How Atsugi matures Lee
Atsugi represents the point where Lee fully begins transitioning into the man we know him as. Despite being historical fiction, Libra feels much like a coming-of-age novel, just a remarkably unique one. In Atsugi, Lee first starts to spread his wings of freedom, hits some of his life's canonical events, and exhibits the unique behaviors that define the rest of his life, and death. One of the first things Lee does upon arriving in Atsugi is lose his virginity, in a bizarrely described scene where we can sense his inexperience. Yet throughout Atsugi he grows more comfortable in his body, maturing in a way that forecasts how he'll continue to develop throughout the novel. Lee also finds his role as an outcast Marxist, but this time he actually feels like he has important information to share, his limited intel on the U.S.'s planes gives him something to spread. He meets Kono, an example of the older mentor figures that so influence Lee, and Lee feels like he's become impo...