Killer 7 Walkthrough

KILLER7 PLOT ANALYSIS
James Clinton Howell
Final revision: 14 September 2005
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I: INTRODUCTION                                              [#I]
II: THE LONG VIEW: FOUR NARRATIVE LEVELS                    [#II]
A: The Cosmic Level (Gods)                            [#IIA]
B: The Political Level (Governments)                  [#IIB]
C: The Individual Level (Folks)                       [#IIC]
D: The Spiritual Level (Ghosts)                       [#IID]
III: SYMBOLISM                                             [#III]
A: Yin/Yang VS God/Devil                             [#IIIA]
B: Chess                                             [#IIIB]
IV: HISTORY LESSONS                                         [#IV]
A: Reagan, the Japanese Diet, and New Diplomacy       [#IVA]
B: Miscellaneous World War II Allusions               [#IVB]
C: November, 1942                                     [#IVC]
V: QUESTION AND ANSWER                                       [#V]
A:  Three Harmans?                                     [#VA]
B:  Which One Is God Again?                            [#VB]
C:  Surveillance Cameras                               [#VC]
D:  Handsome Men                                       [#VD]
E:  Iwazaru                                            [#VE]
F:  Vinculum Gate, Gateman, and the Coliseum           [#VF]
G:  Screaming in the Trailer                           [#VG]
H:  Kun Lan and H. H. Gunned Down                      [#VH]
I:  Time, Space, and Trailers                          [#VI]
J:  The Forbidden Room                                 [#VJ]
K:  Greg Nightmare                                     [#VK]
L:  Murderer Keane                                     [#VL]
M:  The Golden Gun                                     [#VM]
N:  Why 1996?                                          [#VN]
O:  Silent Man at the Union Hotel                      [#VO]
P:  Bondage Suicide                                    [#VP]
Q:  Whistler's Murder                                  [#VQ]
R:  Mills' Assassin                                    [#VR]
S:  Dan's Hatred for Harman                            [#VS]
T:  Ulmeyda                                            [#VT]
U:  LOVE                                               [#VU]
V:  Union Hotel                                        [#VV]
W:  Samantha Sitbon/Smith                              [#VW]
X:  Curtis Blackburn                                   [#VX]
Y:  Ayame Blackburn                                    [#VY]
Z:  Kevin Smith                                        [#VZ]
AA: Dogs and Monkeys                                  [#VAA]
AB: Kenjiro Matsuoka                                  [#VAB]
AC: The Answering Machine                             [#VAC]
AD: Garcian's Attache Case                            [#VAD]
AE: Garcian's Memory                                  [#VAE]
AF: LION and the Attache Case                         [#VAF]
AG: Samantha and the Lights                           [#VAG]
AH: KAEDE and MASK's names                            [#VAH]
AI: Yoon-Hyun's Death                                 [#VAI]
AJ: Russian Roulette                                  [#VAJ]
AK: Green Eyes in LION                                [#VAK]
AL: Remnant Psyches' Speech                           [#VAL]
AM: Travis' Tux                                       [#VAM]
AN: Master Harman at Restaurant Fukushima             [#VAN]
AO: Three Harmans in One                              [#VAO]
AP: Garcian's Power of Resurrection                   [#VAP]
AQ: Susie and Ayame Blackburn                         [#VAQ]
AR: Hulbert                                           [#VAR]
AS: Dan Smith's Hesitation                            [#VAS]
AT: MASK De Smith Among Killers                       [#VAT]
AU: Personae's Revival in the Gymnasium               [#VAU]
AV: The Personae's Powers                             [#VAV]
AW: MASK De Smith's Power-Ups                         [#VAW]
AX: Alter Ego Guitarist                               [#VAX]
AY: The Odd Engravings                                [#VAY]
AZ: Susie's Story                                     [#VAZ]
BA: Mills' Cars                                       [#VBA]
BB: Japan's Fate                                      [#VBB]
BC: Different Anime Styles                            [#VBC]
BD: Garcian's Power to Resurrect                      [#VBD]
BE: 100 Years Later in Shanghai                       [#VBE]
BF: End of ANGEL Speech                               [#VBF]
BG: Harman's Suit in LION                             [#VBG]
VI: THEMATIC OBSERVATIONS                                  [#VI2]
A: Smile Static                                       [#VIA]
B: Traitorous Stains                                  [#VIB]
C: ISZK                                               [#VIC]
D: Fallen Angel                                       [#VID]
E: Heaven Smiles, as Kamikaze Fighters                [#VIE]
F: Andrei Ulmeyda: Descendant of Internment Prisoners [#VIF]
G: Post World War II Japanese Thought, and Killer7    [#VIG]
H: Further Thoughts on the Yakumo                     [#VIH]
I: Lion Flag                                          [#VII]
J: Battleship Island                                  [#VIJ]
K: Channels Eleven and Twelve                         [#VIK]
L: Racism in Killer7                                  [#VIL]
M: Harman and Freud                                   [#VIM]
N: Three Monkeys                                      [#VIN]
O: Messiahs                                           [#VIO]
P: Matsuken as Representative of Yosuke Matsuoka      [#VIP]
Q: Notes on Emir Parkreiner's Name                    [#VIQ]
R: Killer7 as Commentary on Japanese Pop Culture      [#VIR]
S: Suggested Political Meaning of Killer7             [#VIS]
VII: CONCLUSION (WITH A NOTE ABOUT JACK THOMPSON)         [#VII2]
VIII: APOLOGETICS (AKA, ABOUT THE AUTHOR)                 [#VIII]
IX: LEGAL NOTES                                             [#IX]
APPENDIX: "HAND IN KILLER7"                            [APPENDIX]
I: INTRODUCTION                                         [APPEN-I]
II: "HAND IN KILLER7" TRANSLATION                      [APPEN-II]
III: COMMENTS ON "HAND IN KILLER7"                    [APPEN-III]
IV: CREDITS                                            [APPEN-IV]
V: LEGAL NOTES                                          [APPEN-V]
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I: INTRODUCTION                                              [#I]
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This document is a Plot Analysis of the Capcom release Killer7
(2005). A few points should be clarified up front.
First: since this is a Plot Analysis, it will drawn support
for its conclusions from all parts of the game. Therefore, I
assume that the reader will have played the game at least
once--having watched all of the cutscenes and talked to all
the NPC's--before reading this guide. This also means that the
Plot Analysis is one huge spoiler.
Second: since Killer7 is such an open-ended game, no single
understanding of the events of the game can be regarded as
"correct" above other understandings. The purpose of the
analysis in this guide is not to establish a final authority
on the events of Killer7, but to provide one unified grasp of
the game that answers the majority of the questions presented
within the game.
I would like to address one frequently asked question that is
directed at this document, rather than at the game.  That
question is:
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[Q]: Why can't you just give straight-up answers to the questions
put forth in your guide?
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[A]: This game is not simple.
Appearances in this game are often deceptive.  If I give a direct
answer to a question, the answer will likely contradict what
seems to be true.  For example: if I merely wrote that Kun Lan is
the Devil-figure, and left it at that, I am guaranteed to receive
fifty eMails asking, "But wait!  Kun Lan has the Hand-of-God!
How can HE be the Devil!  Because Harman has the power of the God
Killer!!!"
In other words, the answers are written the way they are because
they are complicated answers.  That's why this is a complicated
game.  That's why this plot analysis document exists.  Writing is
written so that it may be read, not skimmed.  Likewise, I assume
that anyone reading this document will have the intellectual
engagement to read its contents, rather than expect it to run
like an answer key to a multiple-choice quiz.
I hope you enjoy reading this Plot Analysis.
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II: THE LONG VIEW: FOUR NARRATIVE LEVELS                    [#II]
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Interpreting Killer7 is like jumping into a cold swimming pool
on a hot summer day. There is no warm place to stand and get
used to the water. You just need to jump in--or get pushed.
Either way, you have to start tying things together by their
loose ends--and the knots you use aren't going to be
everyone's choices. With that in mind, I'll start with some
assertions that have a basis in the game's story, and I will
then explain the entire story of the game based on those
assertions. From here on out, when I write "such-and-such
means" or "such-and-such is this way," I'm reasoning the
conclusion either from the clarity that the definitions bring
to the story, or from a historical or mythological
relationship between a fact in the game and the historical
world we live in.
A pre-release article on Killer7 described the game thus:
"Killer 7 will contain five storylines that span through four
different worlds in two time periods, the present day and the
year 2005."
Amendments have been made, of course, to the narrative since
the publication of the article. For all of the differences
that developed between the earlier concept and the finished
product, though--I'm thinking specifically of the five
storylines and the two time periods--the "four different
worlds" facet stuck with me.
