Chiitan's philosophical impact : light-heartedness and playfulness against a serious background by Kevin Kavanagh

 Chiitan's first affirmation is : the world as it is is too serious. But its first interrogation is : is this world really serious ?

We understand why some Japanese people were frightened by Chiitan. Even if that negative impression didn't last, it speaks for itself. As a friend of mine said, Chiitan looks outrageous compared to the Tradition of the Samurai. There may even be a dimension of provocativeness about it...

Irrespective of that, I can see three principal aspects, illustrated by the alternation of 1) daily posts on the social networks, 2) live communications on tiktok and instagram and 3) noteworthy appearances on a stage or a wrestling ring or again out in the open. 

In other words, 1) Chiitan the comic blunderer, crazy impressive stuntsman and clumsy hilarious boastful showman ; 2) Chiitan the innocent child, the funny fanciful creature and the close friend ; 3) Chiitan as singer in a band, as wrestler in challenging fights and in odd outlandish situations defying reason.

The most significant and far-reaching aspect of Chiitan's doings, a recurring mood and symbolic impact as far as our world is concerned, is in the short films posted on twitter/X with praising titles such as "I'm the god of balance" or "I found a good place to jump" or again "how to cross a river safely" etc., which all end up with Chiitan falling, tumbling down or, to put it more colloquially, coming a cropper in a spectacular, hilarious, even side-splittingly funny way. Chiitan's art of comedy or farce or horseplay is never gratuitous. The comic at large is never gratuitous and there's always something which goes further than mere comedy. 

To me, the discrepancy between the boastful title of those short films posted on twitter/X and the way in which they end sounds like an implicit comment on our world passed off as definitely successful (think of the show-off of technology and science, all the supposed assets of progress and modernity) but daily revealed as opaque and secretly harmful and destructive, even dangerous to human life and life at large.

The world is too serious in so far as it is not always in keeping with reason and common sense.

The world is not really serious in so far as it is governed by men but doesn't seem meant for men...

I shall stop at that and refrain from going further...

I hope to have opened an avenue of philosophical interrogation and investigation, or revealed possible levels of interpretation, reaching beyond the surface facetiousness and frivolity of Chiitan, its occasional flippancy, its often temperamental and unpredictable quirky behaviour contrasting sharply with its lovely, adorable appearance.

Chiitan's ironic, burlesque stance is meaningful because it stands out against the backcloth of our world.

Its running gags, evincing a sure sense of the comic, are more serious than this world...

-Kevin Kavanagh


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