Nairohe
15-04-03, 06:12 AM
I’m warning you, this is a very LOOOONG post so I’d really appreciate it if you took the time to read it all the way through before responding. I guess I have too much time or I just blow this all out of proportion. I might unintentionally throw in a few spoilers or two so it might be best if you already have prior knowledge up to Chapter 72 of the manga, or have an idea what’s going on in the newer chapters since you might get confused on a few parts, if you have seen all of Furuba, eh, that should be fine to get th egeneral idea of this rantage. Mahahaha, anyway, here we go!
These are just a few little theories going on around my head about the curse in general. We don’t know what caused the curse yet, why the Sohma family ended up with it and what it’s ALL about. The manga is yet to explain. Being a cursed Jyuunishi means:
1. being hugged by the opposite sex will change you into an animal of the Chinese zodiac.
2. Those cursed will take on “stereotype” or general characteristics of the animal they are cursed with. They will either take on the animals behavior or part of the animal’s looks (Haru’s hair, Kyo being weak during rainy season because cats generally don’t like the rainy season)
3. Those cursed are always born 2 months premature (says momiji somewhere, and I can’t remember when. ^^;;;) Premature complications have a big range, but the most common complication is being born with underdeveloped lungs that they usually outgrow when
before they reach their teen-age years. (Ring! Ring! Can you hear
the alarm bells? ^_^. One current jyuunishi member had a history of a weak bronchi as a child... ^_^. Let’s just assume that Yuki is the only one who grew up and didn’t recover but in my opinion, this is probably brought about due to psychological and emotional stress caused by Akito.)
4. Status within the Sohma family. We are given this hint through Yuki’s mother. Yuki has often talked about his mother using “him” as a status. We also know that those who are born with the Cat zodiac’s curse are looked down upon. What exactly does the status gain? So far it’s pretty obvious that it takes you up the social “sohma” ladder, though what else do you gain and does it have something to do with the animal your cursed with? If those cursed with the Cat zodiac are alienated and spat on, do all rat zodiacs gain the highest status or is it as random as the curse? There is one version of the Chinese zodiac that states that the Rat zodiac is special.
A more authentic explanation says, the Earthly Branches are divided into two categories: Yin and yang. Each of them is paired with an animal of the same"gender". The gender of the animal is determined by the number of a specific part of its body. Odd numbers are yang and even numbers are Yin. The tiger, the dragon, the monkey and the dog, all have five toes on each foot or paw, and the horse has one hoof. So we hnow they are Yang animals. The cloven-hoofed species such as the ox, the goat and the pig fall into the Yin category because their hoofs are divided into two parts. The rooster is also Yin since it has four toes on each foot. The rabbit has two upper lips and the snake has a two-point forked tongue. So they are Yin, too. The mouse had been a problem. It has four toes on each fore leg and five on each hind leg. It has both Yin and yang qualities and there seemed to be mo place to put it. Fortunately, the first of the earthly Branches, Zi, can be considered both Yin and Yang. The Branches were also used to designate. Days and hours, and when symbolizing the hours, this branch covers a period from eleven in the evening to one o' clock in the morning. PM is Yin and Am is Yang. So the mouse goes together with this first branch. It is this double-gender feature, a kind of split personality, you might say, that makes the little mouse the leader among his colleagues.
5. The curse is inherited randomly. The curse is like Russian Roulet. it's assumed that the Sohuma child born on the same time that a jyuunishi died is likely to inherit the curse based on what Kazuma said about his grandfather and Kyou. The year that Kazuma's grandfather died, was the year that Kyou was born.
although the curse strikes at random according to Kazuma, I read somewhere on a Furuba Mailing list, though I’m not quite sure where to find the reference IN THE MANGA, Someone mentioned how Kyou said that Yuki should have been the one born with his Zodiac. Knowing Yuki’s mom always being concerned about her social status within the Sohma family, she might have found a way to calculate the curse so she could have Yuki.
6. It also seems that of the cursed 13, there is usually one member who has the power to erase people's memories - as a defense mechanism if someone outside of the family finds out about the curse. In the manga, Hatori has this power. It's not clear whether or not the Souma's cursed by the dragon are the only members able to possess this power. And it's not clear if one Souma member, at any given time, has this power or if it skips a generation.
7. The cursed 13 also have the ability to attract other animals depending on their mood. So, Yuki attracts mice, Kyou attracts cats, etc. They can call upon these animals to help them out when they're in trouble. So in vol. 1, when a landslide covers up Tooru's tent and her mother's picture, Yuki calls his 'lil mice buddies to help him uncover them. It also seems that cats are attracted to Kyou when he's angry or depressed ^_^.
Those are the conditions or hints of the curse that we can see so far but how about the god of the jyuunishi? How is the god of the jyuunishi decided?
