Subaru Sumeragi
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| Subaru Sumeragi | |
|---|---|
| Clamp character | |
 Subaru as he appears in the anime version of X/1999 |
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| First appearance | Tokyo Babylon |
| Created by | Clamp |
| Voiced by | Japanese Kappei Yamaguchi (Tokyo Babylon) Issei Miyazaki (X feature film) Tomokazu Sugita (X TV series) Hiro Shimono (Tsubasa Chronicle) English Ben Fairman (Tokyo Babylon) William Dufris (X feature film) Dave Wittenberg (X TV series) |
| Profile | |
| Gender | Male |
| Date of birth | 19 February 1974[1] |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Occupation | 13th head of Sumeragi clan, functioning as onmyōji (spiritualist/exorcist) |
| Known relatives | Hokuto Sumeragi (twin sister) Name Unknown (grandmother) |
Subaru Sumeragi (皇昴流 Sumeragi Subaru?) is a fictional character created by Clamp. He is the protagonist of Tokyo Babylon and one of the Dragons of Heaven in X.
An alternate version of the character appears in Clamp's crossover series, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle.
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[edit] Profile
[edit] Early life
Subaru was born in Kyoto on 19 February 1974[1], the younger of a pair of fraternal twins, his elder twin being a girl named Hokuto. Their parents (who are never seen) were members of the Sumeragi, a clan of onmyōji who have served Japan and its emperors for hundreds of years.[2]
Subaru was trained from an early age to become the 13th head of the Sumeragi clan, replacing his grandmother. At the age of nine he was separated from his sister Hokuto for a year of intensive training in Tokyo. On the day he ascended to the head of the clan, Subaru encountered a strange young man under a cherry tree. The meeting would subsequently be expunged from his memory.
Subaru's grandmother ordered him to wear gloves from that day onwards, and never to allow anyone else to see his hands. The old onmyoji cast a spell that would repel any attempts by others to remove them. Subaru never removed his gloves, and was known to wear them even when sleeping.
[edit] Tokyo Babylon
By 1991, Subaru had grown into a cheerful yet bashful teenager, utterly devoted to helping others -- both in his capacity as Japan's most powerful onmyōji and in "normal" life. As well as exorcizing demons, helping lost souls ascend to the afterlife, entering the minds of comatose people to bring them back to the world, and fighting those who abused spiritual powers, he would often also stand up to bullies and provide comfort and friendship to their victims.
He lived in an apartment in Tokyo, in the same building as his sister Hokuto, whose personality had become the polar opposite to his own -- eccentric and outgoing. Hokuto was vexed by her brother's selflessness, encouraging him to think of himself once in a while, rather than placing the good of others above himself. Although she encouraged him to be cheerful and polite, she also criticized his excessive deference to others, including his habit of bowing to people on the phone "like a salaryman".[3] Subaru wore effeminate costumes designed by his sister, her own outfits being even more outlandish.
Subaru and Hokuto were good friends with a kindly and magically-aware veterinarian named Seishirō Sakurazuka, who they met at a railway station after Subaru's shikigami led him on a bizarre chase. Seishirō acted as guardian to both and claimed to love Subaru romantically. Subaru was frequently embarrassed by these claims, as well as Hokuto's gleeful attempts to bring the two together, but gradually grew to accept the older man's apparent love.
During Tokyo Babylon, Subaru had dreams of the day he became the head of the Sumeragi clan: he recalled the strange meeting beneath an unseasonably-ripe cherry tree, with a young man who told him the Japanese folk tale that every cherry tree has a corpse buried beneath it, whose blood dyes the white blossoms pink. When the 9-year-old Subaru asked if the buried people were in pain, the young man, initially confused but becoming oddly amused, made a bet with him, the only words of which he heard were: "If ever we meet again..." and "...but today... I will let you go."[4] Recalling this dream, Subaru began to wonder if the sinister young man was actually Seishirō, despite the different personality shown between the two. He also pondered Hokuto's suggestions that Seishirō's surname linked him to the Sakurazukamori, a ruthless magical assassin clan, but dismissed it due to Seishirō's kind nature.
After Seishirō lost the sight in his right eye protecting Subaru, the onmyoji realized he loved the man. Unfortunately for Subaru, Seishirō revealed that he was indeed the Sakurazukamori, raised to be incapable of either love or hate. Lifting the veil he had placed on the boy's memory, Seishirō stated the nature of the bet he had made: that if they met again, he would live with the boy for a year to see if his heart could be moved. However, the assassin claimed he was as barren of emotion as ever, and attempted to kill Subaru, only for the boy's grandmother to rescue him at great personal cost. Subaru became catatonic as a result, but recovered when, telepathically, he sensed Hokuto's self-sacrifice to the Sakurazukamori.
