X, ep. 10-15

[oyceter]

They are totally hitting me with all the Kamui angst. Poor guy. And after all he's been put through, he still wants to save Fuuma from himself? Awwwwww.

Most of my wibbling, however, is reserved for Subaru, who has completely stolen the show. The flappy white coat! The burden of the past! And he, out of all the Dragons of Heaven, understands and knows what Kamui's going through after Kotori's death, and he tries to bring Kamui back, even though for everyone else, Subaru still seems rather remote and distant. And then when Kamui does return, he dons a Subaru-esque flappy white coat at Kotori's grave. I don't particularly like or dislike Kotori as a character (she simply fails to engage my interest), but I got a little teary when the Seven Seals gathered around her grave to pay their respects, and you can see that Kamui's made his decision. He's not just saving the world for Fuuma and Kotori anymore; he's starting to reach out to his fellow teammates, trying to ask for help, and he's just so raw and vulnerable.

Also, this Fuuma-turning-evil/possession-by-evil-Kamui or whatever makes his eyes go purple reminds me of the entire Angelus arc of Buffy S2. He's killing Kamui's friends and terrorizing Kamui and taking advantage of Kamui's past affection for him (gah, blood licking), and Kamui can't kill him... ok, this I don't understand. Kamui punches a hole with his hand straight through Fuuma, and because he didn't hit the heart, Fuuma is still ok? Are his lungs not vital organs or something? Ah well. I suppose being Evil!Kamui gives one special powers. But again, the vampire connection! Er. I'm probably taking this too far ;). But it's so Buffy S2! I wonder if it's going to end with Kamui killing off Fuuma to save the world while Fuuma turns back into nice!Fuuma.

And he killed Saiki! And is Subaru missing an eye now? Sigh. Do not have next DVD in hand, the pain.

Comments

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I think it's so funny that Rachel says she finally gets the Subaru love from the manga, because she didn't think he was that significant in the anime, and you say you finally get it from the anime, because you didn't think he was that significant in the manga. Whereas I am just pretty much crazy about him in both incarnations.

I think Fuma does have special healing powers by virtue of being dark!Kamui. In an early episode, when Kamui collapsed in his apartment, he was seriously injured (in the manga Sorata says he has broken ribs, but I forget if this is specified in the anime), but recovers within a day, with nothing more than sleep, bandages, and some kind of herbal tea.

CLAMP does seem to be really big on people being killed by having their hearts torn out. And also on the eye thing. It kind of shows up in "Wish," too, where apparently demons signify marriage/betrothal by plucking out an eye and giving it to their mate to wear as an earring.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Ewwwww!

Oh, and the eye thing? I can now count six major anime/manga characters with one missing eye, one blind eye, and/or one artificial replacement eye: Hakkai from Saiyuki, Chichiri from Fushigi Yuugi, Hatori Sohma from Fruits Basket, Muraki from Yami no Matsuei, and Seishiro and Subaru. They're all attractive men (well, I don't see the Muraki thing myself, but the other characters all think he is), all (except possibly Muraki and I guess Subaru) lost the eye during the Major Traumatic Event that shaped them as a person-- no random industrial accidents there), and most of them brush their beautiful manga hair over the bad eye to hide it.

I really don't know what's going on with that.

[oyceter]

Hee, me too. I probably also got less from the manga because I skim over the Chinese and do not get all the subtleties. That, and I used to get confused over who was who before I figured out I should look at the hairstyles instead of the faces. Then there was the whole reading each volume after #10 with six months or so between. Or so it felt. I really started losing track of the character arcs after a while and was too lazy to reread 15 some books in Chinese.

And ewwww to that last bit!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

But the manga Subaru has all these touching panels of him and Kamui hugging and holding and comforting each other, while in the anime he mostly just stands in his flappy white coat looking cool. ;)

It may have taken me a while to surrender to the Subaru love because I generally prefer my angsty heroes to at least attempt a game face rather than being silent and visibly depressed and never smiling except occasionally at Kamui... awww...

While on my ongoing futile search for Saiyuki 4, I found and bought X # 16 in Japanese and spent a long time yesterday reading it. That's the one with the Subaru-Seishiro confrontation, which goes on for something like fifteen pages of flashbacks and embraces after the end of the fighting part.

Unfortunately, most of what I could understand, even with a dictionary, was what I could already guess from context. (ie, "Subaru! The bridge is falling!) I was rather proud of myself for figuring out, albeit assisted by a panel depicting a bridge, that "Rainbow Buriji" was "Rainbow Bridge" and not, as I'd first read it and mistaken the little paired dashes making the "fu" into a "bu" for the circle making it into a "pu," "Rainbow Porridge."

So, when Seishiro says, "Anata no nozomi wa boku o korosu koto dewa nain desu ne?" mean "Your wish is to kill me, isn't it?" or "Your wish is for me to kill you, isn't it?" or is it the negative of one of those? (It did not enlighten me when Subaru replied, "You're wrong!"

