Title: Blue
Seed
Created by:
Produced for: Tokyo Television
Type: TV Series
Rating: PG
Seasons: 1 (26 episodes)
Summary written by: Gloria Oliver
Main Characters:
Momiji Fujimiya
Momiji is an excitable 15 year old from Izume. Unlike most 15 year olds, she gets up early every morning and purifies herself with cold water at a shrine by her home. Her grandmother helps her with the ritual and always reminds her how she should not get attached to the mundane for one day she may be asked to give it all up.
Momiji has memorized her grandmother's speech but does not really undertand what she means until one morning when a stranger appears before her on her way to school. The stranger is a handsome boy with unusual eyes, who almost immediately claims that he has come to kill her! He does not, however, as they are both attacked by a creature Momiji has never seen before. The stranger saves her life and then disappears.
After the strange encounter, Momiji meets Daitetsu Kunikida, head of the National Land Control Office. He has come to place her under his protection. Momiji leaves him, realizing that she is late for school. It is there that she asks a friend about the name that the creature that had attacked her had mentioned -- Kushinada.
Later that same day, Momiji's school is attacked by a giant Aragami, as the monsters are called, as he seeks to kill her. Kusanagi, the boy that had threatened to kill her before, returns to finish the job and instead ends up saving her yet again.
Kusanagi
Kusanagi was the assigned protector for Kaede, Momiji's twin sister. He was actually raised and mutated by the very creatures that now seek to kill Momiji -- the Aragami. They raised him in order to protect Princess Kushinada, for her death would mean the end of the Aragami. But after Kaede's disappearance, the Aragami have found a way to kill the Princess without having her death affect them.
Kusanagi was in love with Kaede, having watched over her most of his life. After her disappearance and assumed death, Kusanagi went looking for the next Kushinada in the hopes that by killing her, he would destroy those responsible for Kaede's fate. Fortunately for Momiji, despite Kusanagi's resolve, the Aragami's training is too strong and he cannot bring himself to kill her. Instead, he will become Momiji's protector just as he was Kaede's.
Kusanagi's extra-ordinary powers come from the planted Blue Seeds that the Aragami grafted to his body. The Blue Seeds came from the murders of Kusanagi's kinsmen. They gave him seven in all. This has given Kusanagi super-human strength, as well as a set of blades that he can cause to spring from his forearms.
Daitetsu Kanikida
Long ago, knowing of the possible threat from the Aragami and the importance of the Princess Kushinada lagend, Daitetsu took one of the twins born to the line of Kushinada and raised her as his own. He, Kaede, and the National Land Control Office, had dealt with the ever increasing number of Aragami appearances until the fateful day when Kaede faced one of the creatures directly and did not return.
Realizing that the mantle would now fall onto Kaede's twin, Daitetsu begs her family to allow him to protect her as well. Greif stricken by the loss of Kaede, Daitetsu by trying to make sure Momiji remains safe, leaves her wide open to be killed by the Aragami by refusing to allow her to accompany them on office business. After the near disaster, Momiji is made officially part of the Land Control Office Team.
Story Summary
A legend from long ago talks about an old couple that lived at the head of the river Hih with their eight daughters. In the same area also lived an eight headed monster with red eyes. Every year, the monster came and ate one of the daughters until only one remained. Lord Susana-oh, who had been exhiled from the Heavens, saw their plight and came to their aid. In exchange for the hand of the remaining daugther, Lord Susanoh got the monster drunk and then slew it. Thus was Kushinada, the sacrificial princess, saved. Per Kisaki (thanks by the way!), in most versions of the story, the exiled god Susana-oh, found a sword in the belly of the monster he slew. The name of the sword was Kusanagi!
The Aragami had been trapped in sleep for over a hundred years by the living legacy of the Kushinada bloodline. It was not until fifteen years ago that they awoke, when the line was split in two by the birth of Kaede and Momiji.
Though now awake, the Aragami still fear the blood of the Kushinada, for if she gives her life in sacrifice, they will all be destroyed. Momiji attains a Blue Seed of her own when she throws herself in the path of an Aragami to save the life of Kusanagi. The blow was fatal, but the Aragami was able to alter fate by giving up his life, and seed, to heal her.
Due to the advances of man, however, a way has been found for the Aragami to destroy the Kushinada without being destroyed themselves. By creating a Ceramic Field and placing Momiji inside, she can be killed and her curse absorbed by the electromagnetic field.
The Aragami can change shape and usually invade a plant or creature and pick up some of its characteristics to their makeup. They are weaker in daylight.
To fight the Aragami, the goverment has created the National Land Control Office. Though not a large department, they have long been working on ways to stop the Aragami. Aside from Daitetsu, the department is is made up of the following personnel -- Takeuchi: Daitetsu's right hand. She is very competent with guns and has a lot of experience with police work. Unbeknowst to Daitetsu, she is in love with him. Matsudaina: The department's main scientist. She has a son and husband that due to the increasing frequency of the Aragami's attacks, do not see much of her. Yaegashi: Computer expert. Shy with girls, and seen by some as only a geek, Yaegashi is brilliant where it comes to equipment as well as reasearch and programing. He ends up getting a pretty heavy crush on the groups last and newest member, Koume. Koume Sawaguchi: aka Hurricane of the Army. Koume is an expert with weapons. She is very aggressive and somewhat impatient. Very action oriented. Though for a time she thinks of Yaegashi as a coward and useless braniac type, she eventually comes to feel respect and perhaps more for the shy young man.
The series only runs for 26 episodes but is run as an entire plot that way. Though at first it looks like it is going to go into a monster of the week formula, all changes as it is revealed that Kaede is still alive and that she is willingly helping the other side! A fun series interspersed with bits of humor. (Especially from the usually glum Kusanagi, who seems to get a real kick out of saying the most embarrising things to Momiji!) It has a nice soundtrack and a very catchy opening song!