The visual metaphors continue. Peco’s enthusiasm is so infestious it begins infest Kazama, leading to a wonderfully symbolic scene. Kazama is constantly depicted as climbing an infitely tall wall, his monologue in the episode describing the detail the burden of winning. His path has no discrete goal or finish line, only the possibility of failure. Thus when he sees Peco fly past him, he finally ceases the endless climbing and tries something new. He breaks the cycle, and finally sees the hero.

(clip of peco kazama scene)

Except the Hero cannot help him directly, only show him the way. Kazama sprouts wings and escapes his self-imposed mental prison. Finally taking flight marks the resolution of another thread, mimiced in the final line of the episode. “People can fly”

(screenshot)

Kazama adamantly declares throughout the episode: “people can’t fly”. This both summarizes his feeling trapped in the cycle of endless victories, as well as deeper emotional trauma surrounding his father. The flashback imply Kazama’s father commited by suicide, and this combined with intense familiar pressure to conform to a specific role bind him to the earth.

Yet even as he’s about to lose Peco, he no longer cares. Not due to depression or an invalidation of his beliefs, but rather the epiphany that he doesn’t have to be shackled. He can be so much more. Life can be so much more. “People really can fly”