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With the conclusion of the Lab Arc in episode 9 ofSAKAMOTO DAYS, the series has finally revealed the entity that has been spoken of in hush tones over the course of the introductory arcs of the series. “X”, the notorious killer who has been killing assassins associated with the JAA,made his first appearancein the series during the latter stages of Shin and the others' escape from the crumbling hidden lab in the Okutabi Science Museum.
The character gets the nickname from the telltale “X” he leaves behind at the sites where people meet their untimely end by his hand. Why is it pronounced “Slur”?
Who Exactly is “X”?
Introducing the Series' Antagonist
The individual behind Taro Sakamoto’s bounty is an individual who is in the shadows for most, if not all, of the entire first cours. The one time he did appear was in episode 9, at the conclusion of the Lab Arc. Shin runs into him and doesn’t realize who the white-haired man oozing killing intent was, nor did he relay his greetings to Sakamoto as “X” told him.
In the manga, his identity has been revealed, as well as his true objectives inSAKAMOTO DAYS.Kei Uzuki, a former member of the JAA who was raised in an orphanage run by the organization, and student at the same institution of killing as Sakamoto, Nagumo, Boiled and many others,wants to rid the world of the JAA, and thus, destroy the monopoly they have over the killing industry.
As a result of his activities, a huge portion of the active assassins in Japan have been killed, but contrary to what you might think, his actions have not just gained “X” notoriety, but the genuine support of current students in the JCC, who believe the JAA has had too much control over the industry, taking a huge cut of every single assassination job and evenkilling off those who no longer wish to be part of the organization.
Assassins who operate beyond the administration of the JAA risk their lives and freedom is not an option for most. As it turns out, the one who ordered the hit on Taro Sakamoto and his allies was none other than “X” himself, making use of the very organization he aims to destroy. The use of the “X” symbol goes back millennia, and it has meant, and continues to mean a plethora of things depending on the context. One of the prevailing uses of this letter, which starts the least number of words of any letter and is the third-least used letter in the English language overall, isto denote some kind of unknown.
So, What’s With the Alias?
The “X”-Factor of Slur
The use of “X” as a placeholder comes from French philosopher René Descartes’s use of a, b and c to denote known variables, and x, y, and z to denote unknowns in a mathematical sense. “X” is perhaps the most popular placeholder in mathematics after the number 0, but its use as a reference to some mysterious element can be seen in so many words and phrases. “X” is a letter that does not exist in the proto-Sinaitic alphabet, the supposed precursor to the various modern alphabets, and the original alphabet had only 18 letters, with X, J, W, and U missing. As a result, X is also not found in the earliest-known Hebrew text, the Book of Creation, in whichthe practice of gematriasaw each letter being given a value, but the absence of X in this context aligns with the letter’s use as a kind of “blank tile”, although, when X finally reached Rome, it came to denote the number 10.
“X-Factor” refers to a special quality that raises an individual above their peers in some aspect; “X-Radiation” was coined by German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen in 1885 to denote “unknown radiation”; American civil rights leader Malcolm Little used the letter to distance himself from the name passed down to him from the enslavement of his ancestors, as well as to leave space for his original African family name. The letter’s use in this manner, as an expression of the unknown, also came to informits usage as a negator– which is potentially why Kei Uzuki replaced his entire name with just “X” and became a ghost-like entity; a complete enigma. Over the course ofSAKAMOTO DAYS,we learn more about “X”, including his erasure of his own identity in favour of the letter, but what remains elusive, is why “X” is pronounced"Slur"rather than “Ecks”.
The Brilliance of “Uzuki Kei”
“Across Heaven and Earth, I, Alone Am the X”
SAKAMOTO DAYS’smost brilliant piece of writing might just be the name, “Uzuki Kei”, which is written 有月憬, an incredible sequence of kanji to produce a name that places the character ina similar realm to characters like Satoru Gojoand even Son Goku himself. The reason for that lies in what these characters mean.「有」denotes existence or possession, while 月 is moon; however, the name “Kei” stems from the reading of the kanji based on the original Chinese pronunciation of a character that normally comes to be read as “Satoru” – a name derived from"satori",the final stage of enlightenment predicated by “kensho”, the first insight into “whatis” in Buddhism. If you’re familiar withJujutsu Kaisen, it is in reference to this aspect of his name that Gojo exists as a nigh-Godlike entity and undergoes that specific awakening after his near-death experience in the fight against Toji Fushiguro; whileGoku’s Ultra Instinct techniquefollows the same first-stage; final-stage progression found inkensho/satorithat is in turn informed by the fact that the fact that the name “Goku” is the Japanese reading of “Wukong”; a name written with the kanji for “satori” followed by “sky”, which is also read as “void” in some contexts.
What is brilliant about “Uzuki Kei” isn’t the surface-level connection made between him, Gojo and Goku (or Buddha); but rather the fact that the “satori” that gives us his name and the “satori” that gives us the names of the other two, differ by a single radical that profoundly alters the nature of the name. Both start with the “heart” radical, but Kei’s name follows it with 「景」, which is the operative kanji in the Japanese word “fuukei”, meaning “scenery” or “view”. In the case of both Goku and Gojo, the heart radical is followed by [吾], an older kanji used to refer to oneself (you’ll hear characters with more archaic speech patterns using"warera", “washi”,which would be written with this kanji that has since been replaced by 我). One way to read either one is to see it less as a reflexive pronoun, and more as “the self”, again invoking Buddhism in which the"Ātman"– the soul or ego. Therefore,the “enlightenment” posited by Kei Uzuki’s name isn’t an internal, reflective epiphany, but the awakening to a vision of the external world in a manner that is divorced from the Ātman; a different understanding of whatis– hence his Dissociative Identity Disorder, a mental affliction that used to be referred to as “Multiple Personality Disorder”.
The Negation ofUzuki Kei
“X” As A Censor
The malleability of “X” as a symbol, plus its well-established use as a placeholder for the unknown, has also created scenarios in which it not only stands in place of something, but exists to censor or otherwise erase that thing. For example, obscenities, while often censored with grawlixes or asterisks, can also be censored with Xs instead, which is partly how the letter alsocame to be associated with adult content, as something being “X-Rated” came to mean it isn’t suitable for children. Given his mission to destroy the JAA, and his modus operandi, Uzuki clearly has some kind of obsession with erasure, which is why he went with the alias “X”, removing himself from his history. Beyond that, “X” is capable of assuming the personality and mannerisms of other people with incredible accuracy, a symptom of the DID he developed as a result of his accidental murder of Rion Akao, who persists as one of X’s multiple personas.
Why it is pronounced “Slur” is perhaps because a slur is a word or expression of denigration and hate towards a person or group, and slurs are often censored (to the point of removal from the general lexicon), but slurring is also what happens with speech when someone is inebriated or experiencing health issues, with words being mispronounced and falling into each other to the point of being incomprehensible. Perhaps that’s why he went with “Slur”, to paint over his identity and the world at large withhis vision of a different world. Perhaps it’s the two-syllable pronunciation of “Slur” in Japanese that fits the two strokes it takes to write an “X”. Maybe the point is that we can never know.
