...And my faith is restored in the HaruToki manga. :D
So I finally got through re-reading vol 14 and began digging through the DX chapters (I'm trying to ration it because I only have so many, and there's still a long time till the next one is released, but it's hard...)
I have numerous issues with the conclusion of volume 13, and certain scenes in volume 14 still irritate me. However, rather than a lame plot device it seems to have kicked off a whole new arc in the plot, so I've decided for now to go with it.
This next part is under a cut so as to save appaku's eyes from spoilers she doesn't want to see. (Unless she really wants to, of course!)
Scans without added babble - very vague spoilers, but its worth clicking JUST to see the "bishounen" pic, which isn't really a spoiler so much as a must see ^_^
I've only read two chapters from the DX magazines, but I've flicked a little through the rest (I'm so terrible. I can't ever stop peeking at the story to come :S)
I was really iffy about the whole memory loss plot. After the great character connections that were springing up all over the place in volumes 12 and 13, it seemed like a complete let down to have the Hachiyou suddenly stricken with amnesia. I was ticked off by Inori attacking Shimon again, and Yorihisa and Tenma fighting again (though Tenma's reaction when he discovers they're supposedly good friends and even brotherlike is quite fun).
I'm also warming to Ikutidaru even despite the Kotengu incident, because of the way he cares about Sefuru and of course, Seri. I'm glad to see a bit more for her to do in this story now, since Sefuru was so badly hurt by Akuram. This is a big part of the reason why Ikutidaru has finally done what he never really did in the anime and switched sides to fight alongside Akane and the Hachiyou to protect Kyou. In the anime finale, Sefuru is shown with Ikutidaru and Seri. This is also the course the manga seems to be taking, although with Inori in his current anti-oni strop, it's proving a bit complicated.
However...
Volume 14 ends with Akane climbing over the roof of one of the outbuildings in order to sneak off and confront Akuram over the curse. She's trying to avoid the soldiers however she's caught (and actually steps on) Yorihisa, which is the cliffhanger as he asks her where she's going.
With this being amnesiac Yorihisa, who asked Akane if she was a servant and who locked up Tenma on a random whim, I wasn't quite sure what he was going to say/do about this state of affairs.
But it seems that even with amnesia it's business as usual for my favourite Haruka pairing. Yes. Yorihisa does something adorably stupid and winds up apologising to Akane.
Namely...he pulls her off the roof.
On top of him.
Yes.
Here we go again.
"Moushiwake gozaimasen..."
I'm sorry for the bad quality of the scan. My scanner sucks and the chapter is all printed in blue and it's not a great combination :S
The dialogue after this particular incident is brilliant. It goes roughly along the lines of...
Akane: Why is it that odd things start happening whenever I'm with Yorihisa-san?
Yorihisa: !What...what do you mean? What have I done...?
Akane: (Thoughts:...And even worse, the guy himself doesn't even remember them!) Ah...nothing...(Thoughts: Because you don't know what I'm talking about.)
Bless.
This whole scene is pretty cool actually, because even though Yorihisa has no memories, he considers his duty to the Miko to be more important than his duty to Fuji-hime. And he tells Akane that he can't 'overlook' her actions but if she orders him to go with her, he has to obey her...so yep, he's going along for the ride.
These chapters seem very focused on Yorihisa and Akane, actually. I'm wondering considering volume 12/13 whether this is deliberate or a red herring. He is still the only Hachiyou who has kissed Akane (and Tenma's still atm in the region of "Are you the real Akane" and "Shimon, why are you so frigging bothered about where Akane is all the time!")
It's also focused on Ikutidaru and to some degree Seri. She's taking care of the injured Sefuru, though it's a secret from Inori, which they only just manage to protect. There's a really sweet scene with her and him when she's sympathising with the poor kid having been abandoned for being half oni. I think that there wouldn't be any trouble for Seri and Ikutidaru to accept Sefuru into their family at the end of the manga plot, providing none of them are killed in the meantime.
