FFF THIS POST IS FUCKING LONG.
Greetings, all!
So a few weeks ago, I got a new job, which has its pros and cons. Pros: I am slightly richer than before (read: still poor as the dickens). Cons: Internet usage is strictly regulated and monitored at the new job, so I'm pretty much away from LJ for about 12 hours a day (including commute and so forth), and sleeping for at least 8 of the other hours. THE FUN PART OF THE DAY JUST GOT A HELL OF A LOT SHORTER.
Plus on top of that there has been Christmassy stuff to take care of and colds to battle and so forth blah blah long story short I haven't reviewed the last two KHR chapters yet! Which was probably obvious already BUT I MUST MAKE EXCUSES FOR IT, OKAY. 8(
Anyway, what I was thinking was that I would wait until chapter 318 came out and then do like a double review or something. What I did not anticipate was that Vongola GP (a.k.a. KHR on cuteness steroids) would be premiering the same weekend! DAMN YOU AMANO AND TOSHINORI, SNEAKING UP ON ME LIKE THAT.
Soo... I guess it'll be a double review of KHR 317/318*, followed (most likely tomorrow) by a post on GP 01.
*you saw nothing! If you have no clue what I am talking about, then... good. XD
~KHR 317~
1. I liked the way Binktopia translated the preview text on this cover; I believe their phrasing was something along the lines of "Enma enters the battle! What exactly is his intent??" I remember reading it, and thinking to myself, "Um. TO KICK SOME ASS, is what I'm guessing."
Tsuna looks like someone just punched him in the feelings, but that's a given. What did surprise me was that Adelheid looks like someone punched her in the feelings. At this rate, it's only a matter of time before we get a panel of fucking Hibari making a Basil face.
Julie, meanwhile, looks more JUST AS PLANNED than anything, but that was not surprising at all.
2. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I THINK ENMA HAS FINALLY LOST HIS SHIT COMPLETELY. STAND BACK, THIS COULD GET UGLY. (No comment on Binktopia's version of this page which had Enma making that >8O!!! face while screaming "I CAN'T STOP IT NOW!!! IT'S COMING!!!" That kind of mocks itself.)
Moving on to the next page, oh fucking hell Amano are you trying to make me cry or something. :/
3. OH NO TSUNA LOST HIS SHIT TOO WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO WHEN THE TWO WUSSIEST, PEACE-LOVINGEST KIDS IN THE MAFIA LIGHT UP ON FIRE AND BLOW AWAY LAMBOS AND START SCREAMING AT EACH OTHER. *hides*
...on the other hand. So far this is not so much scary as it is hilarious. XD
MIIIIIIIND CRUUUUUUUSH
4. And then Lambo had to go and spoil my fun by making an expression of legit fear and horror. D: I have discovered that when child!Lambo is used for non-comedic purposes, I have absolutely no idea how to react. Way to catch me completely and utterly off-guard, Amano.
Fortunately, Lambo was incorrect and Enma's mind crush did not, in fact, crush Tsuna. In fact, it looks like what the mind crush did was basically... not... anything. Whoopsy.
Predictably, Enma is enraged by this and even starts mouthing off at his mommy Adelheid in retaliation. "YOU'RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME, ADELHEID!!" Sorry, Adel, your little baby is all grown up and annihilating Vongola.
5. "What!? He could fly too!?" WHY. WHY ARE THEY EVEN SURPRISED. EVERYONE CAN FUCKING FLY, OKAY, JUST. ACCEPT IT ALREADY.
I'm gonna skip right past this page cuz I've got three freaking chapters to review here, no time for action mishmosh.
la la la
derp derp derp
6. Actually, much as Amano is still in need of work when it comes to her fight scenes (she kind of plateaued around the end of the Varia Arc, it seems), I have to say, I actually did get a sense of badass for a second there toward the end. This may not be much to write home about on paper, but it's going to look fucking awesome once it's all animated. Whenever that may be.
