Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad about a narrated voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State in the so-called "heart of Africa". Charles Marlow, the narrator, tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames. This setting provides the frame for Marlow's story of his obsession with the ivory trader Kurtz, which enables Conrad to create a parallel between what Conrad calls "the greatest town on earth", London, and Africa as places of darkness.
Shinya Kogami
The character has also been the subject of analysis by Anime News Network. The site compared him with the character of Charles Marlow from the novel "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. Like Marlow, Kogami's obsessive hunt draws him closer to his prey both inside and out to the point one of episode of the first series he is seen reading the book. Across the story, Akane wishes her partner to follow her ideals while Makishima instead wishes Kogami to embrace the darkness. While Kogami kills Makishima, he still decides to remain in the darkness and parts different road with Akane. In the book "Law and Justice in Japanese Popular Culture: From Crime Fighting Robots to Duelling Pocket Monsters", Kogami's character is noted for how surprised he is by Akane's thoughts in regards to whether or not his partner views the Sybil System, as Kogami's exclamation explicites that while the status quo is approved by her, Akane still does not value the Sybil System that monitors the world of the series.