Yasuaki, for his part, doesn't remember Akane but knows she's the Miko and that he has to protect her. To this end he seems to have sent a shikigami (nameless, sadly...I think they should give him a name!) to protect Akane against Shirin and the other dangers. I'd have liked him to play a bigger part but at least he's consciously involved in protecting Akane to this point.
The other Hachiyou are a bit useless. Inori's in a major strop, like I said. Eisen's "lost something important to him", though he doesn't seem to understand what, and I don't think he's been seen since the end of volume 14. Tomomasa is wandering around aimlessly trying to piece together the things he doesn't remember, and Takamichi is compulsively writing to 'calm down'.
Interesting comment here, incidentally. Shirin, when she springs on them in the forest, comments on how Yorihisa is the only Hachiyou present. She actually asks "Where's Ten no Byakko?" Not "Where are the other Hachiyou" but Takamichi specifically.
I don't think it will ever happen in the manga, but it would be so very cool to have that pairing happen.
Though obviously I'm shipping Akane/Yorihisa openly now, I do hope that the other Hachiyou wake up and smell the cocoa a bit more shortly. Even though I haven't read all the chapters, Yorihisa still seems to be the only one from flicking through who's playing a major part (and we're talking about six chapters).
More amusement from my favourite pair, however. When Shirin attacks and Ikutidaru takes his chance to spring her and let the others escape, Yorihisa has a quick solution to the problem of Akane's slow reaction time:
"I like my women to be portable..."
And what all of Heian-Kyou has probably been waiting for - I can't wait to read how we ended up at this point:
"Hi Honey, I'm home..."
Doesn't he look like the poster boy for a mediaeval Japanese underwear commercial...??
Though atm the Hachiyou have no powers and Yorihisa can only fight by swinging his sword around, it's good to see he's rebuilding his bond with Akane.
Hopefully the curse will be broken at some point in the not too distant future. In the meantime, I'll be trying to ration what's left to last me till the next DX...
On other topics, I must make time to watch the filler arc episodes for Bleach and hear Midorin's role in all it's glory. I admit that I haven't so far because I got surprisingly into the Arrancar arc (Ishida's fight with that girl was so funny, Ichigo's fight with Grimmjow was so well done, yes, I'm not ashamed to admit that I like the fights sometimes...and Kanna appeared, sounding completely evil). But I do want to watch the filler arc even so.
I've been contemplating recently on Gin and Tousen and which of them most creeps me out. I've come to the conclusion that it's Tousen. Gin is a bit weird and he kills people randomly, like the gobantai-sanseki in the Pendulum chapter. But having *read* that story, and having seen Tousen's role and so on, he really, really strikes me as a hyper-sinister character.
I found it hard the first time watching to explain how a guy who claimed to be all for peace and hated fighting was one of Aizen's lackeys. But then when you actually stop and listen to what he says...his sightless eyes see the path of justice, etc...and whatever it is about justice being stained in blood when he answers Komamura's challenge at the end of the SS arc. He's a fanatic. I wonder if his friend got killed by someone or something associated with Soul Society and he's nursing a hyper grudge. Or whether he's just disturbed and, well, scary. Judging by the way he lops off Grimmjow's arm, I'm still leaning towards the latter.
I also like listening to Yusa Kouji voice Gin in Kyouto dialect, which may help - though I don't actually like him much as a character either. I want to know more about the randomly thrown in past with Rangiku, that might help.
I have a feeling that, if Aizen got killed off, it would be the end of Bleach - so it may not happen at the end of this storyline. Depending on how much longer the Bleach thing can go on for. I'm really not sure if Ichigo has killed or just defeated Grimmjow at this point. I seriously don't want Ulquiorra to die, though probably he will have to at some point (unless he does a Yasuaki and develops a heart after finding that someone special he was born to meet...ahem. This is shounen manga. I think it'll be a knife to the mask, personally).
