Ah yes, welcome to the dumbest fight ever, where neither of the people trying to get to Takaya to help him actually do because they're battling each other to the death.
This is precisely the point where I lost confidence in Naoe as New Uesugi's supreme commander. If you don't have the skills to de-escalate a situation that SCREAMS for it, you have no business being a leader of anything. Not to mention: Naoe has no right to risk Kaizaki's life if he has an alternative--which he absolutely does.
But hey, at least Kotarou has some killer lines? XD And he cut his hair for Takaya! That tiny detail made me melt.
I feel like I've been the apologist, especially for Naoe, through a lot of this arc, but I was also annoyed by that fight. And, yes, Naoe is advertising pretty loudly that he doesn't want to lead the Yasha-shuu.
On a tangent, it finally happened: I shared something from your glossary in my Dharma study. Someone asked a question about the Ikkou-Ikki, and our sensei didn't immediately know what that was, and I thought, "I've heard of them," and, lo, you had a nice paragraph on them, which did, in fact, propel the conversation forward, the conversation being about Japanese popular interpretations of Pure Land sutras, where there was a (mis)interpretation that the world was so corrup that salvation could only come from the Amida Buddha, vs. from practice: external vs. internal salvation. (I actually feel like I understand those Ikkou people a lot better now.) Anyway, thank you!
I mentioned a plot contradiction earlier, and while a bigger point is made about it in Volume 18, it's also mentioned in 17-20: "My brother [Tetsuya's father Hideya] died suddenly nine years ago."
Given that Tetsuya "had turned twelve this summer" during the Night-Crossing Festival in 15-Prologue and his father was still alive, this doesn't really make sense. There's also a mention that "Five years ago, in the early autumn when Tetsuya had just turned twelve...his younger sister had been chosen as the bonfire maiden" (16-10).
Five years, nine years, I guess there's not much difference to a family that's 1000+ years old?
The first time we hear it from a more-or-less trustworthy source (i.e. definitely not Kousaka) is from Takemata in 17-21. He was personally commanded by Kenshin to switch his allegiance from Kagetora to Naoe and the New Uesugi two years ago, and worked with Saga's Lady in White to assassinate Ryuuzouji. He was then captured and kept as a POW by Mitsuhide / the anti-Oda Alliance.
Now, Takemata claims he heard from Hakkai that New Uesugi intends to exorcise Kagetora. Except: 1) Takemata hasn't met Hakkai since his capture, and 2) Hakkai himself is surprised by Kousaka's declaration that Naoe intends to "eliminate Kagetora before he can be abused by [Uesugi's] enemies" (17-18). Hakkai doesn't seem like the sort of person who would go blabbing to subordinates about plans that haven't been approved by his commander (plus, he's the head ninja--information security should be one of his duties!) To me, it seems very uncharacteristic of Hakkai to casually talk about exorcising Kagetora even if the directive were already in place. Aside from everything else, why wouldn't they be concerned about the Uesugi taking sides? Let's see: Lord Kenshin, who's checked in twice in 400 years vs. a leader who's been at their side all along. Hmm. Difficult.
Another jarring note is Naoe and Irobe's conversation back in 15-6. Naoe says a lot of words about his feelings, but if he already knows that he's going to exorcise Kagetora, shouldn't that be at least touched on? Even if he intends to capture Kagetora and keep him locked up, what makes him think Kagetora will come quietly? 400 years should have told him that Kagetora is perfectly capable of self-destruction if left alone, but push him and he'll push back.
This whole plotline feels completely disjointed to me, and I can't wrap my head around it.
If it helps, I think these oddities do have some method to the madness revealed in subsequent volumes. I won't go into specifics for fear of spoilers, but I'll offer this: Kenshin is not logical, and in narrative terms that's a feature, not a bug.
Yup, I can finally post this given that 17-24 literally has Spirit Protector Haruya trying to murder a minor AND says his family has been murdering their girl-children for 1000+ years.
I mean, like, WHAT? If this were a cop procedural it'd be one of those episodes where our heroes investigate a missing persons case in a creepy small rural town only to discover all the people are cousins and have mounds of human skulls in their closets. And everyone gets a skull goblet and finger-bone fork set as a coming-of-age present.
Per tradition, the moral of the episode is, "Humans are the worst monsters."
Okay, fine, so Asara might pop up at any time to wreck havoc. Either you honor her wishes the first time she appears or decide it's never gonna happen, not sacrifice the girls of the family to keep your options open. "Shit or get off the toilet" has never been more apt.
