Thoughts on the latest Saiyuki

[lebateleur]

Eh, we haven't had one of these posts in awhile, have we?

I should just get used to the fact that this series is going to periodically PZWN my BRAIN for the rest of my natural lifespan. Some people try to kick drug habits. Me, I just tell myself I'm going to stop expending so much mental energy on line drawings. (PS: hah hah)

Anyway, I last lost major interest around two years ago. I really dislike the way Minekura's assistant(s) draw the profiles these days. They're ugly and unfinished-looking, and it makes me really sad every time I revisit tanks 7-9 and am reminded of how beautiful the art used to be.

And as much as I like being able to read Saiyuki every month as it's published, there's much to be said for being tankoubon dependent. Reading five or six months' worth of a series in a sitting goes a long way toward helping one excuse weak chapters or meandering plotlines, because one gets a bigger view of the big picture. And it seems to me that Minekura hasn't had the clearest idea of where the story is going throughout a lot of the earlier Reload chapters.

It's sure back on track now, and I'm loving it, poorly drawn profiles and all. I have the sinking suspicion that Hazel and Gato are not long for this world, and look! there's Ni in the shadows, "Oh well. Guess the Sanzou-tachi still fight better. Pity really, but life goes on."

I'm also really interested to see how Minekura handles full-force!Gokuu this time around. One does have to admit, his limiter comes off with remarkable frequency in the series, but for whatever reason, it seems like the stakes are much higher this time around. I can conceivably see Sanzou giving up on his goose chase if it comes down to catching Ni v. saving Gokuu's life, but I don't think that will happen - Sanzou's already reigned Gokuu in several times during the course of the series, and it's beginning to lose its narrative force.

I also hope Minekura doesn't have Kanzeon come down to make things fine and dandy again (what my father calls the 'shit falling from the sky copout'), because it's a worse copout than Sanzou, and if it happens twice, there's going to be zero tension the next time Gokuu's limiter comes off, and there is such delicious tension now. Still, I don't get the feeling that Kanzeon will be making an appearance anytime soon, which is nice, but also raises the question as to why she hasn't this time around.

Also, damn I miss the Homura-tachi.


これで以上です。

Comments

[louiselux.livejournal.com]

Those ugly profiles make me cry, frankly. They look so sketchy and inexpressive and yuk. I didn't know her assitants drew them, but it makes sense as it really seems like a whole new hand has been introduced.

I was thinking that about Kanzeon - it would be a horrible cop out and I think even having Sanzo save him again would not be satisfying. The whole plot with Goku and his limiter sort of demands at some point that he will become strong enough not to need it, or at least to choose to put it on again. I can't see that happening this time though, so I do wonder how it will resolve itself.

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

I'm assuming her assistants draw them - if you look at the credits pages at the back of every tank, there are about three times as many assistants as there were back in the GFantasy days, which means Minekura is drawing a lot less of each episode. What I don't understand is why she would approve/tolerate their work when it looks like such crap.

I do wait with bated breath for the answer to the limiter question. Something about this month's ep just makes it seem like the consequences are going to be much more serious. OTOH, I really don't feel like it's time for one of the guys to die, so who knows?

[flemmings.livejournal.com]

I agree with what you say about the ups and downs of the series, and also on being tankoubon dependent. I went off it four years ago during the kami-sama arc (the one whose art style you like ^_^) and the intermittent often brief chapters and the whole leaving GFantasy thing. Kamisama reads fine in tank but in monthly it felt like Are we going anywhere?

Installments don't really let you appreciate the adagio passages, but without them a series can read lunatic in tank. 'A shot rang out. The maid screamed. Suddenly a pirate ship appeared on the horizon.' Climax! after climax! after climax!

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

Questions of art aside, I really liked Kamisama because it was the first arc where I really thought Sanzou & co. were up against someone who actually stood a good chance of beating them - I never got that feeling from Chin or the Kougaiji-tachi. IIRC, it was also the first extended arc to take place in real time with the benefit of the flashback-established character development.

Agreed on the pacing. But it is a conundrum - an installment ending sans cliffhanger would leave me going, bwah? and? but chiffhangers lose their ability to entertain if they're of the same magnitude and type. A lot of the Reload cliffhangers have struck me as the pat don-Don-DADON! variety, which gets old rather quickly.

[metal-dog5.livejournal.com]

I still hoping Nataku reappears. That'd be an awesome way to stop Goku in his tracks. Of course the bloody aftermath might not be such a fine thing ;)

[lebateleur.livejournal.com]

Damn you and your distracting bunnies! But that is ingenious and entirely plausible. Go you!

PS: bloody aftermath is alwasy a good thing. Has Ukoku taught you nothing?