7. "...They're even!" Now that he mentions it... that is kind of a miracle, isn't it? When was the last time you saw a shounen battle that wasn't all back-and forth "YOU HAVE THE UPPER HAND BUT NOW I HAVE THE UPPER HAND!!"? I don't see why we don't do this more often; personally I think it's much more fun this way. Eh? Eh?
8. Gotta hand it to Enma, he raises a good point. He took Tsuna's lack of responsibility-taking and threw it right back in his face! And I say this despite the fact that I normally I've got Tsuna's back when it comes to this issue of him not wanting to be a boss. To be fair, what Tsuna says is true--he does only use his superpowers to defend himself and his friends. And it's not his fault the role of Vongola Tenth got landed on him, and he didn't ask for any of the endless drama that constantly surrounds him, and he didn't start any of it.
But on the other hand, he does sort of have this rose-tinted view of the Vongola, if not the mafia in general, and he's kind of in denial about all of the horrible things the Vongola family has done in the past. Well, not in denial, maybe, but he doesn't like to think about it much and whenever the issue comes up he sort of sidesteps it and is like, "Well, maybe that's true but my family isn't like that," and so on and so forth. And whatever he may say, he clearly does have a little bit of mafia pride about certain things, because whenever the subject of Primo comes up, for example, he pretty much defends him blindly. But he only ever wants to focus on the good things and just really doesn't ever want anyone to shove the harsh realities of the world in his face because frankly he just doesn't want to have to deal with it.
And okay, much as it would be nice if this were a perfect world and he could just live a safe, happy, ordinary life, as Enma has continued to point out, Tsuna's got mafia in his blood whether he likes it or not and that choice has pretty much been taken out of his hands. If the comic books are right (and I think we all know that they are), with great power comes great responsibility, and one of these days Tsuna is going to have to step up and say hey, I'm in this position of awesome power and influence whether I like it or not, and I have a choice to either step back and let bad things keep happening even though I have the power to maybe stop them, or I can man up and try to do something. For all that he is constantly Jesusing people, at some point someone does need to Jesus that into him. It's what we've all been waiting for since the start of the series, and while I fully support his right to resist the inevitable and be a normal, derpy (and yeah, maybe somewhat selfish--he's allowed) teenager for as long as he's able, one day that is going to happen. And at this rate, maybe it'll be Enma that does it.
9. Because on this next page? Things are going down, motherfucker. YOU WANT PLOT? WE'LL GIVE YOU PLOT. HELLO, MY NAME IS KOZATO ENMA, YOU KILLED MY FATHER AND MOTHER AND SISTER, HOLY FUCKING SHIT, PREPARE TO DIE.
OH AMANO YOU DID NOT JUST! OH IEMITSU SAY IT ISN'T SO. SAY IT'S JUST JULIE AND HIS LYING LIES. (Well, of course it is. But still.)
SHIT JUST GOT REAL SON! AND HO BOY HERE COME THE WATERWORKS... NO... COME ON, MAKESTE... KEEP IT TOGETHER...! !
fff
10. KER-PUNCH, and that was the story of how Tsuna died. The end.
OH NO, NOT NON-DYING WILL TSUNA, HE'S ONLY MORTAL FOR CHRISTMAS'S SAKE, AND NOW THIS FIGHT IS NO LONGER EQUAL BECAUSE HE (ALONG WITH ANYONE ELSE OUT THERE WHO'S ACTUALLY GOT A SOUL, I'M JUST SAYING) WAS TOTALLY SWAYED BY ENMA'S HEARTBREAKING STORY OF TRAGEDY AND NOW HE DOESN'T EVEN WANT TO FIGHT ANYMORE AND MEANWHILE ENMA'S MORE FIRED UP THAN EVER AND ALL, "I WON'T STOP UNTIL I KILL YOU BIIIIITCH" AND HOW TERRIBLE THIS IS REALLY BAD, THESE ARE REALLY DREADFUL CIRCUMSTANCES.
