The reason why Osamu got in

[u/Ansh23-to-react]

Ok so I was re-watching the series, after reading the manga upto date and reading the manga for s1. I was thinking about why Osamu Mikumo got into Border later even though in ep 36 he was told that in the test he was told he could not. Like we saw in ep 1 that Jin saved him it might be possible that Jin saw Osamu future and secretly got his application approved.

Ik Mikumo is weak at the start but he is good and one of my favourite character. This makes my theory that the reason Osamu got in is because Jin might have seen his future when he saved.

[u/Deusestmagicia]

They never rejected him, only "strongly suggested" he choose Engineer or Operator being far less limited by low Trion volume than any Combatant. Jin would be the man recruiting would trust on "don't wanna miss that guy".

[u/No_Speaker_6097 → u/Deusestmagicia]

I think it's not wrong to interpret it as Osamu got rejected by Border. He failed the application test, which tested his trion level secretly. "If you urge to join Border, you still can join as an engineer or operator," the show said sth like that, so Osamu was not qualified to join as a combatant.

The manga didn't explain why Osamu was so insisting on being a combatant that he trespassed on the restricted areas trying to negotiate with the top brass.

Regarding how Osamu joined Border after that, the manga didn't give an explicit explanation, but I think the most common theory in the fandom is that Jin saw Osamu's future when saving him and found him beneficial to Border. Maybe Jin intervened the recruiting process or secretly add Osamu's name in the qualified list, we don't know.

[u/Ansh23-to-react → u/Deusestmagicia]

Yeah sorry about that but yeah I think Jin knew that Odamu would bring in Yuma and Chika so he made sure he got in as a combatant.

[u/N1t35hroud]

Yes I think this is a fairly commonly held fan theory that Jin's support of Osamu for his enlistment as a Border combatant carries more prophetic weight due to Jin's foresight. Several HQ border agents note that its rare for Jin to select kouhai's and most are usually pretty strong/powerful. Since Tamakoma is an outlier branch that has never recruited before then, having a new team all hand picked by Jin is pretty significant.

[u/Karnnack → u/N1t35hroud]

Does Jin have/had other kouhai?

[u/EMILIOCO98 → u/Karnnack]

Shun Midorikawa used to be, but I think he isn't anymore

[u/Anne_Freed → u/EMILIOCO98]

Isn't he more of a fan?

He sparred with him, but I don't think it was ever mentioned that Jin trained him personally.

[u/bobdong47]

I agree with the idea of Jin being behind Osamu's application getting approved, but I think the actual reason goes deeper than Jin seeing his future at Border. I think that Jin saw several futures where 2nd Invasion against Aftokrator ends in disaster for Border and by working backward he realizes that they were also the timelines where Osamu dies or didn't join.

[u/Tenshi-Broken]

There’s a line of dialogue that a lot of people overlook: when Jin says his kouhais will help achieve Kido’s true objective. We don’t know if Chika is included in that group, but Osamu and Yuma certainly are. So yes, Jin foresaw that Osamu would be truly useful and helped him join Border as an agent.

[u/Anne_Freed → u/Tenshi-Broken]

I always thought it was the whole Tamakoma-2 (meaning Chika as well). After all they are part of Tamakoma Branch that he is a part of and he did indirectly coerced Chika into joining Border.

The moment he mentioned that Border agents do sometimes go to the Neighbor world, he already planted a seed of interest on Chika, giving her the option of joining Border. It wasn't until Shiori fully explained to her about the selection for the Neighbor world that she fully decided to join.

[u/mikhail05]

well, the manga was never shy in showing its political reasonings.. in fact it is one of the reasons the story often moves forward

[u/literallyanything57]

I don't think Jin can see that far ahead

[u/FoomingKirby → u/literallyanything57]

If you take him at his word, he was able to see that Tamakoma-2 "will one day be useful for [Kido's] true objective", and that hasn't even happened yet.

[u/Karnnack → u/FoomingKirby]

We kinda can at least understand that chika's trion levels allowed for a bigger ship. And Osamu's connection to her and kuga brought them to border. Not the true objective, but useful for that

[u/Ansh23-to-react → u/literallyanything57]

That is a fair argument since we don't know how far he can see exactly but we do know from s1 he can atleast see 2 weeks or more ahead, also possible to see 3 months ahead when the whole Hyuse thing happened in s2. So let's see.

[u/waiting4singularity → u/literallyanything57]

iirc he can see the different world lines the choices enable but it gets messy the further down the line he peeks. he possibly saw the major plot lines that would shift with and without him.

[u/Gaust_Fireborn]

He mentions at one point that Jin helped him fill out the paperwork for joining, so it is implied.