The Barebone Facts
Notes on his name: The Sentinel's Japanese name is "Ban Nin," which is the reason you see "Ban Nin no Heya" (The Sentinel's Room) at the bar on top of your browser. To be completely technical, a more direct translation of "Ban Nin" would be "guardian; protector," since the literal definition of the phrase is "one who watches and protects." (For the Chinese people out there, the Mandarin translation of "Ban Nin" is "Kanshourin," which means the same exact thing, as I was told when I verified this with a Japanese friend.) However, I decided that I like "sentinel" as a translation, because it 'felt' better (had a connotation I liked more) than just 'guardian' or 'protector'. Plus, "the Sentinel" sounded like a name as well as a job, more so than the other choices, so it fits him better. (As far as we know, "Ban Nin" is not just his position, it's also his name.) The word "sentinel," by the way, means "One that keeps guard," or "to watch over as a guard." (From the American Heritage College Dictionary.) So basically, it's a nicer-sounding, more 'name-like' way of saying the same thing. (IMO, anyway.^^)
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Physical Description
The Sentinel has a head of golden-blonde hair that seems really soft, and always a bit windblown. They surprisingly complement his large eyes, which are a deep red--one of the indications, besides his pointed, elf-like ears, that he's not exactly human. Those eyes probably appear so luminous because his skin is quite pale, but not deathly so; as a matter of fact, there's a healthy flush in his cheeks in practically every colored pic I've seen of him.^^ Another one of his striking (inhuman) features is his fangs. They're small, and you don't see them often, but when he laughs... They're definitely there.^^ As to height, the exact stats are unknown, but he does seem to be pretty short: shorter than the average adult, perhaps about as tall as an average junior high student. The Sentinel's build isn't what you'd call 'muscular'--as you can see from the pic to left, he looks delicate, almost girlish. In fact, some fans, from what I've gathered in the Taiwanese version of Nakayoshi (the monthly manga magazine that YWT appeared in), have actually thought he was a girl... though personally I don't see it, since his chest is really, really flat.^_^ His age, birthdate, bloodtype, favorite/least favorite food/color/drink/subject/hobby, etc., etc., are all either unknown or irrelevant. (Since he is, as far as I can tell, immortal, he is most likely ancient, he probably doesn't have blood, and we obviously don't know his birthday.) As to the rest, Matsumoto-sensei was unkind enough not to tell us.-_-; |
| As he so nicely explained to his awestuck and scared audience in volume 1, the Sentinel's duty is to listen and judge. Specifically, he listens to the lost souls (spirits of individuals who have unfinished business, a question about their death, and other things that make them unwilling to leave life) tell their stories, which usually comprise of the details of their death and the events which led up to it. After the 'story-telling,' it's the Sentinel's job to decide whether the lost soul sitting before him is truly 'lost'--that is, he or she got caught in the many obstructions on the figurative road of life--or if the soul's life has really come to an end. In the former case, the Sentinel would immediately send the soul 'back,' right to the point in life before that person died, so he or she can have a second chance. In the latter case, however, the Sentinel would turn the soul into its dormant, spherical form, and then let it go on to the next world. In the pic to your right, the Sentinel is using his power to 'wake up' a dormant, spherical soul...You can barely see it; it's between his hands. As to why he's waking this soul up... That leads me to another part of his job.^^
The Sentinel is a good and fair judge--he's never made a mistake, that's for sure--but those souls whom he helped never see their benefactor's other "job". It seems that the Sentinel is supposed to feed the demons which reside outside his door (more on that later), so if you're a particularly evil lost soul...watch out. You just might be the demons' next meal, and trust me: the Sentinel's not going to be moved by your screams. Fortunately though, he's such a fair (nice?) guy that he only sends the souls who really deserve to get eaten, so most of us don't have too much to worry about.^_^ (Oh, and the reason he's waking that soul to your right up is because he's about to feed it to the demons.^^;;; Too bad for that guy...)
