Kujiru Kesa

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袈裟けさ クジル
Kujiru Kesa
ke̞sa̠ kɯᵝd͡ʑiɾ̠ɯᵝ
Kujiru Kesa
Character Titles
The Person Who is One, And Yet Many
Information
Species Slug Youkai (Shikigami)
Abilities Dividing slipperily
Location Dragonfly Castle
Music Themes
  • スラグエージェント (BPoHC)
Appearances

Kujiru Kesa (袈裟 クジル, Kesa Kujiru) is a slug youkai and one of Garaiya Ogata's shikigami. They're the stage 2 boss of the haze route of Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle.

General Information[edit | edit source]

Personality[edit | edit source]

Kujiru is bratty, overconfident and impulsive. They hold their master Garaiya in high regard and often picks fights with Kaisen, since both want to be favored by their master. Kujiru often ignores Kaisen's orders and does things on their own. Both shikigami have a fierce rivalry and are often seen insulting each other. They are more powerful than your average slug youkai, and salt has no effect on them, except for olive oil.

Abilities[edit | edit source]

Dividing slipperily

Kujiru has the ability to "divide slipperily", allowing them to make copies of themself, which is quite useful for spying and communicating with the rest of the Dragonfly Army. Which is great, because each copy doesn't really have the strength to do anything else.

Changing forms

As seen in Garaiya Ogata's character art, Kujiru can morph into a normal slug form.

Background Information[edit | edit source]

Kujiru and their superior Kaisen Azuma are shikigamis serving the same master. Kujiru is actually weaker than Kaisen, but their master prefers Kujiru because they have a more practical ability.

Origin[edit | edit source]

Kujiru is slightly based on the entirely fictitious Kesa-gozen (袈裟御前) from The Tale of the Heike (平家物語). In the tale, it is said that the samurai Endō Moritō (遠藤盛遠), who did exist historically, fell in love with his friend's wife Kesa-gozen, and instructed her to make her husband sleep alone at night so that he could sneak in and cut his head off. To protect her husband, Kesa-gozen slept in his place and sacrificed herself. To atone, he left home and became a monk named Mongaku (文覚). It is said that a slug appears on his grave every year on the 9th day of the 7th month of the traditional lunisolar calendar, the same day Kesa-gozen was killed. The slug is believed to be her soul, appearing to offer her forgiveness to Mongaku.

Kujiru's surname and species as a slug youkai are likely based on Kesa-gozen. Her appearance in the Tale of the Heike, a story primarily focused on the Taira clan, may also explain Kujiru's appearance on the Youkai Alliance's side of the Heaven-Shadow War, which has heavy ties to the Taira of Mugenri.

Name[edit | edit source]

Their full name is Kujiru Kesa (袈裟 クジル). The name Kujiru (クジル) can be translated from Katakana as "to stick into and move around; to dig around in; to pick (as in, picking one' teeth)".

Their surname "Kesa (袈裟)", taken from Kesa-gozen, is the Japanese word for the Kāṣāya, robes worn by fully ordained Buddhist monks and nuns. Sometimes when children are born, the umbilical cord is hung around the neck and body, which looks like the child is born wearing a Kāṣāya. However, children whose umbilical cords wrap around them like this are prone to stillbirth, so those who are born like this often have "Kesa (袈裟)" added to their name, as a charm for peaceful growth. This relation to life and growth may be related to Kujiru's ability to divide and create more of themselves.

According to JynX, "Kujiru" is written as "抉弄" in Chinese[1]. means "to choose" or "to pluck out", while means "to play with", "to trick", "to make fun of", "to cause ... to do ..." or "to obtain".

Design[edit | edit source]

Kujiru has short blue-green hair and green eyes. They wear a black kasa hat with slug antennae and dresses in dull blue and green clothing, where their neck seems to be covered with a big slug. In their animal form, Kujiru is a white slug.

Appearances[edit | edit source]

Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle

While Taira no Chouki was training under the tutelage of Garaiya, the Dragonfly Castle appeared before Chouki, which Garaiya took as an omen acknowledging them as the New Emperor. The idealistic Garaiya wanted for the emperor to be a “hero figure” to Mugenri, but unknown to them, Chouki actually had no interest in ruling. Knowing that Fumikado will eventually come to the castle and fight for the emperor’s title, Chouki waited for them inside the castle, with the intention to kill and have revenge on Fumikado.

