun voicing her disapproval. Showing he also wants other people to revere Sun (but not romantically desire her).
This all came to head in the final arc of the manga. While Gozaburo initially rushed to fight Yoshiuo to keep him from forcing Sun to marry him, he was instead swayed to fight FOR Yoshiuo, which would force Sun to marry him, so that Sun could ascend to godhood where he believed she would be happier. While this does show that Gozaburo can put his personal feelings and aversion to Sun getting married aside if he thinks it is for her own good, it can also be argued that he was more tolerant to the idea than Sun being with Nagasumi because he knew she and Yoshiuo didn't love each other (therefore he didn’t have to worry about Sun loving Yoshiuo more than him), because as a goddess she would be revered (as he wants others to worship Sun as well), and because he was “giving” Sun away rather than her being “stolen”. Furthermore, he showed that he can be extremely dismissive of Suns desires and what she wants for herself. Ignoring Suns protest and justifying himself that he is doing it for “her” sake, via forcing her to get married to Yoshiuo and killing the boy she DOES truly love so that Sun can be revered by others as a goddess.
He is also not above manipulating or deceiving Sun herself to get Nagasumi out of her life. He attempted to encourage Sun to kill Nagasumi in retaliation for cheating on her, even after he had learned that wasn’t the case and was being forced to marry Lunar anyway, to make sure they could never get together. He also lied to her several times that he was sad Nagasumi was going to die or was sent to the delinquent class (where he would die) to cover his involvement and appear innocent in her eyes. Though Sun rarely believes him.
Up until that point, Gozaburo never took his true sea dragon form infront of Sun to avoid scaring her.
Gozaburo appears to have old fashioned views regarding marriage for women. He feels like he has the right to choose Suns husband (if any). Seeing him (hypothetically) agreeing to let Sun get married as “giving” her to the other person. Yet, he believes that Sun is too good for most people, if not all (including Nagasumi).
Gozaburo’s actions against Nagasumi have unintentionally put Sun in danger a few times. Such as nearly exposing her as a mermaid in public, nearly getting her hit with a telephone pole, a delinquent throwing a knife at her, and nearly hitting her himself in his dragon form. However, Gozaburo hardly notices this (like how he is purposely oblivious to Suns anguish at him trying to kill Nagasumi), but when he does realize, he never takes responsibility for his actions. He insists that she is turning her back on the family by being with Nagasumi so he HAS to keep trying to kill him.
Despite all of this, Gozaburo’s love for his daughter is shown in that he always rushes to protect Sun when she is in danger, even putting himself at risk. He also provides for her financially and gives her everything she could want or need.
Sun does love her father very much but is constantly annoyed by his possessiveness of her and emotional outbursts. Sun is constantly criticizing him for his actions and expresses disgust and disapproval at his treatment of Nagasumi. Gozaburo’s recent actions have caused Sun’s personal respect for her father to deteriorate to the point that she admits she doesn’t think he acts like a man and can’t respect him for that (which Gozaburo continues to reinforce with his stubbornness and insane attitude). Sun also has no qualms about using her mermaid voice or hitting him with a rock to keep him from harming Nagasumi. Sun also expresses embarrassment by Gozaburo’s other actions, such as wearing girls clothing in an attempt to better understand her. Despite all of this, Sun continued to keep her father in her life and love him under the belief that everything he does is out of a desire to protect her.
However, their relationship is heavily strained by her marriage to Nagasumi. While Sun wants nothing more than to be with Nagasumi AND keep the Seto Clan in her life, her father insists that her being married to Nagasumi means turning her back on them and attempts to kill Nagasumi in response, which causes Sun no end to anguish or grief.
The core of Gozaburo’s aversion to Sun being married to anyone is that he fears she will love her husband more than him. Though this fear was nearly realized in episode 13 when Sun (regretfully) asked her father to disown her so that her actions (trying to take Nagasumi back from Lunar) would not affect him or the Seto Clan. While she was concerned for her families safety, this implies that, if forced to choose, Sun WOULD choose Nagasumi over her family, including him, likely because she acknowledges that her father doesn’t honor her wishes and would rather be with her kind husband who respects her as a person than her insane father who does not. However, at the end, Sun claimed that she was lying to bring her father out of his depressed state.
Upon hearing her request, Gozaburo entered a state of extreme depression and left him unable to do anything but lay around and rot away, even when Sun was fighting the Endoame group with the rest of the Seto Clan.
