Tsuyoshi passed away with a smile, telling Chipp "I'm glad you're alive."Ĭhipp claims he cannot honor that promise, and vows to enter the tournament he and Tsuyoshi have heard of, and will use the prize to wish his own organization to take Tsuyoshi's killers down. Tsuyoshi berated Chipp for coming back for him, and wanted Chipp to promise he would walk away and live his own life. He returned to find the assassins dead and Tsuyoshi near death. Chipp later realized the main force were after Tsuyoshi. Chipp and Tsuyoshi were training at the mountains when they felt the assassins coming, and they split up. They lived peacefully together until, in 2180, the Assassin's Guild ordered Tsuyoshi's killing for his betrayal. Chipp became a student at the ninja's dojo and trained body and soul in the ways of the shinobi. Now completely sober, Chipp realized that he followed Tsuyoshi for another reason, owing him a debt, and asked to be his apprentice. To no avail, Chipp attacked Tsuyoshi to take them back for an entire month. He woke up in the care of Tsuyoshi, who rescued him but also took his drug stock away. His pursuers were quickly dispatched by one man, but Chipp fell over and knocked himself out. After years of punishing his body with all manner of narcotics, he finally broke down and was to be "disposed" of by the organization.Ĭhipp fled from the Mafia. In order to secure a regular supply of them, he became a dealer for the Mafia. From a very young age, he struggled to make a living in the streets and got addicted to drugs. during the Crusades, Chipp was orphaned shortly after birth. Chipp's non-Japanese origin is given away by his speech: some of his lines during combat consist only of Japanese words known to foreigners ("harakiri", "kamikaze", "sushi", "sukiyaki", "Fujiyama geisha", etc.), and whenever he is surprised he will exclaim "What?" ( ワット ?) in English.īorn in the U.S. Chipp rarely loses hope, constantly striving to become stronger and improve his skills, and believes that failing is simply a chance to improve.Īs Tsuyoshi was Japanese, Chipp possesses a great love of Japan, and even claims to have been born there, but his image of the country is largely idealized and has little to do with reality. His methods are crude, but the morality he learned from his master, Tsuyoshi, never wavers. More of a street-brawler than anything else, the hot-headed Chipp is not much of a thinker, but has a great intuition in the form of hunches. His Strive look has him wearing harem trousers, a light brown obi-like rope, and black sandals in conjuction with his black jacket vest, red sash, and black wristbands.Ĭhipp is a straightforward and simple-minded man, impatient and quick-tempered, unable to get angry for a long time. He also puts on a pair of glasses in his victory pose. His Xrd appearance has some changes, such as red accents on his belts, a red sash, and a prominent ninja star on his vest. He is equipped with a short, curved silver blade attached to his right wristband that goes up along his arm to his shoulder. He invariably wears a black tank top-which resembles a leather jacket-tucked into a pair of white trousers with two straps on the left hip, shod in high closed shoes with large buckles. Afkahmi portrays Sima who is “socially peripheral” as “symbolically central,” for she poses a grave threat to Mahmud's nekah marriage, and therein lies her power.Chipp is portrayed as a muscular, yet slender young man with red eyes and earrings, and with white hair sticking out in all directions. By highlighting the role of sigheh marriages in maintaining the precarious balance of religiosity and modernity, the manipulation of religion, the societal and religious double standards imposed on women, marriage as an institution versus an intimate relationship, and politicization of the personal, Afkhami displays the complex aspects of sigheh marriages and the detrimental effects the practice has particularly on the personal lives of women, but also on society as a whole. Through the character of Sima, Afkhami pushes back against the social and moral corruption of the time, which is mapped onto a woman’s body that must ultimately be eliminated. He sheds light on the double standards that dominate sigheh marriages and dramatizes how the political becomes personal as individuals strive for morality. Afkhami exposes some key social problems, including sigheh marriages, and how religious regulations are used as a façade to justify social injustice. Showkaran depicts Mahmud, a happily married man who finds himself stuck at the junction of religiosity and modernity. In Chapter 7, I examine Behruz Afkhami’s Showkaran (Hemlock, 2000), set in 1995.