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meganbmooreI'm still randomly rewatching SDK eps...why I don't sit down for a proper rewatch, I don't know..I guess it's because I keep wanting specific episodes, as opposed to the whole thing...today it was the first appearances of Mahiro and Akira.
No MVs, only a few pics. This mostly is about the anime, but has a bit on the manga, too. Rather spoilerific, obviously.
At the end of the series(anime only, scanslations past about vol 20 of the manga don't seem to exist, sadly) Kyo and Kyoshiro(fully restored) are both in their own bodies and have saved the world. However, they are essentially opposite parts of the same man, and unable to coexist, so they engage in a final battle. The anime doesn't flatout say who won(though the winner is in the original body, Kyoshiro's) but to me it seemed blatantly obvious that it was Kyo. Ignore the fact that it would be a major copout to have the guy we barely know destroy the guy we've been following the whole time, just from the stance and body language, both after the fight and in the eiplogue, and the way he says "Yuya," are very clearly Kyo, not Kyoshiro.
Beyond that, there's the fact that he's with Yuya. Quite simply, Kyo loved Yuya, Kyoshiro loved Sakuya. There's no indication that Kyoshiro really had any romantic feelings towards Yuya before Kyo took over, or that Kyo had any towards Sakuya. Yes, other characters comment that Kyo loved Sakuya, and that Yuya is like her(don't see that, myself) but, aside from his early desire for revenge against her for locking him up, he never(in the manga or the anime) seems to really have any feelings for her beyond curiosity, and I rather think that's more remnants of Kyoshiro's love for her than any actual interest on his part. Had Kyoshiro won, he would have stayed with Sakuya, as opposed to being with Yuya in the epilogue. Kyoshiro won in their first battle, yes, but at that time, he had goals--to stop Kyo and to finally be able to live in peace with Sakuya. Kyo, however, only had his need for battle, and with equal skills, it wasn't enough. The second time they fight, however, it's different. Because of Yuya, he's become his own person and is more than a need for battle and strength, so he, too, has things to fight for...he actually has a life and a desire to live now for the purpose of living, not just for the next fight, and he has the chance of happiness of his own in a future with Yuya. When they were one person, the needs and urges that became Kyo were dominant, and were strong enough that Kyoshiro couldn't conquer them and had to completely remove them from himself. To me, there's no reason to believe that, given a goal, Kyo wouldn't come out the victor.
And now, a few pics. Manga, not anime, and fanart...
I wanna say this one is from a wallscroll or something. If so, I want. The guy in back is Benitora.
A wallpaper with manga art:
fanart. Having been reading the manga for several years and seen the anime more than once(not counting the last week or so) I think I can safely say he's thinking "if I move my head about 4 inches, will she realize I'm not really asleep?" while she's thinking "How the heck am I going to keep all these guys supplied with sake?"
Another wallpaper. It looks like actual manga art, but I'm not sure.
Wallpaper again, definately manga art this time.
Manga art again, or at least done by Akimine Kamijyo, though again, I'm not sure what it's from.
Two doujinshi covers:
(looks rather villainous in that one)
And lastly, a manga cover:
That ended up much longer than I'd planned(the text, not the pics...only 8-9 of those)
Note to self: do not meta on OTPs(or look for youtube videos, in other instances) after 1 am or you'll go to bed way, way too late.
ETA fordangermousiebecause of our talking about all the guys named "Kyo" that pop up a few days ago...It means "approval "or "large"/"grand", but can also be "great one" or "king"(it can also be "ginger," but somehow I doubt that's the intent when they name the characters Kyo.)
*heads for bed begore she wakes up in 6-8 hours with the keyboard imprinted on her face*
No MVs, only a few pics. This mostly is about the anime, but has a bit on the manga, too. Rather spoilerific, obviously.
Like I said In my post the other day, one of the appeals of SDK and Kyo/Yuya is that Kyo really is one of the few true anti-heroes out there. Typically, TPTB like to give a guy some authority or social issues, and call him an anti-hero(good examples of this are Wolverine in Marvel Comics and Sawyer in Lost...both have serious authority issues and are lacking in people skills, but are good guys once you scratch the surface. The antihero, on the other hand, really doesn't care about the good fight or saving lives...if he gets involved, it's to get revenge, or, more often, to protect someone he cares about, either directly or to protect their interests. One of the better known(and much nicer than Kyo) examples is Han Solo. Han doesn't stick around because he cares about the rebellion...he stuck around because he became fond of the stupid kid and, to a lesser extent(at the time) uppity princess and figured they'd get themselves killed if he didn't stick around. It's not until the third movie(once he's in love with Leia, and thus, stuck) that Han seems to really care about the rebellion.