Overall, while they do love each other very much, Gozaburo’s affection for his daughter is smothering and unhealthy, which exasperates Sun, and he easily lets his emotions dominate him at the cost of Suns wellbeing.
Ren
While his wife is a deterrent towards his harebrained schemes at keeping Sun and Nagasumi separate, as she will not hesitate to hand out punishment, he is not really afraid of her and loves her dearly, but they have different parenting agendas. Ren believes that as a parent her job is to get Sun ready for the world, Gōzaburō is overprotective of his daughter and wants to forever shield her from the outside world.
When Ren was under the effects of the mermaid love potion, she saw Nagasumi as a hybrid between Gozaburo and him, showing that she does love her husband very much, despite her exasperation with his attempts on Nagasumi’s life and overprotectiveness of their daughter.
In the final arc of the manga, it is revealed that Ren was once a noblewoman but gave up everything and cut ties with her family to elope with Gozaburo. This shows that they truly love each other, but may also explain why Gozaburo feels that Sun getting married would mean loosing her as well.
Seto Group
Masa
A lieutenant in The Seto Outfit, Masa serves as one of the most prominent members of the group, although Masa is usually neutral, if slightly encouraging and/or respectful, towards Nagasumi and Sun's betrothal he would usually side with his boss in such matters.
Unbeknownst to Masa at first he was once a Mermaid examiner who was evaluating the Seto Outfit a decade ago when Gozaburo in a drunken state tossed him against a stone statue and ever sense Masa suffered from amnesia. Realizing that both he and Masa would suffer if the authorities discovered what he had done Gozaburo decided to look after him until his memory came back which did not happen for ten years. Masa eventually took on a solemn oath to the Seto Outfit during his stint without prior memory, presumably because he had nowhere else to go and because the Seto Gang had been so nice to him.
When Masa's previous identity was possibly about to be unraveled by his long-lost little sister Gozaburo made a quick and never before established alliance with Nagasumi to stop it and helped him, before attempting to take matters into his own hands and vicious beat Masa "because of love" in order to stop the situation, in advertantly giving him his memory back and awakening pre-amnesiac Masa to the current decade. After getting his memory back Masa decided to stay because of this oath and the decade that he had been apart of the yakuza outfit.
Interestingly Masa had once cross-dressed for his daughter in the initial attempt at diverting Nagasumi from marrying Sun but gave into the idea of going back on his oath when Gozaburo crossdressed (although he did make him do so to) to understand Sun Seto's heart.
Shark Fujishiro
Shark Fujishiro seems to be a highranking and/or close compatriot of Gozaburo Seto. He was one of the Yakuza who transferred into Nagasumi's school along with Masa implying a high degree of trust and closeness between boss and subordinate. It is also possible that Gozaburo enlisted him because he knew Shark would have zero qualms about killing Nagasumi given his willingness to eat people.
However Shark Fujishiro is annoyed by this new setting and desires to return home to Seto as soon as possible by eating Nagasumi. Gozaburo is fully willing to call on Fujishiro at first attempt when it is needed however when this cannot happen at the immediate moment he will rely on other yakuza for the job.
Shark Fujishiro came close to abandoning his role of yakuza after the incident when Gozaburo attempted to understand his daughter's heart by cross-dressing.
Nagasumi Michishio
One of the defining point in the series is the relationship between Gōzaburō and his future-son-in-law. Gozaburo first became aware of Nagasumi after discovering that he had seen his daughter's mermaid form and was initially going to ignore it had an examiner not overheard the entire thing spurring him into action.
At first it seemed like hate-at-first-sight because it could mean his daughter's death unless Nagasumi died so he decided to kill Nagasumi. Though he still felt that Nagasumi needed to know why he needed to be killed which is why he asked Masa to save his life to be killed latter. Upon explaining and his wife than proposed the ultimatum - marriage - Gōzaburō wouldn't heed to loosing his only daughter. Thus the entire Seto Group present went to kill Nagasumi and Gōzaburō did not change his views on Nagasumi on a personal level when he engaged, but was so horror-stricken and dumbfounded that it only resolved his desire to kill Nagasumi to its zenith.
In earlier episodes, Nagasumi hoped to gain Gozaburo’s approval so he would bless his relationship with Sun. However, Gozaburo’s refusal to acknowledge their relationship has little to do with what he thinks of Nagasumi, but more to do with the fact that he sees any man being married to Sun as them “taking” her from him and wants to keep his daughter with him (regardless of what she wants too). Therefor making any attempts on Nagasumi’s part to impress him to be pointless.