The Saiki episode kills me. I think it's actually done much better in the anime than the manga, because the anime skips the decapitation, actually shows the scene in real time rather than as a flashback, integrates the lovely flashback of young Saiki learning how to use his wind powers from Aoki and unknowingly sowing the seeds of his own death, and then brings it all together by having Aoki show up at the end.

Also, I have a particular weakness for characters who aren't that powerful and aren't the hero and do their absolute best anyway. I love that anime and manga also like this theme, which I think is exemplified by the word "gambarimasu/gambatte"-- "go for it;" "do your best;" "try hard."

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

'Your wish isn't (implied actually) to kill me, is it?', used semi-rhetorically, with a sense of stating the obvious. And Subaru gets pissed off because as far as he knows his wish bloody well is to kill Seishirou.

Have you read the bit with Seishirou and his mother? That fascinates me.

Did they do that in the anime at all?

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

That's interesting. Because I always took Subaru's final confession to Kamui after the Rainbow Bridge confrontation to indicate Subaru did indeed know his wish was to be killed rather than kill.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

I was just looking at that Subaru/Seishirou scene yesterday, actually -- I have scanlations of it, and I was thinking about posting images from various things and talking about differences between Western and Japanese comics. If you want me to send you the scanlations, let me know, although they're not always all that good -- there are a few places where I'm not actually sure what they're trying to say.

I found Saiyuki 4 and TB 3 today. Thank goodness. I was reading Saiyuki 4 while waiting for my passport, and this woman kept trying to talk to me. It was horrible. I was perfectly willing to answer informational questions, as part of being a reasonably decent human being, but she didn't appear to get that I was reading the tragic and violent backstory of one of my favorite characters and really was not free for random chat.

I like Subaru because I also have a thing for depressed withdrawn workaholics who are avoiding emotional entanglement by throwing themselves into their mission.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Why can everyone find Saiyuki 4 but me? The universe is conspiring to deprive me of my Hakkai angst-fest!

I found a scanlation for X # 16, but if you have them for anything later I would love to see them.

[oyceter]

I was reading Saiyuki 4 while waiting for my passport, and this woman kept trying to talk to me. It was horrible. I was perfectly willing to answer informational questions, as part of being a reasonably decent human being, but she didn't appear to get that I was reading the tragic and violent backstory of one of my favorite characters and really was not free for random chat.

Hee! Alas, some people don't understand that reading a book does not actually mean "I am lonely and want to have a conversation, and the book in my hand is really nothing but a prop."

[oyceter]

Hee, see, that's when I started liking Subaru in the manga too. Although I must confess, I am a horrible sucker for the flappy white coat of angst ;).

"Rainbow Porridge."

LOL! I think one of the loan words that I had the hardest time with was "front" (furonto). "Huronto? Huront? What?" I think I kept assuming it would rhyme with Toronto -_-;;.

"Your wish/desire is to kill me, isn't it?" I think the final negative is a more emphatic type negative than an actual negative, like you thought, with the ~~n at the end of "nai" tacked on for more emotion. The "o" after the "boku" (Seishirou calls himself "boku"? I never noticed! Hee, how cute!) indicates that "boku" is the object of "korosu." Lalala, I can go on dissecting grammar forever, but it would probably bore everyone to pieces ;).

I actually disliked Saiki in the manga for reasons I don't quite remember, and, er, completely forgot he died in the manga. Sigh. I haven't read the manga for a really long time. Well, except for the Arashi and Sorata scenes in book 14.

I really like the ganbaru thing too, and how it emphasizes the effort to try instead of innate power.

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

Hm. My Japanese teacher always insisted that the 'nain' construction works most often with a rhetorical double negative meaning, but she was quite often full of it.

[oyceter]

Oo, excuse to dig out old textbooks! My sensei's confused the entire class by giving a sort of definition outside of the textbook.. the ~n desu form is usually used when there is some sort of emotion involved. Either the person expects a certain answer (I think this is the case with Seishirou) or the person is surprised, except Seishirou is using the "ne," so it's more a confirmation of something he knows.

I think because there's that level of expectation implied in the use of the ~n desu form, it implies emotional attachment to whatever's being discussed.. it's also used to try to emotionally draw in the people you're talking to.

It is also used for the double negative, but if that were the case, Seishirou should say something like, "Anata no nozomi wa boku wo korosanai koto de wa nain desu ne?" (Isn't it the case that you don't want to kill me?).

I think. Of course, now all the negatives are starting to mix me up and make my head spin.

[oyceter]

Oo, also, if you wanted, I can take a stab at helping with the translation of #16 ^_^. My Japanese is getting reeeeaaally rusty, sigh, and needs to be put in use.