Minekura Kazuya - Saiyuki Reload, vol. 07
Lots of spoilers!
I keep writing up Saiyuki because I keep reading it in different formats. The first time I blogged the chapters that were to become vol. 7, I was reading the scans right off Zero-Sum, which meant that the art wasn't all filled in, and I was squinting at the furigana on the screen.
This time, I have the shiny volume in my hands, and oh, I stroke it for it is beautiful. Beautiful, I say!
Thankfully, vol. 7 is more fighting and less talking, which means I don't have to puzzle through quite as much Japanese.
Also, I am going to try to keep my reaction somewhat more coherent than my original reaction, which largely consisted of randomly typed letter, "eeeeeee!," "OMGOMGOMGOMG" and a whole lot of capital letters.
So.
Um.
Oh, who am I kidding? My reaction is still "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" even after reading it two or three times already.
I just... GAH!
The Gojyo-Hakkai interaction, from Gojyo deciding not to try and stop Hakkai from taking off his limiters, to Hakkai's flashback of Sanzo telling him that taking his limiters off would expose him to the Minus Wave. Youkai!Hakkai. Youkai!Hakkai. And, of course, Youkai!Hakkai.
And the expression on Gojyo's face when he finds Hakkai lying on the ground kills me. Just... kills me!
But despite the bulk of the volume being on the Seiten Taisei-Youkai!Hakkai confrontation, the part that I love the most is that it feels like the beginning of a good, meaty Sanzo arc. Because really, Sanzo totally lets down everyone in the ikkou in this volume, and even though everyone in the ikkou complains about Sanzo and questions his decisions, I don't think he's ever let them down like this before.
There was the bit in which he decided to go on without Gojyo, which was a let down, but I think it was less so than this. That time, it was Sanzo being Sanzo, grumpy and misanthropic. This time, Sanzo just freaks and loses it completely. He's not even reacting normally; he's shooting at nothing, he runs off because he thinks it's Ukoku's plot, he cannot let go of Goku even to let Hakkai treat him. I think Sanzo's brain just totally shuts off, because he can't deal with it.
And... I don't think he's ever done that before. He knows how to deal with the Seiten Taisei, he can deal with Gojyo being shot and etc. I don't know if it's the fact that it's Goku, or that it parallels Koumyou's death, or the flashback to crow feathers, but Sanzo just breaks.
And he leaves the ikkou! (insert much wailing)
And he leaves Goku.
And.... gah. That moment when Goku realizes that Sanzo isn't there when he wakes up? GAH. I don't think he's ever come back from being Seiten Taisei without Sanzo (or Konzen) there. And you can see he's still trying so hard to understand, to figure out why Sanzo left; he's still got faith that Sanzo will come back.
Then of course, there's the very interesting conversation between Sanzo and Hazel, in which Sanzo finds out that Hazel knows about Seiten Taisei and wants to know how.
Then the shot of Ukoku... dundunDUN!
I foresee much Sanzo angst in the future. I am so looking forward to this.
It's just... every time I think Minekura can't top a past arc, she does.
I keep writing up Saiyuki because I keep reading it in different formats. The first time I blogged the chapters that were to become vol. 7, I was reading the scans right off Zero-Sum, which meant that the art wasn't all filled in, and I was squinting at the furigana on the screen.
This time, I have the shiny volume in my hands, and oh, I stroke it for it is beautiful. Beautiful, I say!
Thankfully, vol. 7 is more fighting and less talking, which means I don't have to puzzle through quite as much Japanese.
Also, I am going to try to keep my reaction somewhat more coherent than my original reaction, which largely consisted of randomly typed letter, "eeeeeee!," "OMGOMGOMGOMG" and a whole lot of capital letters.
So.
Um.
Oh, who am I kidding? My reaction is still "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" even after reading it two or three times already.
I just... GAH!
The Gojyo-Hakkai interaction, from Gojyo deciding not to try and stop Hakkai from taking off his limiters, to Hakkai's flashback of Sanzo telling him that taking his limiters off would expose him to the Minus Wave. Youkai!Hakkai. Youkai!Hakkai. And, of course, Youkai!Hakkai.
And the expression on Gojyo's face when he finds Hakkai lying on the ground kills me. Just... kills me!
But despite the bulk of the volume being on the Seiten Taisei-Youkai!Hakkai confrontation, the part that I love the most is that it feels like the beginning of a good, meaty Sanzo arc. Because really, Sanzo totally lets down everyone in the ikkou in this volume, and even though everyone in the ikkou complains about Sanzo and questions his decisions, I don't think he's ever let them down like this before.
There was the bit in which he decided to go on without Gojyo, which was a let down, but I think it was less so than this. That time, it was Sanzo being Sanzo, grumpy and misanthropic. This time, Sanzo just freaks and loses it completely. He's not even reacting normally; he's shooting at nothing, he runs off because he thinks it's Ukoku's plot, he cannot let go of Goku even to let Hakkai treat him. I think Sanzo's brain just totally shuts off, because he can't deal with it.
And... I don't think he's ever done that before. He knows how to deal with the Seiten Taisei, he can deal with Gojyo being shot and etc. I don't know if it's the fact that it's Goku, or that it parallels Koumyou's death, or the flashback to crow feathers, but Sanzo just breaks.
And he leaves the ikkou! (insert much wailing)
And he leaves Goku.
And.... gah. That moment when Goku realizes that Sanzo isn't there when he wakes up? GAH. I don't think he's ever come back from being Seiten Taisei without Sanzo (or Konzen) there. And you can see he's still trying so hard to understand, to figure out why Sanzo left; he's still got faith that Sanzo will come back.
Then of course, there's the very interesting conversation between Sanzo and Hazel, in which Sanzo finds out that Hazel knows about Seiten Taisei and wants to know how.
Then the shot of Ukoku... dundunDUN!
I foresee much Sanzo angst in the future. I am so looking forward to this.
It's just... every time I think Minekura can't top a past arc, she does.