Of Swords and Parasols

The politics and machinations of Taishakuten’s court, especially Karura and Kendappa’s storylines, remain the most interesting things about the series to me. As that took up the vast majority of this volume, I was quite happy.

( spoilers have epic angst )

Three hundred years ago, the warlord Taishakuten betrayed the Heavenly Emperor and slew him and Lord Ashura, another warlord, and then took over the heavens himself, marrying Lord Ashura's widow.  In the modern day of the story, Taishakuten sends Yasha, the king of the Yasha tribe to kill Yasha's old friend, Kuyou, a stargazer(seer) who has turned fugitive to avoid serving Taishakuten.  When Yasha finds Kuyou, however, she tells him of a prophecy about a baby who, when awakened, will will cause six stars to overpowers all the other stars and break apart the heavens.  Oh, and the baby will grow up and kill Yasha.  Yasha, apparently convinced of his own immortality, decides he's curious, and tells her not to die until he finds the baby and brings it back to her.  

The baby, of course, is the child of Lord Ashura, who has been sleeping all this time, and who suddenly turns from an infant to a small child.  When Yasha takes Ashura back to Kuyou, however, he learns that Taishakuten has sent his general, Bishamonten, to kill her, and while he's busy angsting over that, Bishamonten is off wiping out the entire Yasha tribe, because Yasha didn't obey Taishakuten's orders.  Whoopsie.  Yasha, being a proper angstridden hero with A Destiny, sets off (with Ashura, of course) to find the six stars and then dropkick Taishakuten out of the heavens.  Because that's what you do in these situations.

Oh man...the art.  Not, mind you, that it's bad art, it's just the shoulders!  And the hair!  Especially Yasha's!  The poufy bangs or the fact that it's past his knees could both be ok as individual hairstyles, but not together.  And those shoulders are straight out of  early 90s Image Comics.  But they're quite becoming when they have a cute little moppet perched on them.  Ashura, incidentally, is beyond cute, even when his nasty side is showing and he's doing things like licking blood off his fingers or being possessed by the potentially-future-evil-hidden-under-the-adoring-moppet Ashura who likes to giddily talk about mass death and destruction.  Also, is there a proper term for a male Black Widow?  If there is one, it's Yasha.  Already two women have fallen madly in love with him and been killed over it.  There's also Karura, another friend of Yasha's (Do not fall in love with him!  I think that means you die! And I like you!) who doesn't seem very fond of Taishakuten, and Kujaku, our resident character who likes to make sure everyone knows he knows way more than anyone thinks he does, and who seems pretty closely tied in to the big picture.

You know, I think I'm starting to understand what the thing is with Clamp.  They try to cater to every possible kink they can, and then use it to rip your heart out and stomp on it, or twist that kink every which way they can.  Kurogane in Tsubasa, and his relationships with Fai and Tomoyo, as well as Sorata and Arashi(as separate characters and as a pairing) in X/1999(at least the anime, haven't started the manga, yet) are proof of that with me.

Again, no direct spoilers, please.