In other news, I'm on leave next week. Thank God for that...I can't wait XD
Vraie
I have numerous issues with the conclusion of volume 13, and certain scenes in volume 14 still irritate me. However, rather than a lame plot device it seems to have kicked off a whole new arc in the plot, so I've decided for now to go with it.
This next part is under a cut so as to save appaku's eyes from spoilers she doesn't want to see. (Unless she really wants to, of course!)
Scans without added babble - very vague spoilers, but its worth clicking JUST to see the "bishounen" pic, which isn't really a spoiler so much as a must see ^_^
I've only read two chapters from the DX magazines, but I've flicked a little through the rest (I'm so terrible. I can't ever stop peeking at the story to come :S)
I was really iffy about the whole memory loss plot. After the great character connections that were springing up all over the place in volumes 12 and 13, it seemed like a complete let down to have the Hachiyou suddenly stricken with amnesia. I was ticked off by Inori attacking Shimon again, and Yorihisa and Tenma fighting again (though Tenma's reaction when he discovers they're supposedly good friends and even brotherlike is quite fun).
I'm also warming to Ikutidaru even despite the Kotengu incident, because of the way he cares about Sefuru and of course, Seri. I'm glad to see a bit more for her to do in this story now, since Sefuru was so badly hurt by Akuram. This is a big part of the reason why Ikutidaru has finally done what he never really did in the anime and switched sides to fight alongside Akane and the Hachiyou to protect Kyou. In the anime finale, Sefuru is shown with Ikutidaru and Seri. This is also the course the manga seems to be taking, although with Inori in his current anti-oni strop, it's proving a bit complicated.
However...
Volume 14 ends with Akane climbing over the roof of one of the outbuildings in order to sneak off and confront Akuram over the curse. She's trying to avoid the soldiers however she's caught (and actually steps on) Yorihisa, which is the cliffhanger as he asks her where she's going.
With this being amnesiac Yorihisa, who asked Akane if she was a servant and who locked up Tenma on a random whim, I wasn't quite sure what he was going to say/do about this state of affairs.
But it seems that even with amnesia it's business as usual for my favourite Haruka pairing. Yes. Yorihisa does something adorably stupid and winds up apologising to Akane.
Namely...he pulls her off the roof.
On top of him.
Yes.
Here we go again.
"Moushiwake gozaimasen..."
I'm sorry for the bad quality of the scan. My scanner sucks and the chapter is all printed in blue and it's not a great combination :S
The dialogue after this particular incident is brilliant. It goes roughly along the lines of...
Akane: Why is it that odd things start happening whenever I'm with Yorihisa-san?
Yorihisa: !What...what do you mean? What have I done...?
Akane: (Thoughts:...And even worse, the guy himself doesn't even remember them!) Ah...nothing...(Thoughts: Because you don't know what I'm talking about.)
Bless.
This whole scene is pretty cool actually, because even though Yorihisa has no memories, he considers his duty to the Miko to be more important than his duty to Fuji-hime. And he tells Akane that he can't 'overlook' her actions but if she orders him to go with her, he has to obey her...so yep, he's going along for the ride.
These chapters seem very focused on Yorihisa and Akane, actually. I'm wondering considering volume 12/13 whether this is deliberate or a red herring. He is still the only Hachiyou who has kissed Akane (and Tenma's still atm in the region of "Are you the real Akane" and "Shimon, why are you so frigging bothered about where Akane is all the time!")
It's also focused on Ikutidaru and to some degree Seri. She's taking care of the injured Sefuru, though it's a secret from Inori, which they only just manage to protect. There's a really sweet scene with her and him when she's sympathising with the poor kid having been abandoned for being half oni. I think that there wouldn't be any trouble for Seri and Ikutidaru to accept Sefuru into their family at the end of the manga plot, providing none of them are killed in the meantime.
