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So today I met ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sjen for lunch, and THEN we went to Kinos because tactics volume 8 had finally come for me ... ! ♥
Also, D.Gray-man 8. I am horribly tempted to make some sort of pun about greatness, but will refrain. For now.
FIVE-POINT NON-SPOILER SUMMARIES BEFORE I LAUNCH INTO BLATHER:
tactics
1. Wow, Raikou. You really are crazy. Your entire family is messed up.
2. HaruKan OTP canon much?
3. Thus the sidestories that started running during Kinoshita's illness start! Nooooo. T_T
4. On the other hand, the sidestories are kind of neat, too; each one focuses on a different youkai.
5. I would scan the entire damn book if I didn't go D: at the idea of breaking its spine.
D.Gray-man (which I will not blather on about, because really, most of it would be OMG RINALI YOU RULE THE WORLD)
1. Rinali, you are something like 1000000x hotter now. Srsly.
2. What the HELL is up with the cover? I mean, they don't show up in this volume. Hell, Allen barely shows up in this volume.
3. (2) is not as much of a problem as you'd think, because of Rinali's ultimate and awesome coolness. And hotness. IT WORKS.
4. General Cross, why are there chickens around your feet, and how do you pull off looking that awesome even so? T_T
5. Did I mention Rinali? I love a heroine who kicks more ass than all the heroes combined.
AND NOW ON TO THE BLATHER!
+++
RIGHT SO. TACTICS. NEVER EVER LEAVE ME. EVEN IF I FIC FOR OTHER THINGS, I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU. ♥
I love how Kantarou always has a backup plan, even if he seems like he's just running into something haphazardly; when the HELL did he get the time to hide an ofuda under his tongue? Also, how was he able to talk without making someone suspicious that he had something in his mouth? (Not that I think Sakata is the most observant of people; he hero-worships Raikou, of all people.) Also, points for resourcefulness -- Sakata points out that he doesn't really have the strength to USE a sword, but good on him for grabbing it before he suffered stabbydeath.
All right, so. Kantarou. WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THE MOTHER-THING. Raikou offers to "let" (though this makes more sense later, his giving the permission) the nue (a chimerical type of youkai, famous in folklore) of the village -- who is named and has the ability to summon the souls of the dead and place them in dolls -- to revive Kantarou's mother. Literally, the exchange goes:
頼光： この村の鵺の力見たんでしょ？
大好きなお母様にまた逢えるよー
ねェ一宮先生．．．
勘太郎： あのね
ボクがあの人の墓に行くのは甦らないように見張ってるんだよ。
あの女はムカツクから
死んでてくれないと困るんだよねェー
(Essentially, in rough translation:
Raikou: You've seen the power of this village's nue?
You could see your beloved mother again--
Isn't that right, Ichinomiya-sensei ...
Kantarou: You know
I've gone to that person's grave to make sure she isn't revived.
That woman was troublesome, so
if she weren't dead, it would be troublesome.)
I MEAN OKAY WHAT. Sakata is shocked ("he'd say that about his own mother?") and Raikou is obviously taken aback; it seems like they were banking on Kantarou loving his mother -- but there doesn't seem to be anything lost there. Hm.
There's a lot of fighting that is all very dramatic and cool (and kind of funny, since Raikou is squaring off verbally against Kantarou while Haruka and Sakata fight in the background, and occasionally Raikou has to stop and toss a spell and scold Sakata for losing), but we start seeing a lot more of Raikou's unique psychosis -- he's very cheerful about the whole killing youkai thing. He claims it's out of the same love that has driven Kantarou to try and protect them; I can't quite find the line now, but it seems to be more of ... not so much a "I love you so I'll kill you," kind of thing; it's very much like a kid with a favorite toy that's literally loved to death. Youkai are like toys to Raikou, and he plays with them hard before they break and he discards them and moves on to the next shiny one. They get beaten back, though, and while Kantarou and Haruka are debating on what to DO with them, Raikou's all :DDDDD I HAVE A GREAT IDEA.
