Hey. I know that in the Kuro anime (and a lot of fanarts) there are many parallels drawn between Sebastian and crows (or ravens. No one seems to be able to agree). I was wondering if these parallels feature as predominantly in the manga (I know O!Ciel refers to him as a "crow" once or twice, and Sebs plays into the whole "nevermore" thing but that is really just two scenes)? I was wondering if you could do an analysis on these comparisons? Thank you in advance 😊
Dear November-solarstorms,
First of all, my apology for taking so long to get to you! Now hoping this post finds you in good health, let us dive into the connection between Sebas and this black bird.
Indeed! It is mostly the anime that makes blatant references of Sebas being a crow/raven. As this reference is the first thing we see of Sebas in the anime, it is also the most lasting image. It is therefore also no wonder that many fan-artists make raven/crow references to Sebas, because the majority of Kurofans for a long time used to be anime (only)-watchers.
Symbolism and Association
As for the manga... to the best of my knowledge the only alluding in the manga towards Sebastian being a raven or a crow is in chapter 14.
This only reference of raven/crow to Sebas happened in the fragment of a dream of O!Ciel. So this was by no means actual information about Sebastian. The reason this link was made in this dream has undoubtedly something to do with O!Ciel’s cultural background.
Predominantly in (but not limited to) western cultures, crows and ravens with their pitch black feathers have long been associated with doom and death. Some literature also mention some demons taking shape as ravens or crows when on earth, such as Stolas (36th demon in the pantheon), Malphas (39th) and Raum (40th). In general, ravens and crows display behaviours that spook humans, and combined with their appearance, they have come to be associated with ‘demise’. In most religions, ‘demise’ is automatically linked to ‘Hell’, and ‘Hell’ again to ‘demons’. O!Ciel grew up in a Christian society, so the association between this black animal and demons could not have escaped him.
Does O!Ciel think of Sebas as a crow or raven? Humans do not need to agree with an association to have that image pop up at the mention of something. When playing Pictionary for example, we grab for the most ‘dominant image’ of something, rather than going for something factually accurate. When we get the word ‘Chinese man’ for example, most people would probably draw this straw hat and splitty eyes, even though they probably know it is simply not accurate, let alone politically correct.
During the summoning of Sebas, the demon did show up as a raven (I think? To be honest, that thing looks more like a black dove to me...) However, he did also show up as any other animal, so we can safely assume that this manifestation did not cause O!Ciel to equate his demon to a black bird. If at all, then this specific manifestation simply spoke to O!Ciel’s confirmation bias at most.
In the reference in chapter 14, Sebas says “Never More”, which is a quote from Poe’s poem, “The Raven”. This reference was later to be confirmed to stem from O!Ciel having read said poem before going to bed. This revelation supports the reading of O!Ciel associating Sebas with a raven simply because he grew up in a culture with this strong, pre-fabbed association of demons with ravens.
I have made several analyses on Sebastian’s character, such as in this post and this post. From all the studies I have done on him, I would not say he displays any behaviour that really would make me say: “he is a raven,” except the obvious of: “he is smart, he preys and he kills”. In this post I explained how despite being a demon, Sebas never actually uses supernatural powers to prey. All his predatory actions in the manga so far could have been done by any patient and smart, and cunning human. So if humans who behave in this way are not ‘ravens’, then neither is Sebas simply based on his actions. Here again we see how this dominant image stems from our culturally bred association of ravens = demons.
Regardless of how much we speculate around, the arguably most important information about whether Sebas is a crow/raven or not is in his own message to us.
Watashi wa nanimono de mo naku, nanimono ni mo nareru.
I am nothing at all, but there is no-one I cannot become.**
(**TLN: In Japanese it is literally: “I am not anything, I can become anyone,” but for nuance’s sake, I translated it as above.)
This title message is a beautiful wordplay by Yana wherein the words ‘mono’ are written as 物 (thing) first, and then 者 (person). With these words Sebastian tells us that he is nothing we have on earth. Instead, he can simply become anything (raven, octopus, wolf, table, chair), or anyone (Trash Butler) at his command.
On this picture, multiple other things are depicted besides the raven on Sebas’ arm. This tells us that this demon truly is as much the wolf, the octopus, or even the pointy circle or black chair as he is the raven. This is almost a shout-out that he would not want us to limit our interpretation of him to this iconic bird.
In conclusion, I think Sebastian is associated with ravens/crows (once by O!Ciel, and otherwise by fans) only because us humans have been fed this imagery from a very young age. The very first image we have seen of him in the anime is also this raven image. And unlike in the manga, this dominant image was later even confirmed to actually be “Sebastian’s true form”, giving nobody reason to disregard this comparison as ‘simply symbolic’.
And also. Because it is cool, and because WE CAN. Also, because Yana loves doing so too. Like. A LOT.
