Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 232 The Family of Darkness!!

I feel like I'm supposed to be unnerved by this dark-dwelling family, but actually it's making me somewhat envious. The dark is generally my sanctuary these days, being a little cooler when the sun isn't blazing overhead in this record-breakingly hot summer. It's also the perfect place to get some blessed sleep, because these days of high stress has me craving unconsciousness more than I have in a long while. Days filled with apartment and job searches, as well as packing, getting all my affairs in order for my upcoming move, are perfectly ended by collapsing into a soft bed blanketed by darkness.

But that's just how I feel at the moment. Someone else at some other time and place probably doesn't share my sentiments.

Like these two poor bastards, for example. Though at the moment they seem a bit more concerned by Shadi and his cryptic threats than darkness. As well they should be.

Shadi is still the worst. After dropping this confusion bomb on a couple of kids, he turns around and wanders back into the crowd. Ishizu holds up a hand and stutters out a question about who he is as well as a request to wait, but in a matter of seconds, Ishizu sees with alarm that he's disappeared. Baby!Marik is stuck on the shocking claim of tragedy combined with the pharaoh's will. You know, for a kid who has been brought up in the midst of a literal underground cult built around preserving the personal memories of a god incarnate king, he sure seems a bit confused on the concept of divine will and how it is often invoked to justify horrible shit.

Anyway, back in the present, and on the title page, Yuugi, Jonouchi and Shizuka all gape at Ishizu in varying degrees of shock. Jonouchi seems to be the most disturbed, and she hasn't even gotten to the worst part! Yuugi is having an inner dialog with Yami about how he's pretty sure this man Ishizu is describing in her story has to be Shadi. Yami agrees, and reminds Yuugi of Pegasus too, concluding that Shadi seems to have appeared to everyone connected to those Millennium Items. Except for twitchy Kaiba, that is. He's still blissfully free from Shadi's bullshit. Lucky guy. Yami wonders if Shadi knows the secrets of the Millennium Items.

Hopefully. Otherwise this dude is just going around accosting peoples' minds for no reason at all.

Ishizu resumes her story with a reminder that she broke one of her cult's family's laws in order to show baby!Marik the outside world, which she now says caused the extinction of the Ishtars. As everyone around her stares in rapt attention, and she hangs her head and closes her eyes, I want to reassure her that it'll be alright. Her family will soon be joined by the rest of humanity for entirely unrelated climate reasons, so they'll have some company!

Baby!Marik turns to ask his sister where that man went, insisting she MUST have seen the distinctive key hanging around his neck, which looked an awful lot like the two items their family is charged with protecting. Ishizu cuts him off with a warning call of his name and barks that they can't talk about those things in this world. Baby!Marik stutters an apology, but Ishizu isn't finished with her tirade, demanding that Marik forget all the things he saw in the overworld, including the strange man. He whimpers that he understands, but holds up the picture of the motorcycle he tore from the magazine and implores her to let him keep it. After a moment of angry speechlessness, Ishizu whips around and calls for baby!Marik to come back home with her.

On their way, she's consumed with the certainty that the mysterious man knew that she and Marik were the guardians of the tomb, and that the key he wore was a Millennium Item. Gazing off into the distance, she contemplates who the man is. A long-lost uncle, I'm sure. Unless there are TWO cults centered around protecting Millennium Items. How much would THAT suck?

As they approach the trapdoor back down into their tomb and home, Marik has grown quiet. He watches Ishizu pull open the door, knowing that he's about to return to a dark world only lit by candles. Ishizu begins to lower herself into the hole in the sand, instructing Marik to follow her down. He turns to gaze off across the desert a moment before requesting she wait.

Ishizu impatiently snaps Marik's name again, and Marik dismounts the imaginary motorcycle sheepishly muttering that he knows. While Marik mopes in the background, Ishizu continues her descent, but she freezes again in horror at something just below the trapdoor. It's an hourglass-shaped thing mounted to the wall at one end, with a rope tied around the middle and strung along the wall all the way into the advancing darkness below. She thinks they must not have noticed it in the dark as they were exiting. I guess spending your whole fucking life in the dark doesn't give you any night-vision advantages to seeing that kind of thing, huh?

Baby!Marik leans down over the hole from above and asks what the issue is, but he doesn't get an answer. Instead, Ishizu keeps the explanation in her head, that their father set a trap in order to protect the family laws. She finally thinks of Rishid and that relights the fire under her ass. She bolts down below, baby!Marik right behind, wanting to know what's going on. He leaves that trapdoor wide open. I would ask if he was born in a barn, but, you know...

Ishizu mentally asks for her father's forgiveness in a panic, but when she and Marik reach Marik's room, where it looks like an angry tornado hit, she's disturbed by the fact that Rishid is nowhere to be seen there. Marik seems to have a better idea of what's going on here now, and is running his ass ragged looking for Rishid too. He comes across a room with a torch actively burning and is shocked when he looks inside.

Tooooooooooo laaaaaaaaaaaate.