Chapter 1 (Yuki tells Tohru a different version of the Jyuunishi)
YUKI
Ah, what were you talking about, something like, "I will become a cat?"
TOHRU
When I was a kid I was kind of silly... yes.
YUKI
The cat is stupid. Its nature is bad.
TOHRU
What?
[Small print: Its nature is bad?]
YUKI
Honda-san, do you know? That the Juunishi were actually the Jikkanjuunishi?
P21
YUKI
They were used for numbers and telling time.
The Yin-Yang's Five Elements and dual forces were added and it became
a form of fortune-telling.
TOHRU
It had nothing to do with animals?!
YUKI
Yeah.
I don't know when the original turned into the animal-basis we have now, but...
Ever since the beginning, the cat wasn't included in the Juunishi.
But I'm glad it's like that. What would happen if the cat joined the Juunishi?
It really is stupid, the cat.
Yuki’s explanation made me wonder a lot so I did some looking around on what the Jikkan Jyuunishi is. I didn’t really find out that much except that it was just that, a number system used by the Japanese. I’m not sure how I could associate that with the curse but maybe someone who has a background in Japanese culture could make the connection somehow.
http://daiboukenfuruba.digital-midnight.org/story/zodiac/zodiac.html
I’m also just going to cut and paste someone’s explanation regarding the Sohma family and the curse because she said basically what I wanted to say.
The Souma's are wealthy. Just look at their homes and occupations. Hatori's a doctor, Shigure's a successful writer, Ayame owns his own store and both Ritsu and Kagura attend college. The Souma's are definitely not poor. However, it's unclear whether or not their wealth is at a result of the curse. You have to wonder why the Souma's are cursed. How did it originate? Maybe the curse is a tradeoff for the success of the family? I think it's possible that the purpose of the cursed 13 is to take negative energy away from the rest of the family. If you read X/1999 by CLAMP then this theory makes sense. Kamui's mom and aunt were "kage-nie" (shadow + offering), who took on the misfortunes of important figures in politics, etc. So maybe that's what the juunishi are. Of course, it's possible that the curse is, well, just a curse and the first Souma in the world screwed up really badly one day a long long time ago, and so now his whole family is paying for it...we just don't know.
I will say this though, the extent of the Souma family wealth is pretty impressive. We know that the Souma's own several homes throughout the country and that they even have their own onsen resort (spa/hotel)! In order to run an empire like this, you need a strong family leader and I'm not sure if Akito is it. The juunishi consider him the head of the family, but maybe his role is really one where he watches over the Juunishi plus the cat to make sure that no one outside of the family finds out about the curse. It makes sense that the cursed 13 would be taken care of because if word got out that the family was cursed, anyone related to the Souma family would be considered an outcast of society.
We do know that the people that look after the juunishi plus the cat are paid quite well for their services. For example, whenever Kyou, Yuki or Kagura destroy his house, Shigure pays for the damages from a fund set aside for each of them. Perhaps Akito is cursed as well. If his function is to monitor the cursed 13, then that means that someone else must be running the show. Is there someone else in the family more powerful than Akito? Akito's pretty young, so someone else must be directing the family's finances, etc. Maybe all the non-cursed Soumas are using the cursed 13 plus Akito and there's another chain of power we're not aware of that is directing everything?
We do know that Momiji's family is loaded. His dad owns the building where Tooru works and it seems that he runs a business there as well. In the chapter where Momiji, Tooru, Yuki and Kyou go to the Souma onsen, they get driven over there by a charter bus... Someone had to pay for that. Was it Momiji's dad? Was that bus driver actually a Souma? Perhaps the Souma empire includes bus companies as well? Maybe there's a board of directors where the Souma's that know about the curse run things from behind the scenes...
http://daiboukenfuruba.digital-midnight.org/story/soumas/soumas.html
In relation to these matters, there are family issues that bother me. Why is Akito hurting / torturing members of the jyuunishi who “fall in love” or find some kind of “happiness?” It was obvious that he didn’t want Hatori to be with Kana. He also hurt Rin, not completely clear but it doesn’t seem like it was about her secret relationship with Haru, there were strings attached and he got angry at her about something else. Did it have something to do with Shigure? Rin said she liked Shigure when she broke up with Haru. Also, why Yuki of all the jyuunishi’s? Why is Akito so fond of Yuki?
I think perhaps, Akito is preparing Yuki to be the next heir. The curse itself might work the same way we move from one year to another. Each year, a new animal god rules and perhaps it just happens to be the mouse jyuunishi next though perhaps, it could be just because the mouse jyuunishi is just a ‘special’ one based on one version of the jyuunishi story. Comparing Akito’s behavior to that version of the story, he himself just might be blinded to the curse and the rumors the same way he’s convincing the others to act their parts though that reason just seems too shallow for a character like Akito to dwell into. Then again, the one cursed by the god spirit might simply be an outside element similar to the cat spirit.
