Kekkaishi Vol 12-13

[meganbmoore]

Ok, Kekkaishi, you’re supposed to be the shounen action series with a male lead that doesn’t leave the heroine behind when it’s time to fight. What’s with leaving Tokine behind when assembling the squad to go save Yoshimori and Sen? Though, as the rescue squad didn’t do much more than retrieval, I can’t complain much.

And I’ll take Tokine punching Yoshimori for running off like an idiot and lecturing him as compensation. The surprise Yuri appearance also helps. Because I do love Yuri.

I admit, I was bored by a good chunk of this. Mostly because Kaguro both bores and irritates me, and he was everywhere. And he keeps killing/beating characters who are more interesting than him.

But I did enjoy Yoshimori’s meeting with the princess, and his teaming up with Sen. I still have difficulty believing that Sen is a guy. He even has normal “destined to be sidelined from the fight” shounen girl abilities and techniques,

And am I the only one who thinks Takeshi Kongoh is Edward Elric’s long lost twin?
 

Comments

[musouka-manga.livejournal.com]

Maaaan, the anime did this arc so much better. I like Kekkaishi a lot, but I thought it was a huge blunder to make Tokine sit this one out, at least for such a flimsy reason.

Sen makes me laugh, because I really enjoy having a male character with such a "feminine" personality. I suppose the jury is still out, technically, but I'll be bummed if he is actually a girl.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Leaving Tokine behind was incredibly "What? Really?" It felt very out of character for the manga. I suspect Yellow Tanabe did it since the only real purpose of the rescue squad was to name a few members and they weren't going to do any fighting in the end, and he could also have Tokine holding up the entrance at the other end, but still...

I kinda want to hug Sen.

[musouka-manga.livejournal.com]

Tanabe is a woman, actually.

The whole thing does smack of some sort of editorial decree or something along those lines. I'd hate to think it was just for the smack at the end, though I totally went d'awwwww to Yoshimori's reaction when Tokine started crying. It happens so rarely!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I typed up the comment as I was closing up at workm hence the lack of "s/he."

It does seem to be rather editorially dictated, doesn't it?

I think it was more touching than those scenes normally are because Yoshimori is more generally nice and sweet-and unannoying-than most shounen action leads, and his whole "I must get stronger" thing comes from the fact that she has been protecting him his whole life, and his incompetence led to her being scarred for life while protecting him.

[musouka-manga.livejournal.com]

Well, I love Yoshimori in large part because he absolutely adores Tokine for who she is, not who he wants her to be. (Yes, sometimes he has silly little daydreams, but those are very, very, rare.) If anything, the pressure he puts on himself to live up to her expectations is unique and charming in comparison to most shounen manga.