Which brings me to Kyo. Kyo, to put it mildly, is not a nice person. He's rude, anti-social, and doesn't really care about anyone, even himself. All he cares about is strength and proving he's the best. Even his quest to get his body back has more to do with proving he's the best by defeating Kyoshiro in combat than it does with actually getting the body itself back. After all, technically, Kyoshiro's body IS his original body. Before the start of the series, the only two people who Kyo could be even loosely said to care about are Akira, his apprentice, and Hotaru, a younger cousin who followed him. However, both of them were following Kyo because they wanted to become as strong as he was. While Kyo's caring about them is arguable(and, in the manga, it's established that he does, on some level) he felt no obligation towards their safety...they weren't with him for protection, they were with him to learn from his strength. Incidentally, people who see the anime first and then read the manga might be surprised to see that, at least at first, Kyo is comparatively nice in the anime(and anyone who's only seen the anime is likely now wondering how someone could call Kyo nice)
But then there's Yuya. While it's rather common for the female lead to be the male lead's chief, if not only(as is the case here) weakness, and to have that ruthlessly exploited(pretty regularly) in this case, Yuya is also almost literally the only thing that gives Kyo humanity. In the beginning, when it seems more likely that the OTP will be Kyoshiro/Yuya and Kyo will be the bad guy(actually, based on author comments in the manga, I think that was the mangaka's original plan, before s/he-I have no idea which-realized how much more awesome it would be to make Kyo the lead and go with Kyo/Yuya instead) Kyo treats Yuya with the same careless disdain(to be nice about it) that he treats everyone else. However, he responds to her courage and spirit and ends up with a weakness. And, while he tries to act otherwise, she quickly becomes a weakness for him. While Yuya does follow him because(initially) she wants she wants the bounty on his head, the fact is that if he didn't want her there, she'd either be dead or left in the dust in no time flat. But he does want her there, even though he knows that it creates an instant weakness, because he knows that unless he's protecting her(though, later, others step in to help out...most notably Benitora, one of the few "other guys" in anime and manga to be lucky enough to get his own OTP and have it portrayed in a way where it makes since that he'd end up with her when he was portrayed as loving Yuya for most of the series) she'll be dead.
One important thing to note about Yuya is that, while it eventually gets lost in both the anime and manga, she really isn't a helpless female, she's actually pretty competent and has good survival skills. It's just that the people Kyo-and, as a result, she-faces are far from normal and are at a level she can barely even see. This is something Kyo knows from the start, and the fact that he has to protect her forces him to change and start to soften. To people who didn't know him before he met Yuya, it's not noticable, to the point where Yuya wonders if he actually saves her, or if it really does just coincide with his goals. At one point, Benitora, who met Kyo after Yuya did, is ready to have it out with Kyo for abandoning Yuya in the Sea of Trees arc, until he realizes that the reason Kyo left Yuya behind and told her not stay away from him wasn't to abandon her, but because he was so injured that he couldn't protect her, and if he wasn't with her, she was much less likely to be in danger(not that it works out that way, but hey, his intentions were good)
The people who knew Kyo before, however, can see the change instantly, and can very easily tell what the cause is. To the casual observer, Kyo seems to barely be aware of Yuya and to ignore her, but the fact his, he's almost constantly aware of where she is and what she's doing and if he's not, it's usually because he knows someone else is at that time. He regularly places himself so that he'll casually be where she is, even if it's out of his way. At one point, Yuya finds him asleep in her room, and when he wakes up, he accuses her of invading his personal space(IMnsHO, he just couldn't think of an excuse to get out of that one) I think that, at that point, Kyo has realized how much Yuya means to him and while he's not about to admit it, he's no longer denying it when it comes up. However, admission or even a change in attitude is not only something he's not ready for, but is also something that would make her even more of a target(even though, at that point, everyone and their dead rival knows the most effective way to strike at or control Kyo is through Yuya)
Like the others, Yuya is drawn to Kyo because of his strength(in fact, Akira's belief in and need for Kyo's strength is to the point where, when he realizes just how much Yuya has changed Kyo, he comments that he would have killed her the first time they met, as he sees her as having weakened him. Of course, by then he's somewhat platonically fond of Yuya himself.) but it's different for her. With the rest of the cast, Kyo's strength is something to strive for, to reach. The goal is to one day be good enough to beat him. With Yuya, though, his strength gives her an unshakable confidence in him, and while it's true that she has weakened him in some ways, I think she gives him greater strength because of that, because this is the first time someone has wanted him to succeed for himself.