Meanwhile, Garaiya sends Kujiru and Kaisen to recruit followers to their cause and monitor the Senri Shrine and its new employees. They were supposed to act on Kaisen's orders, but they disobeyed and went on their own. After Kujiru and Kaisen are defeated by the heroes, they go back to Garaiya and tell them what happened. Garaiya and their shikigami (back in animal form) fight against the heroes in order to prevent them from reaching Chouki and the Dragonfly Castle, but is defeated easily, since Garaiya was weakened due to using most of their power to enhance Kujiru and Kaisen.

Relationships[edit | edit source]

Kaisen Azuma

Kaisen is Kujiru's superior. However, they seem to have little respect for them and disobeys them, because Garaiya favors Kujiru rather than Kaisen. Because of this, Kaisen is jealous of them and both are always seen bickering or insulting each other, much to Garaiya's chagrin.

Garaiya Ogata

Kujiru is one of Garaiya's shikigami. The slug holds them in high respect and often picks fights with Kaisen in order to get their master's approval.

Shou Amanomori

It's stated in Kujiru's official profile that they know Shou Amanomori. After discovering that Shou is a similar slug youkai as well, Kujiru was pleased and considered persuading them to join the Dragonfly Army due to needing an addition to their own work-field, sending them invitations and chasing them around despite Shou rejecting the invitations. They sometimes even manage to trick and manipulate Shou into doing their bidding much to Shou's chagrin.

Additional Information[edit | edit source]

  • Kujiru, along with Kaisen, lacks a common phrase in their theme that most people associated with the Youkai Alliance have, this is because they were bound by their shikigami contacts to Garaiya, and did not join on their own accord.[2]

Gallery[edit | edit source]

Spell Cards[edit | edit source]

Spell Cards
Name Translated Comments Games Stage
Total: 7
滑粘「スラグストップ」 Sliminess "Slug Stop" BPoHC St. 2: E/N
止粘「ぬるぬるほいほい」 Stickiness "Slimy Slug Trap"[a] The Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle upgrade is simply titled Slimy Slug Trap (ぬるぬるほいほい). BPoHC
BPoHC
St. 2: H/U
Upgrade
激動「ホーミングナメクジ」 Turmoil "Homing Slugs" BPoHC St. 2: E/N
「ナメクジ大戦争」 "Great Slug War" BPoHC St. 2: H/U
「元祖・ナメクジスクランブル」 "Original Slug Scramble" BPoHC St. 2: E
「真・ナメクジスクランブル」 "True Slug Scramble"[b] BPoHC St. 2: N/H
「カツユ」 "Katsuyu"[c] BPoHC St. 2: U

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. Literally "slimy hoi-hoi", a play on the name of "gokiburi hoi-hoi" cockroach traps.
  2. The Japanese name styling might be a reference to Shin Megami Tensei (真・女神転生).
  3. Katsuyu (蛞蝓) is another Japanese word for slug.

Official Profiles[edit | edit source]

唯一且つ数多なる者

袈裟 クジル
Kesa Kujiru
●種族
妖怪(ナメクジ)
●能力
ヌルヌルに分裂する
      的な能力

自らの体を分裂させ、子ナメクジの式神を生成できる
分裂させた体の一部はすぐに再生するので、
妖力があるだけ分裂しまくれる、便利!

ただし子ナメクジの式神は力を殆ど持たず、
偵察程度にしか使えない。
そんな能力だが、分裂した子ナメクジは
他の子ナメクジやクジル自身と情報を共有できるため
雑兵と連絡を取る通信兵や斥候や諜報員として、
戦場ではかなり重宝されている。

クジル自身もある人物に使役されている式神である。
最近出会った「雨杏 宵」がなんだか自分と
似ているので気に入り、
自分の旗下に加えたがっている。

The Person Who is One, And Yet Many

Kujiru Kesa
●Species:
Youkai (slug)
●Abilities:
Something like dividing slipperily

They are able to divide their body and turn the child slugs into shikigami.
Because the divided body reforms immediately, they can keep dividing
as long as they still have magical power. Convenient!

However, these child shikigami have very little power
and are only really useful for reconnaissance.
Such an ability is actually quite useful on the battlefield,
as the child slugs can share information with each other and Kujiru.
Thus, they are treasured on the battlefield for fulfiling roles such as
common soldiers, signallers, scouts, and spies.

Kujiru themself is also the shikigami of a certain person.
They recently met "Shou Amanomori", and were pleased to find
that Shou somehow resembled themself. As such, they'd like to add
Shou to the forces they command.

Official Sources[edit | edit source]

Official sources

References[edit | edit source]