SUCH A CLIFFHANGER, HOWEVER WILL WE SURVIVE THE WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT CHAPTE
~KHR 318~
(By the way, fair warning, I actually haven't read this one yet so I'm probably going to be flailing and !!!-ing all over the place here.)
1. AND WE OPEN WITH A VERY TERRIBLE PAGE OF TERRIBLE EVENTS. Well! That just does not bode well at all for the Vongola in this chapter, now does it.
I do feel a bit better about the fact that on the following page Gokudera looks more >8O than I would expect him to look if Tsuna actually was being killed right in front of his eyes (that would be more of a D8 face, I imagine, and there would probably be quite a bit of sobbing as well). So it seems pretty safe to say that Tsuna's not quite murdered yet.
2. And that's about the only thing I really am sure of right now because wh...at...?
Hey, Enma's letting Tsuna go! Could it be out of the goodness of his hea--
--oh. Nope. No, it's just the Simon ring awakening. Good timing! Those crazy mafia rings and their deus ex machina, I'm telling you. It seems that in fact, all the rings, not just the Vongola rings, love Tsuna the best.
Also, I just have to say (since I have been dying to do so this whole week): BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW ENMA. ;________;
3. You know what, I'm such a sucker for angsty backstories and essaying about them that I am just going to give in and paragraph for a little bit. SO THAT ENMA KID. I SORT OF LOVE HIM TO PIECES NOW. And it is entirely because of this whole sob story about his sister, I completely admit. I liked him a lot already because he was cute (once you got past the creepy eye factor) and cuddly and sweet and Tsuna-ish and then, once he got hold of the ring, surprisingly badass and hilariously prone to long emo rantings, but now, with this? INSTANT FAVORITE. Bumped right the fuck up to number 4 just after the untouchable Vongola trio (with many apologies to Shou, who I believe last occupied that spot).
But you guys, seriously, everything about Enma suddenly makes total fucking sense and it's like what happened when I first found out about Gokudera's angsty mafia past--suddenly everything just clicked. And it's one thing to have suspicions and theories about a character's backstory and why their personalities are the way they are, but when something is actually confirmed, and everything just falls into place, it's like holy shit, suddenly this character is so much realer that can be a word! if I want it to be! now, and oh wow. I made the so-obvious-as-to-almost-be-redundant observation last week (wait... two weeks ago XD) that Enma is a more desperate and maybe slightly unhinged version of Tsuna, but to have this revelation that it's not just because he grew up orphaned and mistreated, but because his family was actually murdered by (he thinks) the Vongola, and not just his parents but his sister... wow.
Because you see, what happens then is that I go back and reread the first few chapters of this arc (and come across pages like this that just piss me right off XD), and suddenly this is not just a random pathetic emo kid, but a kid who's so completely used to being abused that he just silently puts up with it, and so depressed that he just really doesn't give a fuck about anything aside from his family (by which I don't mean that he's particularly hateful or violent; mostly just apathetic and expecting the worst from every situation), and it makes his friendship with Tsuna seem all the more miraculous. (Also, it seems that far from being overdramatic, he was actually understating a lot of things during his impromptu anti-mafia rants. XD) And he ended up wanting so badly to trust Tsuna, and then to have Tsuna just leave him hanging (THANKS SO MUCH I-PIN)...! No wonder he snapped! I would have snapped! I would have gone completely batshit crazy and tried to kill everything too, and that is the truth.
And he kept acting like it was all just about Giotto and Cozart and their family histories when in reality this was the driving factor all along. His sister. And he was just burying it and burying it and then Julie in all of his infinite dickishness fed him the one lie (I assume!) that he knew would just send him flying into inconsolable rage mode, and just. God. I haven't felt this way about an angsty backstory-fueled descent into madness since Uchiha Sasuke, and just. WELL DONE, ARC. You know exactly which buttons to push to cheaply manipulate my emotions, Amano. <3
4. ...Boy, look at that I just never shut up! Anyway, we're only five pages in so I should probably get a move on here. As I was saying before, thanks to a benevolent twist of fate, Tsuna, not Enma, is actually the main character, and thus no matter how much of a fucked-up angstfest Enma's life turns out to be, he's not just going to kill Tsuna because the plot will not let him! Which is to say that the Simon family is inexplicably retreating to fight again another day!