As I have played and studied the game, I have concluded that
the plot of Killer7 exists on four different levels of
narrative reality. These four levels of narrative reality are:
the Cosmic level; the Political level; the Individual level;
and the Spiritual level. To simplify the distinction (and to
prevent this document from becoming confusing), I will refer
to each level of narrative reality by a nickname.
The Cosmic level is Gods.
The Political level is Governments.
The Individual level is Folks.
The Spiritual level is Ghosts.
All of these narrative levels progress at the same time, and
they interweave through each other. In the interest of keeping
my explanation unconvoluted, I will describe the flow of each
of the four narrative levels, insofar as they operate
independent of each other.
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A: THE COSMIC LEVEL (GODS)                                 [#IIA]
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The Cosmic Level of the narrative is the easiest to describe.
However, I should clarify up front that there are three
different entities known as "Harman" in this game. They look
alike and speak alike; they are related to each other;
however, they are distinct from each other.
I will describe each of them, as they relate to their
respective levels of narrative. The "Harman" on the Cosmic
Level of narrative is the character who I refer to as "Hasidic
Harman," or H. H. I name him "Hasidic Harman" because his
manner of clothing suggests that he belongs to a spiritual
tradition related to Western religious heritage, which is
dominated by religious traditions that find their roots in
Hebraic history.
H. H. is described as "the God Killer." His rival is Kun Lan,
who is described as wielding "the Hand of God."
H. H. represents Western culture and civilization: Europe and
the Americas. Kun Lan represents Eastern culture and
civilization: the Asian continental nations and Japan.
At the end of the ANGEL episode, we see that H. H. uses
Garcian and the Smiths (in the Killer7 group) as
transportation. He and Kun Lan have a long history of
friendship, though they seem to regard each other with
professional (rather than personal) affection. They reflect
upon their competitive relationship as experienced via chess
games; most of the time, H. H. wins.
SUDA 51 (the visionary developer of the game) has been quoted
as remarking that H. H. and Kun Lan represent "the futility of
war." This seems most keenly expressed in the game's final
epilogue, which occurs 100 years after the game's events in
Shanghai. I do not disagree with SUDA 51's comment; I would
add, also, that it seems to represent the inevitability of war
and the eternal irresolution of differences between East and
West, so long as one attempts to aggress upon the other.
At the end of ANGEL, H. H. fires a tank-piercing bullet at Kun
Lan, who catches and drops the shell after having been
propelled backward by its impact. This moment signifies the
beginning of the "chess game" that occurs in the Union Hotel's
top floor suite, through the course of the game's events. The
only time H. H. appears is when he is in the company of Kun
Lan.
The conflicts between Kun Lan and H. H. involve human
political, personal, and spiritual affairs. These three levels
of existence are the media through which they war. Everything
that occurs on these levels of existence (and narrative) are
related to their actions. Importantly, these two figures are
not absolute dieties: they can "recruit" individuals, nations,
and spirits into their leagues--and the power that the
formerly subordinate entities gain from their recruitment
places them on a tier higher than most mortals.
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B: THE POLITICAL LEVEL (GOVERNMENTS)                       [#IIB]
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In order to understand the political narrative of Killer7, we
must first look at the enigmatic "Yakumo." Hints are given on
what it is, in the game, but it's never really made clear what
its contents are.
GameFAQs message board user Yoshiko Ohier has offered the
following information on the Yakumo:
"Acoording to the CAPCOM official web site in Japanese, Yakumo
is a text which was created by 7 Japanese
founders(politicians) in the past. The Yakumo (text) is said
to have a power to change the world. And, Ulmeida (Cloudman)
got somehow a part of the text and thanks to that, he could
develop his company to one of the biggest corporation in the
world. Here, I'll give you translations of two names:
"Yakumo = (Ya)eight (kumo)clouds
"KumoOtoko (title in Japanese) = (Kumo)Cloud (Otoko)man
"Ulmeida has gotten one Kumo (Cloud). Maybe that's why the
title was named 'Cloudman'. Well, this is what I think...".
Given the close relationship that the Yakumo, in Killer7,
shares with Japanese nationalism, it is pleasant to note that
the first recorded piece of Japanese poetry begins with the
very words "Ya kumo."