Baby!Marik shouts to his father in horror, and receives a cold look in return out of douchey-dad's periphery. He twists to accuse both his children of breaking the Ishtar laws. He shoves the knife he's holding into a brazier, where another one has already been rendered glowing by the surrounding coals. Douchey-dad holds up the knife again, promising to make them all understand the price for breaking these laws, but he wants to do something else first. He gives the still crouching Rishid a deranged look as he cites Rishid's orphan status and his complete lack of regard for the education bestowed upon him as the reason he couldn't even be a good servant. Yup folks, you read that right, douchey-dad is using the old "I give you a home and an education and THIS is how you repay me?" shtick. He's going for broke in his douchebaggery now.

Sweating something fierce, Rishid stammers out an apology, but douchey-dad declares he's already dedicated to taking poor Rishid's life. Baby!Marik rushes forward and grabs douchey-dad's arm, yelling at him to stop, but douchey-dad whips his arm back, sending the tiny Marik flying into the wall behind. Ishizu kneels next to him, calling out to him and providing a comforting hand as he doubles over in pain.

Speaking of pain, douchey-dad invites Marik to take a long hard look at how much pain Rishid is in, sadistically pressing the knife into Rishid's flesh. Rishid screams in sizzling agony, and Marik watches in utter horror.

Rishid has never not been struck down by all the authorities in his life, has he?

Douchey-dad holds up his glowing steaming knife and says Marik is next, and Marik responds by gripping both sides of his head in pain, doubling over again. No, he's not psyching himself out for the coming agony - the pain is very current. Ishizu says his name in question, but he doesn't answer, sweating and wrinkling the bridge of his nose, grinding his teeth. Even douchey-dad has to pause in shocked confusion at the strange fit his son is throwing. He calls Marik's name too, and this time, Marik straightens, eyes hooded, hair sticking up.

He laughs and offers thanks to his father for killing Rishid, describing it as refreshing. Douchey-dad stutters the beginning of a question about what Marik is doing, but lets it trail while other!Marik turns to observe the family's two Millennium Items sitting in a special display on an altar behind him. He moves to pick up the rod, declaring that it's his from this day on, though douchey-dad yells that he's not allowed to touch the Millennium Items. Other!Marik, of course, is unmoved by this rule, and expresses a sardonic disbelief as he turns to face his father with the rod held aloft. That stylized eye shines from his forehead now.

Douchey-dad begins to lean forward, preparing to address Marik, though he seems even LESS authoritative than ever. Other!Marik hums without concern and points the rod at douchey-dad, propelling the man backward into a pillar with magic millennium force or something. Douchey-dad hangs suspended upright on the pillar, struggling to move but finding he's unable. Ishizu begins to ask Marik what the hell he thinks he's doing, but other!Marik snaps at her to be a good girl and stand back. He backs up his casual misogyny with another magic blast from the rod, pinning her against the wall in much the same manner.

Other!Marik ignores Ishizu's noise of discomfort and advances on his father in the opposite direction, stating that they must do his blood ceremony now. But he's already done the tattoo thing... Oh, oh I get it now. Douchey-dad grits his teeth at the approaching threat, unable to do a damn thing except stutter at Marik to stop as other!Marik laughs and steps closer. Other!Marik pulls the sheath from the blade hidden in the rod.

I've heard of getting a taste of your own medicine before, but this is...

Oh well. You know what they say:

Cut to Rishid still lying bleeding on the floor and hands still bound. Other!Marik now approaches him, saying he must want that identifying tattoo of the Ishtar family, holding up a bloody sheet of something that other!Marik says Rishid can take with him on the road.

Wait, is that just a sheet or...?

Boy do I hope that is just supposed to be a sheet blueprint instead of a strip of douchey-dad's back skin. Not only would the latter be disturbing as fuck, it would be the second of two different depictions of skinning off distinctive back markings in two different chapters of two different manga covered on this blog. Consecutively. That would be the creepiest coincidence I have ever engineered and I don't think I could handle it.

Other!Marik raises the blade in the rod over his head to plunge it into Rishid's back, yelling for him to die, but Rishid twists to look over his shoulder and stammer out Marik's name. After a brief close-up on other!Marik's shocked eyeball, Marik collapses to his knees, clutching his head again and dropping the Millennium Rod in careless agony. Rishid says his name again, staring at the fit reprise. When Marik pulls his hands away from his temples, he looks at the bloody mess they've become in confused horror. He starts to ask what he's done, turning to look around the room, Rishid snapping that Marik MUSTN'T look.

But it's too late.

Oh boy, oh yup, that was definitely the skin from douchey-dad's back above. Yikes.

Ishizu and Rishid stand back as baby!Marik cries over his father's mutilated body, no longer tied at the wrists or attached to the pillar in an inexplicable way. What do you mean that's what the ropes were supposed to do, when they weren't secured from the other side of the pillar. KT still doesn't understand how physics work, apparently. As Marik repeats a call to his father over and over again, Rishid just hangs his head and thinks of him in despair. At the drop of one of douchey-dad's earrings, Marik looks up in shock, and see that piece of shit SHADI standing in front of the pillar, looking coldly down at him.

