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.

Eyeshield 21 - 269th Down: The Strongest Guardian!

We open with a face-shot of a supremely confident Gaou, and why wouldn't he - he's more than held his own against Deimon's own guardian thus so far. Nobody would expect him to start letting down now, right?

Honestly, this chapter bored me a bit... though I'm sure Hakushuu fans (ie. Xophy) enjoyed it. To me, the chapter was more or less reiterating that Gaou is stronger than Kurita and that Marco has nothing to worry about as long as his little personal T-Rex is leading the way for him! Of course there's the part where Hakushuu won't give up... okay, admirable, but then who expected them to quit anyway? This is FOOTBALL! Even having a kicker who'll settle for nothing but third place isn't going to stop the rest of the team from thinking differently. Besides, no one likes a kicker anyway! (Unless his name is Musashi, who's damn cool.)

I did like the dramatic art though regarding Kurita's frightening presence as Marco saw him, though, and I'll agree that No. 4 does seem to be redeeming himself quite a bit since his little "stunt accident" - well, he's either very courageous, or he's completely daft. (Well, with his double personality, it could be both!)

And did Kisaragi just sob again at Gaou's matchless strength? Honestly... >.> That guy's a shameless fangirl.

Alright, there WAS the part where Gaou did defeat the "stunt play" this time, which means the plot's moving forward as ever - all well and good, I suppose. So Hakushuu takes the lead, 42-35. We see Kurita being suitably impressed (and why wouldn't he? It's been a while since the big guy's stared at the blue sky again!)

Then we see Hiruma confusing the heck of everybody else with his analysis of what's going on after Hakushuu went for a kick instead of a 2-point conversion, which was unexpectedly conservative of them considering Gaou's growing strength and confidence. But then, it's an apt reference to how the rest of the world seems to not understand the nuances of amefuto at times! Basically, with the game that close to the end, though, no sense taking unnecessary risks and risk being up only 6 points instead of 7, though.

Now the real fun starts, though, for me at least. Hiruma has to plan out a strategy to either tie or win this game. For once, though, he seems to not cover all the bases (maybe because he's so dizzy with pain, that he can't really think straight) and it takes a few comments from his teams, directed at Kurita's naivety, that turns on the light-bulb in his head. We see a flashback to Shinryuji's Dragonfly formation - wait, you're not telling me that...

Yup. Just as the NFL (National Football League) is a copycat league - everybody stealing plays from other teams' playbooks to incorporate into their own offenses and defenses - we're seeing it with Deimon now. They're gonna try the same play that Agon and Unsui were using against them - the double quarterback system - but will it work? Hakushuu seems to know what's going on, so there'll have to be some sort of twist to it in order to catch them off-guard, methinks. We'll find out next week!

Good, but not great, chapter. Very close to a filler chapter in my opinion, although there was a score so I suppose it can't be considered one, heh.

Bleach 310: Four Arms to Kill You!

(I don't care if Tite Kubo said "Killing," I'm gonna correct his atrocious engrish here XD; Really gets on my nerves sometimes.)


Well, last week we had possibly the most cliché chapter in the history of shonen, Nnotoria getting slashed and seemingly defeated, but battling back by revealing his "released state," that of a four-armed human praying mantis coupled with four wicked scythes. Tite Kubo gives new meaning to the saying, "Fall down seven times, get up eight." Or should it be two times and four times this time? XD

Of course, Tite Kubo would continue this standard writing pattern by having Kenpachi getting slashed at the end of last chapter too, and now... is there actually somebody out there who really thought ol' Bells-head was out of the battle yet? Nope. Not me. Not you. Not anybody else. And sure enough...

How, then, does Tite Kubo manage to keep his chapters so exciting and interesting when he does that so often lately (unfortunately)? Well, he's gotta thank his lucky stars every day that he created such an interesting cast of characters. He kept this chapter feeling fresh and interesting because of two of them - Yachiru and Orihime.

Yachiru? Yep, Kenpachi's pink-haired little chibi companion is back, with her usual show of banter.