I think too much huh? Wahahah he… thanks for reading. ^^
These are just a few little theories going on around my head about the curse in general. We don’t know what caused the curse yet, why the Sohma family ended up with it and what it’s ALL about. The manga is yet to explain. Being a cursed Jyuunishi means:
1. being hugged by the opposite sex will change you into an animal of the Chinese zodiac.
2. Those cursed will take on “stereotype” or general characteristics of the animal they are cursed with. They will either take on the animals behavior or part of the animal’s looks (Haru’s hair, Kyo being weak during rainy season because cats generally don’t like the rainy season)
3. Those cursed are always born 2 months premature (says momiji somewhere, and I can’t remember when. ^^;;;) Premature complications have a big range, but the most common complication is being born with underdeveloped lungs that they usually outgrow when
before they reach their teen-age years. (Ring! Ring! Can you hear
the alarm bells? ^_^. One current jyuunishi member had a history of a weak bronchi as a child... ^_^. Let’s just assume that Yuki is the only one who grew up and didn’t recover but in my opinion, this is probably brought about due to psychological and emotional stress caused by Akito.)
4. Status within the Sohma family. We are given this hint through Yuki’s mother. Yuki has often talked about his mother using “him” as a status. We also know that those who are born with the Cat zodiac’s curse are looked down upon. What exactly does the status gain? So far it’s pretty obvious that it takes you up the social “sohma” ladder, though what else do you gain and does it have something to do with the animal your cursed with? If those cursed with the Cat zodiac are alienated and spat on, do all rat zodiacs gain the highest status or is it as random as the curse? There is one version of the Chinese zodiac that states that the Rat zodiac is special.
A more authentic explanation says, the Earthly Branches are divided into two categories: Yin and yang. Each of them is paired with an animal of the same"gender". The gender of the animal is determined by the number of a specific part of its body. Odd numbers are yang and even numbers are Yin. The tiger, the dragon, the monkey and the dog, all have five toes on each foot or paw, and the horse has one hoof. So we hnow they are Yang animals. The cloven-hoofed species such as the ox, the goat and the pig fall into the Yin category because their hoofs are divided into two parts. The rooster is also Yin since it has four toes on each foot. The rabbit has two upper lips and the snake has a two-point forked tongue. So they are Yin, too. The mouse had been a problem. It has four toes on each fore leg and five on each hind leg. It has both Yin and yang qualities and there seemed to be mo place to put it. Fortunately, the first of the earthly Branches, Zi, can be considered both Yin and Yang. The Branches were also used to designate. Days and hours, and when symbolizing the hours, this branch covers a period from eleven in the evening to one o' clock in the morning. PM is Yin and Am is Yang. So the mouse goes together with this first branch. It is this double-gender feature, a kind of split personality, you might say, that makes the little mouse the leader among his colleagues.
5. The curse is inherited randomly. The curse is like Russian Roulet. it's assumed that the Sohuma child born on the same time that a jyuunishi died is likely to inherit the curse based on what Kazuma said about his grandfather and Kyou. The year that Kazuma's grandfather died, was the year that Kyou was born.
although the curse strikes at random according to Kazuma, I read somewhere on a Furuba Mailing list, though I’m not quite sure where to find the reference IN THE MANGA, Someone mentioned how Kyou said that Yuki should have been the one born with his Zodiac. Knowing Yuki’s mom always being concerned about her social status within the Sohma family, she might have found a way to calculate the curse so she could have Yuki.
6. It also seems that of the cursed 13, there is usually one member who has the power to erase people's memories - as a defense mechanism if someone outside of the family finds out about the curse. In the manga, Hatori has this power. It's not clear whether or not the Souma's cursed by the dragon are the only members able to possess this power. And it's not clear if one Souma member, at any given time, has this power or if it skips a generation.
7. The cursed 13 also have the ability to attract other animals depending on their mood. So, Yuki attracts mice, Kyou attracts cats, etc. They can call upon these animals to help them out when they're in trouble. So in vol. 1, when a landslide covers up Tooru's tent and her mother's picture, Yuki calls his 'lil mice buddies to help him uncover them. It also seems that cats are attracted to Kyou when he's angry or depressed ^_^.
Those are the conditions or hints of the curse that we can see so far but how about the god of the jyuunishi? How is the god of the jyuunishi decided?
Chapter 1 (Yuki tells Tohru a different version of the Jyuunishi)
YUKI
Ah, what were you talking about, something like, "I will become a cat?"
TOHRU
When I was a kid I was kind of silly... yes.