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This will be complicated, because what the Sentinel can and cannot do in the YWT universe is only hinted at. (Again.-_-;;) In an attempt to make this a bit easier, I'll use a table format:
| The Sentinel has stated in the manga that he is able to turn back time (in volume 3). If he can manipulate time in such a fashion, it makes sense that the Sentinel would also be able to do the following: 'fast-foward' time, and 'stop' time. Unfortunately that is speculation on my part, because we never get to see him do either of those things. (Although one scene in volume 2 made it seem like he stopped time, because while he was talking to Satan, the two souls present said absolutely nothing, and remembered nothing afterward. Though that could be because of the Sentinel's next ability.^^) However, it is fairly obvious the Sentinel can at least see into the future, and possibly even more than one future, because he always seems to know exactly what the consequences would be if a mortal made a certain choice. I, of course, still hold the opinion that if one can 'turn back time', one should also be able to, at the very least, do the opposite of that. | |
| Controlling mortal memories is one of the very few things I'm positive the Sentinel can do; he's done it to every soul that ever drops by his room. (Except one, but that's a different story...) And this power seems to be pretty unique: in volume 3, during a show down (of sorts) with Satan, the Sentinel pointed out that only he and Satan had the ability to wipe away memory. As I mentioned before, the Sentinel uses this power quite often--everytime he gives a soul a second chance at life, returning them back to the world we know, he takes away their memory. After all, who'd want to remember that they were once dead?^_^
Of course, if you can wipe away memory, you should just as easily be able to give that memory back. And this time, it's not just an educated guess on my part-- the Sentinel once helped a girl regain her lost memory by asking her to gaze into the flames of his candelabra. Two seconds later, she gets a pounding headache, and when it's gone--voila! All her memory is back.^^ And if that's not power, I'm not sure what is.^_^; |
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| This particular power is purely speculation on my part, but I like to think the idea came with a lot of basis on what I saw in the manga. I believe that the manifestation of the Sentinel's power is in the form of fire, very simply because his main tool is the candles on his small table(see "His Candelabra"). Not only that, but the source of light in his room comes from the various candles on the candleholders affixed to the walls, as well as his candelabra. The Sentinel can (and has, many times) extinguish all of those candles without even leaving his seat. Exactly how he does this is unknown, but I imagine he probably just thinks about the flames being snuffed out, and it happens.^^ All this, of course, tells us that he can manipulate fire, which only supports the idea that those flames are a physical form of his power.
In addition, in volume 3 (during the "Nightmare" story), the Sentinel appears before Satan (royally pissed, I might add^~) with flames surrounding him. Now, this could just be Matsumoto-sensei trying to make the Sentinel stand out against a black background, but I think that's unlikely^^, because she only drew this 'flames' thing around the Sentinel (not around any other character with a black background), and only during this scene, where he was absolutely furious.^^ It's my opinion that, since the Sentinel came out to face his arch enemy (Satan), he make sure the Devil knew how 'displeased' he was by surrounding himself with flames--the physical manifestation of his power. (I mean, wouldn't you feel a little threatened in the face of that?^^) |
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| This ornate piece of decoration was what first led me to the conclusion that fire was the physical form of the Sentinel's power. The candelabra is crucial to the Sentinel's work--he uses it to show lost souls what they want to see in the living world, whether it be something happening at that moment, in the past, or in the future. (And sometimes, that's all a lost soul needs to move on: he or she might just want to know what happened after his/her death.) Apparently, the most important candle in the candelabra is the center one, because whenever it is used, the two candles at each side are always extinguished, leaving only the middle candle to burn steadily. This is the candle that the Sentinel always tells the lost souls to look into--and it shows those hapless mortals all sorts of crazy stuff, proving that the thing we call fate is too full of twists to be predictable.^_~
(And as aforesaid, the candelabra--specifically the center candle--is what the Sentinel used to bring back the memory of a lost soul.) |
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| Hm...perhaps this title is a bit presumptuous, but I do think anyone who can create an entire room out of nothing and have illusionary chairs that people can really sit in deserves to be called something of a master.^^ The Sentinel tells a soul in volume 4 that everything in the room (including the room itself) are illusions, created by him. The only 'real' things there, he continues, are the souls (and himself, he implies^^). Later, in volume 8, he apparently creates the illusion of a lost soul's 'ideal self' and has that illusion talk to the said lost soul. (In fact, I don't think he said more than two lines during that entire session.^^) This illusion, taken from the soul's mind, is real enough to have her own personality, and even holds a brief conversation with the Sentinel before she disappears. Granted the 'ideal self' was actually in the mind of that lost soul, but it was the Sentinel who gave that 'ideal' a form so she could speak her mind.^_^ (If it isn't too strange to think of an illusion speaking its mind.) Wouldn't you call him a master of illusion too, after that?^_^ | |
| This one may seem a little silly, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.^^ The Sentinel doesn't just speak to Japanese people; he talks to any lost soul from anywhere on Earth. (Unless...*snicker* he's in charge of the Japanese branch of the House of Lost Souls, inc., which I think is highly doubtful.^^) So obviously not all the conversations will be spoken in Japanese.^^ Now, I'm not sitting here saying the Sentinel goes and learns every language in the world; my opinion is that he has a way to make every lost soul understand what he is saying. In other words, he has a sort of 'universal language.' And this doesn't just stop at humans. On the contrary, the Sentinel has spoken to a cat (and the two understood each other perfectly^^), and a toy stuffed rabbit.^^;; (Long story, trust me.) But during both those times, the Sentinel was still speaking in one language--that is, with the cat, the conversation wasn't a series of 'meows' with translations at the side.^_^;;; The Sentinel just spoke, and the cat (as well as the toy rabbit, in a different story) understood his words. He speaks to the demons/monsters outside his room in the same fashion, comprehending their growls and grunts as easily as they seem to understand him.^_^ (Or as easily as he understands a human soul, if that comparison bothers you.) | |
| This one is a bit complicated; I'll try and be as lucid as possible. Basically the Sentinel can do the following with souls: 1) He can 'awaken' a dormant soul (those spheres you see in some pics); 2) change an awakened soul back into its dormant, spherical form; 3) send a soul back to anywhere or anywhen; 4) see through any disguise a soul might have; (This happened once.^^) and 5) change the age of the soul. For the first item in this list, he just lets the spherical soul float between his hands. Then he closes his eyes, concentrates a bit, and the soul changes back to its physical form (you know, a man, boy, woman, girl, etc..). In the case of #2, the act apparently requires physical contact--he always shakes hands with the soul he's turning back into an orb.^^ Number 3 on the list seems simpler--all the Sentinel does is gesture with his right hand at the said soul, and he or she is on his/her way back to a particular time/place in the mortal world. (This seems to be one of the only things regarding souls that doesn't require any contact.) Number 4 is a bit strange, because it's not really a 'power,' it's more (from what he implied) an intrinsic ability, comparable to how most of us can see in color or hear sounds. When a soul appears before the Sentinel, he or she is never in the dormant form; we always see the soul as he/she looked in life. But physical forms can be tricky; sometimes quirks happen that allow the soul to take a different appearance than what he/she had in life. The Sentinel sees only the soul beneath the physical appearance, so such 'disguises' and tricks mean absolutely nothing to him.