The rest of the cast eventually(in some cases quickly *pats Bontenmaru from the manga-with an anime cameo-on the head*) realizes the strength that Yuya gives Kyo, and the consequences if anything were to happen to her. As a result, they transfer the friendship and affection they can't show Kyo to her(though, for the most part, I think they'd all care about her anyway) And even though Kyo can't and won't admit his feelings, they know it and accept it as the normal course. In fact, when Hotaru catches up with the rest in volume 21, no one even notices that he can't even be bothered to remember Yuya's name(though, come to think of it, he may have never known, I'd have to reread) no one notices or comment's when he identifies Yuya to himself as "Kyo's girl"(of course, the ones who would normally comment on it were busy yelling at him over what he called them)
And that brings us to the ending. So that this will make sense(and to majorly spoil the anime, though not necessarily the manga) The story behind Kyoshiro and Kyo is that they were once Kyoshiro, the greatest warrior of the Mibu clan. The Mibu clan is extremely powerful and has been working to control the world for centuries, and is almost ready to do so. Kyoshiro was in love with a seeress, Sakuya. Sakuya loved Kyoshiro, but was unable to be with him because of the battle he craved, to set it aside, both because he was needed by the clan and because it was such a part of him. So he used the Mibu's magic to separate his battle and bloodlust into a separate being, Kyo, with both men possessing the original's skill. Kyoshiro was able to be with Sakuya for a time, but Kyo, a being who literally lived only for battle, was eventually discontent being nothing but the Mibu's lapdog and he left to seek more and more strength and battle. Eventually, Kyoshiro realized he had to stop Kyo and, despite many assassins the Mibu sent to stop him because they had their own plans for Kyo(one of them was Yuya's brother, who Kyoshiro was forced to kill, and that was the reason she became a bounty hunter...to find her brother's murderer and get her revenge) Kyoshiro met and defeated Kyo at the Battle of Sekigahara, and Sakuya sealed Kyo deep within Kyoshiro. However, that seemed to somewhat affect Kyoshiro's memory and he spent the next four years wandering around as a medicine man. Kyoshiro remembers Sakuya and at least some of the Mibu, and knows that Kyo is locked inside of him, but it's never really clear just how much he knows...the urges and wants that made up Kyo were dominant when they were one person, so I think everything that Kyo could possibly use to take over. Kyoshiro made himself forget. Of course, Kyo comes out in the first episode, and takes over completely in the second or third.
Which brings me to Kyo. Kyo, to put it mildly, is not a nice person. He's rude, anti-social, and doesn't really care about anyone, even himself. All he cares about is strength and proving he's the best. Even his quest to get his body back has more to do with proving he's the best by defeating Kyoshiro in combat than it does with actually getting the body itself back. After all, technically, Kyoshiro's body IS his original body. Before the start of the series, the only two people who Kyo could be even loosely said to care about are Akira, his apprentice, and Hotaru, a younger cousin who followed him. However, both of them were following Kyo because they wanted to become as strong as he was. While Kyo's caring about them is arguable(and, in the manga, it's established that he does, on some level) he felt no obligation towards their safety...they weren't with him for protection, they were with him to learn from his strength. Incidentally, people who see the anime first and then read the manga might be surprised to see that, at least at first, Kyo is comparatively nice in the anime(and anyone who's only seen the anime is likely now wondering how someone could call Kyo nice)
But then there's Yuya. While it's rather common for the female lead to be the male lead's chief, if not only(as is the case here) weakness, and to have that ruthlessly exploited(pretty regularly) in this case, Yuya is also almost literally the only thing that gives Kyo humanity. In the beginning, when it seems more likely that the OTP will be Kyoshiro/Yuya and Kyo will be the bad guy(actually, based on author comments in the manga, I think that was the mangaka's original plan, before s/he-I have no idea which-realized how much more awesome it would be to make Kyo the lead and go with Kyo/Yuya instead) Kyo treats Yuya with the same careless disdain(to be nice about it) that he treats everyone else. However, he responds to her courage and spirit and ends up with a weakness. And, while he tries to act otherwise, she quickly becomes a weakness for him. While Yuya does follow him because(initially) she wants she wants the bounty on his head, the fact is that if he didn't want her there, she'd either be dead or left in the dust in no time flat. But he does want her there, even though he knows that it creates an instant weakness, because he knows that unless he's protecting her(though, later, others step in to help out...most notably Benitora, one of the few "other guys" in anime and manga to be lucky enough to get his own OTP and have it portrayed in a way where it makes since that he'd end up with her when he was portrayed as loving Yuya for most of the series) she'll be dead.
