Minekura Kazuya - Saiyuki Gaiden, vol. 02
Fri, Feb. 17th, 2006 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterGo me! I read the whole thing in Japanese without the help of my trusty electronic dictionary!
This would probably be more impressive if I chose to do it without my trusty electronic dictionary because my Japanese was so wonderful. Alas, it is actually because I have misplaced my trusty electronic dictionary. I guess that makes it my not-so-trusty occasionally-lost electronic dictionary.
This is a companion piece to Minekura's Saiyuki and Saiyuki Reload. It's not a sequel. Instead, it tells the story of Hakkai, Sanzo and Gojyo's previous incarnations -- Tenpou Gensui, Konzen Douji and Kenren Taisho (respectively). Note that "Gensui" and "Taisho" are actually Tenpou and Kenren's ranks, so I'm assuming "Douji" is a rank as well. Goku is still Goku.
Instead of being in quasi-modern, quasi-historical China replete with youkai, Gaiden is set in Heaven (Tenkai, literally "Sky/heaven world"). Not traditional Heaven, but the sort of dwelling place of the ancient gods of China Heaven. This made me very happy, since this is where the beginning chunks of Journey to the West are set. Tenpou is a marshal of heaven and Kenren is one of the generals reporting to him. Konzen is the nephew or something of Kanzeon Bosatsu. The entire story basically gets started when Kanzeon passes off a strange, golden-eyed animal to Konzen for some reason -- and thus, past-Sanzo and Goku are together!
Herein ends all the rational explanation, because now I'm going into spoiler-land and mostly just squeeing incoherently.
Spoilers ahoy!
I read this in Japanese, which means I probably misunderstood about 50% of the thing, but my reaction is still largely:
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just.... eeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!! Poor Goku! And OMG Kenren and Tenpou's first meeting! And Nataku is a robot! Well, technically a mix of god and demon, but he looks like a robot.
Reminds me of X's Nataku as well. I wonder if there is some Japanese tradition about Nataku being a robot. I am quite sure someone out there has got a fat academic tome written on how the ancient Japanese were inexplicably obsessed with robots and the atomic bomb and carefully disguised this in their literature, only to have it come out as a national obsession in manga.
But yes, and oh, I am actually having a hard time deciding if I like Saiyuki better or Gaiden better. I mean... the angst of Saiyuki! The backstory! And yet... there are those one-offs, and the plot isn't quite coherent. Whereas I feel like Gaiden is driving toward something, and ohhhhh, I love undamaged versions of Hakkai, Gojyo and Sanzo as well. I love the easy confidence and power that Tenpou has without Hakkai's guilt; ditto with Kenren and Gojyo. And just watching the two interact makes me so squeeful! Same with watching the quiet, retiring, amazingly not-so-snarky and non-handgun-wielding Konzen try and deal with Goku.
I love the wonderfulness of Kenren and Tenpou's first meeting, coupled with Kenren saving Tenpou from the rampaging dinosaur.
Yes, dinosaur.
I have no idea. None at all. Maybe it should be chalked up as an inexplicable Japanese obsession with robots. I am sure someone could write a huge thesis on the intrinsic Japanese-ness of rampaging dinosaurs and Godzilla-like creatures. Sorry,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coffeeandink's review of Wrong about Japan is so on target on what I find irritating about a lot of scholarship on Japan. Sadly, this seems to be multiplied tenfold whenever the scholarship is on anime and manga.
Oh right, yes. I was squeeing about the wonderfulness of Kenren and Tenpou and the fact that Tenpou fights in his bathroom slippers because he's just that absent-minded.
However, despite this, my favorite moment is at the very end, when Konzen is protectively holding Goku while Kenren and Tenpou defend him, because it's the Sanzo-ikkou! Or, Konzen-ikkou! Or something! But they're individuals brought together by Goku, and they're all there to help each other out.
But oh, I love the spread with Nataku almost cutting down Goku, the splash of blood, Goku's limiter breaking and everything. And I love that Konzen punches Kanzeon Bosatsu out over Goku. And I hurt so much for Goku, for the moment when Konzen realizes that the emperor of Heaven may want to use Goku as the official court executionist or whatever Nataku's role is called in the translation.
