#papilion

The young run-away we follow is Kafka Tamura, a boy who decided to leave his home in Tokyo after his father has put a curse on him: one day, Kafka would kill his father and have sex with his mother and his sister. Kafka’s mother and his sister actually left years ago.

From the family situation and the curse, it seems Taehyung fits with the role of Kafka, even though in the BU, his sister still lives with him and their father (“I NEED U”, STIGMA).

While running away, Kafka meets Sakura, a young woman. Kafka wonders if she could be his sister. Sakura easily guesses Kafka is in a complex situation and gives him her number in case he needs help.

Kafka ends up in the district of Takamatsu, where he discovers the Komura Memorial Library. He decides to spend his days here. The library is close by the sea, only separated from it by a pine forest.

From the HYYH notes, it appears that there’s a pine forest near the beach they went to in YEAR 19 (12 June YEAR 19 in Tear). It’s also mentioned in other notes, implying some of the boys went back during YEAR 22 (Seokjin’s 11 April YEAR 22, Taehyung’s 22 May YEAR 22 in Her and Namjoon’s 22 May YEAR 22 in Tear).

Except that one day, Kafka wakes up covered in blood, in a park. He doesn’t know what happened but he immediately thinks about his father and the possibility he killed him. Kafka eventually decides to call Sakura for help. She welcomes him in a flat belonging to a friend of her, gives him a tee-shirt and listens to Kafka’s story.

In “I NEED U”, there’s a scene where Taehyung kills his father but in his Tear HYYH Note from the 20 May YEAR 22, it’s explained he didn’t do it but did imagine it several times.

We also have the opening scene from the Prologue where, like Kafka, Taehyung wakes up covered in blood - impossible to know if it’s Taehyung’s imagination or not. He decides to ask for help and calls Namjoon, his companion in HYYH. However, we learn in the making-of of the Prologue that contrary to Kafka, Taehyung doesn’t explain to the others what happened.

Based on Taehyung’s call, Namjoon would be Sakura. Like her, he lives in a place that’s not his own - the container - and he has a brotherly relationship with Taehyung. On another occasion, he also gave him a T-shirt, like Sakura (see Namjoon’s 11 April YEAR 22 Note, from Her).

Kafka leaves Sakura’s flat - he feels guilty because he’s sexually attracted to her despite their brotherly relationship. He goes back to the library and there Oshima, the librarian, offers him help. To have the time to prepare something for Kafka, Oshima brings him to a little cabin deep in the forest, with the advice to not go into the woods.

The forest around this house is the one mentioned in “Butterfly” lyrics.

When Kafka comes back to Takamatsu, it’s decided that he’ll be an employee at the library and that he’ll live there, with the authorization of Miss Saeki, the owner. Kafka wonders if Miss Saeki could be his mother. He’s also fascinated by her past and falls in love with her young self.

In BTS works, Hoseok is the mother figure. He’s also Taehyung’s pair in WINGS where he urges him to grow up into an adult (see the Concept book).

We learn that Kafka’s father was killed on the night Kafka woke up covered in blood. Since his father was in Tokyo and Kafka was in Takamatsu, it’s technically impossible for him to have done it. In theory.

On the same day, something happened to Mr Tanaka, the other main character. He met a man who presented himself as Johnnie Walker (Johnnie Walker is actually a whiskey brand, the man was wearing the same outfit as the one on the bottles).

In order to become immortal, Johnnie Walker eats cats’ hearts. It angers Mr Tanaka to the point he kills Johnnie Walker (please note I’m shortening this part A LOT).

Kafka’s father and Johnnie Walker actually died at the same time. And Taehyung has dreamed for a while to kill his alcoholic father. There’s probably some kind of metaphor or interpretation but you’ll have to contact a theorist for that, not me, sorry.

As the police now know about Kafka’s father, they try to find his son. Oshima takes Kafka back to the house in the forest so he can hide.

Despite Oshima’s advice, Kafka goes inside the forest and finds a house where a girl looking like the young Miss Saeki visits him and makes him food. Kafka feels like everything’s perfect. Except that the passage between this ideal world and reality will soon close and Kafka has to go back eventually.

Neverland? The child growing into an adult and that thus can’t stay young forever? Anyone?

When Kafka comes back, he learns Miss Saeki died peacefully. He finally decides to go back to Tokyo. He takes the train back and that’s the end of the story.

In “Spring Day”, the boys leave the perfect world of Omelas by train too.

Now that the story is told let’s add a few points.

Is anyone Mr Tanaka?

Mr Tanaka is the other main character in the novel. He is an old man able to talk to cats and whose actions had impacts on Kafka’s story, like the passage with Johnnie Walker. Yet I can’t really see anyone in the group fitting this role.

By stretching things, maybe Seokjin. In the Papilion concept group photo, he was the only one wearing shoes and so people associated him with Peter Pan while the others were the lost children. Mr Tanaka was the one who opened the passage between the two worlds, so he helped Kafka pass, like Peter Pan makes the children travel between the outside world and Neverland. That’s the only thing I can think of though.

Also just for the joke, maybe Seokjin can talk to butterflies =P

The boy named Crow

Kafka is not the boy’s real name. It’s a fake name he chose and that’s referencing the author Kafka. It’s explained in the book that Kafka means crow in Czech.

Kafka is also accompanied by a boy named Crow. Crow is a rather mysterious character, we don’t know if he’s real, a voice in Kafka’s head, or a split personality. All we know is that he supports Kafka by telling him he’s the “toughest fifteen-year-old in the world.” and he protected him in the forest.

In the trailer for The Wings Tour, we can see Taehyung with black wings, reminding of a crow. It reinforces the idea Taehyung is Kafka Tamura but it also implies the possibility Taehyung has his own Crow in the BU.

Kafka/Taehyung’s sister

Here is the big difference between the two stories. Kafka hasn’t seen his sister in years while Taehyung lived with her.

I didn’t mention it but Kafka actually accomplished the prophecy in a way. He woke up covered in blood the day his father was killed and he dreamt he had sex with Sakura and Miss Saeki who he associated respectively with his sister and his mother. It’s obviously a reference to the myth of Oedipus, which itself is a metaphor about the son growing up and progressively replacing his father and having children with a woman.

In Kafka on the Shore, we don’t know if it was the real mother and sister or substitutes but the metaphor remains.

In the BU, I think that despite Taehyung’s sister being here, the metaphor is carried by his interactions with Namjoon and Hoseok.

Lastly, in “Stigma”, V sings:

I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry ma brother [...] I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry ma sister

The lyrics are about a sin that couldn’t be confessed and the hurt caused by it to others (brother and sister). It’s interesting to wonder who are “brother” and “sister”. Like is “sister” in reference to his actual sister or to the metaphor represented by Namjoon? Is “brother” about Namjoon, Hoseok, the both of them, or all the boys?