To @Aspirety’s point, wow, perhaps it’s because I haven’t gotten up to the bit where Tomitake’s real identity is discussed in my current read-through, but those parallels blew right by me. It’s really funny to consider Himatsubushi wasn’t even meant to exist originally when it feels like such a great bookend to the question arcs.
I enjoyed this arc so much more than I was expecting. Ryukishi really can do totally different things throughout the story and still draw you in every time. I adore Akasaka, have since the anime. I’m not sure what it is, I’m really glad Rika has a father-figure like him and he’s obviously such an important piece. Maybe it’s just refreshing to have someone both so genuinely good and also well-grounded in the cast at last. Akasaka is a very reassuring presence. I guess it’s also because up to this point adults have seemed almost directly pitched against helping the kids - I always felt very frustrated and upset watching the question arcs in the anime at how useless they were even when they seemed to want to help. It’s great to see an adult who might finally be able to help the kids out, and the general census seems to be that when Akasaka does deliver on that promise, it’s immensely satisfying.
I have to wonder whether he was even meant to be in the series if this arc wasn’t originally going to exist. Another thing I really appreciate about his presence is that it shows us another side of Rika. As someone who grows up knowing she’s going to lose her father and doesn’t seem particularly close to him, Rika definitely latches on to Akasaka as that presence in her life instead in my eyes. Through him, we see a much more vulnerable, childlike side to her. The side that still wants to believe, wants to be helped and protected. She deals with so much alone, in that Hanyuu can’t really help her physically, constantly trying to work out how to help her friends and avert tragedy, and in her relationship with Akasaka we see the side of her that’s tired and just wants to lean on someone else and be the child she never got to be. It’s a very valuable development, and it feels so good to see him finally give her that breakthrough in the final arc, the last piece of luck she so needed and deserved. As the readers, we so want to help Rika, to stop seeing her suffer, and through Akasaka we finally get that. It’s very refreshing after all the suffering Ryukishi puts us through, haha.