Blade of the Immortal: An Anotsu/Makie Essay

[labingi]

"Anotsu/Makie: One of Those Love Stories"I'll preface this post with an apology as I'm about to commit the error of writing meta about a series I don't know very intimately yet. Having been firmly schooled over my early misapprehensions about Mirage of Blaze, I'll approach Blade of the Immortal with a healthy degree of disclaiming: everything I'm

Comments

[jainas]

What you said could be wrong or wildly incomplete, but I very doubt so.
I am not familiar with either Mirage of Blaze nor Wuthering Heights, so I cannot comment on the comparisons you establish with other pairings, but I do think you are spot on when you analyse the duality woman/warrior as the main tipping point of their relationship or the fact that to Anotsu, supporting the Itto-Ryu can only come first to supporting Makie.

A very enlightening read. Thank you for writing.

[labingi]

Thanks for commenting! I'm glad you enjoyed the essay. I'm inclined to recommend MoB to people who like BotI. Both have a great diversity of interesting characters and relationships with difficult moral questions and a strong interest in Japanese history. But MoB is yaoi.

[jainas]

Well, yaoi doesn't bother me at all.
But I'll confess half the reason I'm in love with BotI is the gorgious art. How is MoB in that respect?

[labingi]

Ah well, MoB is a not a manga. That is, it has about 3 manga volumes, but basically it's a novel series. So, yes, really good art is a little hard to find. (There's a lot of anime-based and cartoonish fan art around.)

Hotaka Ran, who is doing covers for the prequels, does it best. Here's a link to her site: http://www.katana.cx/~hotakaan/index.html. If you click "Mirage" on the menu and then click around on the 4 little boxes up at the top (right under "New->Old", you'll find her prettiest MoB drawings, in my opinion. (I don't know why they're so hard to navigate to!) "Mr. Nagahide" under the "Mirage" menu is another pretty one.

Here's a link to some cover art: http://books.rakuten.co.jp/event/book/pocket-book/mirage/

[the_tower_room]

Got here via thegathering ^__^
I thought it's a very interesting assessment of their relationship, even if you haven't read all the primary text and even if I don't really know much about the other couples you're comparing them to (I only got as far as the 4th episode of the MoB anime even though I've had the complete set for a long while now) ^^;

I find it all the more intriguing especially in light of the most recent scanlation of BotI I've read plus what was shown of them in the latest English volume that came out (vol 22), because there's quite a remarkable change in how Anotsu now sees and treats her. In the beginning, as you've pointed herein, he's very adamant in his view of Makie as a warrior first and her subsequent despair at that view, and now he sees her as someone very vulnerable and needs to be kept away from danger (because of her hereditary illness) and her ensuing resolve to be both his warrior and woman.

I've always liked their dynamic and I'm really glad to have read this meta. Thanks for the read :)

[labingi]

Thanks for your comment! I'm resisting the urge to start doing meta on volumes I haven't read yet, but I'll just say I'm looking forward to reading vol. 22 (and expecting to be sad too).

As for MoB, I'll just say it starts slow (I started to enjoy the anime around episode 3 or 4). Should you be interested, I just did a newbie guide for it here: http://labingi.livejournal.com/160279.html.

[the_tower_room]

Well if you do write more commentaries about this pair, then I'm on board! I'd write some myself except it'd be all keysmashing and squeeing and stuff, and all attempt at being articulate is thoroughly lost XD Sorry too if I made it seem like vol 22 has some sad parts for this pairing ― poignant, maybe, and a slight disappointment from the more base of the fanbase that's hoping for more of a certain scene (sorry to be vague, but I'm not sure if you mind spoilers). Dark Horse's division of the chapters into trade paperbacks is very different from the original Japanese. So even though the latest scanlation I read is part of vol 22, it'd probably be in the official English vol 23 (or 24 depending on how DH edits) publication :/

And thanks for the MoB newbie guide! Will go check it out...

[labingi]

I think I know what scene (or lack of sufficient scene) you're referring to:-) This is type of story where I really want spoilers, because I care about the characters, and I really don't want to be blindsided by their deaths and horrors. (I am pretty spoiled already for large chunks.)