saiyuki rant of doom

[little_blue_me]

BUAH! So I finished Saiyuki Reload's ninth volume last night and...
//Actually, it’s been few nights already since that… I’m just slow at writing my thoughts down.//
(...Haha... And please excuse me and my fangirl rant and analysis. I'm just too into Saiyuki. Can't really be helped. <3)

But here we go:

Comments

[little_blue_me]

Yeah, I definitely agree with you about Kanzeon, and that's why I miss her more as an observer of the events, not as a rescuer who saves the ikkou from evey tricky situation. Just like she's in Gaiden, merely a bystander, who easily could save the day but doesn't. After that whole transfusion thingy, she was that in Saiyuki too, until Reload's first volume. :/ That's what I miss, her little comments every now and then.
Heh, Hakkai's healing ability surely is a great way to kill any kind of feel of danger of a scene, but he does have his own limits t oo, lucily. ;)
And although the plot itself, stopping of the revival, hasn't almost developed one tiny bit, I think it otherwise has a whole lot. And seeing how many times Minekura refered to Nataku and Goku's times in heaven in Saiyuki, I'm not about to give all of my hopes up. Though seeing too how many volumes it has been WITHOUT Nataku, I'm getting the same feeling as you. :(

I love that aspect too. :) Seventh and eight volumes were good; the roles between youkais and humans were reversed and it weren't the youkais who were portrayed as the evil guys here now, everything isn't black and white or definite.

[snaphappy_fma]

Thanks for starting this discussion! I bought SR9 last week, and agree with you on many points...

I am tired of Hazel. Hazel died in the anime years ago, and Minekura (bless her) seems unable to put him away yet in the manga. But it's more interesting in the manga now that Ukoku is face-to-face against the ikkou, as I agree that he's the ultimate villain in the Saiyuki universe. I'm one of those who believes that Ukoku killed Koumyou, because as the real villain in Saiyuki he has to have committed the worst violation against the story's main character (Sanzo). That's what the main villain does in any good story. :)

I think Ukoku just "knows" what's happening out of his sight, because possibly he's a fallen god (like Homura) and has those powers. Ukoku seems to have god-like control of things at times (recall his final scene with Kami-sama, his disciple).

I liked this volume, I just wish Minekura would move beyond Hazel and get the ikkou on their journey again. ;)

[little_blue_me]

And thank you for taking part in it! :D I just love to discuss about my favorite manga.

Heh, I'm starting to think too that it could be about the time to let Hazel go. But he's the reason why we have the whole "Even a worm" arc which has been running for so long already, and I'm kind of getting the feeling that when the arc is over, the whole series will be heading to its end then. Because it's somewhat very hard to imagine how the story could backup to its earlier pace after all that's happened now. And Ukoku showing up like this, it definitely gives me the vibes of the beginning of the end. :/
I haven't watched the anime version, I did saw a climpse of Gunlock and Hazel's...transformation...which definitely gave me a whole new reason not to watch it... I'm just praying that Minekura will come up with something different...

Heh, another one of you, eh? ;D I'm not sure if you read the earlier comments, but there was something about that subject of Ukoku being behind Koumyou's death. And yeah, I *at least now* still believe that he wasn't. But no need to start an argue about it. ;)

I think Ukoku just "knows" what's happening out of his sight, because possibly he's a fallen god (like Homura) and has those powers.

Although I have always thought that Ukoku researching facts about the others was very believable, it didn't really explain how he knew the other things, like the ikkou's whereabouts and actions, so I always explained it all with the "he just knows". Which though still doesn't explain why he knows. x) So I find that "fallen god" theory very interesting! I probably don't agree with it with 100% certainty as of yet, but it would explain why he knows those things he does, and now that you mentioned it (I had completely forgotten) that scene in the end of Saiyuki 9 volume, when kami-sama's temple crumples to pieces, he says Ukoku is behind it. o_o Surely a normal human couldn't destroy something like a whole building. Though it could also be explained with his muten sutra - maybe he used it? Though that sutra more like erases things, it doesn't destroy them. But then again, we are talking about a volume that came out maaany years ago, so Minekura could had easily changed her mind about the nature of muten sutra.
Haha! I'm going in circles now, aren't I? x) This, along with many others, is something we just have to wait to see.

I'm not sure if Minekura can really draw those kind of "easy" chapthers she did before "Even a worm". Well, of course she can, but I'm not sure how I, for one, would receive them. She started a very serious arc with this one, and she really needs to stick with the atmosphere and move on with the plot itself. (As sad as it is to say it, that's how I feel).