#akatsuki

ah yes, the rings - possibly one of the most interesting abadndoned plotlines in Naruto, because we start off with the members really pressed about losing them (Deidara with both arms gone went to search for it first and his hand second) and the Tailed Beast extraction seemingly being impossible without one (Orochimaru's spot remaining vacant for year), but come the colab between Akatsuki and Sasuke with his gang of supportive glup shittos we no longer care about the rings or possessing them to activate the statue that, for some reason, has engravings activated by said rings. okay Kishimoto #whatever

it does create the funny scenario where Pain and Konan come up to "Madara" asking if he wants to help them extracting the One-Tail as Tobi because that involves abducting the Kazekage and causing an international incident, so they'll be really pressed for time and it really should be all hands on board for this operation, but Obito, manspreading on the couch with a giant bag of delivered McDonald's and a beer six pack, remote in hand trying to turn on his favorite video - Nine-Tails crashing into the Hokage Tower on 10/10 - just scratches his nape and goes "nah, I don't think I will"

but on a more serious note, I went on a little bit of a internet digging yesterday and today while trying to make sense of what the fuck is the symbolism behind the kanji on the characters themselves, and honestly I'm feeling like giving up because it's a psychosis-inducing mess. most sources just repeat the same claim that you can find on wiki - which is 9 out of 10 the symbols are based on Kuji-in, the 9 mudras and matras used in Buddhism/Shinto/Taoism/irl ninjutsu, except for Pain's 零 - but if you spend literally 5 minutes reading up on this stuff you will realize that's completely not it and if anything, it's the regular ninja seals that are based on the Kuji-in. I tried to find the mantras themselves assossiated with Kuji-in in hopes that maybe that's where you can find the kanji, but haven't been really successful in that regard and, if I'm being honest, from the English text I did find it just seems like the mantras are just straight up taken as they were in Sanskrit and Japanesefied to make it possible to pronounce. If anyone has more info as to why the wiki assumes Akatsuki rings to be related to Kuji-in, do share, because I'm at a loss here

This fan analysis from 20 years ago holds a bit more weight in my opinion. It is still very much imperfect, but at least this one does get some of the patterns that I believe are present in Akatsuki's theming

(I just spent like 2 hours digging through a bunch of Wikipedia pages in both Chinese and Japanese. I am feeling slightly insane right now)

the actual theming behind Akatsuki's rings is actually astrology, particularly ancient Chinese astrology (yes apparently when you enter Akatsuki you enter your very Chinese time of life)

the right hand - particularly Deidara, Konan, Itachi and Zetsu - are actually pretty easy to figure out, each of their rings corresponds to the Four Symbols that the 28 mansions are grouped in: 東方青龍 (Qinglong/Seiryu, the Azure Dragon of the East), 西方白虎 (Baihu/Byakko, the White Tiger of the West), 南方朱雀 (Zhuque/Suzaku, the Vermillion Bird of the South) and 北方玄武 (Xuanwu/Genbu, the Black Tortoise of the North). As you can see from the screenshots, it seems like during the original print of chapter 255 someone messed up and Zetsu's kanji instead ended up being 亥 (boar) and the production just stuck with it until the end, never fixing the kanji in later chapters lmao. Seiryu, Byakko, Suzaku and Genbu are pretty important mythological characters on their own, but, considering the the other kanji present, it's pretty logical to assume they're here as a nod to astrology

now for the rest - I'll be deadass with you, I genuinely found no obvious pattern to them. There's the likely 北斗 and 南斗 which are the Big Dipper and the Dipper, there's 三台 which is the Three Steps and there's 玉衡 as the Jade Sighting-Tube (star in the Big Dipper). All of these except for the Dipper are somehow related to Ursa Major constellation, so there's that I guess, and I've got no clue what to do with Pain's and Orochimaru's.

even if when I try to step back and think of it production POV - meaning introducing certain patterns with the characters appearing in the manga - the logic appears and dies on Itachi and Kisame because Suzaku is both responsible for vermillion and south, and then we immediatelly get Orochimaru who fits nowhere, and then it's Deidara's azure and Sasori's jewel which are completely disconnected from each other.

so yeah I feel my brain bubbling within my skull. nothing makes sense with these rings, hm

anyway, it was really funny how people were using them to try and powerscale Akatsuki based on the positioning/rings when Shippuden had just begun, and spent pages of board messages arguing behind the meaning of the rings and their importance, when in the end it turned out to be nothing but a fashion statement from this terrorist group of queers wearing matching cloaks and doing mani pedi (and certain people cough cough Deidara cough were actually wearing eyeliner to the missions)