I would like to quote Patrick Smith's book "Japan: a
Reinterpretation" regarding this matter:
"The importance not only of belonging but of being hidden
within can be judged from the first lines of poetry Japan ever
produced:
"Eight clouds arise.
The eightfold fence of Izumo
Makes an eightfold fence
For the spouses to retire within.
Oh! that eightfold fence.
"These lines are about the whole of Japan. There were eight
clouds and eight fences because in the old chronicles Japan
consisted of eight islands."
During his brief scene, in SUNSET, Toru Fukushima described
the Yakumo as a policy that was created by the Union-Seven.
However, he expressed his revulsion with Japan as being too
weak of a nation to handle the power of the Yakumo. The
contents of the Yakumo are implied to be able to propel a
nation toward total domination of the world--or, at least,
primary control.
When I first played Killer7, my impulse was to regard the
phrase "U. N. Party" as indicative of the United Nations'
presence in the fictional universe. However, the U. N. Party
is not the United Nations. Travis' speech is most useful in
determining the role and identity of the U. N. Party.
Travis says: "Japan is controlled by the United Nations Party.
If the UN Party goes down, Japan's minority party will take
control. In other words, the Liberal Party would take the
reigns. There's some nasty shit cooking in this restaurant.
And it ain't momma's fried chicken."
During his brief scene at the start of SUNSET PART TWO,
Kurahashi says that all of the U. N. Party's efforts will be
destroyed, and that they have been in motion for "65 years"
since Japan's American occupation at the end of World War II.
Most historical resources seem to agree that Japan's struggle
after World War II involved two major ideological forces: the
liberal, individualistic ideas that wanted to depart from
Japan's culturally historical means of thinking and acting--
and the conservative, collectivistic ideas that wanted to
return the government to the control of an oligarchic shadow-
government and the pursuit of Shinto and Bushido ideals.
If we judge the political quality of the U. N. Party by their
apparent means of self-government (Kurahashi and Akiba reveal
that they dealt with succession by killing their elders) and
their contrast to the Liberal Party, we may conclude that the
Yakumo--as a governmental policy developed by the Union-Seven-
-is enmeshed in those conservative Japanese ideals.
Another historical departure might be useful, now. Japanese
foreign policy was established early in the second millenium
of the Christian calendar as "Hakko Ichiu." The ideology holds
that the Japanese emperor is not merely the sovereign
authority over the Japanese people, but over all people of all
races. The self-righteousness of their cultural self-
perception was manipulated easily during the Second World War
by Japanese Emperor Hirohiko (also a high Shinto priest who
very much believed in his own deity) into justification for
all types of nationalistic aggression. Translated, the foreign
policy aims to bring "all the eight corners of the world under
the roof of Japan."
The U. N. Party comes from this cultural tradition. The
Yakumo--a policy of "eight clouds," implying the literary
association with the first Japanese poetic expression of
nationalistic identity--seems to be a renovated form of "Hakko
Ichiu."
Further, this policy may have been developed strictly for
Japanese execution, but (as Fukushima admits) Japan is too
weak to implement it on her own.
Now, let's look a little at the supposed history of the U. N.
Party. Fukushima appears to be the party's leader. After all,
his political clout is the reason he is the Killer7's target
in SUNSET. Fukushima explains that he became frustrated with
Japanese politics, because of its inability to become anything
more than play-acting upon a stage. Yet, he explains, he got a
call one day from someone asking if he would like to be "an
architect."
Two questions stem from this root: first, who called
Fukushima; second, what sort of architecture?
I'll answer them in reverse order. The architecture is
Japanese; it is deliberate, I think, that Fukushima's estate
is so Japanese you can taste the Pocky. It is the only
location that is idiosyncratically Japanese in the whole game-
-even moreso than Battleship Island. The cultural history
implied by Fukushima's restaurant's architecture, along with
his description of his work as that of "an architect,"
suggests that the more abstract and political "architecture"
he designed was an extension of Japanese, Shinto-based
imperialism.
As for his caller--I think he was (who else) Kun Lan. Akiba
and Kurahashi seem to recognize Kun Lan easily enough, when he
appears to them and Matsuoka. Most probably, Kun Lan is the
head of the U. N. Party; by extension, it would make sense
that Kun Lan would have recruited Fukushima to create a
governmental structure--the U. N. Party--through which the
Yakumo could be realized in the field of world politics.
So--what are the eight clouds?