“Then how will you fight, Ken-Chan," asked Yachiru. And Kenpachi realized the fault in his plan, so he said he’ll leave one arm for Nnoitora." Genius.

Orihime? Well, seems like Tite Kubo may finally be paying attention to her powers again with her shun shun rikka displaying an awesome show of defense if it could stop Ichigo (who once broke free of Rukia's spells, as well as Byakuya's) in his tracks. Perhaps it's the exposure to Hueco Mundo's intense storage of reiatsu, but whatever the reason, seems like Orihime's a little tougher than before.

Of course, when you get down to it, though, this chapter ended in a medicore way. Sure, Nnoitora shows that he can actually spawn more arms than just four (so much for the title) and Kenpachi shows that he apparently can't block a fifth arm aimed at his body. Choking up blood. Oh, no, is Kenpachi going to die? Again, I ask, is anybody REALLY expecting that to happen? No waaaaay.

At this point all I'm still waiting for is to see Kenpachi's zanpukato, and then to see what happens after this battle.

Naruto 389: Sasuke's Edge

Uchiha madness galore! An especially action-packed and dynamic chapter that included old Uchiha basic attacks that finished with the Amaterasu at a point where Sasuke was clearly overwhelming Itachi. Very well written and kept me on the seat of my pants all the way through!

I like how it "feels" like Itachi is now really into the fight. You can tell in this chapter as opposed as when it was just his clones fighting - we're no longer feeling that Sasuke is just punching at thin air, or vice versa! You really get the sense of excitement that naturally goes with feeling like both combatants are in actual danger of losing their life. No longer are they both dead-locked in a battle of shadow games as Zetsu observed - it's now the real thing!

A match to the death, no holds barred.

So, Sasuke... he did a great job this chapter. I like that the young avenger didn't just stand around and let Itachi do his thing. Sasuke knew that the best way to win this deadly battle was to keep his elder brother off-balance. Otherwise, he was essentially a sitting duck for whatever jutsu Itachi was going to throw at him. Screw that! Sasuke went on and took the initiative instead, and it was a great move on his part - he actually even landed a blow on Itachi with his rigged Kage Shuriken. Even if it might have been resulted into nothing more than a flesh wound, it confirmed that the Tsukuyomi had greatly weakened Itachi's eyesight. But it wasn't just a flesh wound - the damage does seem to be hindering Itachi's movement a little bit! Sasuke is becoming almost as good at Shikamaru at analyzing his enemy's weaknesses and strengths with each little move, and taking advantage of what he's learned. Now all Sasuke has to beware of is becoming far too over-confident for his own good.

About Itachi's weakened eyes. Initially, well, before reading the chapter, I was a bit annoyed with how it could be argued that Itachi simply wasn't at his best because of his faltering eyesight! Just as Orochimaru wasn't at his best when he was sick.

Itachi was having *serious* trouble focusing on Sasuke and even seeing where he was. But at the same time, I suppose it could also be said that after Sasuke broke Itachi's Tsukuyomi (though sheer willpower it seems), it effectively put his elder brother into a vulnerable position - much like a gunslinger having to hastily reload in the middle of a shoot-out. Of course the other guy wasn't just going to wait and allow his opponent to regain his footing again. So, here comes a Chidori in your face, Itachi!

Tsukuyomi is after all a double-edged sword, Itachi used it, and ended up tasting its bitter edge instead of its intended target. So, nothing wrong with how the battle's going, in my opinion. It's still exciting, fast-paced, and dramatic, especially since as Itachi isn't out of it yet!

Heck, the battle was so fierce... even our color analyst, Zetsu worried about his own safety! (Wonder if Sasuke saw him in the ceiling - he probably did! But didn't have time to worry about him right now, I'd guess.)

After the chidori (how did Itachi escape from that anyway?), we had the katon square-off... and then of course Itachi finally musters up the might to be able to summon up the deadly, devouring fires of darkness that consumes all that it touches. And that's where we end this week - wanting to see more! When was the last time we truly experienced that kind of anticipation for the next chapter? Wheee.