Great, now he's inviting himself into the scene of a horrible fucking tragedy and suggesting to the grieving family that a ghost is responsible for their father's death. Shadi, could you just fuck off forever? At least stop talking, you garbage human.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Usually, I try not to feature violence excessively in the recaps, even when it's a feature of the chapter, but it was kind of unavoidable here. The fact that Rishid's near death was the catalyst for Marik's loss of control, and further that the lack of control was so brutal as it was demanded specificity. It highlights the thread of control issues throughout the whole story Ishizu has been telling here. Marik getting a couple measly hours of freedom and becoming melancholy knowing he's never going to be able to do it again. Ishizu planning the event so carefully and still being unable to control for the smaller variables, their father demanding such strict adherence to isolating laws and flying into a violent rage when the children don't fall in line... It's all intertwined in a big web of abuse begetting more abuse for the sake of power dynamics. A long line of fathers and sons who become fathers and demand the privilege of ruling the family with an iron fist because they've "earned" the right to inflict the same garbage they suffered on the next generation. The violence only escalated over the millennia, so it was bound to end up this way, in a big-ass overblown show of dominance, then a less-than-passive backlash from someone who wasn't going to take it anymore.

And that's why I'm more pissed at Shadi than I have ever been. This is evidence that Shadi isn't a mysterious wise-man traveling around to dole out cryptic information; he stands idly by, watches horrible things happen, and then manipulates the survivors to blame the "right" party so the "right" thing happens. Blaming terrible events on the will of a god is the go-to move for religious leaders who want to curb the inevitable questions about why bad stuff happens if the god in question is so benevolent, but it's also a way to infer that there is a way to act on the will of that god as well. It incites, which is exactly what Shadi is trying to do here. The injustice here is the result of several generations of people living in isolation and cult-fervor, and now Shadi is stoking that fervor all the more in the youngest, most violent of the line, encouraging him to think of this as the fault of a third-party whom he's been taught to revere his whole life.

I don't know if this was the intent behind the inception of the Ishtar cult in the first place. I don't know if there's going to be any exposition that explicitly states the Ishtars were always meant to produce a young man so angry and afraid that he would seek out the pharaoh in revenge. I do know that whether this was the original plan or not, it's fucked for Shadi, or the Millennium Items as I'm becoming increasingly suspicious, to capitalize on the pain of this family for ANY ends whatsoever. They're treating Marik like a fucking nuke, pointing him at Yami like it will have a positive net effect. I don't know what kind of three-dimensional chess Shadi/the Millennium Items think they're playing, but it seems to me the Ishtar pawns were VERY poorly handled.

Not to mention Shadi's blaming this on "the pharaoh's will" is an obvious bald-faced lie. If KT has gone this long refusing to acknowledge Yami makes questionable decisions, I doubt he would start introducing the possibility now. Sorry Shadi, not buying it. Take your shitty wares and get the hell out of here.

Inuyasha Manga: 173 Jealousy

I know those feels. For the longest time, I was a bit jealous of all those other bloggers with their professionalism and their fancy banner images, providing a representative visual of what they talk about... I felt inadequate. Until I decided to do something about it. No, I'm not increasing professionalism, because I'm not sure that's possible for me. I'm just a crass person. But I at least managed to throw together a low-effort banner that meets two basic criteria; showing everybody what I like to blab about all day every day, without assaulting everyone's eyes with an explosion of overlaid mismatched poorly-cropped characters plopped in a rainbow hellscape.

Thank your lucky stars that I didn't indulge my early-2000's internet origins by putting a sparkle effect all over that thing. I considered it, and it was awful.

Even if it might have matched Kikyou's shiny soul aesthetic above.

Kagome wonders just what the hell HAPPENED while she was away, but somehow I don't think knowing the context of the situation would make this any easier for her to bear. Inuyasha keeps his arms wrapped around Kikyou as he asks for confirmation that she knows where Naraku's castle is. She in turn asks what he would do if she told him, still nestled against his chest, but his grabs her by the shoulders and breaks their embrace so he can look her in the eye while he tells her he'd bust on in there and rip Naraku apart. Of course, because that worked so well the last few times you tried it, Inuyasha.

He extends the fantasy to include the lovely consequence that Kikyou wouldn't have to fight anymore. Kagome leans around her tree, eavesdropping with a painful look on her face. It might well be the picture you see when you look up "misery" in the dictionary.

Kikyou reminds Inuyasha of what she said earlier, about being the only one who can purify Naraku and completely remove him from the world. You know, when she gets around to it. She's been taking her sweet time thus far. Inuyasha protests, questioning who will protect her if she's attacked again like this, assigning himself as the only one who can in a similar fashion. If only being qualified for a difficult job were so easy as these two make it out to be. 

Kagome thinks Inuyasha's name behind her sad expression.

I'm sure that thick layer of drama will set real well Inuyasha, but have you ever considered that this isn't actually about YOU? I don't see how your feelings on the matter have much to do with anything here.