I'm unsure, exactly. It might be good, though, to consider who
possessed the Yakumo at what times. Fukushima was supposed to
have had the Yakumo, but Julie Kisagi appears not to have
found it on him--even going to far as to demand it of H. H.!
At the KAKU Building (where the second half of SUNSET occurs),
DePaul's ghost says that Matsuoka has the Yakumo.
When we speak to Ulmeyda's ghost in Curtis Blackburn's home,
during the second part of ENCOUNTER, he says that he gave
Clemence (the boy who was featured at the end of CLOUDMAN) the
Yakumo. Clearly, Ulmeyda possessed some measure of the
Yakumo's wisdom. The postal clerk describes Ulmeyda as "an
asshole" who seemed to have gotten lucky, and who seemed to
have risen out of nothing to his current status. Ulmeyda is
regarded by the townspeople as a mysterious local who rose to
prominence through his corporation "First Life," yet we learn
from Ulmeyda that the company doesn't exist: they simply run
commercials.
Ulmeyda's success, it seems, is owed to the governing ideals
and methods described in the Yakumo.
"But wait!" you may say. "Travis said that the Yakumo had the
power to let the United States dominate the world! If Ulmeyda
had the Yakumo, why didn't the do just that?!"
I answer: because he was a postal clerk. He's neither the
United States nor the U. N. Party. Even Garcian says of
Ulmeyda (when Master Harman asks if Ulmeyda is a
revolutionary), "No sir, no one of that calibre." Despite the
admittedly sadistic whims he displayed--such as destroying an
entire stadium during a concert and subjecting his heir to
"driving yourself to death"--he clearly possessed some
humanitarian impulses. Even though his decision to inject
himself with lethal diseases was a self-oriented action, to
make himself feel alive by courting death, his decision to
make his blood available for others to immunize them against
those diseases is humanitarian, surely.
I think that the Ulmeyda episode illustrates the manner in
which the Yakumo serves as an extension of the Shinto-based
policy of "Hakko Ichiu." In Andrei Ulmeyda, we see the
convergence of political leadership (he runs the town that has
his name) and religious leadership (he has a cult). However,
Ulmeyda's simplicity as a man and a leader only allows him to
create a facade of government. (Notice how that giant
corporate cathedral fell down, as mere plywood, and revealed a
desert in which Ulmeyda tested the limits of both his and his
acolytes' bodies.) Understanding this makes the intervention
of the U. S. military at the end of the CLOUDMAN chapter more
sensible: they seem to have neutralized Ulmeyda to retrieve
the Yakumo, which the United States has been trying to get for
a year.
I initially thought that "Yakumo" referred to a political
party; however, it does not. It refers to the cabinet policy
of the United Nations Party within Japanese government. The
irony of the party's name becomes more apparent, when we
recognize that the Yakumo is a revised version of "Hakko
Ichiu": a surface interpretation of the name "United Nations"
would lead a person to think that Japan had renounced its
attitude of racial entitlement to global rulership, and wish
to become united with other nations; however, since the nature
of their cabinet policy is nothing more than a revision of the
same ideology that led to the belief of racial entitlement,
they are claiming (oppositely) that they want to unite all
nations--UNDER JAPANESE RULE.
The curious thing about the Yakumo, to a Western (and
specifically American) mind, is its implied blending of
spiritual and governmental activity. On the one hand, it is a
governmental party's policy, and therefore it is governmental,
practical, executable; on the other hand, it seems to be
communicated only after harsh spiritual experiences, such as
Matsuoka's "enlightenment" by Kun Lan in the introductory
sequence of SUNSET PART TWO. In understanding this, it will be
important to remember the cultural tradition out of which the
"Hakko Ichiu" policy and, in turn, the Yakumo are derived.
Shinto religion held that the Japanese Emperor was supreme
over all, as a governmental authority as well as a spiritual
authority. Nationalism and government were inextricable from
spiritual identity. In his biography "Hirohito and the Making
of Modern Japan," author Herbert P. Bix writes of "Hakko
Ichiu" (also called "the Imperial Way"): "The 'imperial way'
was a motivating political theology sprung from the idea of
the emperor as the literally living embodiment of Japan past
and present, a paradigm of moral excellence all should follow.
