What is the Durga?
The KUMIS in Tokyo Crazy Paradise
What is the seisai?
Kuryugumi?????
A Profile of the Author of Tokyo Crazy Paradise
The BIG Question: Is Nakamura-Sensei male or female?
Who are Shiva, Parvati, Durga, and Kali?
What is GRAVE?
The Durga is the female goddess of war and maternity in the Hindi religion. [Please forgive me if I'm wrong.] She is often pictured as a beautiful woman with long hair sitting upon a lion with 10 arms, 8 of them carrying different weapons while the other two are clasped in prayer. As Asago and Yuuwa mentioned in episode no. 37, the Durga among the yakuza is a title given to the legendary female of Hogougumi, a kumi which has already disbanded.
The seisai is literally translated as the holy or right wife. It sounds more like she's a super woman though, from the descriptions given by Asago and Yuuwa. (See episode no. 37)
There is also the idea of the omote no seisai and the ura no seisai, literally the front (or main) and the back (or hidden) seisai. The omote no seisai is the one seen in public and is officially married to the kumicho. She is the one that acts as the mother of the whole kumi while also tending to the needs of the kumicho. One thing she lacks though is the ability to fight. This is all saved for the kage no seisai, also known as the shadow seisai. They seem to use ura and kage interchangeably. Her only duty is to fight for the kumicho and is often hidden from the rest of the kumi. Although her duty to the kumicho is sincere, she does not have any contact with him, and is not married to him. Seems to be like a fighting machine. It seemed to be Kamo-san's idea to have Asago as the omote no seisai while having Tsukasa as the kage no seisai...
Kuryugumi: The largest kumi of the Kanto region headed by 14-year-old Shirogami Ryuji, the 3rd successor of the kumi. Composed of 9 subclans, the Red, Green, Gold, Black, Silver, Blue, Purple, White and the main clan. The head clan is the Silver Dragon Clan, lead by Sumon, Asago's father.
Hizakigumi: The second largest kumi of the Kanto region. They see Kuryugumi as a rival, and even went through the business of assassinating the former kumicho (Nidaime) of Kuryugumi. The kumi is lead by Hizaki Sakae, and will be succeeded by his bastard son Hizaki Tooya.
Hogougumi: A kumi that is now known for its legendary kage no seisai. A disbanded kumi that was probably centred in the Kanto region.
Sakahogigumi: A smaller kumi headed by Sakahogi, father of Yuuwa and Minobu. Got into a huge problem with Hizakigumi about a new illegal drug. This kumi now has ties with Kuryugumi.
Kadokanegumi: One of the kumis in the Kansai region. Headed by kumicho Asaba Itsuro, father of Tsubaki and Sumire. First ran into Kuryugumi through the graduation trip. Recently got into a problem with Takarabegumi, but this was solved by Tsukasa and Ryuji.
Takarabegumi: One of the kumis of the Kansai region, headed by Takarabe. The kumicho here wanted to join forces with Kadokanegumi to crush the Garyukai, but failed. They had kidnapped Tsubaki but were defeated by Rsukasa and Ryuji.
Garyukai: A strange mysterious kumi that nobody really knows about. Feared by other kumis. The largest kumi of the Kansai region, rumoured to be very violent. Seems to be headed by a young man named Misumi. This kumi is the one that crushed Hogougumi and has the one survivor of Hogougumi as one of its members.
Kuryugumi, literally translated as the group of nine dragons. There are 8 family divisions under Kuryugumi... [This is the part that doesn't make any sense...]
In case you're wondering, these aren't the way you normally pronouce the characters of the colours. At the bottom of this page, there is a partial picture of the clans. The most important thing is that you're able to read Japanese! (^-^) (We now have an english version, see below.)
The Silver Dragon Clan is the head clan, headed by Sumon, who is the kashira [head] of Sumongumi. This clan is where the Durga of the kumicho is from. Under each clan are several other divisions, headed by some family.
The Gold Dragon Clan was headed by Odawara, then by Shibata, but I don't know who's heading it now.
According to episode no. 39, a man by the name of Kyuragi heads the Purple Dragon. The names of the rest of the clan leaders are not known.
Among the clans, there is much conflict as to which one gets to be the head clan. While it is currently the Silver Dragon Clan, the kashiras of the Red, Purple, White, and Green Dragon Clans are all currently trying to get their daughters recognized as the kage no seisai (see episode no. 39).
Here's a part of the Kuryugumi system. Kuryugumi is at the top, and the Silver Dragon Clan, the head clan is below it. Below that are the names of the other clans, and these are divided into even smaller clans.