Regardless, he starts to babble about how he'd feel if he lost her again. Kikyou just bows her head and assures him that she won't suffer a fate like that again, giving no reason to assert such a thing. She's been working really hard to set up her second life as much like her first as possible, so it doesn't seem implausible that she'd set up her second death in much the same way. She DOES say why Naraku won't be able to kill her in the next panel - as long as he has Onigumo's heart that yearns for her, she's good. Funny she doesn't seem to consider it possible that he might find a way around that eventually.

From behind her tree, Kagome puts two-and-two together, determining that Naraku still having Onigumo's heart must mean that Naraku is in love with Kikyou. Again, if you call THAT love. She supposes this must be why Inuyasha is being so... I don't know, Inuyasha about the situation. Kagome leaves the sentence to trail.

Kikyou stands up again, repeating that she really should be going. Inuyasha calls her name once more, but she tells him it's about time he gets back to his friends, giving him a bit of a sidelong glance out of her periphery. He's finally speechless, all out of protests, yet Kikyou pauses all the same to say his name too, and while he's uncharacteristically shutting his trap relay to him her thoughts when all her soul-fuel had been drawn out and her powers were low. She wondered if she was all alone and done for. Kikyou smiles over her shoulder at him and the fact that he was there for her. He rushes forward, grabs her hand and pulls her into another hug, urging her to call for him if she ever needs him. She responds with his name, as usual.

Kagome isn't the only one eavesdropping on this scene. The next panel shows the above reflected in Kanna's good ol' mirror. She's holding it up dutifully for Naraku to see, and with a sour expression he tells her that's enough and to get lost. After she's gone, he's shown standing with his right arm out of his many layers of sleeves, and it's holding a sword. Is... is he gonna stab the jealousy he's seething about or something?

Naraku thinks about how this jealousy is Onigumo's, a remnant of his filthy human heart, and tightens his fist on the sword. He sticks his own BACK with that fucking sword, like it's a pin inserted under one edge of his spider scar and speared out perfectly from beneath another. A young samurai with IMPECCABLE timing hurries up to the hanging screen and peers into the room for the source of those ripping sounds he's hearing, calling out in question to his lord.

He's... surprised by what he sees, to say the least.

... Metal. He's even got the strip of skin with the spider scar on it clutched in his other hand, like a jacket he doesn't just wanna toss on the floor. A jacket dripping blood, so understandable. The samurai recoils and makes a frightened peep, having just enough time to register that his lord just skinned his own back before Naraku whirls around and slashes his samurai visitor across the chest.

The body thuds to the floor, in front of Kagura, who must have entered the room unannounced too in the last couple of seconds. She looks down at the corpse without the slightest concern, then looks up at Naraku and asks if he's gone insane like she's inquiring about the weather. He tells her to shut up and clean up his mess. Your arms and legs broke or something, Naraku? Clean that shit up yourself.

Grown-ass man expecting everyone else to incinerate his murder victims for him, I tell you...

Back at Kaede's, she and Miroku stand outside, staring up at the sky where they see a mass of glowing lights hanging out over the forest. Miroku lets a question about what they are trail, suggesting that he knows EXACTLY what they are, so Kaede confirms only in her head that they're souls of the dead. She wonders if her sister Kikyou is nearby. I mean, that, or a whole SHITLOAD of people just died right there and maybe you guy should get the fuck out of there.

Good thing the first assumption is true. Inuyasha stands in the wake of Kikyou's leaving with a melancholy look, thinking her name as though it's all kinds of confusing. Kagome finally makes her approach from behind her tree, and Inuyasha looks over his shoulder at her in mild surprise. The rules around when his super-nose works continue to be fuzzy, it seems. Kagome stares at him in deep sadness, and he reflects the expression, deducing that she must have seen what transpired.

She questions why he's not looking away from her. My guess is because he doesn't have a camera to take a picture before you turn tail and flee forever. But that's just a guess.

Meanwhile, Kikyou has made a little detour on her way out of the area, to that little fissure in the hillside that was Onigumo's cave. She kneels at the spot where he laid, identifying this as the place she sheltered and treated the wounded wild-thief. She touches the patch of bare dirt, reminiscing with the memory of Onigumo about this being where he was stuck immobile.

And we've returned to Naraku's castle now. All this teleportation has me reeling. Naraku is brooding again, sulking about the fact that even when he peels that spider burn off his body, even burn the shit out of it, it'll still grow back, never to disappear. The lamp's flame standing elevated next to him suddenly snuffs out and Naraku turns his glare over to the screen divider in the room to where Kikyou is striding into the room. This understandably has Naraku a bit taken-aback, and he says her name in shock.

"Who the hell invited YOU in here??"