"Oh, speaking of which, Onikui, you've heard the story from Tsugumi, right? [about how having a name will eventually weaken and sicken a youkai] Why don't you ask Ichinomiya-sensei to break it?"
--which leads to alove confession one of the cutest OTP scenes I've seen, where Haruka basically smiles and says, you know, Kantarou is my master, and until the day he breaks the contract of his own free will, he will always be my master.
Raikou points out that he'll be weakened and start losing his powers; Haruka says that the people he's with now appreciate the fact he doesn't eat oni. And really, he's okay with things as they are.
Which leads to a set of panels in which we never see Kantarou's face, only his hand:
"Haruka? What are you saying ..." [hand lifts]
"You and I are friends. Isn't that right?"
"... that's right. We're friends." [hand lowers, fingers clench]
OKAY WHAT. WHAT WHAT WHAT HAVE I MENTIONED OTP LATELYI am such a stupid fangirl XD
But then Raikou breaks free! And Tsugumi appears, badly injured and very weak, in which we find out that her name -- whether the current one or not -- belongs to Raikou. He's the master who set her up to try and encourage Kantarou and Haruka into breaking their name-bond, but very obviously, she's failed in that. And -- interestingly -- there's a bit where Raikou mentions that her original master was Minamoto Yorimitsu, whom she betrayed, and then a deliberately closeup on Haruka's face as there's a mention about how youkai shouldn't have two names.
(I SO CALLED IT. TWO NAMES AND ONE FROM THAT CRAZY FUJI-LADY.)
Tsugumi, poor thing, tries to break free -- she calls down something that attacks Raikou and Sakata; Haruka ends up having to carry Kantarou out of danger, and when they touch down again, we can see half of Raikou's profile, with Tsugumi cradled in his lap. And when we see the whole scene, we can see that he's got her sword through her chest and there's this bloody pearl on his tongue -- the youkai's "gyoku," they call it, the pearl/heart which is the source of a youkai's power. (Raikou mentions, in an earlier volume, that what the Oni-Eater preferred first was the "heart" of an oni, THEN its flesh.) Presumably, eating one confers its original owner's powers onto you.
... Raikou eats it.
SO PRESUMABLY HE CAN SUMMON DEAD SPIRITS NOW HOSHIT. He's totally going to pull Fuji's spirit out of the cat she's currently possessing and stick it into Ayame instead. Oh man. [rolls around]
But with this, he and Haruka spar again; Raikou is very smug, telling Haruka "I want to see your 'gyoku' soon--" [with the implication he wants to eat that, too? ogod what] and Haruka forgoes using the shakujou and ends up taking a chunk out of Raikou's side with his talons. And Raikou, being upset by that, kind of staggers back up, yelling about how Haruka shouldn't lose his INSTINCTS NOW SHOULD HE?? and attacks--
At which point Watanabe shows up, punches Raikou in the stomach, and apologizes, because it's his duty to make sure that Raikou doesn't, er, overdo it -- and then they leave. (Watanabe, the dutiful servant? To a master who isn't all there, whoops.)
The story ends cutely enough, with Kantarou and Haruka having a fistfight to "make up" for their argument earlier (Youko's fault, there; she tells Kantarou in the previous volume that they'll be okay, they just need to punch each other and work it out, that' swhat guys do!
"But Youko-chan, if I fight with Haruka I might die ..."
"Suck it up and apologize before you die, then!")
and afterwards, as they're lying bruised on the porch and tired, Haruka says that when they get home, there's something he wants to tell Kantarou, about his previous master. Which, thinking back, is the FIRST time that Haruka has ever acknowledged that he ever had one; Watanabe had brought it up before, and Haruka dismisses it, by saying "that woman is dead."
BUT THAT IS WHEN KINOSHITA GOT SICK AND WE WENT TO OTHER FILLER. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.
