Pengke ([info]pengke) wrote in [info]getbackers,
@ 2003-11-25 23:58:00
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Miroku Family
I'm looking for information on the Miroku's for a fic about them. I don't want to focus on just the two shown in the anime. How many of them are there? What are their particular skills? How are they different? How are they alike? How much background are we given for each of them in the manga?

Any information will be helpful. Thank you in advance.

- A

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[info]agirlnamedgoo27
2003-11-25 09:20 pm UTC (link)
I play the Miroku in an RP. You can look at my userpics here to see pics of them: http://www.greatestjournal.com/users/mirokuichizoku

In the manga there are seven. The reason why they all hate Ban is because he killed Ellis, their oldest sister (and the eighth sibling). Natsuhiko used to be Ban's friend (Ban was about eight) and was the only one of the siblings that saw him kill Ellis, so the other siblings take his word for it (except possibly Yukihiko). Quick rundown:

Natsuhiko- Besides Yukihiko, the only one in the anime. The oldest sibling (after Ellis, the deceased sibling). Was once friends with Ban when they were both very young. (Ban was about eight, and Natsuhiko was older but probably not by much.) Because he's the only one who saw Ban kill Ellis, he is the one who wants revenge the most. He is the "leader" and very seldom will the other siblings defy him. He especially likes to push around Yukihiko. Very controlling person and also the most cunning. His weapon is a katana.
Kirara- Only living female sibling, and she exploits this fact. When she's introduced the Get Backers don't want to fight her because all she is doing is flirting with them, which is her tactic: flirt with men until they are in a false sense of security, and then attack them. She loves to start fights, but doesn't like to finish them (she retreats and lets her siblings take over). Her weapon is a spear.
Tokisada- The one with the scar on his face. Best described as a "war veteran" of some sort. Spends a lot of time reflecting on past fights and trying to get involved with new ones. Other than that you don't know much about him. He fights with a sword, but I can't think of what kind off the top of my head.
Tsubaki- Another that has little characterization. All you know is he wants to kill Ban (like the other siblings) and that usually when he comes out in a fight he is directly following Tokisada. Whoever plays Tokisada would do well to play Tsubaki as well. He has the same kind of sword as Tokisada, which doesn't help much. ~_~
Ukyou- Picture Fudou, only without the moments of lucidity and the cool powers. His vocabulary is more limited ("MIIIDOU!"), he always wants to fight, and like the other siblings he's a swordsmaster. However, he is much more random in his attacks so he's kinda easy to take out if you know anything about strategy.
Hikage- The second youngest sibling, and probably the most calm and rational. He doesn't like you. He doesn't like anyone. He is incredibly anti-social, and doesn't even communicate with his siblings. The one you are least likely to see unless everyone else is out of commission. It's unknown whether he wants to kill Ban or not, but he will fight. His weapon is a katana, but he never unsheaths it. (He just beats people with the sheath.) Another one to take if you also plan to take all the others.
Yukihiko- The youngest but most powerful sibling. Natsuhiko tries to keep a tight reign on him as a result. Either because he's the nicest, because he respects his older siblings, or because he doesn't want to make their situation any more awkward he always does what his siblings say to the point where it looks like they are pushing him around. However, he does know he is the most powerful and he isn't afraid of his siblings. After becoming friends with Ginji, Yukihiko starts to wonder if all the bad things Natsuhiko says about Ban are true.

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[info]xiao_xiao
2003-11-25 09:54 pm UTC (link)
which vol of manga r they in?

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[info]agirlnamedgoo27
2003-11-25 09:58 pm UTC (link)
If memory serves me right (but don't hold me to this. My memory's shot), the Venus de Milo arc starts at the end of Volume 13, but they aren't until Volume 14. I could be thinking of a different arc, though.