Oh shit, you should have waited for Kikyou to show up, Naraku. She'd have sliced that spider off your back with her razor sarcasm alone. Might have been a cleaner cut.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I prefer action-oriented chapters, as I've said before, so the complete lack of it in this chapter made it a tad sluggish to me. That's not to say the chapter wasn't valuable, because it was, but it was a lot slower than I'm used to Inuyasha being. This is why I appreciated Naraku's little hissy fit in the middle there - it was a morsel of excitement in a chapter that is otherwise consumed with just discussion and cuddles. On the other hand, the discussion was about everyone's emotional turmoil, so it wasn't exactly BORING.

Inuyasha's dialog in particular was very illuminating. I made fun of him above for making this whole issue about him, but I do see where he's coming from. He feels responsible for what happened to Kikyou in the past, and doesn't want something horrible to happen to her again, or to fail in protecting her like he did way back when. That's the surface layer, but adding this new information that Naraku has feelings for Kikyou makes the issue a lot more complicated. It compounds Inuyasha's guilt, because not did all this happen because he failed to trust and protect Kikyou, but also because they were an item, and Naraku, guided by Onigumo's jealousy, wanted to split them up in the most horrible way possible. Perhaps if Inuyasha hadn't been involved in the budding romantic way with Kikyou that he was, this might not have happened at all.

He's just gotten another helping of grief to go with the first. And Kagome wonders why he's looking at her like he's ready to lay some hard truth on her right now. Come on, girl.

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 231 The Darkness of the Past

The past has been pretty dark, alright. From murdering convicts with impossible physics to game shop fires to card matches designed to drown the loser, Yu-Gi-Oh is no stranger to pouring a big ol' bucket of black paint over otherwise slightly tinged subjects. I don't know if this comic can cover anything with just subtle shadow - it has to go all out with its edginess, even when it doesn't make much sense.

I'd hate to know how KT would write me having to give away my beloved rosemary plant later today. There would no doubt be cards and a deathtrap or two involved.

Oh yeah, I forgot that Kaiba was freaking out at the end of the last chapter. Must be because he's never NOT freaking out. Who he's calling a "liar" here has me a bit mystified, though. The card?

He's too horrified by the information for that to be it, so I'm just going to shrug and say it's a mistranslation. Kaiba is doubled over and having a breakdown over the keyboard while Mokuba tries to encourage him to hold on... to whatever sanity he possesses, no doubt. Seto isn't listening, preoccupied by the memory of other!Marik stating that only those who have been chosen by the Millennium Items will be able to read the ancient Hieratic writing on the Ra card. He stares down at his palm in panic, ancient Egyptian Hieratic echoes in his head and he rests his forehead in that very palm, repeating the word "liar". Now he's remembering Ishizu and he examining the big stone tablet in the museum, on which the high priest facing the pharaoh was posed summoning a big white beast just like him, and again he repeats the word "liar". Dude, trying to convince yourself that all these things are just lies doesn't seem to be any comfort to you in the midst of your nervous breakdown.

So his focus seems to shift to that flash of an ancient memory he had a few minutes ago, where the priest was kneeling in front of another stone tablet with the Blue Eyes White Dragon engraved on it, holding a limp mystery lady. He wonders what happened to this past-self of his in the end.

CUE TITLE PAGE!

Just imagine the mental anguish if he had LOST the match. Probably would have ended up in another coma.

Over an image of the duel-blimp still flying over the city lights, an announcement that the first day of Battle City has officially ended calls over some loudspeakers inside. It continues with the proclamation that the four remaining duelists are entered in the next stage of the semifinals, with will begin in the morning in a third location off the duel-blimp. They're all jet-setters now. Dueling jet-setters.

Anzu, Jonouchi and Yuugi are all walking down the corridor, and Anzu expresses surprise that there's yet a THIRD dueling arena. Jonouchi muses aloud about how they left the city to duel on the ship, and now they're STILL dueling. Yeah, I'm in a bit of disbelief myself that the single day this tournament has encompassed has been so fucking LONG. Yuugi wonders to his friends what kind of place this third arena will be. Hope it's not FIJI, because how much of a bummer would it be to stand around playing a card came the whole time and not get to vacation it up?

Jonouchi says with an optimistic grin that it doesn't matter what kind of place they're headed, all that really matters is that Yuugi gets into those finals. Yuugi makes a noise of agreement. Anzu suggests that both he and Yami must be pretty tired from this eternal day of dueling, and he agrees with this as well, saying that Yami is especially tired. Anzu switches the topic again, hanging her head as she mentions how so many people have been injured in the tournament so far. You'd think they were playing rugby or something, but no, cards. Yuugi says he can't believe how violent this thing turned out to be, as if he hasn't been the center of unbelievably contrived violence this whole manga.

After a moment of silence, Jonouchi lunges forward at a canter, informing the other two over his shoulder that he's super worried about Mai, and suggesting they should visit her room right away. They agree and end up in front of door number 6, her personal room that they must have just dumped her into instead of the medical wing for some reason. I guess SOMEONE didn't want the precious babies to see the doctor's dead body yet, eh KT?

Before they open up the door, Yuugi casts a curious look to his left where Ishizu is walking down the hall toward them. He greets her with her name, and she explains that she too is worried about the young woman who landed in a coma after the duel with other!Marik. Guilty, more like. Ishizu asks if she can see Mai too.

