#kagurabachi theory

[haunted-wizard]

I know she summoned Hiruhiko but I really feel like Toto's sorcery is blood control.

I think she can read memories by ingesting blood also

[yakopi]

Kagurabachi theory part 2

In my previous post I talked about my thoughts about the allusions to gods in Kagurabachi, and I mentioned that 7 Enchanted swords could be a vague reference to the 7 prosperity gods. And now I want to talk further about the swords.

Part two. The Enchanted Swords and what makes them special.

At first, I thought that the swords could be a further reference to the different prosperity gods, as Enten summons goldfish and Ebisu is the god of fishery.

This could also tie into the title of the story if the swords have something to do with the gods. Kagura dances often are accompanied by props, and fighting is often associated with dancing.

Meaning that possibly every time Chihiro uses Enten to dance/fight, he invites the (power of the) gods in his bodies.

Then, when I thought it through, I think that I found another connection:

All swords, until now, have a potential link to yokai/mythological creatures.

Enten summons goldfish, and there is a Yokai, Kingyo no yurei, which are goldfish possessed by spirits of the deceased, often murder victims.

Cloudgourge gives ice, water, and lightning abilities and sometimes summons attacks in dragon forms. Dragons in Japan are associated with water and the weather, so that tracks.

Tobimune has summoned feathers in a move called 'Crow/Karasu', and Tengu are a Yokai based on crows.

Kumeyuri has not revealed much about it, just some geisha-like spirits, however, there are enough Yokai that are based on normal-looking women. Yuki-onna, kuchisake onna, Ame-onna etc. I will have to see more to determine (if true) which yokai it is precisely.

The last revealed sword is Magatsumi, which has references to multiple yokai. It creates flowers and butterflies through spider (Jorogumo), dragonfly (koshinuke no mushi), and centipedes (omukade) techniques.

However it could also be a reference to a single yokai: the Jubokko, a vampire tree that consumes all your blood and is associated with insects that will take care of the carcass that is left. It could also explain the black liquid, as blood can become near black the longer it coagulates.

(A Jubokko would also be kind of ironic considering these trees are created when a huge amount of people died at their feet. And wouldnt you know, there was a war going on at the very moment Magatsumi was created.)

We have not seen the other swords, so everything is still possible, however, my theory for now is that the essence of yokai has been in one way or another placed/forged into the swords (hence why they are called Yoto, demon swords).

The first swords contained 1 yokai each, however those swords were just not strong enough. So the 6th sword was forged with either 3 yokai in it to make it more strong, or 1 yokai that could be stronger the more it is used in battle/gets blood.

This theory could also be why Magatsumi had to be sealed away so carefully compared to the other swords. It was already so powerful due to the 3 yokai that nobody should wield it in fear of damage/being corrupted by the yokai.

Or because if it continued to be used it would eventually get so strong that anyone wielding it would be overcome by it.

(If this theory is true, Enten could become an interesting plot point later, as Chihiro's father was murdered, so he could be in the sword.)

TLDR; The demon swords can possibly contain demons. Who could have thought?

(More thoughts in Part 3: Sealing power)

[strangeduckpaper]

Sorcery in Kagurabachi we've seen/heard so far (minus enchanted blades):

Standard sorcery (most sorcery we see, innate sorcery)

Inherited sorcery (Isou and the Storehouse, one passed through genetics, the other through ritual)

Basic movement and barrier sorcery (maybe for enhancing physical capabilities, or Barriers like jjk?)

Geniuses who can use multiple innate sorceries (Hakuri and the first Sazanami)

Unique traits (Char's healing ability, which is never stated to be a sorcery, and the Girl with Icy Skin. Overall reminds me of Six Eyes from JJK)

Question

Are these unique traits inherited sorceries, or something else?

[s30620]

Chapter 72: Future

This chapter was so heavy, in lore, emotion, and questions. The truth about the Seitei War is devastating. An entire nation of people were eradicated because one person with a powerful weapon went berserk. It looks like the skill the sword master used called "malediction" or "kodoku" (蠱) might be a combination of skills the Shinuchi possesses, since we see the centipede and butterflies appear around the flower field.

I also wonder why the small nation invaded? I can't think of a good or logical reason, mostly because I don't know enough about these people. Does their resistance to the datenseki have to do with it? Where does the datenseki even come from?

We also find out the sword master was Kunishige's most trusted ally. I kinda compared the Shinuchi to a demon before, and Kunishige knew it's the most powerful of the yōtō. Did he trust the sword master with it because he thought he wouldn't be corrupted by the Shinuchi's power? I have so many questions!!!

Also, I think this old man is somehow related to Ro from the Masumi. They're both short and wear tiny sunglasses. If not then I guess Hokazono just likes these design quirks lol. We don't even know old man's name yet 😭

[tricolorgoldfishcafe]

My personal interpretation of the title Kagurabachi that adds another layer to the story

Prepare for a long post.

I start with the fact that I came up with my own little translation of the title, which is "Orchestrating Divine Punishment".

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to replace "Dance of Divine Punishment"; I quite like it in fact - an bit of aesthetic touch. It's nice.

