Questioning the asexuality bit for D's race when there seemed to be a female involved in the origional story of their massacre when she refused a Prince's offer of marriage and he murdered all but one in revenge. Clarify? Will accept that they're probably not supposed to love any human, male or female. They also don't like it when other men (usually, at least) hit on them.
Hide / Show RepliesYou're not the only one who's wondering. I mean, theoretically it makes sense, but I haven't found anywhere in canon that confirms this, and, as you point out, there was a woman involved in the massacre. It makes more sense to me that the D family is the last remnants of a clan of supernatural creatures that were both male and female, though when it comes to the D family and how there are three of them, that leave me right back in square one. I can see it making sense that they're not supposed to be involved with humans since humans drove them to near-extinction. As an aside: I read a very interesting fanfic that chose the route of Papa D having been involved with a human, which is how we get the star of our manga, the present Count D, which I thought was an interesting theory.
But disregarding my pointless rambling, I too would like clarification on the asexuality thing.
"You protect the thing you want to protect to the very end. That's the right way to do it."Is there any real reason to have "Christmas in Japan" here? I'm a new fan but I was 100% convinced the manga took place in America. (References to American institutions like the FBI, a flight from one part of America to the shop would be considered "across the country," etc.)
It could be because of the apparently awful translation job, but later volumes and the anime that I've seen didn't contradict it.
The only reason Christmas in Japan could apply at all is in a meta way, since the target readers are Japanese.
Does anyone know where to find the later volumes of Shin/Tokyo? Vol.7-11? I can't find anything past 6. :(
I can't find any information about a "sokuketsu". I searched the word on Bing, Google and Yahoo, and nothing came up except for websites containing fan discussions of PSOH. I then went to numerous websites containing detailed guides to asian mythology, and also found nothing. Then I typed the word into multiple translation engines to see if the word existed in the Japanese or Chinese language, and got nothing. I'm beginning to think that there's no such thing in mythology called "sokuketsu". Who exactly came up with the idea that D was one?
"With hard work and dedication, I will become a splendid ninja!" Hide / Show RepliesThere isn't any sokuketsu, it's all a lie by an attention-seeking fan *also ran into the same thing*
I've found a few gods in Chinese mythology that sound fairly similar to D, but I've yet to find a specific Chinese creature like D.
First is Shen-Nong, who was an actual ruler of China. He is said to be a god of plants, agricutlture and herbal medicine.
http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/chinese-mythology.php?deity=SHEN-NONG
Next is Bian-Cheng-Wang, who rules the Sixth Court of Hell. He hands punishment to humans that commit crimes, some of them specifically are animal abuse, wasting food, and lying.
http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/chinese-mythology.php?deity=BIAN-CHENG-WANG
This one is interesting: Fu-Xi. He's the god of creativity, arts, and crafts. His wife is the inventor of Humans. (imagine D being related to them ;]) http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/chinese-mythology.php?deity=FU-XI
"With hard work and dedication, I will become a splendid ninja!"Nu-Gua created humans out of earth (mud, plants, etc.). Right now, this deity seems to be the most relevant.
http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/chinese-mythology.php?deity=NU-GUA
"With hard work and dedication, I will become a splendid ninja!"Is editing in the "sokuketsu" reference a bad thing, then? I noticed a troper named Solle keeps doing it over and over.
Yeah, it's probably bad. I haven't found one instance of the word "sokuketsu" used anywhere other than on American forums discussing PSOH. It seems to have originated here: http://www.jref.com/forum/all-things-japanese-26/kami-3316/
I'm still learning Japanese, but to my knowledge the people on that forum are incorrect. This is purely my opinion, so do not take it as fact:
Mythology aside, the word itself doesn't exist. It's a combination of two words in romaji that, in Japanese, would not have meaning.
Shokubutsu, 植物: plants, vegetation. Shukketsu, 出血: bleeding.
To an American with no knowledge of what romaji actually is, the combination of Shokubutsu and Shukketsu to make "Sokuketsu" might seem logical, especially with an interesting story about an asian plant demon that drinks blood. However, two words combined in their romaji form wouldn't mean the same thing in katakana, kanji or hiragana, and the only type of creature that comes even remotely close to fitting the description on that forum has a completely different name: Jubokko. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jubokko.
"With hard work and dedication, I will become a splendid ninja!"Sorry, I'm the troper who's been adding it to everything. I read about this on a fan site years ago, and although I'm pretty sure I did find some sources eventually, I can't remember where they were or how much of it was actually relevant for PSOH (if at all). I'll delete all references to it.
Hair Decorations is no longer a trope, but perhaps someone can find better ones for this example:
- Hair Decorations: Xiao Fua. Lao-Tai Wei makes her put a flower in her hair for her visit to D so she wouldn't "look like a damn street urchin" when she went to bribe him. It worked.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman