At Sixes and Sevens

Thoughts on the Symbolism of Numbers in the Sensui Arc

(Yeah, I'm a religious-studies dorkus malorkus, along with being a numerology-symbolism fiend. So I had to write this down.)

SIX- Six traditionally has associations with evil, the Christian idea of Satan, and negativity in general. There aren't many occurances of six as symbol here; but note well that Itsuki has six shadow hands, which represent his youkai nature, and thusly, to Sensui in his tantei days, evil. However, if you look longer, you notice that Itsuki has eight hands in total (six plus two); eight is associated in Buddhism with dharma/righteousness (Noble Eightfold Path of Buddha), and, in Western cultures starting with the Pythagoreans, maternity and nurturance (2 [woman] times 4 [the earth]).Note also that one performs different operations on the "female" and "earth" numbers to yield "evil" and "good" respectively, but they come from the same source- the dilemma of the arc. ("What is good? What is evil? Is there anything in between?" etc.)

SEVEN- Whooboy. THE major numerical symbol of the Sensui arc. The group to open the gate numbers seven in total; Sensui has seven personalities; even the Game-mao video game has "seven chosen warriors" in seven tests of skill. Seven is a symbol of the Universe, combining the "heavenly" number three and the "earthly" four, the cosmic male/female elements that add up to a masculine (odd) number. This means that the events have universal importance that like the Book of Revelation with seven seals and seven angels (or X/1999, if you like >D), or the description of the Antichrist as having seven heads (which I find humorous when applied to Sensui's MPD), the signal for the end of the world is at hand...or perhaps the battle has just begun. Togashi may just have realized that seven signals "apocalypse" in the minds of his readers, and nothing more. (I know of no Buddhist associations besides the Seven Gods of Good Fortune...but that's irrelevant to this argument.)