As for number 5, I'm not sure where this belongs because I don't really know exactly what he did. In one particular story (vol.8), the Sentinel sent a soul back to the mortal world temporarily so he (the soul) could finish tying up some loose ends in his life. However, by the time the soul died, he was a very old man--and to ease him along in his task, the Sentinel made him young again, literally. When we see the 'old' man in the story, his physical body was in his twenties. So you see my dilemma: I'm not sure if this is the Sentinel fooling around with time again (somehow bringing the man back to life and then taking away all the age), or if he is able to change the appearance of the soul through an illusion, or if he was just able to really change the features of the soul without fiddling with Father Time or smoke and mirors. What do you all think? |
And that is all the major ones, I think. If I squeeze the series hard enough, I'm sure I can come up with others...but I'm too tired right now. *Hears the readers cheer* Hey, I worked hard on this!^_^
The Sentinel works (and most likely lives) in eternal darkness, the boundary between the world of the living, and the world of the dead. As he often likes to remind anyone who 'drops by', time "does not exist" in this limbo-like place. Whatever that means exactly is up to interpretation, but it seems to me that the absense of time there means one can stay as long as he or she likes, but in the mortal, living world, not even a second would have passed.
A lost soul, waking up and finding himself or herself (let's say 'herself') in the darkness, will notice a point of light in the distance. This light comes from the crack beneath a single door, unattached to anything else besides the darkness--this is the entrance to the "room of wandering souls" (or House of Lost Souls, if you're translating from the Mandarin version). Upon making her way there and (usually) knocking uncertainly, the lost soul will hear a voice from within the room: "Please come in, the door's unlocked." Mustering up her courage, the soul opens the door...and this is what she sees:
A large, simply but tastefully furnished room, complete with small paintings and candle holders (with lit candles) on the wall, as well as a fireplace--with no fire. Standing before her is the Sentinel, who gives the soul a disarming smile and welcomes her inside. As she walks in, her shoes click on the bare, uncarpeted floor, and she sees two well-upholstered armchairs, facing each other. Between the two pieces of furniture is a small table, bearing an ornate golden candlabra upon it, with all three candles lit. She also notices that though there are "paintings" hanging on the wall, there is strangely no subject matter--the 'pictures' are all blank. (Though how much of this is Matsumoto-sensei's laziness I don't know. I prefer to think this lack of subject matter in those 'paintings' is done intentionally.) In the far left-hand corner, a wooden closet of elegant, old-fashioned design stands. What's in there is a mystery--and the Sentinel doesn't bother to enlighten his visitors about it. If the soul isn't too frightened or bewildered, she might comment that the overall feeling of the room is one of timelessness...because none of the furniture or design within this place looks modern. There is an aura of age surrounding the room and the host that has nothing to do with mildrew or mustiness or dust (none of which is present anyway).
Despite the benign appearance of the room and its keeper, the darkness is dangerous if you are not a lost soul...or if the Sentinel finds you unworthy. Because outside, lurking in the inky blackness, are the demons--the Sentinel's pets. (Or so I gather.) Their appearance is unknown (we only get glimpses of their huge and scaly hands), but their purpose is obvious: they eat any soul that the Sentinel sends back out to them, and they are always hungry.
Yayoi (unscathed despite having the demons attack her^^): Yay! I'm finished with the "Barebone Facts" of the Sentinel's profile!^^ Next up will be the "Not-so-barebone" stuff, in which I tear apart the YWT series to bring you an in-depth analysis on the Sentinel's elusive personality!
Sentinel: Somebody get me out of here...