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[info]mullenkamp
2003-11-25 10:32 pm UTC (link)
Nope, it starts in ... well, 11 or 12 (I know not 13, because I have 13-14), and ends in 14. The Miroku have to show up in at least 12, because 13 starts at the point in the arc where Ginji's captured and had all his bones dislocated, and Ban's met up with Shido and Emishi. ;)

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[info]agirlnamedgoo27
2003-11-25 09:28 pm UTC (link)
Few more details about their situation:
-It seems less like they share a body and more like they can't all exist at the same time. They are all different ages and have different birthdates and physical characteristics. (Kirara is definitely female, as shown in one particular fanservice shot. Tokisada has the scar, Yukihiko is the only one who needs glasses, and Hikage has silver hair and is blind.)
-They can communicate with each other. At one point Yukihiko mentions he can feel his siblings sleeping, and when one has control the others will talk, although only the one in control can hear it.
-It's unknown, but probably unlikely, that they were all born into this arrangement. Ellis was clearly not a part of it, and Natsuhiko was the only one who saw her killed. The different ages seem to suggest this as well. However, Ban seems to know about their arrangement when they show up, so even if they weren't always like that they have been since Ban last saw them at least.

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[info]pengke
2003-11-25 09:47 pm UTC (link)
Well, its not unusual for members of a multiple system to be different ages and genders. Most members also report looking different than the body that they all share. In a universe where everyone has crazy super powers anyway, it's not so surprising to find that the body magically shifts along with whoever is using it.

Beyond the fact that Ellis is dead, is there other evidence that she had a separate body? Do we know how Ellis died? Does Ban ever comment on her death?

Does the sex of the body shift as the people change or is it possible that female is the actual sex of the body?

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[info]agirlnamedgoo27
2003-11-25 09:57 pm UTC (link)
I actually had this conversation before, and the fact of the matter is I honestly don't think the mangakas put enough thought into it for it to be MPD, although the seven siblings would have to have at least one set of twins for the age difference between Natsuhiko and Yukihiko to work, so it's possible. Like a lot of secondary characters, it's up for interpretation. I think the thought of siblings cursed to share one body sounds more GB-ish than a complex psychological principal like multiple personality disorder. (Even when dealing with witchcraft in the card arc, rather than look up actual pagan/wiccan spells and beliefs they made spells out of Bible verses. Doesn't say much for research on their part. I'm not even sure if the star on Himiko's face, which is six pointed in the manga, is a reference to a witchcraft symbol of magical protection and invocation or something they just thought looked good.)

You're right: we don't know if they're all female, but considering Kirara is the only one with obvious breasts and they all wear the same outfits I think it's more likely they do actually change sex. (Although they are all about the same height.)

And Ellis, in the flashback, is shown as a bloody mess over some rocks with Ban standing over her like he did with Yamato later. (The manga hasn't explained why he killed Yamato like the anime did.) Natsuhiko is standing off to the side. Ban never denies killing Ellis, like he never denies killing Yamato. He just never says why, although he probably had a Pretty Damn Good Reason(tm).

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[info]pengke
2003-11-25 10:10 pm UTC (link)
Well except that I'm assuming by cursed you mean that one day seven separate siblings were smushed into the same body, that doesn't sound very different from being multiple. They are multiple *now*. There's only the one body and they have to live together and work together just like any multiple would.

Physical features changing aside, the Miroku's are the best portrayal of how multiples actually are that I've seen in the media. I don't doubt that the creators didn't do a lot of research into the family but in this case it prevented them from perpetuating a lot of myths and stereotypes. In this case, they seem to have gotten it (mostly) right.

- A

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[info]agirlnamedgoo27
2003-11-25 10:17 pm UTC (link)
As I said, the lack of information makes it up to interpretation. You don't learn a lot about many characters, especially the secondary ones. It's looking a lot like the Miroku won't be back for a very long time, if at all, right now. Characters like Clayman, for example, get almost no information. And this sometimes happens in a series with as many characters as GB, especially since GB is always introducing new characters and forgetting old ones.

I just gave you the facts with some of my opinion thrown in. What you decide to do with either one is up to you.

