Kyousou Giga (TV) Episode 5 Discussion

gophercg said:
Interesting ideas. It seems only new Myoue & Koto are from the outside world. As mentioned by the shrine girl in a previous episode, only the 3 siblings grow old (but are they immortal?).

Kurama's discussion on Hachiko the waiting dog seems an analogy to the adopted Myoue. He asks if the dog was not waiting, but intended to die (possibly join his master in afterlife). Myoue lost his parents, then is trapped waiting for his foster parents. If he didn't intend to join his original parents by seppuku, why does he now ask Koto that request?

symbv said:
Myoue has the root in an actual historical figure, also named Myoue, who also lived in seclusion up on a hill near Kyoto.[/url]

According to: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1118911/

Along with the citrus and the peach, the pomegranate is one of the three blessed fruits. In Buddhist art the fruit represents the essence of favourable influences. In Buddhist legend the demoness Hariti, who devoured children, was cured of her evil habit by the Buddha, who gave her a pomegranate to eat. She is depicted in Buddhist art holding a child. In Japan she is known as Kishimojin and is invoked by infertile women.

But I had a question about where exactly they went for the last scene? They were going to get Aa and Un? I wasn't sure.

And also, something that struck my mind: We see that Inari transfers his "DNA" to Yakushimaru, and Yakushimaru receives the title of "Myoue," along with the ability ot manipulate magical beads. The DNA sharing may explain why Inari is only half his original size but it does not explain why Yakushimaru's power is to manipulate beads instead of making drawings come to life. Any light on this?

This version of Kyoto is the afterlife, the place where spirits dwell during the 49 days between their death and the "cutting" ceremony in Buddhism when the spirit gets reincarnated.

Myoue is already dead, he just hasn't realized it yet. His committing suicide is what is keeping him stuck on this plane of existence, he still hasn't come to grips with his parents death. That is who he is waiting for when the train comes in.

The Train takes souls to be reincarnated. The stick figures are the souls of the dead waiting to pass on, the characters with more material forms are those who have some lingering attachment to the real world and cannot pass on until they come to grips with this. The original Myoue collected these lost souls to help with their salvation and eventual rebirth, in this capacity he is actually a Bodhisattva.

The promegrante is the symbol of rebirth, the exchange was a symbol of Myoue's eventual death and rebirth.

A and Un are Komainu, the two guardian lion dogs found at shrines and temples, this is why their other form is vaguely dog like and why they were heading towards a shrine to pick them up at the end. As the animation pointed out their names also signify the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, death and rebirth, the eternal AUM of hinduism.

More so then actually wanting Koto to kill him physically, the ultimate goal of buddhism is to kill the illusion of this world (Maya) in order to achieve enlightenment and eventually escaping the circle of death and rebirth and enter in Nirvana. This is what Myoue wants, and the entire out of body experience was that he realized the Koto is the personification of enlightenment.

A little background for you if you want to know more: A and Un:
http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/a/aun.htm
http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/k/komainu.htm

The two temples they are going to show next week:
Round window (window of enlightenment) is from Genkoan Temple:
http://www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/preview/42.html

The big gateway is from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chion-in

The former is in the western part of the city and is a Zen, the latter is in the eastern part and is the main temple of Pure Land, so they are pretty much covering all of Kyoto (and Buddhism) here.

Only in this episode did I finally realize that the character Myoue has the root in an actual historical figure, also named Myoue, who also lived in seclusion up on a hill near Kyoto. Good to learn a bit of history from this anime

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My%C5%8De

VanishingKira said:
Really love the family bonds the characters have with each other.

"Once we find our mother,I want you to kill me." Ohh,my heart ;___;

New material from here onwards,can't wait to see what the rest of the series has in store.

TuxedoCake said:
Sheesh! Almost a decade late to this anime’s hype train. My two cents—definitely my favorite episode so far. I loved how the Hachiko reference tied into the end! Such a strong climactic feeling considering it’s only halfway through the story. Always a treat to stumble across amazing older shows I hadn’t heard of during their release.

TuxedoCake said:
Sheesh! Almost a decade late to this anime’s hype train. My two cents—definitely my favorite episode so far. I loved how the Hachiko reference tied into the end! Such a strong climactic feeling considering it’s only halfway through the story. Always a treat to stumble across amazing older shows I hadn’t heard of during their release.