But there is a little catch in my version that I explain in a moment.

This Reddit post inspired me to search for the meaning of Kagurabachi with a different angle in mind, and I found an interesting connection that might add another layer to the manga.

There is this phrase 罰が当たる which means "to incur the wrath of the gods (e.g. by doing something immoral); to incur divine punishment; to pay for one's sins".

If we take the overall theme of the manga, it easily fits to describe Chihiro's crusade to avenge his father's murder.

Yet, let it spin a little and change the perspective to a less obvious one.

Seitei War was said that occur between sorcerers and a unknown opponent. Now, if we assume the other side didn't have anything to do with supernatural entities, but consisted of normal human beings with very strict and traditional way of thinking, we might have got a good starting point.

If Datenseki could amplify spirit energy of a regular human beings and sorcerers alike, then people who were living as "gods" as these who were trained in the art of sorcery in a world where sorcery was exclusive to selectioned groups, for example, there is a ground for a conflict.

These groups would felt threatened, blood could be shed, the conflict would break out, and the war would begin.

Amidst the fight there could be a swordsmith that found a way to stabilize and turn the Datenseki (supposedly a mystical powerful element outside of human reach) into a weapon to wield, breaking the sacred, divine legend.

After the war during which a group of traditional sorcerers (or "gods" here) lost their powers, their position, their influence, they turned against the man who makes it all possible.

Rokuhira Kunishige.

They judge him as a heretic and punished by death. Steal the blades they think are their rightful possassion. Furthermore, after securing them and killing current wielders they might return the previous order, hence the whole Hishaku plot.

It's just a loose concept, having not yet any solid ground in the manga.

There is a man in traditional cloth in Chihiro's memory during Kunishige's assassination and later a man in similar outfit was at the meeting with Sojo (the other being Yura, I think). And the information that sorcerers become well-known in a wake of Seitei War.

It suggest that there is someone along side with Yura, or behind Yura, that might have even bigger power and resentment, or whatever.

[strangeduckpaper]

Interesting concept, and it got me thinking of a relatively similar concept:

Related to your notes on this post (and earlier theories from both of us) positing that Enten was designed to destroy the other Enchanted Blades, Enten won't necessarily grow more powerful than the other blades, but instead better at countering them:

Enten, more specifically Aka, will gain the capability to absorb and neutralize the effects of the other blades, like when Chihiro used Enten as a lightning rod, but perfected and less risky to him, or redirect them, maybe using Nishiki to cloak himself in the other blade's power to somehow render himself immune to their effects.

It would both counter the other blade's powers and stop them from harming others, mitigating the further damage that they can do.

considering enten was made after the shinuchi and exclusively for chihiro do you think enten has the possibility to be just as strong or even far superior to the shinuchi

[kattitude130]

ok wait tobimune iori would have been cool but now that i know about the magatsumi death link i dont want her anywhere near it. sorry no more enchanted blades for anybody theyre cursed demon swords now

[trans-hakuri]

"The blade master they have locked away had gone rogue and committed mass murder during the war, which is why he's locked away" is my current headcanon and, I feel, a realistic possibility.

Less likely (not impossible) but far more interesting is "he realized the wrongness of his actions and was going to go public with it, so the Kamunabi fabricated a crime and locked him away. Samura is right, but doing it wrong, and the remaining blade wielders were all people able to stomach what they'd done and keep their mouths shut. The Hishaku know the truth and they want to take advantage of this to destabilize Japanese society by destroying civilian faith in the Kamunabi."

Actually, I got as far as "so they fabricated a crime" and the rest of it sort of... sprang into existence without my permission or control. But yeah. That would be interesting.

[dr-pipis]

hokazono saw the chihiro’s mom identity theories start to stagnate and said check this out

[orange-s-mario]

I'm like 80% sure that Azami is the kumamabi mole

One eye specifically being covered while it presumably still works

even knowing that Azami's emo fringe is a stylistic choice he's worn for at least twenty years, the story's focus on eye imagery/symbolism ('Rokuhira eyes,' Samura & Iori's eyes, the storehouse mask, etc) repeatedly tempts me to come up with increasingly wild explanations for why he always has one eye covered before I remember that he's just Like That

[chattering-tchotchke]

So we all agree that the island was invaded and its inhabitants killed for the Datenseki, right?

[yakopi]

Kagurabachi theories

So I recently started to read Kagurabachi and man, does this have a lot of potential? Amazing art, compelling characters, and behind a seemingly pretty straightforward story, a lot of information that is purposefully left out.

So right now I am just going to write down my many thoughts/ideas/theories that I am going to dump it here, in parts, because I do not want 1 big post.

Part one: Gods and what's not.

I am going to start with something that I have noticed, namely the references to gods in the stories.

The first is one that some will probably already have noticed; the meaning of the title. Kagurabachi: gods dance/entertainment + retribution/karma. Thus this could mean something like divine retribution if translated literally. However, we can look at what the kagura embodies, namely inviting the presence of a god in the dancer's body. So maybe it could mean that this is an invitation for a higher being to enact divine retribution through a medium…

Furthermore, the main 'good guy' organization right now, the Kamunabi (which can also be read as kannabi) is named after a shrine that hosts a god. This organization has also been observed to be very good at sealing things, namely the enchanted swords in boxes and the wielders of those swords in different dimensions.