Gōzaburō is easily one of Nagasumi's biggest threats to his survival and through him Nagasumi would face him even as an indirect threat with Seto Group members often siding with Gōzaburō to help kill Nagasumi, such as Shark Fujishiro who desired to return to Saitama, or Masa who while supportive and a teacher figure would often side with his boss over Nagasumi out of loyalty. He is also the reason that Maki is introduced to him as a constant threat.
When Nagasumi drank mermaid mineral water and grew to bizarre gigantism Gōzaburō was shocked and horrified, neglecting to tell Sun of a way to reverse the process. He even cheered when Nagasumi was blasted by missiles.
Rare moments of civility do exist between Nagasumi and Gozaburo such as when Gozaburo rather politely asked Nagasumi to take a photo of him and Sun to commemorate the father-daughter bonding moment.
Nagasumi has also become privy to the fact that Gozaburo did not outgrow his Ailurophobia (fear of cats) which he used to briefly turn the tables on his home room teacher. This caused Gozaburo is react by sending subordinates after him to rough him up and get rid of the cat (Shark Fujishiro was not asked to because he would eat Nagasumi and thus upset Sun).
On a few occasions Gōzaburō actually came to Nagasumi's rescue Nagasumi was extremely grateful, but these moments of peace seldom lasted very long and these instances were merely extensions of him protecting Sun. Also while Gōzaburō constantly proclaims that he wishes Nagasumi would die he refrained from doing so in a way that would make Sun unhappy. Later chapters/episodes had him looking for “justifications” to kill Nagasumi in a way he thinks Sun would forgive him later, or encouraging others to do it for him. Despite his desire to keep the two apart, Gōzaburō despises the thought of Nagasumi cheating on Sun since it would make her upset. Although he does often use moments that look like he is as an excuse to terminate him for “betraying” his daughter and never listens to Nagasumis attempts to clear up a misunderstanding.
In a situation where it looked like Nagasumi had cheated on Sun with Lunar and his father was going to kill him for it, he was happy to encourage him to do so while preventing him or Lunar from trying to clear the situation. Though, even after Nagasumi was allowed to live under the condition he marry Lunar instead and his claiming to Nagasumi that he would like to burry the hatchet (as he was no longer with Sun, this not a threat to him), he STILL actually hated Nagasumi and wanted to kill him, only refraining as to not ruin the ceremony. This was either because he genuinely believed Nagasumi cheated on Sun and wanted revenge, because he still resented Nagasumi for “trying” to “steal” his daughter before, or a combination of both.
Gōzaburō's hate reached its pinnacle when Nagasumi was under the affects of his wife's potion that made all of the woman love him and the men hate him. He instantly saw Nagasumi as some sort of ugly, Gosenkugi who made a snide remark about stealing Sun away from him and that she loved him for than she did her father (though the fact that Sun was cuddling near him might have also affected his behavior) causing him to punch Nagasumi and than chase him through the school. When he finally caught up to him he, like almost the entire male student body and possibly staff (including Shark Fujishiro, but not Masa) chant as they attempt to burn him at the stake like a french witch. Apparently Gōzaburō stalked him home that night but did not react until Sun was in the bathroom with him. His anger at a new peek Gōzaburō burst through the wall, ripping up the bathtub in the process and chasing him until double punching him along with Nagasumi's father leaving him bruised until the next day.
The next day when Nagasumi got a real love letter, Nagasumi instantly suspected Gōzaburō to be behind it and confronted him about it, but instead the love letter was real and from Class Rep who accidentally confesses to Sun Seto much to Gōzaburō's horror, to the point that he could do nothing but stand next to him as Class Rep transformed into the Last Amazoness.
Growing consideration and Respect
Eventually the time would come for Gōzaburō and Nagasumi to work together when Masa was accidentally endangered. Gōzaburō revealed to Nagasmi Masa's pre-amnesiac self and the two set forwards to save Masa. Though this did not stop Gōzaburō from badmouthing him to Class Rep, it might have been to increase validity of Nagasumi's gay claims. Eventually the two even charged at Masa to stop him from remembering, working together for the very first time.
Though he still had murderous intentions for the boy, was became perfectly fine if both lived but Nagasumi simply did not marry her, or even date her.
However, Gozaburo and Nagasumi's relationship differs near the ends of the Manga and Anime.
