Masculinity,+Femininity

 Noboru and the rest of the gang believe very strongly in a natural order, and they believe that human society has perverted that sacred order, although things may not be as simple as they think. In their eyes, at first at least, Ryuji and Fusako perfectly embody natural masculinity and femininity as found in the natural world outside of society's influence. However as they fall in love another side of each of them appears, eventually fully eclipsing the side the gang worship as the new couple become further influenced by the expectations and pressures of society.

Ryuji is not a part of mainstream society when he gives Noboru and Fusako a tour of the ship, he is separated from it by a huge mass of rolling, perilous, unpredictable sea. While he loves his adventurous life at sea, tears roll across his face when he hears his favourite song, "I Can't Give Up the Sailor's Life", which tells of the ties a sailor will never lose of the land, no matter how long he spends at sea (p. 18). Noboru does not know about this side of Ryuji, he only sees a man who has decided he does not want to be a part of a boring, predictable society, that he would rather live a life on the unpredictable, dangerous, endless sea. In Ryuji Noboru sees the epitome of natural manliness, an adventurous sailor who makes love to women in ports he visits, but never settles down with them (he is flushed with pride when he imagines Ryuji finally sailing away on p. 85). Noboru either chooses to ignore Ryuji’s other side that longs for a link to society after too many years away from it, or he simply doesn’t see it emerge until Ryuji starts falling in love with Fusako, the book doesn’t reveal this.

Before meeting Ryuji Fusako seemed, in Noboru's eyes again, a woman living a perfectly natural life, unhindered by the expectations and pressure of a society she was not engaged in. She was a single mother, fawning over her only child, and living a solitary, lonely life (as evidenced on p. 7 she longed for sexual pleasure from a partner); to Noboru this was the way all women should live, mainly because in his understanding it is how most other female primates in the world live, and therefore how female humans must have raised their young before human society made rules of behavior that veered away from that of the natural world. While in this state early in the book Fusako is also described by Noboru with characteristics relating to water and the sea (on p. 7 her shoulders were described as gently sloping downward, like the shoreline), which shows that Fusako shares characteristics with one of the few permissible things in the world according the Chief, further displaying the fact that Fusako fits the natural order the gang believes in, at least in Noboru's eyes. In reality however Fusako is an extremely independent woman, far ahead of society's curve of gender equality that is commonplace today. She owns a business all by herself and only requires one assistant, Mr. Shibuya, to aid her. Once again Noboru only sees one side of the adults, and this time it appears as if Noboru completely ignores the fact that his mother does not fit his natural order as well as he would like.

Noboru seems to be blind throughout the novel to the sides of Ryuji and Fusako that do not follow the natural order, that want love and to be a part of society once more. This blindness will eventually lead to great trauma for Noboru as he watches his hero, Ryuji, become the complete opposite of the idealistic image he once worshipped and his doting mother, Fusako, have to share her love with a new lover. This will lead Noboru to be forced, in his eyes, to end Ryuji's life and therefore to restore order to the world. All of us know this is not going to happen, the author does not need to tell us anything after Ryuji's fate is sealed, as the audience already knows the Cheif's evil plan will not work for Noboru and the rest of the gang; maybe the Cheif won't mind if he is completely shunned and looked at as a monster by all of society (including his own parents), but the naive Noboru and the rest of the gang are not pure evil, and will have their lives destroyed.