YUKI
The cat is stupid. Its nature is bad.
TOHRU
What?
[Small print: Its nature is bad?]
YUKI
Honda-san, do you know? That the Juunishi were actually the Jikkanjuunishi?
P21
YUKI
They were used for numbers and telling time.
The Yin-Yang's Five Elements and dual forces were added and it became
a form of fortune-telling.
TOHRU
It had nothing to do with animals?!
YUKI
Yeah.
I don't know when the original turned into the animal-basis we have now, but...
Ever since the beginning, the cat wasn't included in the Juunishi.
But I'm glad it's like that. What would happen if the cat joined the Juunishi?
It really is stupid, the cat.
Yuki’s explanation made me wonder a lot so I did some looking around on what the Jikkan Jyuunishi is. I didn’t really find out that much except that it was just that, a number system used by the Japanese. I’m not sure how I could associate that with the curse but maybe someone who has a background in Japanese culture could make the connection somehow.
http://daiboukenfuruba.digital-midnight.org/story/zodiac/zodiac.html
I’m also just going to cut and paste someone’s explanation regarding the Sohma family and the curse because she said basically what I wanted to say.
The Souma's are wealthy. Just look at their homes and occupations. Hatori's a doctor, Shigure's a successful writer, Ayame owns his own store and both Ritsu and Kagura attend college. The Souma's are definitely not poor. However, it's unclear whether or not their wealth is at a result of the curse. You have to wonder why the Souma's are cursed. How did it originate? Maybe the curse is a tradeoff for the success of the family? I think it's possible that the purpose of the cursed 13 is to take negative energy away from the rest of the family. If you read X/1999 by CLAMP then this theory makes sense. Kamui's mom and aunt were "kage-nie" (shadow + offering), who took on the misfortunes of important figures in politics, etc. So maybe that's what the juunishi are. Of course, it's possible that the curse is, well, just a curse and the first Souma in the world screwed up really badly one day a long long time ago, and so now his whole family is paying for it...we just don't know.
I will say this though, the extent of the Souma family wealth is pretty impressive. We know that the Souma's own several homes throughout the country and that they even have their own onsen resort (spa/hotel)! In order to run an empire like this, you need a strong family leader and I'm not sure if Akito is it. The juunishi consider him the head of the family, but maybe his role is really one where he watches over the Juunishi plus the cat to make sure that no one outside of the family finds out about the curse. It makes sense that the cursed 13 would be taken care of because if word got out that the family was cursed, anyone related to the Souma family would be considered an outcast of society.
We do know that the people that look after the juunishi plus the cat are paid quite well for their services. For example, whenever Kyou, Yuki or Kagura destroy his house, Shigure pays for the damages from a fund set aside for each of them. Perhaps Akito is cursed as well. If his function is to monitor the cursed 13, then that means that someone else must be running the show. Is there someone else in the family more powerful than Akito? Akito's pretty young, so someone else must be directing the family's finances, etc. Maybe all the non-cursed Soumas are using the cursed 13 plus Akito and there's another chain of power we're not aware of that is directing everything?
We do know that Momiji's family is loaded. His dad owns the building where Tooru works and it seems that he runs a business there as well. In the chapter where Momiji, Tooru, Yuki and Kyou go to the Souma onsen, they get driven over there by a charter bus... Someone had to pay for that. Was it Momiji's dad? Was that bus driver actually a Souma? Perhaps the Souma empire includes bus companies as well? Maybe there's a board of directors where the Souma's that know about the curse run things from behind the scenes...
http://daiboukenfuruba.digital-midnight.org/story/soumas/soumas.html
In relation to these matters, there are family issues that bother me. Why is Akito hurting / torturing members of the jyuunishi who “fall in love” or find some kind of “happiness?” It was obvious that he didn’t want Hatori to be with Kana. He also hurt Rin, not completely clear but it doesn’t seem like it was about her secret relationship with Haru, there were strings attached and he got angry at her about something else. Did it have something to do with Shigure? Rin said she liked Shigure when she broke up with Haru. Also, why Yuki of all the jyuunishi’s? Why is Akito so fond of Yuki?
I think perhaps, Akito is preparing Yuki to be the next heir. The curse itself might work the same way we move from one year to another. Each year, a new animal god rules and perhaps it just happens to be the mouse jyuunishi next though perhaps, it could be just because the mouse jyuunishi is just a ‘special’ one based on one version of the jyuunishi story. Comparing Akito’s behavior to that version of the story, he himself just might be blinded to the curse and the rumors the same way he’s convincing the others to act their parts though that reason just seems too shallow for a character like Akito to dwell into. Then again, the one cursed by the god spirit might simply be an outside element similar to the cat spirit.
I think too much huh? Wahahah he… thanks for reading. ^^