And and and! My jaw fell when Kanzeon named what Goku had become -- Seiten Taisen (Great Sage of Heaven)! Because that was Monkey's title in Journey to the West, the one he took on after defeating Nataku in battle! Except, of course, in Journey to the West it was because Monkey was arrogant and turned immortal by stealing the peaches of heaven. But yay references! I just love what Minekura did to the story with Nataku and Goku, how she turns Monkey's eventual exile into breaking Goku apart and turning him from a child to a killing machine.
Because of the parallels, I'm wondering how much of the story Minekura will tell before it goes on to Saiyuki, and I'm wondering if Kanzeon punching out Goku is like Monkey being brought to heel by Buddha. With more violence and less peeing though. Also, I just love the fact that there are heavenly politics and much mixing between heaven and earth (gekai, literally "below world")
I also love the parallels with Saiyuki, with Goku and Hakkai. Goku's killing spree is from horrible grief and pain, and he ends up tearing out Li Touten's eye. He's youkai now, not a child. And I love that this time it's Goku's massacre that brings together Konzen, Kenren and Tenpou, as opposed to Hakkai bringing together Gojyo, Sanzo and Goku. I really want to see what will happen now when Goku wakes up.
Sorry, this is getting horribly long but I cannot stop from the babbling! It is too good! There is too much squeeing that must be done!
I also must say that Tenpou in the black army uniform with his hair pulled back? GUH. Even more so with a gun. Even more so being saved by Kenren. Even even more so when being chewed out by Kenren for endangering his own life. OMGOTPtheirloveissoreincarnated!
I would be somewhat embarrassed about having Tenpou/Kenren and Hakkai/Gojyo as OTPs, given that I try not to do OTPs, except... I cannot because they incite me to type in capital letters and horrible internet spelling and before you know it, I will be using arcane systems like 585+3-9 to indicate what pairings are my favorite. I am so doomed.
In conclusion, everyone should read this so that I can squee to other people about the wonderfulness of the series and of Minekura in general and how hot and wonderful all the characters are.
This would probably be more impressive if I chose to do it without my trusty electronic dictionary because my Japanese was so wonderful. Alas, it is actually because I have misplaced my trusty electronic dictionary. I guess that makes it my not-so-trusty occasionally-lost electronic dictionary.
This is a companion piece to Minekura's Saiyuki and Saiyuki Reload. It's not a sequel. Instead, it tells the story of Hakkai, Sanzo and Gojyo's previous incarnations -- Tenpou Gensui, Konzen Douji and Kenren Taisho (respectively). Note that "Gensui" and "Taisho" are actually Tenpou and Kenren's ranks, so I'm assuming "Douji" is a rank as well. Goku is still Goku.
Instead of being in quasi-modern, quasi-historical China replete with youkai, Gaiden is set in Heaven (Tenkai, literally "Sky/heaven world"). Not traditional Heaven, but the sort of dwelling place of the ancient gods of China Heaven. This made me very happy, since this is where the beginning chunks of Journey to the West are set. Tenpou is a marshal of heaven and Kenren is one of the generals reporting to him. Konzen is the nephew or something of Kanzeon Bosatsu. The entire story basically gets started when Kanzeon passes off a strange, golden-eyed animal to Konzen for some reason -- and thus, past-Sanzo and Goku are together!
Herein ends all the rational explanation, because now I'm going into spoiler-land and mostly just squeeing incoherently.
Spoilers ahoy!
I read this in Japanese, which means I probably misunderstood about 50% of the thing, but my reaction is still largely:
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just.... eeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!! Poor Goku! And OMG Kenren and Tenpou's first meeting! And Nataku is a robot! Well, technically a mix of god and demon, but he looks like a robot.
Reminds me of X's Nataku as well. I wonder if there is some Japanese tradition about Nataku being a robot. I am quite sure someone out there has got a fat academic tome written on how the ancient Japanese were inexplicably obsessed with robots and the atomic bomb and carefully disguised this in their literature, only to have it come out as a national obsession in manga.