Should have been Kaiba. If for no other reason than he has much more practice.

Jonouchi recalls what other!Marik said about how Mai would die if he wasn't defeated within 24 hours, with a douchey laugh to boot. With a determined grind of his teeth, he again internally asks Mai to wait for him, because he'll definitely defeat Marik. Or, end up just like her. Whichever.

So, you know how Shizuka just randomly showed up in the top right panel inexplicably? It was because she had to draw Jonouchi's attention by sniffing and being miserable behind him. He looks over his shoulder at her, thinking her name as she swipes her hand beneath her nose. She says she knows he told her to be strong, but she can't take it anymore. She lists Bakura and Mai, complaining that people just keep getting hurt by this tournament.

Shizuka begins to cry, saying this is not the kind of world she wanted to see. Anzu and Jonouchi both look impotently at her as they mumble her name. Ishizu hangs her head in silence while Jonouchi apologizes, cursing. When she speaks up, it's to say that no matter what happens, humans can't run or hide from reality. CLEARLY she isn't familiar with the United States' climate-denying current administration. Ishizu states that wars and suffering are common in the world, and these kinds of events only repeat themselves over and over again over the millennia.

Yuugi's poop-face has returned! Now if only Yami would gives us a big grin... but no one seems to be in the mood for that right now.

Ishizu included. She starts going into the history of her own family, since the beginning of Egypt, those of the Ishtar bloodline sacrificing many a thing to protect their duty. Yuugi wonders about this bloodline, rather than the real question - what the hell this duty even IS, really. Ishizu is one step ahead of ME, though, in hinting that it's to protect those powerful objects the Millennium Items. As Yuugi stares at her, speechless, she casts an obvious glance at the puzzle hanging from his neck.

She looks back at Shizuka, to assure her that even in this world filled with tragedy, there are still people extending their arms toward the bright future they want to see. Shizuka raises her own pitiable gaze to note that Ishizu has some pretty sad eyes herself. It's at this point that Yuugi steps forward to say that Ishizu must be Marik's older sister. She doesn't answer, so Yuugi plows ahead with a question he hopes she can answer; why Marik is so intent on killing them, and why other!Marik in particular wants to take away the lives of innocents.

Considering how the pharaoh chose to share Yuugi's body to share, she bows her head in understanding and elects to tell them all about the Ishitar family tragedy. This ain't no National Lampoon tale. It takes place in an underground crypt, where Ishizu explains the family would protect a total of two Millennium Items and the memories of the pharaoh. They'd live down there with these items, away from human civilization, because spending generations locked up in the dark DOESN'T sound like the best way to become morlocks.

Over another panel of baby Marik crying into his hands as his back bleeds profusely, Ishizu tells of the savage ceremony that the heir to the family had to go through, having the pharaoh's memories carved onto his back. In addition, any contact with the outside world was expressly forbidden. She says this was her little brother's life. Ishizu tells everyone that the tragedy happened five years ago, one year after Marik's ceremony.

We're in full flashback mode now, watching Rishid ring out a damp rag into a bowl of water and carrying both past an open door, where his douchebag adopted dad is writing in a book at a stone desk by a flickering flame in a small oil-dish. He calls out to Rishid as he passes.

Ooh, feeling a little less douchey today, I see!

Rishid answers that Marik still appears to have a fever, but if he keeps resting quietly, it should go down by the morning. Adoptive dad asks if that's so, so I guess Rishid feels emboldened to talk a bit more, encouraging his dad to get some rest too, because he and Ishizu will look after Marik. Rishid answers to his name being said by adoptive dad once more, only to be rewarded with the guy yelling at him that he's been told not to let his annoying face-tattoo be seen. And the non-douchey moment is over.

Rishid turns his head and apologizes, sweatdropping. He continues on his way with his head hanging after douchey!dad reminds him that he shouldn't think pulling a stunt like the face-tattoo would make him the heir to the Ishtars, because he's still just a servant. You're a capital guy, douchey!dad.

Later, he stands behind Ishizu sitting next to Marik's bed, where Marik sits up demanding that he and his sister go somewhere together. Ishizu looks around and holds her forefinger up to her lips to shush him, reprimanding him for talking too loud. Marik tells her not to worry, because their father should be asleep by now. Ishizu just looks down in worry. Marik reminds her that they planned a lot for this day, him faking and fever and sleep, so they can sneak outside later and their douchey!dad will never know. She in turn reminds HIM that if they're found out they're in huge trouble for breaking one of the all-important Ishtar laws. Again, Marik tells her not to worry, and looks to Rishid to confirm that he'll be there taking care of everything. Rishid agrees, though he looks a little shifty about it. The older kiddos seem a lot more aware of the danger than the baby one.

