Samurai Deeper Kyo Vol 26

[meganbmoore]

 

Bon finally ends his fight with Haira. Much fun as it was to watch Bon go all ballistic, I found Haira to be extremely annoying and wanted Bon to kill him a lot faster. At least there was fun commentary from Kyo, Yukimura, Saizo and Shindara. Somewhere in there, Kyo and Yukimura did their standard silent "I’m better" "No, I am" "We’ll settle this soon!" alpha male stand-off. Considering what’s going on in Vol 29, I assume they get that out of their system somewhere in the next two volumes. Maybe it’s just because he’s barely had any lines the last few volumes, but Kyo also seemed to be speaking much more formally than he usually does.

Later, Shindara does a lotlotlot of posing, and even his best Dracula impression when he shows off his markings. Meanwhile, Kousuke and two other of the Juyushi-Jimpachi and Kamanosuke-show up to save Yukimura. This reinforces my belief that Sasuke latched on to Yuya like the clingiest grumpy sarcastic badass little thing to ever latch on to a sister figure because she’s the first normal girl he ever met. (Sure, Kousuke SEEMS normal, but she also wrestles bears and is a dead wringer for Yukimura.) The three and Saizo get their butts handed to them by Shindara. Yukimura is very touched by this and uses the wagtail move(that I still wish he didn’t have, no matter how cool it is…) and hands Shindara his butt. I sincerely hope he plans to enlist Bon’s help in dragging them off to the infirmary.

Aka-chan shows up and strutts his stuff. I’m not sure I’d be getting "EVIL! BE SCARED!" from him right now if I hadn’t read ahead. Sure, all the signs are there, but they involve getting Shinrei out of a cage(I highly endorse a non-caged Shinrei) and tormenting Tokito(as Tokito is one of the very few SDK characters I dislike, I also highly endorse this.) Tokito also whines about Muramasa abandoning her. I have to side with her on this one. I might like her if she had a decent upbringing.

Meanwhile, Yuya reminds us that’s she’s amazingly unphased by her numerous kidnapping and can always find something nice to say about her kidnappers by saying nice things about Shindara. I sincerely hope Kyo is properly appreciative of the fact that he has found the one girl in the universe who (A) realizes that sexual harassment is a sign of affection (B) understands that "Ugly" and "Dog Face" are synonymous when "Cutie" (C) does not mind all his old friends trying to kill her for making him "weak" (D) does not mind when said friends kidnap her and (E) does not mind when kidnappers and other people who have tried to kill her, be they old friends or new, join the party. Including the ones who seem to have a crush on her. Really, the only thing she minds is when people insult him…

Sasuke also reminds us that Yuya can say anything in the world and he won’t mind, but Benitora will get beat up if he tries anything similar.

Shinrei also does some shirtless, bandaged angsting in a cage. I rather approve of that.

Still far too long until Vol 29.

Comments

[chomiji]

B-b-but you are apparently completely unaffected by the angst of Shindara revealing his awfulness to Yukimura (his former liege) and the Juyuushi (his former comrades/pupils)! (Especially poor Kousuke, who seems to have admired him very much indeed. Perhaps this will get me moving on the Kousuke biography fic I've been incubating for more than a year now ... .)

telophase already has the next volume, and I am so jealous! The Yukimura/Juyuushi/Shindara angst will continue, and I believe Kyo and Yukimura have another faceoff, with much subtext (of course) for those of us who believe in that sort of thing ... .

Yeah, I think Kamijyo is actually doing a good job with hiding Aka-chan's true nature. But I can't see him anymore without remembering him in that DOOM outfit he ends up in toward the end ... so I'm not the best judge.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Kousuke seems to have had a crush on Shindara or some such. I also forgot to mention that flashback!Kyo looked a lot like Shindara, which kept distracting me the whole volume. I appreciate the angst, but I'm operating on sleep deprivation today! Just be greatful for coherency and that I was capable of more than "crackcrackcrackcrackcrack." (Plus, Sasuke is my favorite of the Sanada group, and I was sad he barely saw him...)

Since my later-volumes exposure is spotty, I mostly remember that outfit he put Yuya in towards the end, and the conviction she was a seer. I'd probably be viewing him as more sinister if he weren't making his presence felt by doing things I approve of...

[chomiji]

click for Aka-chan in his final costume change of DOOM (warning: Spoiler for SDK vol. 38).

[shediao.livejournal.com]

Sasuke also reminds us that Yuya can say anything in the world and he won’t mind, but Benitora will get beat up if he tries anything similar.

Poor Tora. No one takes him seriously in this series.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Mahiro does! And Kyo!

(He just has the poor luck to fall into Sasuke's sister complex territory a lot, I think.)

Really, though, I don't feel AS bad for him, as a lot of it is deliberate on his part.