Which is a damn good thing, because Tsuna pretty much looks like I feel. ;_;
Well, I mean, he just had a confrontation with a former boyfriend who got all up in his face and told him, while clearly in agony, that Tsuna's father was directly responsible for destroying everything he ever loved. YEAH, I'M FAIRLY CERTAIN HE'S GOING TO BE A LITTLE SHAKEN UP FOR A BIT.
5. In that case, we shall leave him to his angst and return to Castle von Simon, where Chrome is currently taking her sweet time to escape, and taking so long that in fact Julie barges in and is like, "Oh hey were you trying to escape? That's so cute! ♪" which would have been hilarious if he wasn't such a creep about it. Why you do this to me Julie.
Then he proposes to her, and she responds with a polite "No thanks," which is very sweet but also very ill-advised because really, Chrome. To get him to stop making these disturbing advances, what you really have to do is be less adorable, not more.
6. I thought Chrome was fully capable of creating her own illusionary organs now, though? Oh, but I guess not while she was unconscious, though. Huh. I guess we sort of owe him one except not really because lol he's the one who kidnapped her in the first place. WELL... THANKS FOR NOT JUST STRAIGHT-UP MURDERING HER, I GUESS...?
Though if I were Chrome I would totally be like "oh ICK get your illusionary organs right the fuck out of my body THIS FUCKING INSTANT, oh god I will never be clean again 8|."
And actually, that whole line of thought sort of makes this next page incredibly disturbing! Wow, I regret that so much now that it's not even funny. Oh man.
7. I'm gonna give Amano the benefit of the doubt and assume that she's well aware of how deeply unsettling this entire scene has been so far, and that it is in fact intentional. Just in case anyone out there still wasn't certain that Julie is a very, very bad man.
NOT THAT IT MAKES THINGS ANY LESS AWKWARD HERE. SERIOUSLY, OKAY, WE GET IT ALREADY.
8. ...Oh my gosh that's so surprising I think I'm gonna have a heart attack and die from that surprise.
And now Amano's really trying to fuck with us, haha. She's all, "BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! MORE TWISTS! LOOK! LOOK!"
9. "JULIE IS REALLY DAEMON SPADE!! HAHA! HOW ARE YOUR MINDS NOW? TOTALLY BLOWN?? HUR HUR I THOUGHT SO!" XD
Well, she's always been hit-or-miss when it comes to these things, though, so that's all right. This particular twist was even more obvious than the "SIMON FAMILY ARE REALLY THE BAD GUYS!" twist, but let's not forget she did legitimately blow our minds with good!Shouichi and impaled!Yamamoto back in the day, so when she really wants to, she's good for it. Maybe she's just trying to make us feel complacent so she can set us up for something really unexpected later. And if I'm giving her too much credit, well, whatever; at least this 'twist' still gave us the deliciously ironic panel of someone not-Mukuro saying they want Mukuro's body, which will never stop delighting me ever.
10. Oh but come on now spade pupils that is really just too much. ...and now Chrome's evil. This plot just totally became lulz. AS EXPECTED WHEN THERE IS A MIST GUARDIAN ON THE LOOSE IN THE HOUSE.
So! That was my superlong 317/318 REVIEW SPECIAL!!, I hope you enjoyed and/or did not drown in all those walls of text. "TL;DR" IS A PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE COMMENT, I WILL NOT TAKE ANY OFFENSE.
AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO derpmaid ♥, riotpunkdance, snarkwithasmile, and chesauroshin, Y'ALL ARE AWESOME AND I LOVE YOU AND I'M SORRY FOR BEING SUCH A FLAKY FLAKE ABOUT KEEPING UP WITH MY FLIST. And my journal. And... you know, everything. XD PEACE.