El gato desplazado de los doce puestos zodiacales abre un juego tras miles de años

As horoscopes classify personalities according to one's birth date, the 'Twelve Earthly Branches (Sibiji)' of East Asian cultural spheres is a classical tool for classifying people based on their birth year or time. However, to read webtoons or novels themed on the Twelve Earthly Branches in depth, one should focus on the structural characteristic of being "a closed system of only twelve positions" rather than the outcomes of fortune-telling. Understanding how a fixed number of positions creates conflict and serves as the foundation for character design allows one to see how familiar material operates as an entirely different narrative engine.

Naver Webtoon's Twelve Zodiac Girls is a striking example that reveals this structural characteristic. The premise, in which 'Nina the Cat,' pushed to 13th place in a game to select twelve gods, reopens the game after thousands of years, cannot be established without the fact that the traditional Twelve Earthly Branches consist of exactly twelve ¹, ².

Why Exactly 'Twelve Positions'

Understanding why the traditional Twelve Earthly Branches are fixed at 'twelve' rather than a thirteenth or eleventh allows for a deeper grasp of the narrative tension in serialized works. The Earthly Branches (Ji), used as a timekeeping system in the Chinese character cultural sphere including Korea, China, and Japan, are formed by combining ten Heavenly Stems (Cheongan) and twelve Earthly Branches (Ji). The sixty combinations created by the meeting and circulation of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, known as 'Yukshigapji' (Sexagenary cycle), were traditionally used as the standard for counting dates and times. In this context, the number '12' inherent in the Earthly Branches is not arbitrarily chosen by creators, but is an essential unit of traditional calendrical systems used to record time and order ³.

Furthermore, the characters themselves representing the Earthly Branches (Ja, Chuk, In, Myo, etc.) did not originally denote animals. The Twelve Earthly Branches were not originally characters meaning animals, but under the influence of Buddhism and other forces, twelve animals were linked to each Earthly Branch, and it is estimated that this settled into the culture of representing one's birth year with an animal, known as the 'Ti' ³. Looking at the children's song 'Tomtomie' released in 2024, the twelve animal song clearly distinguishes the personalities of the twelve animals (intelligence, diligence, bravery, etc.), and a thirteenth animal is not mentioned ⁴. This firm and fixed list of twelve types becomes the starting point assumed by modern serialization writers when creating stories.

Actions by Time Zone Become Character Personalities

In serialized works based on the Twelve Earthly Branches, the way in which each character's abilities or personalities are assigned is often not a creator's improvisational imagination, but rather adopts the traditional 'correspondence between time and action.'

In traditional calendars, each Earthly Branch represents a time zone (two-hour intervals) dividing the day into twelve sections. The actions of animals primarily active during those times were taken as the symbols of the respective Earthly Branches ³.

• Ja-si (11 PM~1 AM): The time when rats are most active.
• In-si (3 AM~5 AM): The time when tigers are most ferocious.
• Hae-si (9 PM~11 PM): The time when pigs are in deep sleep.

When works themed on the Twelve Earthly Branches, including Twelve Zodiac Girls, assign 'superpowers' or 'combat abilities,' these behavioral traits by time zone can be utilized as a Dictionary for character design. Since the correspondence between the time associated with each Earthly Branch and animal behavior is traditionally a shared code ³, it reduces the need for complex explanations for both the author and the reader. As seen even in the children's nursery rhyme 'Tomtomie,' where the rat is fixed as 'smart and frugal' and the ox as 'diligent and dependable,' the Twelve Earthly Branches function as shared personality templates for the public.

Conflict Triggered by the 'Impossible 13th'

With Nina's appearance, the game to select twelve gods is reopened after thousands of years, and the twelve gods descend to the human world, initiating the story ¹, ².

The core issue here is 'boundary violation.' If the Twelve Earthly Branches were a flexible list rather than a system fixed at twelve, Nina could simply have entered as the thirteenth god. However, because the system is closed and positions are limited, the conflict between Nina and the twelve gods leads to inevitable tension. Had there been no constraint of twelve positions, the desperate situation of being 'pushed out' would not have occurred in the first place.

How to View as a Reader: The Boundary Between Inside and Outside

If one felt bored with content that ends like horoscopes, stating 'Today's horoscope is good/bad,' one should pay attention to the 'regularity of structure' and 'violation of those rules' in serialized works themed on the Twelve Earthly Branches. The questions readers can ask are as follows.

1. Are the twelve positions filled? One can examine how the traditional twelve animals are varied into different characters and how much their abilities align with behavioral traits by time zone (e.g., the rat's activity, the tiger's ferocity).
2. Who invades from outside the boundary? When a being not in the traditional list, like Nina, attempts to take one of the twelve gods' positions or shakes the system, one should track how the author attempts to resolve that conflict.

Ultimately, the charm of serialized works based on the Twelve Earthly Branches lies not in viewing a collection of twelve traditional characters, but in observing the chemical reaction that occurs when external elements are introduced into a closed world of twelve. Because there is a fixed framework, the actions of beings pushed out of it feel more desperate and dramatic.