Yasuaki, for his part, doesn't remember Akane but knows she's the Miko and that he has to protect her. To this end he seems to have sent a shikigami (nameless, sadly...I think they should give him a name!) to protect Akane against Shirin and the other dangers. I'd have liked him to play a bigger part but at least he's consciously involved in protecting Akane to this point.
The other Hachiyou are a bit useless. Inori's in a major strop, like I said. Eisen's "lost something important to him", though he doesn't seem to understand what, and I don't think he's been seen since the end of volume 14. Tomomasa is wandering around aimlessly trying to piece together the things he doesn't remember, and Takamichi is compulsively writing to 'calm down'.
Interesting comment here, incidentally. Shirin, when she springs on them in the forest, comments on how Yorihisa is the only Hachiyou present. She actually asks "Where's Ten no Byakko?" Not "Where are the other Hachiyou" but Takamichi specifically.
I don't think it will ever happen in the manga, but it would be so very cool to have that pairing happen.
Though obviously I'm shipping Akane/Yorihisa openly now, I do hope that the other Hachiyou wake up and smell the cocoa a bit more shortly. Even though I haven't read all the chapters, Yorihisa still seems to be the only one from flicking through who's playing a major part (and we're talking about six chapters).
More amusement from my favourite pair, however. When Shirin attacks and Ikutidaru takes his chance to spring her and let the others escape, Yorihisa has a quick solution to the problem of Akane's slow reaction time:
"I like my women to be portable..."
And what all of Heian-Kyou has probably been waiting for - I can't wait to read how we ended up at this point:
"Hi Honey, I'm home..."
Doesn't he look like the poster boy for a mediaeval Japanese underwear commercial...??
Though atm the Hachiyou have no powers and Yorihisa can only fight by swinging his sword around, it's good to see he's rebuilding his bond with Akane.
Hopefully the curse will be broken at some point in the not too distant future. In the meantime, I'll be trying to ration what's left to last me till the next DX...
On other topics, I must make time to watch the filler arc episodes for Bleach and hear Midorin's role in all it's glory. I admit that I haven't so far because I got surprisingly into the Arrancar arc (Ishida's fight with that girl was so funny, Ichigo's fight with Grimmjow was so well done, yes, I'm not ashamed to admit that I like the fights sometimes...and Kanna appeared, sounding completely evil). But I do want to watch the filler arc even so.
I've been contemplating recently on Gin and Tousen and which of them most creeps me out. I've come to the conclusion that it's Tousen. Gin is a bit weird and he kills people randomly, like the gobantai-sanseki in the Pendulum chapter. But having *read* that story, and having seen Tousen's role and so on, he really, really strikes me as a hyper-sinister character.
I found it hard the first time watching to explain how a guy who claimed to be all for peace and hated fighting was one of Aizen's lackeys. But then when you actually stop and listen to what he says...his sightless eyes see the path of justice, etc...and whatever it is about justice being stained in blood when he answers Komamura's challenge at the end of the SS arc. He's a fanatic. I wonder if his friend got killed by someone or something associated with Soul Society and he's nursing a hyper grudge. Or whether he's just disturbed and, well, scary. Judging by the way he lops off Grimmjow's arm, I'm still leaning towards the latter.
I also like listening to Yusa Kouji voice Gin in Kyouto dialect, which may help - though I don't actually like him much as a character either. I want to know more about the randomly thrown in past with Rangiku, that might help.
I have a feeling that, if Aizen got killed off, it would be the end of Bleach - so it may not happen at the end of this storyline. Depending on how much longer the Bleach thing can go on for. I'm really not sure if Ichigo has killed or just defeated Grimmjow at this point. I seriously don't want Ulquiorra to die, though probably he will have to at some point (unless he does a Yasuaki and develops a heart after finding that someone special he was born to meet...ahem. This is shounen manga. I think it'll be a knife to the mask, personally).
In other news, I'm on leave next week. Thank God for that...I can't wait XD
Vraie