(Edit: Meanwhile the big bad guy group is called Hishaku (help, navel + burn/scorch, although the first kanji is sometimes also used in fire-related terms). Curiously, Hishaku with different kanji is a ladle commonly found in shrines and used in ceremonies. It can also be used to repel certain Yurei (ghost yokai) when given to them.)

A little more abstract with references to gods is the amount of swords. There were 6 blades made, and the number 6 is considered a bad number in Japan because it sounds like the word used for 'nothing'.

Later, a seventh sword, Enten, was made for Chihiro. 7 is a lucky number. This is because there are 7 gods of prosperity. This is maybe why Enten was made: the father wanted his son not to inherit nothing. He wanted Chihiro to inherit prosperity, as any father should, and invoked the gods for it.

This could all be a big coincidence, however, in my next posts, I will go further with this god connection because that is the fun part of theorizing.

TLDR; Kagurabachi has references to gods in the title, in the Kamunabi, and in the swords. This will be coming back later.

[strangeduckpaper]

I thought of an Enchanted Sword idea, based on the elements of Earth, Wind and Fire (Yes, the concept is partially a joke based off the band) and their associated disasters: Earthquakes, Typhoons, and the Fires of Edo.

The Sword could cause tremors or summon pieces of earth and rock, command gale force winds and bursts of fire. The main draw of the sword, however, would be the ability to combine them, like combining fire and wind to create firenados, or drawing pieces of earth and rock based shrapnel into the gale, or melting stone into lava, cooling it with wind into something like obsidian, before shooting the fragments off with hurricane force winds.

I imagine that this guy is the wielder:

EDIT: Plus, additional blacksmith references? Since it's mentioned on the wiki he has a blacksmith like appearance, and beyond that he just gives off blacksmith vibes to me

[moloko02]

kodoku & yura (chapter 72 and such)

During Yura's explanation in chapter 72, we learned that during the peace negotiations, the Sword Saint used the True Realm skill named "Kodoku/Malediction" to wipe out the whole population of the small island that had already surrendered. Let's talk about this and Yura specifically.

The kodoku magic (originally the gu magic) is the ancient ritual to create the most powerful poison. The shortest and the most simple explanation is provided by Kengan Ashura manga:

The word in this chapter 蠱 is not the usual way to write 蠱毒 (kodoku), but you got the hint.

The usual kodoku includes centipede, snake, scorpion, and other poisonous creatures. We know the Shinuchi used at least a centipede and a spider, which can be toxic, so it all can be connected to that ritual. The True Realm, as we saw two times already, is connected to the skill the sword already has. But how can this kodoku ritual be connected to Yura?

Here begins the theory territory; be careful. We know the Shinuchi wiped out the entire island population during the negotiations. But the peace deal happened not here, or the Kamunabi executives would be killed with the island people together. So some people were still alive. We can't even say that some of the soldiers of the enemy side didn't hide in Japan. Only the island was annihilated. Some people from here could still be very alive.

Yura (and Hiruhiko during his first battle) were shown not to feel pain at all. And while Hiruhiko could just ignore it because he is, well, Hiruhiko, Yura is special case. He didn't show any pain at all during his first meeting with Chihiro.

Being hit in the heart didn't affect him at all. He just continued casually talking with Chihiro. Not to mention the fact that he quickly got his arm back, but we saw the Hishaku member who is capable of returning it. But Yura is acting like his body doesn't feel anything, including the pain.

Some of you have probably heard the Vase theory (if I remember correctly, it was written by @/AngryKomodoDra). Shortly: Yura (幽ゆら can be translated as both "secluded" and "ghost") is some entity controlling the dead Misaka's body. A few times when Yura is presented, we see the vase with bonsai and lightings. Yura was never shown in one place with people who knew Misaka until chapter 59.

Of course, later, Yura meets Samura, who knew Misaka very well, but if we consider Yura is something other than a human he probably can change his smell or the sound of his steps/voice. In this theory, I draw your attention to the fact that Yura can still be the entity that is controlling the dead body, so when it is hurt he isn't affected at all. Samura never saw Yura, but Yura knows the truth.

The kodoku ritual creates the most powerful poison. The island was wiped out, and no one was left alive. But the datenseki is something that only Kunishige could subdue and remember, even he said the sword (made from that very datenseki) can evolve far beyond he can imagine. Could it be that Yura is the result of that "kodoku" ritual that happened on the island? Some entity created from the death that seeks if not revenge but the truth to be shown to the people. Would that explain his desire to wield the Shinuchi? To get the thing that created him?

Only time will tell.

[farsight-the-char]

Thinking about other nations reacting to the broader “Swords stolen stuff”, like:

“What do you mean the 6 Super Swords were stolen, and their creator murdered?” 

“What do you mean it was a private criminal organization, and now they are giving them out to other criminals?” 

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE WAS A 7TH?!” 

[jessunderstands]

Cue megalovania