And how do you get Asara to keep appearing? If blood is the problem, then make sure you dilute the blood as much as possible. No Miike gets to marry inside the family or anyone remotely related. Everyone leaves the town / province / prefecture / country ASAP. Also, blood transfusion has been available for 200 years (the first successful human blood transfusion was in 1818). If all else fails, consult one of the greats. (Saichou: 767 - 822; Kuukai: 774 - 835; Kuuya: 903 - 972; Nichiren: 1222 - 1282; etc. etc.)
I can't believe the story wants you to be sympathetic to this evil cult family (via Chiaki's understanding and non-reaction). I for one was rooting for Hokage to burn Haruya to a crisp.
The kind that says to Haruya, "You do know this is the 20th century, right? If you lay a hand on your niece for a 1,600-year-old-skull, we're gonna have a problem. Here's what we're gonna do instead: we're gonna destroy that skull and save everyone, you hear me?"
Instead, what we end up with is a farce where both sides of a hostage exchange show up empty-handed. Followed by the second stupidest fight to date.
Of course, Chiaki's side of this plot never made sense to me. Did he really intend to put a 17-year-old in danger for another 17-year-old? What guardian would agree to that? What guardian could be expected to agree to that? And somehow in the beginning Haruya is the one who's depicted as being unreasonable for refusing to get Hokage involved?
Also, the way Chiaki emotionally blackmails Hokage by telling her about the hostage situation is not cool.
I wish Ayako had been here to handle this situation instead. And don't even get me started on how annoyed I am about her getting sidelined (starting) in this arc. Why the hell did Kuwabara feel she had to remove the only 3-D female character?
I suspect I never warmed to Tetsuya because I feel like Sensei was replacing Ayako with him. As a result, everything about him irritates me. He's my bitch eating crackers.
Ah yes, welcome to the dumbest fight ever, where neither of the people trying to get to Takaya to help him actually do because they're battling each other to the death.
This is precisely the point where I lost confidence in Naoe as New Uesugi's supreme commander. If you don't have the skills to de-escalate a situation that SCREAMS for it, you have no business being a leader of anything. Not to mention: Naoe has no right to risk Kaizaki's life if he has an alternative--which he absolutely does.
But hey, at least Kotarou has some killer lines? XD And he cut his hair for Takaya! That tiny detail made me melt.
I feel like I've been the apologist, especially for Naoe, through a lot of this arc, but I was also annoyed by that fight. And, yes, Naoe is advertising pretty loudly that he doesn't want to lead the Yasha-shuu.
On a tangent, it finally happened: I shared something from your glossary in my Dharma study. Someone asked a question about the Ikkou-Ikki, and our sensei didn't immediately know what that was, and I thought, "I've heard of them," and, lo, you had a nice paragraph on them, which did, in fact, propel the conversation forward, the conversation being about Japanese popular interpretations of Pure Land sutras, where there was a (mis)interpretation that the world was so corrup that salvation could only come from the Amida Buddha, vs. from practice: external vs. internal salvation. (I actually feel like I understand those Ikkou people a lot better now.) Anyway, thank you!
Wanting the status of leadership but not the responsibility is so much toxic masculinity, lol.
I hope I'm not putting you (or anyone) off with my rants. It's all in good fun, at least on my part.
That's very cool, I'd love to hear your insights about the Ikkou Sect sometime if you want!
Not put off and glad it's fun. :-) As to the Ikkou Sect, that was it. That was the whole of my insight; it was my sensei's insight.
That would make it a little more similar to Christianity, wouldn't you say?
I mentioned a plot contradiction earlier, and while a bigger point is made about it in Volume 18, it's also mentioned in 17-20: "My brother [Tetsuya's father Hideya] died suddenly nine years ago."
Given that Tetsuya "had turned twelve this summer" during the Night-Crossing Festival in 15-Prologue and his father was still alive, this doesn't really make sense. There's also a mention that "Five years ago, in the early autumn when Tetsuya had just turned twelve...his younger sister had been chosen as the bonfire maiden" (16-10).
Five years, nine years, I guess there's not much difference to a family that's 1000+ years old?