Or he's just too intent upon getting a glimpse of the outside world, no matter what. Tunnel-vision from living his whole life in a cave, no doubt. He's BEGGING Ishizu for just this one shot, but she stays silent, hesitant. Rishid steps up to assure Ishizu that he'll take care of everything after they go, he just wants her to grant Marik's wish. Finally, Ishizu looks up at Marik and promises that they'll go out and have fun once the sun has risen. Marik's gives her his own sunny grin, but she cautions them that they only have two hours and have to come back once the time is up.

He agrees, and the next page sees them walking up a set of stone steps, as Rishid stands back in Marik's room over an obvious forgery of his body stuffed beneath his blanket. There's no possible way this can go wrong. When Marik exits the tomb, he grins up into the sunlight, and present-Ishizu says it was the first time Marik had felt the sunlight over his whole body in his life. In the memory, he's got his arms stretched wide, as if the hug the damn thing.

Careful kid, so many people is how I became a misanthrope.

Ishizu spots the edge of Marik's back-tattoo over the top of his collar, and readjusts the garment to hide it. After giving her a questioning look out of his periphery, he points and suggests they go over there, exalting in how busy it is here. Ishizu warns him not to touch anything in this surface world with his hands. No doubt that would make this immunity deficient little twit REALLY sick. He says he knows, but I don't believe he does.

He's frolicking through the crowd, pausing when he sees someone step on a discarded magazine. He kneels to pick up the book someone dropped, saying that it's unacceptable for people to just be walking all over them. I was surprised Marik would be a bibliophile, until my idiot brain remembered that there was likely no other form of entertainment in his childhood. Marik brushes the magazine off, and starts flipping through it, amazed that the pictures in it look so much like the real thing depicted. It's so cool to him that my jaded old heart feels a little jolt of childlike wonder.

Marik comes across a picture of a man riding a motorcycle that catches his fancy in particular.

Marik's expression suddenly turns morose, and he shares the dark thought that he's never going to be able to ride a motorcycle across the land if he keeps living like he has. Ishizu doesn't have an answer, just a morose look in return. Until she spins around and tells him that it's time to go. Marik complains that it was awfully fast and pauses to look back down at the magazine in his fist for a moment. It's a moment too long, because Ishizu snaps back at him that they had a deal about only two hours. He says he knows their deal, but bids she let him tear out the page with the motorcycle so he can bring it home. He's already well on his way to extracting the page, before he's even finished asking for permission. Hey, what happened to that bibliophile sentiment that torturing books isn't nice, young man? Did it just fucking evaporate when you were overexposed to the sun?

Probably.

Marik promises he won't let their douchey-dad see the page. Meanwhile, through the crowd, that piece of shit SHADI appears, walking up to the siblings on their way home. Hopefully he can resist the urge to stick his key in their faces and traumatize them by walking right into their fucking heads like he's paying rent. He makes a cryptic statement to them about how the spirit of the pharaoh will soon awaken, which alarms the both of them, not least of all because a strange man has just decided he's entitled to their attention. Little do they know that this is just how things work in the overworld.

Ishizu demands to know who this guy is, and instead of answering her, Shadi says THIS:

Seriously, Shadi, how are you MORE of an asshole every time I see you? Your talent for being a pain in the ass never ceases to amaze.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Despite Ishizu's muted demeanor, she's really easy to sympathize with. In fact, it may be BECAUSE of her more withdrawn sorrow that I find her a little more believable than Kaiba at the moment. I'm just so used to him overreacting to everything by this point that I can't take him seriously anymore. I can't help but think that whatever he's freaking out about isn't going to be as big a deal as he's making it out to be, even though I'm aware through the flow of the narrative that the rising action is heating up. Kaiba just kind of FAILS at making me feel it.

Ishizu on the other hand starts out the chapter on the right foot by being possibly the most considerate of ALL the characters in the manga thus far. She's fast making up for her inaction from the point at which they all got on the blimp, and her defeat might be the reason for that. Because she didn't win like the Millennium Necklace led her to believe, she's becoming more aware of what Kaiba indicated at the end of the duel: if she just WAITS for the future and doesn't take an active role in creating the one she wants, she's got no hope. This also goes a long way to explain how her bitter assessment of the world, being a stage for the same shitty things happening over and over again, ends with that light note to Shizuka that there are always those who reach for the kind of world they want to see. Ishizu now understands that THOSE are the people who break the cycle, grasping for a better world instead of just waiting for the circle of misery to start back up once more. Those are the people who are going to break the cycle of horror that has plagued her family lately.

Which might also be part of the reason she decides to tell the story of what happened. Providing context to those who've proven to have a lot more gumption than she might undoubtedly help them to figure out how to fix it. She's no longer in a position to do anything, but if someone else knows, perhaps it'll help them to do so in her stead. At the very least, it might prove a cheap therapy session.

Also, baby!Marik all bright and starry-eyed over the outside world kind of melted my heart. It was a little adorable. I better be careful that the little fucker doesn't worm his way into my favor like those treacherous Kaibas...