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[info]xparrot
2003-11-26 06:33 am UTC (link)
While it's true you don't know much about most secondary chars (or indeed main ones - witness how little we actually know of Ban's past), GB is actually remarkably good at remembering minor chars much much later...the 10 yen boy in the first volume returning in the card arc, for example, or Kagami, not to mention Mr. No Break & Hishiki Ryuudou, reappearing in the current manga arc. I'm thinking the Miroku might return, if only because they were in the last GBA game, which seemed to be populated mostly by recurring manga chars... No idea how much the mangaka actually had to do with the game, however, and they do seem to fly by the seat of their pants a lot, so this is all speculation...

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[info]agirlnamedgoo27
2003-11-26 09:28 am UTC (link)
Jagan Fuuin is the only one of the games I finished, although I got to the end of the other two before I lost my files in both. (The first one is horrible. Avoid it at all costs.) While I can't say for certain how the games' continuity fall in with the manga/anime continuity, they do seem to like to fill in the blanks a lot. (The second game mentions Kadsuki living in Mugenjyou again, and the third says that Akabane really is a medical doctor.) The mangakas have a bizarre credit as "supervising writer" in the last two games. I am not sure what that means. I may have even read it wrong and it could say something like "based on the manga by". They are literally in the last two games (well, their caricatures from the notes of the manga. It's pretty funny because Ginji asks "why do those guys look so familiar?"), but that doesn't mean anything.

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[info]xparrot
2003-11-26 09:34 am UTC (link)
I played all of Jagan Fuuin, might try the 2nd sometime. I was thinking that Ayamine-sensei had to have something to do with the game, because the original game-chars looked like he designed them? And the writing did sound true to the manga. Loved when A&A-sensei actually appeared, that was just too silly.

And Dr. Jackal has insisted he's a doctor a couple times in the manga...this worries me...

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[info]agirlnamedgoo27
2003-11-26 09:37 am UTC (link)
I've heard...things about Dr. Jackal in the manga that disturb me, period. (I have only seen a few volumes, and those were scanned and loosely translated for me. Namely the first Clayman arc and th Venus de Milo arc for my Clayman shrine.) I know Akabane supposedly likes kids (I thought I saw this in the anime, but apparently in the manga there's more to support it). Pale, skinny, stringy hair, white gloves, likes children...holy shit, Akabane is Michael Jackson!

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[info]xparrot
2003-11-26 06:41 am UTC (link)
I'm vaguely wondering if they hadn't researched DID/MPD already a bit, because Ginji/Raitei is more textbook than a lot of anime-type split personalities (e.g. Kenshin/Battousai) - that he doesn't remember what he does as Raitei, that Raitei exists to protect Ginji, and developed from severe trauma as a child...

Aoki & Ayamine-sensei's research (or education?) is spotty but they like throwing in random bits of all kinds of things...don't know many other shounen that occasionally break for art history lessons...

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[info]nekokoban
2003-11-25 11:42 pm UTC (link)
Actually (being that I'm currently rereading the arc), it seems to me that Ban was just as surprised about Eris/Ellis' death as anyone else--unlike Yamato, where Himiko found him standing directly over the body with a bloody fist, Ban's standing a good distance away from Eris, looking quite shocked.

However, I do think you're right about the Miroku Seven not always being one being--from what I understand, Natsuhiko is the ONLY one who really seems to know--or have a good idea, at least--what happened at Eris' death; Yukihiko, IIRC, mentions at one point that he's heard about it from Natsuhiko (as well as about Ban), but the implication is there that they, at least, have never met.

(Right before Ban and Ginji split to fight Akabane and the Miroku respectively, Ban recognizes the "killing aura" of all ofthe Miroku except Yukihiko--there's just one he doesn't recognize, which he automatically assumes to belong to the youngest, Yukihiko.)