--and in short, I am reminded once again that it's really kind of suck to be in a fandom where the comm is mostly-dead and everyone else either a) moved on or b) never cared for the series much in the first place. XD;
BUT I HAVE VOLUME 8 SO FOR NOW, EVERYTHING IS JUST DAMN SHINY♥
sjen for lunch, and THEN we went to Kinos because tactics volume 8 had finally come for me ... ! ♥Also, D.Gray-man 8. I am horribly tempted to make some sort of pun about greatness, but will refrain. For now.
FIVE-POINT NON-SPOILER SUMMARIES BEFORE I LAUNCH INTO BLATHER:
tactics
1. Wow, Raikou. You really are crazy. Your entire family is messed up.
2. HaruKan OTP canon much?
3. Thus the sidestories that started running during Kinoshita's illness start! Nooooo. T_T
4. On the other hand, the sidestories are kind of neat, too; each one focuses on a different youkai.
5. I would scan the entire damn book if I didn't go D: at the idea of breaking its spine.
D.Gray-man (which I will not blather on about, because really, most of it would be OMG RINALI YOU RULE THE WORLD)
1. Rinali, you are something like 1000000x hotter now. Srsly.
2. What the HELL is up with the cover? I mean, they don't show up in this volume. Hell, Allen barely shows up in this volume.
3. (2) is not as much of a problem as you'd think, because of Rinali's ultimate and awesome coolness. And hotness. IT WORKS.
4. General Cross, why are there chickens around your feet, and how do you pull off looking that awesome even so? T_T
5. Did I mention Rinali? I love a heroine who kicks more ass than all the heroes combined.
AND NOW ON TO THE BLATHER!
+++
RIGHT SO. TACTICS. NEVER EVER LEAVE ME. EVEN IF I FIC FOR OTHER THINGS, I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU. ♥
I love how Kantarou always has a backup plan, even if he seems like he's just running into something haphazardly; when the HELL did he get the time to hide an ofuda under his tongue? Also, how was he able to talk without making someone suspicious that he had something in his mouth? (Not that I think Sakata is the most observant of people; he hero-worships Raikou, of all people.) Also, points for resourcefulness -- Sakata points out that he doesn't really have the strength to USE a sword, but good on him for grabbing it before he suffered stabbydeath.
All right, so. Kantarou. WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THE MOTHER-THING. Raikou offers to "let" (though this makes more sense later, his giving the permission) the nue (a chimerical type of youkai, famous in folklore) of the village -- who is named and has the ability to summon the souls of the dead and place them in dolls -- to revive Kantarou's mother. Literally, the exchange goes:
頼光： この村の鵺の力見たんでしょ？
大好きなお母様にまた逢えるよー
ねェ一宮先生．．．
勘太郎： あのね
ボクがあの人の墓に行くのは甦らないように見張ってるんだよ。
あの女はムカツクから
死んでてくれないと困るんだよねェー
(Essentially, in rough translation:
Raikou: You've seen the power of this village's nue?
You could see your beloved mother again--
Isn't that right, Ichinomiya-sensei ...
Kantarou: You know
I've gone to that person's grave to make sure she isn't revived.
That woman was troublesome, so
if she weren't dead, it would be troublesome.)
I MEAN OKAY WHAT. Sakata is shocked ("he'd say that about his own mother?") and Raikou is obviously taken aback; it seems like they were banking on Kantarou loving his mother -- but there doesn't seem to be anything lost there. Hm.
There's a lot of fighting that is all very dramatic and cool (and kind of funny, since Raikou is squaring off verbally against Kantarou while Haruka and Sakata fight in the background, and occasionally Raikou has to stop and toss a spell and scold Sakata for losing), but we start seeing a lot more of Raikou's unique psychosis -- he's very cheerful about the whole killing youkai thing. He claims it's out of the same love that has driven Kantarou to try and protect them; I can't quite find the line now, but it seems to be more of ... not so much a "I love you so I'll kill you," kind of thing; it's very much like a kid with a favorite toy that's literally loved to death. Youkai are like toys to Raikou, and he plays with them hard before they break and he discards them and moves on to the next shiny one. They get beaten back, though, and while Kantarou and Haruka are debating on what to DO with them, Raikou's all :DDDDD I HAVE A GREAT IDEA.