Subaru decided at this point to drop out of school so that he could focus on training. He continued his work as an onmyōji, remaining compassionate to others; he also took up smoking, like Seishirō before him.
[edit] X/1999
By the time of X/1999, Subaru had entered his twenties, continuing his work as an onmyōji under direction from his grandmother. Although he was now a Dragon of Heaven, and thus capable of creating a kekkai (spiritual barrier) to protect others during his battles, he had no interest in the fate of humanity; his only concern was to settle the score with Seishirō. However, after persuasion from Sorata Arisugawa and Arashi Kishū, he joined the other members of the group in Tokyo. One of his first acts was to bring Kamui Shirō out of the catatonia into which he had fallen after seeing his childhood sweetheart, Kotori Monō, killed by her own big brother Fūma. The two developed a close friendship based on their similar hardships, Subaru acting as a mentor to Kamui during his further trials. Series creators Clamp, jokingly, refer to Kamui and Subaru's relationship as "sisterly".[5]
Subaru faced Seishirō several times, but each time, though defeated, was allowed to live; he began to imagine that the assassin did not consider him "worth" killing. When he faced Fūma in battle, he saw the younger man as Seishirō, and allowed the Dragon of Earth to blind him in his right eye -- a lesser wish he had had for some time. However, in single combat against Seishirō at Rainbow Bridge, Subaru revealed his true desire: he no longer wished to kill Seishirō (having tried unsuccessfully to eradicate his feelings for the man), but instead wished to be killed by him, as thus he would exist in Seishirō's heart, even if it was only as "another victim of the cherry blossom". However, due to a spell cast by Hokuto at her death, the killing strike (a "spearhand" stab through the heart) was reversed, and Subaru killed Seishirō instead. The assassin's last words to Subaru -- which are not fully stated to the audience -- had a profound effect on the young man, being something he had not expected.
From this point, the manga and TV series differ. Following Seishirō 's death, Subaru became the new Sakurazukamori and thus a Dragon of Earth, charged with destroying humanity; although he refused to harm innocent people or function as an assassin, he was rendered unable to create kekkai any longer. His fate beyond this is unknown as the manga remains incomplete.
In the TV series, his status as Sakurazukamori was not directly alluded to. Instead, he sank back into a catatonic state, urging Kamui to look to his own wish and advising him that "it is impossible for everyone to be happy". He was, as in the manga, unable to create a kekkai, having lost the one person in the world for whom he truly cared. However, in the final episode, the rebellious Dragon of Earth dreamseer Kakyō Kuzuki allowed the spirit of Hokuto to cross into Subaru's mind, to convince him to continue the fight; Subaru realized he cared for Kamui, and joined his final battle against Fūma, protecting him from a fatal strike. Before his apparent death, Subaru urged Kamui to realize his wish. Thus, Kamui sacrificed himself to bring Fūma back to his original, kind-hearted personality and save mankind from destruction; as a side effect, Subaru was revived and lived on.
Subaru appeared briefly in the movie version of X/1999; he and Seishirō destroyed each other in magical combat early in the film.
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle
In Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Subaru reappears as one of a pair of twin vampires (the other being Kamui Shirō) for whom Seishirō Sakurazuka is searching.
He makes his first appearance in the Tokyo arc, in which he talks to a comatose Sakura and urges her to wake up before she is lost to her dreams. It turns out that he himself was left in a comatose state at the bottom of a large water reservoir, leading to Kamui's fierce protection of the site, particularly from Fuuma. Eventually he wakes and is at last rejoined with his twin.
[edit] xxxHolic
In volume one of xxxHOLIC, Yūko Ichihara mentions knowing an onmyoji with a twin sister whom she has known since the onmyoji was very young. She hopes that the boy will be happy, but there are many definitions for happiness. The onmyoji turns out be Subaru, as explained in the extra pages at the end of the book.
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[edit] References
- ^ a b Subaru gives this date of birth in Tokyo Babylon book 3, vol.3, though at the same time he lies about his place of birth being Tokyo.
- ^ The kanji used for the family name literally means "emperor"; "Sumeragi" is an archaic pronunciation.
- ^ Tokyo Babylon OVA episode 1.
- ^ Tokyo Babylon book 1, vol.1.5 (English translation by TOKYOPOP). Note that a slightly different translation appears in book 7.
- ^ Ten years of X. PUFF magazine, January 2002, 19-21.
