Vagabond 247 | While You Sleep

First, I just wanna praise Vagabond for a moment.

Vagabond is actually my favorite manga at the moment, mostly because I just absolutely adore Takehiko Inoue's artwork (I consider it the pinnacle of sequential storytelling at the moment), but also, ironically enough, because there's almost no trace of fantasy in it anywhere. Reading Vagabond feels like I'm actually experiencing the rougher times of early seventeenth-century Japan, the dawn of the Edo Period when the nation was struggling to find its new identity. And, though the adventures of the Miyamoto Musashi of the manga might actually be a highly over-exaggerated, mostly fictional account based on the real thing, that doesn't make the story any less exciting for me. There's not too much in Vagabond that would over-extend my imagination any further than I'd like to, but that doesn't make it any less wild and dramatic.

For example, I'm one who can easily imagine a man taking down seventy experienced swordsmen and emerge victorious, and certainly somebody as ferocious, battle-tested, and intelligent as Musashi.

But to see just how Musashi did it as Inoue depicted the battle over the length of two volumes, you also see just how tough and nearly unbelievable a task that it could be. When the dust had finally settled, our tough guy was completely exhausted and crawling along the ground with dead bodies littered all around, newly marked with a particularly nasty leg wound and pitifully unable to prevent his own life slowly leaking away.

Didn't help that he felt pangs of regret over the whole thing thanks to the suicidal acts of a scorned girlfriend of the late Yoshioka Seijuro. So, how was Musashi, exactly, going to survive his ordeal,and what would happen next? Drama like that is exactly what draws me back to the manga every week, as well as the astonishing artwork that seems to come from a master of the brush in his own right.

And, now, we're into another quiet episode of the story (much to Zindryr's chagrin) where there's not as much bloody fighting.

When Musashi finally awoke, we actually see him reunited, finally, with Otsū, his childhood sweetheart, gently smiling at him - a strange juxtaposition of the scene with the mourning girl who jumped off a cliff days before. Takuan, the monk that potentially might have saved his life, was there also, grinning ear-to-ear and calling Musashi a beast. A surreal scene, to see them all in the same room at long last.

That was exactly the scene we needed after all that fighting, to bring us back to the story. Musashi still had friends - very good ones - and we're meeting them all over again.

Even Matahachi, of course. Hate or love him, his character has served its purpose within the story admirably by acting as a stark contrast to Musashi's strong, resolute, and incorruptible character. Conversely, Matahachi was the total opposite: weak, indecisive, and manipulative.

Now we're actually seeing Matahachi grow up just a little bit. Saving Musashi is nothing new to him; he did that after his friend's first foray into the Yoshioka school. But to actually see Matahachi admit to himself that he was hurting others with his selfishness - that was news.

Even if he was drunk and speaking to Musashi in his sleep and not knowing that Otsū was there also under the blankets (cute scene that), that he accidentally may have helped him be with Otsū once and for all, by speaking on her feelings of disappointment and that she wasn't used to getting what she wanted... that was almost noble of him, even. Has Matahachi completely redeemed himself? I don't know. But he certainly is a friend of Musashi's if nothing else, it's almost heart-breaking to see him being so gentle and vulnerable around him.

Now about the leg wound...

Is it really the end of Musashi's career? I don't know - Takuan certainly seems to think so. But either way, that itself is going to be an ordeal of a completely different nature for him. Once again the story has taken on a completely new turn and I can't see what's in store for us next. I expect some more intimacy between Musashi and Otsū for sure (c'mon, Musashi has never gotten any, after all! It's about time he does! ) and perhaps Musashi being a tad depressed. But in time, of course, Musashi will try to get back up and stand again and fight with the sword. Because that's just who he is.

And it'll be a scene worth cheering at when it comes.