(and damnit, I don't think I've read the Homura-arc!)
It's not in the manga at all, which is why it's of doubtful canonicity. It's S2 of the Saiyuki anime, presumably because they were lagging behind the manga or needed filler. They get through about V5, not as far as the Kami-Sama arc, and then the continuinities split. In the anime S2, Homura was the itan after Nataku, who breaks free of heaven with the assistance of two other gods -- one of whom is explicitly a god/youkai hybrid -- and steals all the sutras and tries to lure Goku to his side in order to create a new world free from the stains of the past--literally, which means the old universe would be destroyed to enable the creation of the new. This is all in addition to Nii and Lady Gyoukumen and the Minus Wave. It's very interesting because the plot hits some of the same emotional points as V6-9 of the manga, but uses entirely different events to do so. Homura and his friends are defeated/killed at the end of S2. The Saiyuki Reload anime starts, but instead of starting with the Reload manga, it starts with the manga's Kami-Sama arc and has to re-barcode Kougaiji.
I was ignoring Homura as not part of manga canon, but then he and his two friends show up in a side chapter on Gaiden.
I know that rushthatspeaks is very fond of the Homura arc, and I have to admit the writing is very smart in some respects; it's just that the animation is so painful.
no subject
It's not in the manga at all, which is why it's of doubtful canonicity. It's S2 of the Saiyuki anime, presumably because they were lagging behind the manga or needed filler. They get through about V5, not as far as the Kami-Sama arc, and then the continuinities split. In the anime S2, Homura was the itan after Nataku, who breaks free of heaven with the assistance of two other gods -- one of whom is explicitly a god/youkai hybrid -- and steals all the sutras and tries to lure Goku to his side in order to create a new world free from the stains of the past--literally, which means the old universe would be destroyed to enable the creation of the new. This is all in addition to Nii and Lady Gyoukumen and the Minus Wave. It's very interesting because the plot hits some of the same emotional points as V6-9 of the manga, but uses entirely different events to do so. Homura and his friends are defeated/killed at the end of S2. The Saiyuki Reload anime starts, but instead of starting with the Reload manga, it starts with the manga's Kami-Sama arc and has to re-barcode Kougaiji.
I was ignoring Homura as not part of manga canon, but then he and his two friends show up in a side chapter on Gaiden.
I know that