While we never see any of the male Miroku with their shirts up or off, Ginji does, in fact, rip up Kirara's shirt during their big fight, because he thinks there's no possible way that the body can change with the personality--so he gets a nasty shock and a bit of an eyeful. ^^;; Still, given he rode around on Yukihiko's back for a while, I think he'd know that Yukihiko had a flat chest. ^^;

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[info]shayera
2003-11-26 11:51 am UTC (link)
I'm currently reading the manga (thanks Naye for lending them to me! ^_^) and I read this part pretty recently... (I'm in the Kami no Kijustsu (card) arc right now... ^__^

Anyways, the Miroku Seven are *not* multiple personalities, they establish that clearly. Raitei even scans Natsuhiko with an electric pulse and finds seven separate human beings in the same place.

Someone seems to have mixed up their ages. They mention their order several times. Natsuhiko is the oldest, Hikage the second oldest, then Ukyou, Tsubaki, Tokisada, Kirara and Yukihiko youngest. Also, Tsubaki is the rather rude (he talks like Ban) fang-boyish type, and he fights with two knives (not a sword!). And Ukyou might be less sane than the others, but he doesn't seem as mad as Fudou... As for Hikage, he didn't come across as anti-social to me - he does talk to the others. He talks rather formally, and they even listen to him. He's blind, but a very good fighter - Tsubaki mentioned that only two people ever blocked Hikage's Iai attack - the first was Ban, the second was Ginji. (And no, he doesn't beat people with the sheath - he draws the sword incredibly fast and the puts it back).

Another neat thing that the siblings in a fight is that they play on each other's strengths and weaknesses. For example, when Ginji backed away to get out of reach of Tsubaki's knives, that put him in perfect range of Kirara's spear... (apparently, they somehow get their own weapons when they shift).

When it comes to Ban, he apparently knew all of them except for Yukihiko, whom he has only heard of.

This may or may not help, but this is the profile on the Mirokus as it appears in volume 14. (More or less - Ayamine's writing is... not easy to read. :P) It seems either they haven't decided on a lot of things, or that Aoki hasn't told Ayamine... Anyways:

The Miroku Tribe
Age: 19
Height: 177 cm
Weight: 72 kg
Birthday: June 24
Counstellation: Gemini

"Ban's childhood playmates during his time in Germany. Please remember that other than Natsuhiko, they were born separately. We will write in more detail about them later, but what we can establish about Natsuhiko now... He was born in Germany just like Ban, and it seems he and Ban often played with Miroku's older sister Eris. At that time, Miroku might have included Natsuhiko, Tokisada, Tsubaki and Hikage, maybe? I can't write any details yet, but because of a certain event including Ban, the big sister Eris was killed, and Miroku started to hate Ban. This time they hardly showed their faces to him, but they are sure to turn up again.
Body-wise, they are not multiple personalities, but each of them is a separate person. That's why, even if one of them were killed, the other six would still live. That might have been a bit hard to understand in the battle this time.
I tried to create Natsuhiko with a priest-like image, but I think it was lost in the manga, I'm sorry. Let's leave the really detailed explanations to next time."

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[info]xparrot
2003-11-27 06:52 am UTC (link)
hmm, Ban was born in Germany? I thought his parents were Japanese and he was sent to his grandmother in Germany after his mom did that whole 'not mine, it's a demon child' thing? Or has that not been made clear outside of the mangaka freetalks (they do so like being cagey about his past...)

Also interesting in that it really sounds like they are planning on bringing the Miroku back sooner or later...

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[info]shayera
2003-11-27 09:26 am UTC (link)
Ban's parents haven't been mentioned at all in the actual manga as far as I've reached, except for that one-line flashback. His presentation keeps repeating that he's quarter German, which means one of his parents were Japanese, and the other one half-German. I still don't even know which was which. :P

Well, there's still big holes in Ban's past... According to this blurb, he was born in Germany, but I wouldn't put it past them to change their minds. It's seems a little bit strange to have Miroku born in Germany as well - not only do all of them but Eris have Japanese names, Kazuki mentions that the Miroku family is a big name when it comes to traditional Japanese techniques for fighting (kinda like Fuuchouin). Kazuki knows something about what happened to the Mirokus and Ban's part in it, but Ban doesn't let him talk about it...

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