"Whaddaya mean you're not paying attention?"
Blue Seed Related Mythologies
Blue Seed is not just funny,romantic,action-packed and chock-full of some of the most ....uh interesting bunch of characters in anime,but it's also educational.....that is ,if you know know Japanese mythology. If you pay attention the series (you are paying attention,aren't you) you'll notice some familiar characters straight out of the mythology books,which is pretty interesting if you're into that sort of junk ^_^ .
Susanooh-no-mikoto (Susanooh) is the younger brother of Amaterasu-oh-mi-no-kami,who was a sun godess.Both of them were the children of Izanagi and Izanami,making them the great deities in Japanese mythology.Despite Susanooh's wild behavior (he was basically being an jerk) in Takaamagahara(the japanese equivalent of heaven),he was entrusted with governing the seas.Because of this uncanny behavior, he was banished to Earth to the Izumo region (Once you've watched Blue Seed this place should sound familiar to you).Once there Susanooh meets an old couple named Ashinazuchi and Tenazuchi, he also met their daughter, Kushinada-hime (Princess Kushinada). The couple said that they have eight daughters,but every year a 8-headed(and 8-tailed) monster (yamata-no Orochi) would eat one of their daughters (blech!),pretty soon the last daughter would be eaten as well.Susanooh volunteered to rid them of the beast if he can marry their daughter.So anyways, Susanooh turns Kushinada into a comb (?),gets the Orochi drunk with some serious Sake and kills it by cutting it up.To make a long story short,Susanooh builds a palace in Suga,marries Kushinada (hopefully he transferred her back into a human first),has three children (and a partridge in a pear tree ^_^ ).
The Sword with three Names(The Sword Of Orochi)
Did I forget to mention that Susanooh found a sword from Orochi's tail while he was cutting it up?Weeellll...he did ok(so I'm not the best story teller)?Anyways,Susanooh supposedly gave this sword as an offering to the gods and eventually landed at the hands of Ninigi( a granddaughter of Arematsu,who was Susanooh's older sibling).The sword is referred to as "Ama-no Murakumo"(Heavenly Gathering of Clouds Sword),but it was also referred to as "Kusanagi-no-tsurugi"(Grass-Cutting Sword) when it was used by Yamato Takeru,who used the blade to cut himself to safety when he was in a burning field of grass around the 2nd or 3rd century while he was in one of his campaigns(no...not the the campaigning related to elections).This would probably make more sense if you've watched the whole Blue Seed series .
Yamata-no-Orochi literally means "Big snake with eight forks" in Japanese.The anthropogical description of the Orochi legend relates Orochi with rivers,while the orochi ledgend with Kushinada-hime is thought of as a representation of sacrificing a girl to please the gods,therefore preventing disasters such as floods and to induce a bountyful harvest.
*Snakes and dragons are often related to rivers in the orient and have there are many interpretations on these types of ledgends.
The oo-gama is pretty popular in hero stories in the eastern world.The story of gama,orochi and namekuji (toad,snake,and slug) has been told for almost as old as time itself(at least around the edo-perod in Japan,which was still pretty old,btw).The gama shows up in Blue Seed Episode 10, trust me it's pretty cool....so watch it(or watch it again if you want)!
Oo-mukade(giant centipede) has been featured in the ledgend of a 12th century warrior named Toda Tawara.In his story, the mukade was suppose to be slain be the hero for the Dragon King of Lake Biwa. The hero killed the mukade using only 3 arrowas which were shot at the eye of the mukade, only the 3rd one, which had saliva (saliva is thought of as having magical proerties) on the arrow head finished it off. The Oo-mukade appeared on blue Seed episode 12 (I think),which was btw, one of the episodes that starts to show the whole plot of the series....yeah, that episode kicked ass.
The Kappa is one of the most famous monsters in Japanese mythology(I knew this even way before I even heard of Blue Seed). The Kappa are smart but were not really all that ill-disposed.They have been known to impart certain skills to humans on more than one ocassion.They usually have fish scales or tortoise shells and are about as big as a child. They have an indentation on their heads that contain water,which is essential for its powers. Kappa are known to be an honorable race and have never broken a promise.It likes to eat cucumbers,which is the reason why cucumber shushi rols are called a "Kappa." The Kappa show up In Blue Seed episode 15.
Just like pretty much all the spiders in mythologies, fairytales, ect spders are considered ominous,evil and just plain icky.In some stories the spiders are able to shapeshift to human form to be able to coax humans and/or to enable them to get close to them.There have been many stories about gumo in Japan around the 12th century.They show up in blue Seed episode 11.
Legend of Su-sa-no-oh
The Sword with 3 names
The Yamata-no-Orochi legend
Oo-gama
Oo-mukade
Kappa
Oo-gumo