I’ve realised that whenever Kano is posssed, she’s reciting words she spoke in her lifetime. Either the song about her child (is that a real song btw?) or things like “This child is my life. She’s my only treasure.”, “I’ll do it with my own hands” etc. It’s less like a consciousness inhabiting Kano, and more like an echo.
The problem is that I don’t see why they did this form a literary standpoint. Why go through the effort of creating this character, and causing her grief to give Kano so much trouble? Not only does Shiraho’s story have NOTHING to do with Kano, but sadly, Shiraho’s story never reached any kind of resolution. Not in her past, not in the present.
Except… Maybe, just maybe, the connection is how Kano’s mother died. Much like Shiraho, Kano’s mother could be thought of as ‘sacrificing herself to save her daughter’. They didn’t show us what happened to Yakumo after her mother died. Realistically, it’s likely that she was sacrificed, but by the way this story is presented, I think they want us to believe that her Shiraho’s sacrifice lead to Yakumo surviving into the future. Perhaps, even if they aren’t the same person, hearing Kano thank her mother for giving birth to her would have been some kind of salvation for Shiraho’s spirit, as if she’s hearing the wishes of her own daughter through Kano.
Either that or… I dunno, you could flip it around with the interpretation that there is no soul of Shiraho inside Kano. Instead, it’s like Kano’s taking on Shiraho’s memories due to her regret of causing her mother suffering. And by being able to thank her mother, she can let go of those regrets and stop being possessed by those memories that aren’t hers.
It’s still a very botchy route, but I’m trying to make as much sense of it as I can
Also, I have a question for the history nerds here. Can anybody pinpoint what war might have been taking place during Shiraho’s story?