The first time we hear it from a more-or-less trustworthy source (i.e. definitely not Kousaka) is from Takemata in 17-21. He was personally commanded by Kenshin to switch his allegiance from Kagetora to Naoe and the New Uesugi two years ago, and worked with Saga's Lady in White to assassinate Ryuuzouji. He was then captured and kept as a POW by Mitsuhide / the anti-Oda Alliance.
Now, Takemata claims he heard from Hakkai that New Uesugi intends to exorcise Kagetora. Except: 1) Takemata hasn't met Hakkai since his capture, and 2) Hakkai himself is surprised by Kousaka's declaration that Naoe intends to "eliminate Kagetora before he can be abused by [Uesugi's] enemies" (17-18). Hakkai doesn't seem like the sort of person who would go blabbing to subordinates about plans that haven't been approved by his commander (plus, he's the head ninja--information security should be one of his duties!) To me, it seems very uncharacteristic of Hakkai to casually talk about exorcising Kagetora even if the directive were already in place. Aside from everything else, why wouldn't they be concerned about the Uesugi taking sides? Let's see: Lord Kenshin, who's checked in twice in 400 years vs. a leader who's been at their side all along. Hmm. Difficult.
Another jarring note is Naoe and Irobe's conversation back in 15-6. Naoe says a lot of words about his feelings, but if he already knows that he's going to exorcise Kagetora, shouldn't that be at least touched on? Even if he intends to capture Kagetora and keep him locked up, what makes him think Kagetora will come quietly? 400 years should have told him that Kagetora is perfectly capable of self-destruction if left alone, but push him and he'll push back.
This whole plotline feels completely disjointed to me, and I can't wrap my head around it.
If it helps, I think these oddities do have some method to the madness revealed in subsequent volumes. I won't go into specifics for fear of spoilers, but I'll offer this: Kenshin is not logical, and in narrative terms that's a feature, not a bug.
Is that a "Don't try to understand Kenshin, he works in mysterious ways?"
No, it's more a "Kenshin is basically a human being" like the rest of us.
Hah, okay. Lol. <3
Yup, I can finally post this given that 17-24 literally has Spirit Protector Haruya trying to murder a minor AND says his family has been murdering their girl-children for 1000+ years.
I mean, like, WHAT? If this were a cop procedural it'd be one of those episodes where our heroes investigate a missing persons case in a creepy small rural town only to discover all the people are cousins and have mounds of human skulls in their closets. And everyone gets a skull goblet and finger-bone fork set as a coming-of-age present.
Per tradition, the moral of the episode is, "Humans are the worst monsters."
Okay, fine, so Asara might pop up at any time to wreck havoc. Either you honor her wishes the first time she appears or decide it's never gonna happen, not sacrifice the girls of the family to keep your options open. "Shit or get off the toilet" has never been more apt.
And how do you get Asara to keep appearing? If blood is the problem, then make sure you dilute the blood as much as possible. No Miike gets to marry inside the family or anyone remotely related. Everyone leaves the town / province / prefecture / country ASAP. Also, blood transfusion has been available for 200 years (the first successful human blood transfusion was in 1818). If all else fails, consult one of the greats. (Saichou: 767 - 822; Kuukai: 774 - 835; Kuuya: 903 - 972; Nichiren: 1222 - 1282; etc. etc.)
I can't believe the story wants you to be sympathetic to this evil cult family (via Chiaki's understanding and non-reaction). I for one was rooting for Hokage to burn Haruya to a crisp.
The kind that says to Haruya, "You do know this is the 20th century, right? If you lay a hand on your niece for a 1,600-year-old-skull, we're gonna have a problem. Here's what we're gonna do instead: we're gonna destroy that skull and save everyone, you hear me?"
Instead, what we end up with is a farce where both sides of a hostage exchange show up empty-handed. Followed by the second stupidest fight to date.
Of course, Chiaki's side of this plot never made sense to me. Did he really intend to put a 17-year-old in danger for another 17-year-old? What guardian would agree to that? What guardian could be expected to agree to that? And somehow in the beginning Haruya is the one who's depicted as being unreasonable for refusing to get Hokage involved?
Also, the way Chiaki emotionally blackmails Hokage by telling her about the hostage situation is not cool.
I wish Ayako had been here to handle this situation instead. And don't even get me started on how annoyed I am about her getting sidelined (starting) in this arc. Why the hell did Kuwabara feel she had to remove the only 3-D female character?
I suspect I never warmed to Tetsuya because I feel like Sensei was replacing Ayako with him. As a result, everything about him irritates me. He's my bitch eating crackers.