In the anime, Gozaburo and Nagasumi work together to save Sun from Yoshiou. Nagasumi's interventions at ramming the sub into the nobleman's house was the reason that Gōzaburō escaped, which Gōzaburō released was his work, though in this case it was actually Chimp's doing. Their understanding reached its peak when Nagasumi's vows to save Sun were overheard by the Yakuza and he rushed to defend Nagasumi, showing a grudging respect that is slowly getting better. Gozaburo even gave Nagasumi a jacket and claimed that he was part of the Seto Clan now which pleased Nagasumi (though the end of the episode would cast doubts on the sincerity of this). Even after Nagasumi has rescued Sun, he still had to be held back by Masa to keep him from harming Nagasumi, showing that their relationship did not change at all.
In the OVA series, he purposely arranged for Nagasumi to be put in the delinquent class where Shark would arrange for his death at the hands of the delinquent students.
Therefore, it can be inferred that Gozaburo will always hate Nagasumi and keep trying to murder him for as long as he and Sun are together, no matter what he does for either of them. Regardless, Nagasumi puts up with Gozaburo's hatred for him to be by Sun's side.
However, in the manga, Gozaburo decides to support Yoshiou in his attempts to break Nagasumi and Sun apart and make her marry him since Yoshiou planned on making Sun the new "god" of the world and wanted what was best for his daughter (even if it meant her getting married). However, he admitted to Nagasumi that "somewhere in (his) heart (he) has acknowledged (him)" and was willing to spare him if he left. Regardless, when Nagasumi chose to fight to stay with Sun, Gozaburo gleefully turned into his dragon form and attempted to kill him once again. But after Nagasumi took a hit from him to keep Gozaburo from accidentally hitting Sun, Gozaburo was grateful enough to protect Nagasumi from Yoshiou's men. This, plus Yoshiou ordering his men to injur Sun if it meant retrieving her, caused Gozaburo to defect from Yoshiou and support Sun and Nagasumi.
In the final chapter, Gozaburo attacked Nagasumi once more after Nagasumi agreed to let the class rep rub his back and shared an "indirect kiss" with Mawari (Mawari feeding him shaved ice and then eating from the same spoon). Although, to be fair, even Ren (and unsurprisingly Nagasumi's parents) were enraged by this and Nagasumi admitted he went too far. However, it should be noted that Gozaburo only stomped on Nagasumi in this case, as opposed to outright trying to kill him for "betraying (his) daughter" like he would have in earlier chapters. He mentioned that Nagasumi had earned "good fortune points".
It might be possible that Gozaburo’s hatred for Nagasumi has become less murderous after the events with Lord Yoshiou. One possible reason for this is that Gozaburo was convinced that he no longer has any right to oppose Sun and Nagasumi's marriage after trying to force her to marry someone else (who he later turned on when he tried to injure Sun, as opposed to Nagasumi who stopped her from getting hurt, which he could have also still been grateful for). Also, after the battle, Terra (the god of the world) had blessed Nagasumi and Sun to be together forever. Which might have convinced Gozaburo not to intervene any further. Though, it is also possible that he would have attempted to kill Nagasumi had Ren not gotten involved. Shark also cheered on Gozaburo to kill Nagasumi, which implies that Gozaburo is still posing as their teacher to keep an eye on him and Sun. He was not seen any other time before or after the incident at the beach (therefor, we don't know his reaction to Terra blessing their marriage or the romantic moment between Sun and Nagasumi afterward, including Sun saving his life with CPR), leaving the final status of their relationship ambiguous (less murderous or exactly the same).
It is hinted at the end of the manga, and during chapter three when he tried throwing the ring Nagasumi got for Sun away, that he is projecting himself onto Nagasumi. Because Ren eloped with him, cutting ties with her family in the process, he believes that Nagasumi is doing the same thing to him with Sun.
Regardless, Nagasumi puts up with Gozaburo's hatred for him to be by Sun's side.
Trivia
- Gōzaburō's surname Seto means "swift current, rapids" (瀬) (se) and "door" (戸) (to).
- Gozaburo’s full name is actually the same names as two people from Yugioh who are related: Gozaburo Kaiba and Seto Kaiba(Albeit in the same order too).
- Given that the mermaid government seems to know that they are Yakuza, is is unknown why he has yet to be arrested. It could be possible that Gozaburo has connections that allow him to avoid the law. Another possibility is that they cannot arrest him because he performs all his activities on land.
- Strangely, Gozaburo does not have his facial scars in his true mermaid “dragon” form. It is possible that he altered his human form somehow to have scars like how Masa was able to alter his appearance.
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