Happy 2024, everyone!
...And we start Volume 19, the last book in the Aso arc (the shortest of the long arcs of the future? lol), with a rare monologue by Kagetora.
Mon, Jan. 8, 2024 - 11:21am
#1
Volume 19 discussion
Did knowing about Kiyomasa's brutal history change your opinion of him?
It did for me; that pathetic justification of "but those were the times" was not worthy of either the great samurai or god he believes himself to be, not when he's working to smash apart the status quo that's seen Japan at peace for the last 50 years.
On the other hand, somehow I think modern Korea remembers Japanese atrocities in WWII a bit more clearly than an invasion from 400 years ago...
Yup, I was as impatient as you to see this arc completed. :)
Some final thoughts:
1. "Though many among the student body had been either lightly or seriously injured, none had died."
Oh, I guess Ozaki (possessed by Yokote no Gorou) and Mikuriya Juri (possessed by Otaa Julia) don't count?
2. Ryouko is questioned by the police, but Haruya probably gets off scot-free after the attempted-murder of his niece. I consider Haruya the evilest non-evil-coded character in the series so far, and instead of getting his comeuppance, he gets to allocates even more power to himself and the Cult of Miike. Greeeeeat.
By the way, in addition to evil, I'd like to point out that Haruya is a giant asshole.
Exhibit 1: in the hospital, he prevents doctors from treating other patients even while he refuses treatment for himself. Why go to the hospital in the first place, then?!
Exhibit 2: he puts all the pressure of deciding the Miike family's future on a 17-year-old's shoulders. What rational adult does that?!
3. So yeah, in the end, the plot does sort of amount to telling an indigenous people, "Shut up and stay down." There's no meaningful exploration of what we owe to these people whose land we now live on, which is also an urgent and relevant topic from an American perspective. If Mirage wanted to do that exploration, the Ainu or Ryukyuan would have been a better starting point than a long-extinct tribe.