"Oh, speaking of which, Onikui, you've heard the story from Tsugumi, right? [about how having a name will eventually weaken and sicken a youkai] Why don't you ask Ichinomiya-sensei to break it?"
--which leads to a
Raikou points out that he'll be weakened and start losing his powers; Haruka says that the people he's with now appreciate the fact he doesn't eat oni. And really, he's okay with things as they are.
Which leads to a set of panels in which we never see Kantarou's face, only his hand:
"Haruka? What are you saying ..." [hand lifts]
"You and I are friends. Isn't that right?"
"... that's right. We're friends." [hand lowers, fingers clench]
OKAY WHAT. WHAT WHAT WHAT HAVE I MENTIONED OTP LATELY
But then Raikou breaks free! And Tsugumi appears, badly injured and very weak, in which we find out that her name -- whether the current one or not -- belongs to Raikou. He's the master who set her up to try and encourage Kantarou and Haruka into breaking their name-bond, but very obviously, she's failed in that. And -- interestingly -- there's a bit where Raikou mentions that her original master was Minamoto Yorimitsu, whom she betrayed, and then a deliberately closeup on Haruka's face as there's a mention about how youkai shouldn't have two names.
(I SO CALLED IT. TWO NAMES AND ONE FROM THAT CRAZY FUJI-LADY.)
Tsugumi, poor thing, tries to break free -- she calls down something that attacks Raikou and Sakata; Haruka ends up having to carry Kantarou out of danger, and when they touch down again, we can see half of Raikou's profile, with Tsugumi cradled in his lap. And when we see the whole scene, we can see that he's got her sword through her chest and there's this bloody pearl on his tongue -- the youkai's "gyoku," they call it, the pearl/heart which is the source of a youkai's power. (Raikou mentions, in an earlier volume, that what the Oni-Eater preferred first was the "heart" of an oni, THEN its flesh.) Presumably, eating one confers its original owner's powers onto you.
... Raikou eats it.
SO PRESUMABLY HE CAN SUMMON DEAD SPIRITS NOW HOSHIT. He's totally going to pull Fuji's spirit out of the cat she's currently possessing and stick it into Ayame instead. Oh man. [rolls around]
But with this, he and Haruka spar again; Raikou is very smug, telling Haruka "I want to see your 'gyoku' soon--" [with the implication he wants to eat that, too? ogod what] and Haruka forgoes using the shakujou and ends up taking a chunk out of Raikou's side with his talons. And Raikou, being upset by that, kind of staggers back up, yelling about how Haruka shouldn't lose his INSTINCTS NOW SHOULD HE?? and attacks--
At which point Watanabe shows up, punches Raikou in the stomach, and apologizes, because it's his duty to make sure that Raikou doesn't, er, overdo it -- and then they leave. (Watanabe, the dutiful servant? To a master who isn't all there, whoops.)
The story ends cutely enough, with Kantarou and Haruka having a fistfight to "make up" for their argument earlier (Youko's fault, there; she tells Kantarou in the previous volume that they'll be okay, they just need to punch each other and work it out, that' swhat guys do!
"But Youko-chan, if I fight with Haruka I might die ..."
"Suck it up and apologize before you die, then!")
and afterwards, as they're lying bruised on the porch and tired, Haruka says that when they get home, there's something he wants to tell Kantarou, about his previous master. Which, thinking back, is the FIRST time that Haruka has ever acknowledged that he ever had one; Watanabe had brought it up before, and Haruka dismisses it, by saying "that woman is dead."
BUT THAT IS WHEN KINOSHITA GOT SICK AND WE WENT TO OTHER FILLER. WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY.
