Samurai Deeper Kyo: Hotaru is a space cadet. To be nice about it.

[meganbmoore]

To compensate for the deep, deep pit of angst in the last SDK post, I bring you Hotaru and his spacey-ness.  Because Hotaru is love.  And a woobie who's father spent the first 15 years or so of his life sending assassins after him until his half brother learned about him and asked dad to let him deal with Hotaru, then did the "protect from the shadows" bit.  The spacey is 95% defense mechanism.

Also?  Almost anything you need to explain Akira and Hotaru can been summed up by this:  their puberty and later teen years(respectively) were spent with a battlenuts perv as their idol, their chief example of feminine companionship was a guy who wanted to marry said(VERY straight) idol, and their only other adult supervision is the world's biggest softie who's ALSO a battle crazed nut.  They're allowed to be a touch...off(and no wonder they can't decide whether to pour everything out to Yuya or kill her...on the one hand, she's probably the first normal girl they've spent more than five minutes with.  On the other hand, she gives Kyo warm fuzzy feelings, and they don't like that.  Because their goal in life is to be the strongest ever and to achieve that by killing Kyo.  The other can be second best.  Unless the other kills Kyo first, in which case one will have to kill the other to still be the best.  It's their own special brand of love.)

Anyway, 4 pages(raws with translations) or Hotaru and his own, special little world.  And Shinrei trying(and failing) to deal with the Hotaru-verse.

10
Shinrei: I think we might be inside the Red Tower...
Hotaru: Yes!!  Definitely!!
Shinrei: There was the underground maze, so maybe the inside of the tower is a maze too...?
Hotaru: Kyo's real body has definitely been revived...
Hotaru: I can sense it with my Kyo radar.
Hotaru: Yes, it's definitely been revived... I have to find him and fight him...
Shinrei: You have a one-track mind... well, you're not going to find him here.
Hotaru: I must, I must!
Shinrei: We have to get to Former Aka no Ou's place as soon as possible...
Hotaru: I must, I must!!
Hotaru: I will!



His Kyo radar...it tingles...it says "Me wanna go fight!"

11
Shinrei: Just shut up!!  What you're saying is suicidal and insane!!  It's utterly ridiculous...
Hotaru: Huh?  Did you say something?
Shinrei: Listen to people when they're talking to you...!!
Hotaru: Uh... well this section of wall has a weird feeling... (like maybe there's like a floor and ceiling and stuff behind it...)
Shinrei: What the hell are you talking about!?
Shinrei: ...Forget it.  You never make any sense... What was I thinking when I joined forces with you so we could get into the Red Tower...!?
Hotaru: Okay, let's go this way.  It looks more fun.
Shinrei: Don't just make decisions on your own!!
Shinrei:  That's it!!  I give up!!  I can't take you and your behavior anymore!!  I'm going to find the Former Aka no Ou on my own...



Poor, poor Shinrei...but I won't feel sympathy for you until the current arc(in what's been published in the US) wraps up.  Hotaru is tapping walls and skipping...SKIPPING, I say...

12
Shinrei: One, two men?
Hotaru: No...
Shinrei: Five?
Hotaru: Yeah...
Hotaru: Huh?  What's this feeling?
Shinrei: Let's go, Keikoku!!



Oh Hotaru, you were so focused until that last panel.  But your radar sensed Akira, and you still wanted to fry something, so I understand.  Besides, it's just Shinrei.

13
Shinrei: $@&%^*!!!!
Hotaru: Hmm?
Hotaru: Maybe that was a little too much fire...?
Shinrei: ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!?
Hotaru: I just thought we should wait and see who they are... I had a feeling...
Tora: Hotaru-han!!
Shinrei: YOU...!!
Hotaru: I knew it.



*pats Shinrei*   It'll be ok, you'll survive it.  Look, reinforcements have arrived...

At this point, Shinrei and Benitora(headband) exchange status updates, Hotaru continues on in his "I wanna go fight Kyo" vein and Akira broods on his current obsession. 

Comments

[chomiji]

I love the art in this section ... both brothers are so cute in that first panel. And if Hotaru isn't actually skipping in that one panel ... well, it's probably no coincidence that both Akira and Shinrei like to compare him to a drifting cloud (and actually, it's kind of interesting, given that Shinrei is his actual half-brother, and Akira is essentially his foster brother ...)

There's also the lovely contrast between Shinrei, all carefully wrapped up and protected from the outside world in his layers of clothing and protective bandaging, and Hotaru, all light and exposed to the open air in his jam-langth pants and short kimono jacket with the girl-style sleeves. (And he and Benitora both do the cute thing with the butterfly bow in the sash at the back, and the jacket tucked up into it ... I wonder what the deal is with that.)

Those are Sanada's translations from hana-mi.net, yes?

- Cho

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yes...there is extreme cuteness in the art here...When I was reading it/looking at it I was all "he's skipping! he's skipping! to the friend I was chatting with at the time. I also noticed that he and Shinrei(who I've developed great love for in the volumes I've managed to read after the volumes that have been released in the US...never disliked him, just kinda irked at that waterwyrms bit *shakes fist*) are sporting similar bandages later.

For someone as, well, damaged as he is, it's amazing how, well, open about himself he is...I mean, Yuya basically said "geez, what's your deal" and he poured out his life story to her. Of course, it's Yuya, and almost every character in this series(once they get past trying to kill or kidbnap her to get to Kyo) seems to pretty much go "oh my god, a nice, sane NORMAL girl...I want to keep and latch onto so I can pretend I have some semblance of sanity"

Yeah, that's where I got the translations(Sanada is currently my favorite person ever...or would be if I could find raws for what I don't have) I forgot to add that.

[ipperne.livejournal.com]

I guess this is one of those moments where Shinrei either regret saving Hotarus life when he was younger, or celebrate the fact that he is torturing himself with a noticeable amount of success by joining Hotarus (Kyos, whatever) group.
And Hotaru's just cute. liven in his own parallel universe, where only Kyo, fighting and his chickie-bowl(Maybe a few more things, who know?) exists...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Poor, poor Shinrei...I think he's wondering if he took all the brains in the family and if there's a way he can share a few. Just for his own sanity.

But the skipping...oh the skipping...