Dream with Our Eyes Open

This was a pleasure, from the beautiful front cover painting of Sarutobi Sasuke sitting protectively back-to-back with his lord (and savior, and chief responsibility, and pet peeve) Sanada Yukimura to the sweetly silly back cover pic of Yuya hugging Kyo's sword Tenrou (with his old teacher Muramasa's little bird perched on the hilt guard) like a teddy bear. There are several action-filled fights, but I also have to say that there's also a lot of love, and I don't really mean romance.

Akari's fight against the physically attractive but ethically repulsive Mibu berserker Mekira comes to a dramatic end, and we learn a little more about "the worst" Emperor's mysterious past. Meanwhile, Sasuke and Okuni find that their path is blocked by an old friend of Sasuke's. The volume finishes up with another visit to SDK's answer to the Three Stooges: Akira, Benitora, and Hotaru have to break off their bickering to face the mysterious powers of another of the berserkers.

So we finally find out why Akari has that glove - and Hotaru's mysterious comment ("You still have that hand") a couple of volumes back is explained. I'm wondering whether people who have not read ahead in scan/translation can tell at this point, from the clues given, who gave Akari her "death eye" (or whatever they're calling it - I don't have the book with me). Nozomu's appearance at this point - as Shatora - does (IIRC) have a little something to do with this, at least as regards both Akari and Nozomu as shaman "collected" by the Mibu.

It's interesting that Hotaru is defending Akari to the other two guys - he rarely notices anything about other human beings that isn't related to combat. And I have been waiting for the English version of the scene about Akira's long-ago (un-)birthday! I had found it online in French a long time ago, but I don't really speak French ... .

Some time ago, sanada pointed out to me that Kyo helps "his" people get what they really need. This isn't always obvious, because a lot of it is in the form of some very tough love, but it's definitely there. And in fmanalyst's review of vol. 23, she observed that Kyo agrees to having Yuya go off with no one but Akari because he feels that it's time for Akari to get to know Yuya. Both ideas come together in the scene where Yuya - in typically open-hearted, embarrassing Yuya form - thanks Akari for saving her and Santera by exclaiming "I love you, Akari!" Because what Akari really needs is acceptance (which Kyo can give her) and love (which he really can't). Akari likes to think that she needs romantic love, but she's not really ready for that until she can embrace herself for what she is. She showed that she understands this herself, at some level, when she set Santera straight in the previous volume.

Next there's the ninjutsu-rific fight between Sasuke and his old friend Kotaro (a/k/a Makora). The dramatic stakes in this are higher than just whether Sasuke and Okuni will survive: right off the bat, Kotaro points out that he isn't having trouble breathing in the high altitude because Tokito's serum allows him to use his life energy to enhance his breathing - at the eventual expense of his life itself. Win or lose, Kotaro plans to die here. All that's left for him is revenge against his former best friend Sasuke, who attacked him years ago. But when the Mibu berserker Indara (ironically, the role that Okuni played in the first major story arc) intereferes, we find out what really happened back then - setting up Kotaro's dramatic final sacrifice for his old friend.

There are some really interesting story-telling things going on in the Kotaro death scene. We've just found out that Sasuke is, in a sense, Kyo's kinsman - they were created by the same research project, and the "awakened" Sasuke now has Kyo-like dramatic red eyes. And Sasuke is, of course, also the product of the time he's spent with Yukimura, as a member of the Sanada 10. Sasuke may have first learned about friendship and loyalty from Kotaro, but Yukimura reinforced those lessons and taught him about honor and self-sacrifice: he's acted at least as Sasuke's teacher, if not his father or elder brother. Did anyone else notice that when Indara goes after Sasuke with her diamond-bladed fingers and hits him even as he grabs for them with his bare hands, he talks about how the pain she's giving him is nothing compared to Kotaro's? This is virtually identical to the scene in Yukimura's gaiden, Dragon of the Blue Sky, where the young Yukimura grabs for the sword of the man who killed his first love, even as it's buried in his own shoulder, and says that the pain he's suffering is nothing compared to hers. Sasuke is even drawn to look somewhat like the young Yukimura in that scene: his hair is completely hiding his eyes, for example. Then, when Kotaro falls completely into dust, just like Muramasa (and remember that ... it's important!), Sasuke says, just like Kyo when Muramasa died, "see how I live!"

The scenes where Akira, Benitora, and Hotaru encounter the true Kubira are just fun, although they are also revealing (as fmanalyst pointed out). Of course Hotaru asks for directions from the first person who comes along (and as ipperne says, you've gotta love a guy who'll ask for directions). And of course when Kubira asked about girls, Hotaru couldn't think of any ... . Our little firefly - there really isn't much that's normal going on inside that tousled head!