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[If you're wondering where this picture came from, it's in episode no. 16 during the winter break where Tsukasa is trying to keep the kumiins from starting a commotion, especially fights between Shigaraki and Muko.] |
A Profile of the Author of Tokyo Crazy Paradise
Have you ever wondered who is the wonderful creator of Tokyo Crazy Paradise? Perhaps how this person looks like? Well... all we can provide is this self-portrait of Nakamura Yoshiki. Since Yoshiki can be used as either male or female people and that there are various self portraits with different hair lengths (see the free talks in the tankoubon)... we don't know whether the author is male or female. (And we thought we were over this sort of thing when we first met Rui. (-_-;) )
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Name: Nakamura Yoshiki Born: June 17 Blood type: B Birthplace: Tokushima prefecture Debut work: "Yume de au yori suteki" 1993, Hana to Yume, Volume 9
Yuki-chan |
A "free-talk" from somewhere
Translation by Yuki-chan
Image scanned by Venkarel
To end the great debate of whether Nakamura-sensei is male/female, here is the answer. First things first. Nakamura Yoshiki is a penname. BTW, the band used to be called "X" but there was one in Europe [I think] already by the same name so they changed it to "X Japan". Well the group broke up and the bass player died from an apparent suicide... Anyways, Yoshiki from the band was the drummer/pianist/composer. Here's a translation of the image.
Penname: Nakamura Yoshiki. Once I chose this penname the questions I thought would be asked are:
If asked for the reason of choosing this penname it's not that it's a long and complicated story..... It's like those who know already know... [!!? I'm not sure this is correct.] But I will strongly say that I haven't taken the name from X Japan's Yoshiki. (So to all Yoshiki fans who have sent me mail, don't worry and be at ease.)
Who are Shiva, Parvati, Durga, and Kali?
The text below was taken directly from episode no. 76:
[Okay, okay, I attempted to look this thing up... Apparently, Shiva is a variant of Siva, (can also be Siwa) but since I've been calling Misumi "Shiva", I'll leave it as that... All the names are related to Hinduism. This is all from Encyclopedia Britannica so don't shoot me down if I'm not exact...
In Hinduism, Shiva is one of 3 chief gods. He is both the destroyer and the restorer. Has a lot of contradictory traits -- ascetic but also the symbol of sensuality, gentle herder of souls to the other world but also a wrathful avenger. (I had to look up the word ascetic. It means to practice self-discipline, abstaining from comforts & pleasures, esp. for religious reasons.) Female consorts include Parvati, Durga and Kali (his cyborg cat?). Apparently can breathe fire.
Parvati is Shiva's wife, winning his notice after major ascetic discipline. Had 2 children with Shiva and is often represented with him in sculpture etc. i.e. the visible wife. A mature and very beautiful woman.
Durga is another wife to Shiva, best known for slaying the buffalo-demon Mahisasura. According to legends she was created from the flames from the mouths of Shiva and other high ranking gods and was born in adult form. She is very beautiful, riding a lion (sometimes a tiger) and 8 or 10 arms, each wielding a weapon given to her by a different god to slay the demon. I've been calling her "the Durga" up until now 'cause I thought it was a title rather than an actual name...
Kali is a devouring destructive goddess. Depicted as an ugly, black-faced old hag covered in blood with bared teeth & protruding tongue. Has 4 arms; apparently developed a taste for blood; often associated with Durga. Maybe that cyborg cat is supposed to be referring to this goddess.]
GRAVE is the code name for a special division of the Control Police which was set up to combat the rise in violent crime in Tokyo's crazy paradise. BTW, the Control Police is separate from the regular police. An excerpt from ep. 30 will explain better:
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Akira: "...The department where I work, is a little different from the regular cops. It's a special department to combat with the increasing crime in the world...... special division crime control, also known as..." Tsukasa, in English: "---GRAVE." Akira starts, then continues: "With no specialization or jurisdiction, but having the ability to combat any crime, therefore they make the most arrests. Because of that it's the most dangerous job being so close to death all the time. So with that meaning the special division is called..." Tsukasa, in Japanese: "Grave." Akira: "...You seem to know a lot." Tsukasa: "...Didn't I tell you I wanted to become a cop?" {...And also my parents were part of GRAVE too of the control police establishment......} Akira: "Like you said, GRAVE has the no. 1 chance of making an arrest ...so those who can't make arrests don't have the right to call themselves members of GRAVE." |
GRAVE members have their own special uniform (which are different from other cops) and they have their own base. They can get their hands on a number of things to combat crime, including fake pass cards as seen in the incident at Tokonome Island. They also have their own boats (one of which Akira used to transport Ryuji & co. back to the mainland after Ryuji was shot).
To date, we know that Tsuaksa's parents were members of GRAVE. Current GRAVE members include Munakata who's Akira's partner, Tomioka and Akira. (You can see their pictures in the profiles.) Tsukasa may be aspiring to become a member of GRAVE as well.