But yes, and oh, I am actually having a hard time deciding if I like Saiyuki better or Gaiden better. I mean... the angst of Saiyuki! The backstory! And yet... there are those one-offs, and the plot isn't quite coherent. Whereas I feel like Gaiden is driving toward something, and ohhhhh, I love undamaged versions of Hakkai, Gojyo and Sanzo as well. I love the easy confidence and power that Tenpou has without Hakkai's guilt; ditto with Kenren and Gojyo. And just watching the two interact makes me so squeeful! Same with watching the quiet, retiring, amazingly not-so-snarky and non-handgun-wielding Konzen try and deal with Goku.
I love the wonderfulness of Kenren and Tenpou's first meeting, coupled with Kenren saving Tenpou from the rampaging dinosaur.
Yes, dinosaur.
I have no idea. None at all. Maybe it should be chalked up as an inexplicable Japanese obsession with robots. I am sure someone could write a huge thesis on the intrinsic Japanese-ness of rampaging dinosaurs and Godzilla-like creatures. Sorry,
coffeeandink's review of Wrong about Japan is so on target on what I find irritating about a lot of scholarship on Japan. Sadly, this seems to be multiplied tenfold whenever the scholarship is on anime and manga.Oh right, yes. I was squeeing about the wonderfulness of Kenren and Tenpou and the fact that Tenpou fights in his bathroom slippers because he's just that absent-minded.
However, despite this, my favorite moment is at the very end, when Konzen is protectively holding Goku while Kenren and Tenpou defend him, because it's the Sanzo-ikkou! Or, Konzen-ikkou! Or something! But they're individuals brought together by Goku, and they're all there to help each other out.
But oh, I love the spread with Nataku almost cutting down Goku, the splash of blood, Goku's limiter breaking and everything. And I love that Konzen punches Kanzeon Bosatsu out over Goku. And I hurt so much for Goku, for the moment when Konzen realizes that the emperor of Heaven may want to use Goku as the official court executionist or whatever Nataku's role is called in the translation.
And and and! My jaw fell when Kanzeon named what Goku had become -- Seiten Taisen (Great Sage of Heaven)! Because that was Monkey's title in Journey to the West, the one he took on after defeating Nataku in battle! Except, of course, in Journey to the West it was because Monkey was arrogant and turned immortal by stealing the peaches of heaven. But yay references! I just love what Minekura did to the story with Nataku and Goku, how she turns Monkey's eventual exile into breaking Goku apart and turning him from a child to a killing machine.
Because of the parallels, I'm wondering how much of the story Minekura will tell before it goes on to Saiyuki, and I'm wondering if Kanzeon punching out Goku is like Monkey being brought to heel by Buddha. With more violence and less peeing though. Also, I just love the fact that there are heavenly politics and much mixing between heaven and earth (gekai, literally "below world")
I also love the parallels with Saiyuki, with Goku and Hakkai. Goku's killing spree is from horrible grief and pain, and he ends up tearing out Li Touten's eye. He's youkai now, not a child. And I love that this time it's Goku's massacre that brings together Konzen, Kenren and Tenpou, as opposed to Hakkai bringing together Gojyo, Sanzo and Goku. I really want to see what will happen now when Goku wakes up.
Sorry, this is getting horribly long but I cannot stop from the babbling! It is too good! There is too much squeeing that must be done!
I also must say that Tenpou in the black army uniform with his hair pulled back? GUH. Even more so with a gun. Even more so being saved by Kenren. Even even more so when being chewed out by Kenren for endangering his own life. OMGOTPtheirloveissoreincarnated!
I would be somewhat embarrassed about having Tenpou/Kenren and Hakkai/Gojyo as OTPs, given that I try not to do OTPs, except... I cannot because they incite me to type in capital letters and horrible internet spelling and before you know it, I will be using arcane systems like 585+3-9 to indicate what pairings are my favorite. I am so doomed.
In conclusion, everyone should read this so that I can squee to other people about the wonderfulness of the series and of Minekura in general and how hot and wonderful all the characters are.