One important thing to note about Yuya is that, while it eventually gets lost in both the anime and manga, she really isn't a helpless female, she's actually pretty competent and has good survival skills. It's just that the people Kyo-and, as a result, she-faces are far from normal and are at a level she can barely even see. This is something Kyo knows from the start, and the fact that he has to protect her forces him to change and start to soften. To people who didn't know him before he met Yuya, it's not noticable, to the point where Yuya wonders if he actually saves her, or if it really does just coincide with his goals. At one point, Benitora, who met Kyo after Yuya did, is ready to have it out with Kyo for abandoning Yuya in the Sea of Trees arc, until he realizes that the reason Kyo left Yuya behind and told her not stay away from him wasn't to abandon her, but because he was so injured that he couldn't protect her, and if he wasn't with her, she was much less likely to be in danger(not that it works out that way, but hey, his intentions were good)
The people who knew Kyo before, however, can see the change instantly, and can very easily tell what the cause is. To the casual observer, Kyo seems to barely be aware of Yuya and to ignore her, but the fact his, he's almost constantly aware of where she is and what she's doing and if he's not, it's usually because he knows someone else is at that time. He regularly places himself so that he'll casually be where she is, even if it's out of his way. At one point, Yuya finds him asleep in her room, and when he wakes up, he accuses her of invading his personal space(IMnsHO, he just couldn't think of an excuse to get out of that one) I think that, at that point, Kyo has realized how much Yuya means to him and while he's not about to admit it, he's no longer denying it when it comes up. However, admission or even a change in attitude is not only something he's not ready for, but is also something that would make her even more of a target(even though, at that point, everyone and their dead rival knows the most effective way to strike at or control Kyo is through Yuya)
Like the others, Yuya is drawn to Kyo because of his strength(in fact, Akira's belief in and need for Kyo's strength is to the point where, when he realizes just how much Yuya has changed Kyo, he comments that he would have killed her the first time they met, as he sees her as having weakened him. Of course, by then he's somewhat platonically fond of Yuya himself.) but it's different for her. With the rest of the cast, Kyo's strength is something to strive for, to reach. The goal is to one day be good enough to beat him. With Yuya, though, his strength gives her an unshakable confidence in him, and while it's true that she has weakened him in some ways, I think she gives him greater strength because of that, because this is the first time someone has wanted him to succeed for himself.
The rest of the cast eventually(in some cases quickly *pats Bontenmaru from the manga-with an anime cameo-on the head*) realizes the strength that Yuya gives Kyo, and the consequences if anything were to happen to her. As a result, they transfer the friendship and affection they can't show Kyo to her(though, for the most part, I think they'd all care about her anyway) And even though Kyo can't and won't admit his feelings, they know it and accept it as the normal course. In fact, when Hotaru catches up with the rest in volume 21, no one even notices that he can't even be bothered to remember Yuya's name(though, come to think of it, he may have never known, I'd have to reread) no one notices or comment's when he identifies Yuya to himself as "Kyo's girl"(of course, the ones who would normally comment on it were busy yelling at him over what he called them)
And that brings us to the ending. So that this will make sense(and to majorly spoil the anime, though not necessarily the manga) The story behind Kyoshiro and Kyo is that they were once Kyoshiro, the greatest warrior of the Mibu clan. The Mibu clan is extremely powerful and has been working to control the world for centuries, and is almost ready to do so. Kyoshiro was in love with a seeress, Sakuya. Sakuya loved Kyoshiro, but was unable to be with him because of the battle he craved, to set it aside, both because he was needed by the clan and because it was such a part of him. So he used the Mibu's magic to separate his battle and bloodlust into a separate being, Kyo, with both men possessing the original's skill. Kyoshiro was able to be with Sakuya for a time, but Kyo, a being who literally lived only for battle, was eventually discontent being nothing but the Mibu's lapdog and he left to seek more and more strength and battle. Eventually, Kyoshiro realized he had to stop Kyo and, despite many assassins the Mibu sent to stop him because they had their own plans for Kyo(one of them was Yuya's brother, who Kyoshiro was forced to kill, and that was the reason she became a bounty hunter...to find her brother's murderer and get her revenge) Kyoshiro met and defeated Kyo at the Battle of Sekigahara, and Sakuya sealed Kyo deep within Kyoshiro. However, that seemed to somewhat affect Kyoshiro's memory and he spent the next four years wandering around as a medicine man. Kyoshiro remembers Sakuya and at least some of the Mibu, and knows that Kyo is locked inside of him, but it's never really clear just how much he knows...the urges and wants that made up Kyo were dominant when they were one person, so I think everything that Kyo could possibly use to take over. Kyoshiro made himself forget. Of course, Kyo comes out in the first episode, and takes over completely in the second or third.