--and in short, I am reminded once again that it's really kind of suck to be in a fandom where the comm is mostly-dead and everyone else either a) moved on or b) never cared for the series much in the first place. XD;
BUT I HAVE VOLUME 8 SO FOR NOW, EVERYTHING IS JUST DAMN SHINY♥
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Also, bonus points for making Japan not the land of enlightenment and ahead of the rest of the poor world, but for being the Earl's stronghold, what. XD
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i was all T_T when certain peoples sacrificed themselves T______T
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... yes, yes, yes. D: I was really hoping we'd see Anita's reunion with Cross, but it did not happen. :(
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akldjfalskjf o;ewif ;waefnh
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... also the first time we see Fuji-the-cat's face.
I may just have to scan some stuff from this afterall. >_>
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OTP
PLOT
AHHHHHHHH
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Fanfiction.net, why you gotta fail me so hard? DDDDDD:
[ROLLS]
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*DIES* XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD.
Yeah. XDDDDD
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Now if only there could be MORE SOON, I'd be ecstatic. XD
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*sniffles* I want volume 8 soon D:!!
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v8 is very nice♥
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man I'm glad I don't follow GB sometimes.
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Because in the most recent storyline, Ban and Ginji hire each other -- Ban because he needs help retrieving Himiko (who's been kidnapped, with a lot of mumbo jumbo about her seventeenth birthday and her destiny as a Voodoo Child), and Ginji because he was told his mother is still alive and in Babylon City.
Which leads to this scene where Ban comments that his father (Der Kaizer, leader of the Beltline) would not be involved in the affair if "the woman who gave birth to [Ban]" weren't up in Babylon City.
At which point Ginji goes :OOOOOOOOOOOOOO Ban-chan, your mom's there TOO?
And Ban's like Ginji ... you know ...
And then Hevn and her boobs fall on him from above, thus DISTRACTING US FROM THE WHOLE SCENE DAMNIT.
D:
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also, working in japanese high schools and observing the normal behaviour of high school boys (they sit on each others laps, have their arms all over each others shoulders, massage each others arms, etc etc) pretty much convinced me that the two arent gay @_@ i gotta make a long lj post about how seeing the cultural setting in which gb is set and its implications for b&gs relationship made me not rly ship them anymore XD;;; also made me realize why the bxg fandom in japan isnt that big, but the kazuki/juubei and ginji/akabane ones are out the roof...
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I just like dorks, and I like dorks better with each other than anyone else. XD
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*_* Kan-chan! Kan-chan! KAN-CHAN! ZOMG! KAN-CHAN IS LIKE SHERLOCK HOLMES! XDDDDDDD
Kan: "I HID AN OFUDA UNDER MY TONGUE!"
Haruka: "O_o ZOMG! HOW'D YOU DO THAT?!!"
Kan: ":D ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR ONIKUI! ELEMENTARY :D!"
XDDDDDDDD
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And Haruka wasn't even there when Kantarou pulled out the ofuda, nor was he terribly impressed by the whole thing. ^^;
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*likes inserting Kan and Haruka in different charas' shoes* Like like... that time I watched Constantine and thought of John as either Kantarou or Harukaa~
But of course, I'm insane ._.;
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*suddenly has an image of Trainer!Kantarou with Pokemon!Haruka and Youko*
*GIGGLES* :3
;3; Aren't you going to write more HaruKan loviiing???? D:
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Seriously, I love Allen to pieces; he's probably my favorite JUMP hero ever, by virtue of being polite and cheerful
and British so probably has an accent uh I mean whatand not the sort to be all HAY LESSGO BEAT IT WITH STICKS mentality like a lot of others are. XD And Miranda's story also struck this huge chord with me, because man, with a life like hers, she's done remarkably well. T_TNot that I won't mind when Allen finally rejoins everyone, but. RINALI IS HOT THE END. XD
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...Also, why is this the only tactics icon I have.
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... but it's such a great icon, with Raikou's "8D" face and all. XD ♥