The term denoted a kind of ideological warfare but also, on
the other hand, an action plan. It was designed to make Japan
free of all externally derived isms, such as Western
democracy, liberalism, individualism, and communism. Free to
be itself only, the nation would regain self-esteem and be
able to wage a 'holy' war of ideas against Western political
doctrines." For an incredible span of world history, Japan
violently resisted involvement with Western culture. At one
point, early after Western culture's introduction to Japan,
the Japanese took all Japanese and non-Japanese Christians,
physically crucified them, and displayed the crucified
practitioners of Western culture on the islands' coasts--so
that all Western ships passing by would know what sort of
welcome to expect.
Emperor Hirohito is described by Bix as having believed in his
own deity: "In a wooden building in the southeast corner of
the palace compound, he regularly performed complicated
rituals that clearly implied his faith in his mystical descent
from the gods, and the sacred nature of the Japanese state and
homeland." Hirohito continued to serve Japan, as emperor,
after their defeat and occupation during the Second World War.
Under his emperorship, then, the United Nations Party
developed and grew--the Yakumo was developed for execution by
what seemed to be a democratic nation, rather than a
theocracy--and Fukushima created the stable political
organization for the Yakumo to become active through.
Most American players--and I include myself in the category of
"most"--will see the theme of usurpation of American
democracy, during their first play-through of Killer7.
Understood against the cultural and historical tension of
post-World War II Japan, Killer7 is also the story of the
usurpation of Japanese democracy.
So, now that the Yakumo is understood, what can be said about
the political narrative of Killer7?
On July 3rd, 1998, the world trashed all of its nuclear
missiles and set up an island in the South Pacific for the
disposal of radioactive waste. Not all missiles were
destroyed, though: ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles)
remained.
I would like to quote the narration during the opening
animated film of SUNSET PART ONE: "The international society,
under the motto of 'Protecting the world from international
terrorism, ideology terrorism, and cyber-terrorism,' stopped
all air transportation and closed every network station in the
short span of two years, to reduce the likelihood of
terrorism. The world had changed.
"In the year 2002, a network of intercontinental expressways,
bridging the Atlantic Ocean, opened, connecting the two major
sides of the world. In the following year of 2003, the
construction of a mass scale distribution system began, and
the man-made landmass large as a city was built over an ocean.
The use and research of nuclear energy was banned, and all
radioactive waste and materials were disposed of at an energy
disposal facility in the Gibsoft Islands, a remote set of
islands off the coast of the Indian Ocean."
So--all this has happened. Soon afterward, though, a terrorist
group called "the Smiles" began attacking government meetings
and figures. Their modus operandi seemed to be to suicide-bomb
their targets. They were a hard group to catch, and--developed
to catch them--an underground society of assassins served to
kill targets who threatened the stability of the new-found
global peace. Among these, the group known as "the Killer7"
were supremely skilled.
Presumably, since the early 1980's, Coburn Elementary had been
taken over by the U. N. Party of Japan. There, they raised
children in the cultural image of the Yakumo. They taught that
the President of the United States was always decided upon by
"the Chairman of the Education Ministry." (This may be taken
as a misnomer for "the Secretary of Education," since the
American form of democratic government does not describe
itself in terms of "ministries.") In other words, they taught
that democracy did not exist--and they replaced the
ideological education of children under democracy with the
education of children under the Yakumo.
According to Hulbert's tapes, the children who graduated from
Coburn were prepared for post-graduation careers in government
service. In exchange for their service, Hulbert explains, they
were "promised their life." Those who did not comply with the
expectations of the United Nations Party and the Yakumo were
killed, although it is also highly probably that they were
deported and sold as orphans on the black market--or, they
were killed and their organs were sold on the black market.
Other students were recruited to serve as assassins, in the
interest of defending and supporting the Yakumo.
In 2010, a terrorist group called "the Heaven Smiles" began
attacking the United States. Their organization was unknown,
as was their leader. They were most troublesome, as
terrorists, because of their relative invisibility. Only one
counter-terrorist group (the Killer7) could see and kill
Heaven Smiles. In all, there seemed to be three "types" of
Heaven Smiles: first, people who looked human and wore strange
smiles; second, Heaven Smiles borne from eggs out of egg-
machines; third, Heaven Smiles cobbled together out of organs
harvested by black market organ sellers, like Pedro and Curtis
Blackburn.
Apart from the Heaven Smiles, tension existed between the East
and West--specifically, Japan and America--during the 1980's,
1990's, and first decade of the 21st century. Japan had become
a husk of a country, politically; it had so little political
clout, its most powerful political party (the U. N. Party)
can