At the end of the series(anime only, scanslations past about vol 20 of the manga don't seem to exist, sadly) Kyo and Kyoshiro(fully restored) are both in their own bodies and have saved the world. However, they are essentially opposite parts of the same man, and unable to coexist, so they engage in a final battle. The anime doesn't flatout say who won(though the winner is in the original body, Kyoshiro's) but to me it seemed blatantly obvious that it was Kyo. Ignore the fact that it would be a major copout to have the guy we barely know destroy the guy we've been following the whole time, just from the stance and body language, both after the fight and in the eiplogue, and the way he says "Yuya," are very clearly Kyo, not Kyoshiro.
Beyond that, there's the fact that he's with Yuya. Quite simply, Kyo loved Yuya, Kyoshiro loved Sakuya. There's no indication that Kyoshiro really had any romantic feelings towards Yuya before Kyo took over, or that Kyo had any towards Sakuya. Yes, other characters comment that Kyo loved Sakuya, and that Yuya is like her(don't see that, myself) but, aside from his early desire for revenge against her for locking him up, he never(in the manga or the anime) seems to really have any feelings for her beyond curiosity, and I rather think that's more remnants of Kyoshiro's love for her than any actual interest on his part. Had Kyoshiro won, he would have stayed with Sakuya, as opposed to being with Yuya in the epilogue. Kyoshiro won in their first battle, yes, but at that time, he had goals--to stop Kyo and to finally be able to live in peace with Sakuya. Kyo, however, only had his need for battle, and with equal skills, it wasn't enough. The second time they fight, however, it's different. Because of Yuya, he's become his own person and is more than a need for battle and strength, so he, too, has things to fight for...he actually has a life and a desire to live now for the purpose of living, not just for the next fight, and he has the chance of happiness of his own in a future with Yuya. When they were one person, the needs and urges that became Kyo were dominant, and were strong enough that Kyoshiro couldn't conquer them and had to completely remove them from himself. To me, there's no reason to believe that, given a goal, Kyo wouldn't come out the victor.
And now, a few pics. Manga, not anime, and fanart...
I wanna say this one is from a wallscroll or something. If so, I want. The guy in back is Benitora.
A wallpaper with manga art:
fanart. Having been reading the manga for several years and seen the anime more than once(not counting the last week or so) I think I can safely say he's thinking "if I move my head about 4 inches, will she realize I'm not really asleep?" while she's thinking "How the heck am I going to keep all these guys supplied with sake?"
Another wallpaper. It looks like actual manga art, but I'm not sure.
Wallpaper again, definately manga art this time.
Manga art again, or at least done by Akimine Kamijyo, though again, I'm not sure what it's from.
Two doujinshi covers:
(looks rather villainous in that one)
And lastly, a manga cover:
That ended up much longer than I'd planned(the text, not the pics...only 8-9 of those)
Note to self: do not meta on OTPs(or look for youtube videos, in other instances) after 1 am or you'll go to bed way, way too late.
ETA for
dangermousiebecause of our talking about all the guys named "Kyo" that pop up a few days ago...It means "approval "or "large"/"grand", but can also be "great one" or "king"(it can also be "ginger," but somehow I doubt that's the intent when they name the characters Kyo.) *heads for bed begore she wakes up in 6-8 hours with the keyboard imprinted on her face*