Blade of the Immortal

[telophase]

Got the next book of Blade of the Immortal, Badger Hole, today. Read it immediately. Short review: No Manji. Rin starts kicking ass and taking names, but no Manji. There has not been enough Manji kicking ass in recent books and that is getting tedious.

Comments

[octopedingenue]

He's like Rukia, in a way. Lazy immortals, lounging around in prison on their laurels!

I am loving the focus on and kickassity of Rin and tattoo-face-lady whose name I haven't learned yet, though. And even Hyakurin, though she is mostly kicking ass via yelling at people.

Less than a month to the anime!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Tattoo-face-lady is Doa. :D And, yes, Hyakurin kicks ass no matter what she's doing. XD

[octopedingenue]

Doa! She is fun and viciously eensy.

Hyakurin smashing Ginji in the face with the water jug was HOT. (That looks weird when I type it.)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Doa is a tiny rabid wolverine.

[octopedingenue]

Also cute and fluffy!

I envision her big sidekick guy as a moose.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I think Manji is supposed to be back and messing people up very shortly.

I forget...is this also the volume where Hyakurin reveals a couple not-so-secret secrets?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Er ... well, she's got one secret that Giichi revealed to Rin, which is why Rin won't let her go with them, and there's a bit of political stuff that I completely sailed over because I can't ever keep it straight who's doing what and who's responsible for what and go straight for the ass-kicking.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

...

It sounds like the monthly issues ended about midway through this volume, then. (The last bit with her in the monthlies had Giichi telling that that he knew about the secret, and he'd take care of it for her.)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Yeah, IIRC, there's a bit later on where they discuss politics, and then Hyakurin delivers some public verbal ass-kicking to assist Rin. :D

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Private and public verbal ass-kicking is Hyakurin's Thing. She also appreciates the value of props that will break when smashed against a person's head. The fact that she can out "my life sucks!" virtually every manga character ever helps.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

If you think about it, she's probably the second most emo character in the entire series - and her friends (what friends are left) are all "Yeah, your life sucks. Deal." And then she does.

I think that's one of the things I really like about the series. XD

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

And she also tells them to deal, and if they try moping, she whips out the whole "my husband murdered my daughter at birth and then murdered my son for being sick and few years later and then I was sentenced to death for killing him over that. Oh, and did I mention what happened that one time the Itto Ryu got me?"

Hmm...who's the most emo? (Really, I don't think of anyone but Makie as emo, but that's because she wallows in it while the others are always busy trying to DO something about it...)

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Makie. Because of that whole moping business - actually, she's probably got major depression. Hyakurin mopes quietly to herself occasionally, but then gets on with life.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Yeah. The thing about Makie is that she kept having opportunities (and the ability) to change her life and claim it (which Hyakurin and Rin don't have anywhere near the same advantage of) and then kept not doing it. I've always wondered if the main reason Anotsu loves her is really only that it pisses him off to see her wasting her life moping, and if he'd still love her if she got over it.