The second episode of Okami-san and Her Seven Companions centers around a young girl who seeks the aid of the Otogi Bank under extreme duress. She claims that an abusive boyfriend was attempting to make advances on her, when in reality it was a group of thugs from rival school Onigashima High who coerced her into a fabrication. Ryoko and Ryoshi go to the designated meeting point where they are ambushed. Ryoko is taken hostage, and the remainder of the episode is Ryoshi's fight to rescue her.The episode ends with a few questions, such as what the thugs were after and why they would advance into Otogi territory just to get what they wanted. As the narrator explains mid-episode, different schools in the city have different tracts of land associated with them. On the surface, it appears that their target from the getgo was Ryoko, considered one of the strongest fighters in Otogi territory. This implies that if they could eliminate her, they could start an offensive on Otogi Academy. Better yet, if they could control Ryoko, then they could take on far more than just Otogi Academy.
Territory in itself has always been a rather fascinating concept. People can claim all they want that a land belongs to them, but that land also belongs to their city, their state or province, and their country. In a sense, land (and sea for that matter) have many owners in something of a tiered or layered fashion. What's most important to us is who the primary layer of ownership consists of. These are the people who call the shots, period.
Often we associate territory with gangs, but it can include any demographic, such as those based on religion, political party, age group, or socioeconomic status. So it's a wonder that, in the real world, we don't see this happening a lot more often. Perhaps it has a lot to do with how populations, particularly in small communities, are intermixed. Nevertheless, the idea of grouping a bunch of like-minded people to a particular area and orchestrating some sort of tension between them is absolutely fascinating.
It stands as the precursor to the formation of individual cell-based societies, and when you have a large number of them, you have an environment not unlike the nations of the world. Either wars will break out, isolation will set in, or treaties and grand coalitions will form. The multitude of possibilities warrants further experimentation into this matter. We need to create a test group with which to test these hypotheses, and perhaps in the future, we will have that group.
After all, the wheels have already been set in motion in Detroit, in the Silicon Valley, and in countless other places. All we need to do is continue to cultivate them.
