/jp/ - Otaku Culture

One of the lynchpins of classic mythology and cosmogony is the conflict between the solar and cthonic principles, and the gods that represent them. Utsuho Reiuji embodies not only this primal conflict, but its resolution as well, in terms of the archetypal Heroes' Journey. As the yatagarasu, she conquers the old solar deity, and like Prometheus she steals his divine solar fire and goes underground with it; a literal going-under process into the darkness with the spark of light inside her. She then begins to create a second, artificial sun in the depths, discovering her own identity as the new solar archetype. Finally, she ascends back into the world with the sun-fire, ready to burn away the degraded surface world that she had once known so it can be rebuilt anew, as Lord Kalki must end the Kali Yuga with the fiery sword so a new age can dawn. Though Utsuho uses much modern symbology, notably the Chernobyl incident, and the unification of the principles of the divine solar flame, the promise of fusion power as a salvation of civilization, and the destructive might of the hydrogen bomb as all stemming from the same source, this is necessary as all myths must update themselves to be fit for their own age.