Minekura Kazuya - Saiyuki, vol. 01-09 (Eng. trans.) (reread)

[oyceter]

Really, this is just an excuse to use my shiny new icon! Yay ikkou love! Yay Sanzo waving a gun around!

I noticed more random and fun things this time around! I adore Minekura and how she sneaks these little things in.

Comments

[oyceter]

I have no idea!

I wonder if it's for the Hakkai parallel? Or... maybe she's a minor character in Journey to the West?

[rachelmanija]

She has the power to summon eight hundred mice, but we have not yet seen it because (unlike the power to summon, say, eight hundred centipedes) it is utterly useless.

Um, no idea. I like that she and Hakkai both have the character "eight" in their names, since they get along so well. (From the Japanese "ya/ttsu" "eight (physical objects)" in her case, I assume, rather than "ha/chi" ("(number) eight.") Perhaps eight has some symbolism that applies to both of them?

[rushthatspeaks]

Well, you can read Hakkai as meaning 'eight renunciations', which is amusing because one generally takes nine vows of renunciation upon joining some kinds of Buddhist order (and also fits well with his I-am-a-lay-monk sash). So you can sit there with a list going 'What didn't he give up? Sex? Drugs? Anger? Does it vary according to the phase of the moon?'*

I am however familiar with absolutely no symbolism involving eight, nine, eight hundred, or mice. Somebody really should check Journey to the West.

*Booze. He didn't give up booze. This crushed the soul of one of the people who was watching with me, because it means that he ought to be avowedly celibate. Unless, of course, it varies according to the phase of the moon.

[kate_nepveu]

I pulled out a bunch of pages for a vol. 9 art post a while ago, back when I was coming down with the first of my colds this winter. I really need to get back to that--I'm not letting myself read _Reload_ until I get through the art posts, probably one LJ post asking about some of the attachment stuff, and then a booklog post.

Which is okay, really, because I kind of like building up a bunch of unread _Saiyuki_, but still, I can't wait until I'm not sick and having work kick my ass, because you're so making me want to read and re-read now!

[oyceter]

Oh, I love your art posts! Yay!

I really want to make some giant post on attachment and detachment and "muichi motsu" and Buddhism, but I suspect it would just be silly because my knowledge of Buddhism is confined to a single college class.

And ooooo, it is so nice that you still have Reload to look forward to!

[kate_nepveu]

Well, that's more Buddhism than I've got, so it'll be way less silly that what I'll do. So, please do and save me from looking like an idiot. =>

[flemmings]

Just noticed-

And Dokugakuji and Yaone both call him "Kou" (though I wonder how that works in Japanese

I hope that's not true about Yaone. Dokugaku calls him Kou. Yaone calls him Kougaiji-sama. She *wouldn't* call him Kou alone. I mean- (flaps appalled hands) she *wouldn't*, any more than she'd call someone a douchebag.

[oyceter]

No, I probably just messed up because I was typing too fast at work.

[flemmings]

Is it a pet name though? Hakkai calls him that in v.6 during the fight, and 'Dokugaku-san' when he's telling Sanzou what happened. I can never tell with these Chinese names which parts can get left out and which not. No one ever calls him Doku that I can see, but he shortens Kougaiji to Kou. How come?

[rilina]

I wonder if Sanzo would have turned out much more like Konzen had Koumyou not been slaughtered in from of his eyes.

I'm inclined to think not, given what we see of little Kouryou during various flashbacks. I'm thinking, in particular, of the one where Koumyou says that he heard Kouryou calling, and Kouryou says that if someone did the same to him, he would pop them in the nose.

I love the bit with the coffee pot.

I also realized, upon rereading, how much I just passed over all the Gaiden references the first time around, since they didn't mean anything at the time.

[oyceter]

I love grumpy little Kouryou. And I love how right after the popping someone in the nose statement, he gets a look because he sort of hears Goku! Awwwwww.

I think Mely's on the mark in that maybe the case is how much Kouryou would have been like Konzen if he had just been raised normally and spoiled and etc. instead of being the monastery outcast.

I really love that there are things to pick up on the rereads!

[oyceter]

OMG YES.

I love the Sanzo-ikkou so much!