Inuyasha Manga: 172 Onigumo's Heart

Once again, Kagome is featured on the title page, drying her hair with a towel. Not sure what this has to do with Onigumo's Heart, but I sure wish I could have as easy of a time of it as she seems to. I just got out of the shower myself and as always annoyed with how long it takes my mop to dry out, because toweling it just damages my super fine hair. Not to mention I always shed like a sheepdog, so I'm going to spend the whole damn day picking stray hair off my shirt.

Not sure if I'm more irritated by the fact that I don't have a more unrealistically easy time with personal grooming, or that Kagome doesn't have more realistic grooming woes. Either way, I feel weird being jealous of a cartoon.

Especially when these characters regularly face stuff like the above to balance out having manageable hair. Probably not worth the trouble.

The giant shinidamachuu starts to dive toward the ground, so Inuyasha tells Kikyou to hold onto him tightly. Upon looking down at her, though, he finds that she's out cold and completely limp. So he sweeps her up in both arms and leaps out of the way before the big soul bug glances off the ground where he was just standing. Inuyasha glares up at it, supposing that its job is not only to steal all of Kikyou's soul-fuel, but also to break her body.

It loops back around and dives again just to do that job, so Inuyasha rips Tessaiga from its sheath as he sets Kikyou on the ground. He says that the happenstance that he's here means this great insect is shit out of luck, jumping up to slash it in its big creepy face.

*Shiver* I might have nightmares about those flying teeth now.

All the souls this big bastard ate burst out of its corpse as it falls out of the sky, pieces of it raining around Inuyasha while he looks behind him to check up on Kikyou. She still lays there unconscious, so he calls out her name and rushes to prop her in his arms once more, watching the little shinidamachuus fly past him into the air to grab hold of all those spheres of light freed from the bigger one. Inuyasha tells Kikyou to hold on, because her insects are getting the souls back for her. She'll be back up and running again in no time.

For now, all she does stutter out his name weakly. He's surprised she can talk, but she changes the subject over to the question of why he's here as she opens her eyes. Inuyasha says that's what he should be asking HER, and begins to do just that. She begins explaining before he's finished, that while the youkai was chasing her and she was running...

She requests that Inuyasha carry her to "that place", and Inuyasha remains uncharacteristically silent about it. I guess he doesn't have to ask her to clarify.

City lights in the dark indicate that we've switched to modern Tokyo, and Kagome lays on her bead in the dress from the title page, taking a snooze. So, it was RELEVANT this time! She's discarded her blow-dryer on the floor, the careless thing, along with the first aid kit she's assembled for taking back with her to the past. She opens her eyes blearily and appears confused at first, sliding over to the edge of her bed to grasp her alarm clock on the bedside table to squint at its face.

She bolts upright, clutching the clock and looking at it like she's going to crush it between her fingers, in disbelief that it's already nighttime. Well that time does tend to keep marching on, but I can see why you'd be confused, Kagome. After all, you're used to it working a tad differently for you, after all. Souta pokes his head around her cracked door while she starts shoving shit into her backpack like a madwoman, demanding to know why no one woke her up. Souta is just surprised that she was already out cold so early.

Why not take a snooze when her past-life counterpart is having a little nap too? And rightly so; I think I'd need a whole week of sleep after what she just went through.

She's actually having a little reminiscence session over how she shot Inuyasha right through his chest, and she died soon after at this very spot. Damn, she just likes to wallow in it, doesn't she? Even Inuyasha, while outwardly affirming these details, wonders why she's bringing this up right now. She shifts the subject to Naraku's point of view on that day, asking Inuyasha why he thinks the guy trapped them and made them hate one another. After a false start, Inuyasha parrots the official reason Naraku gave - that he wanted to taint the Shikon no Tama by tainting Kikyou's heart with hatred for Inuyasha so it couldn't keep the jewel cleansed.

Kikyou scoffs, and dismisses this as just an excuse, because Naraku could have just bypassed corrupting her heart entirely and touched the damn jewel, which would have been more than enough to make it swirl with darkness. Sweatdrop at his cheek, Inuyasha wonders what exactly it is she's trying to say. He doesn't have to wait long for an answer, because Kikyou asserts that the remains of Onigumo's heart within Naraku wanted her and Inuyasha broken up. Inuyasha pictures the burned out husk of a human in the cave when he repeats "Onigumo's heart" in disbelief. Missed the prize for saying the title by a HAIR, Inuyasha! Kikyou'll be getting it in the mail.

It's a cuddly Naraku voodoo doll. Pins included. :)

Anyway, Kikyou says that the wild-thief wanted her all for himself. Poor bastard didn't know that Kikyou is just FAR too much woman for him. Inuyasha's mixed a little grimace of disgust in with his shocked expression at the news.

Inuyasha blurts in alarm that jealousy is a pretty meaningless reason to do such a thing. One of many. In fact, I'm not sure there's a single meaningFUL reason for Naraku to do what he did, so what's your point? Kikyou agrees that it's meaningless, but also very human. At first, Inuyasha remains speechless, trying to process, and then he recalls that she said Onigumo's heart remained in Naraku, and it's kind of a gross epiphany for him. He calls for a hold so he can puzzle out that NARAKU'S feelings for Kikyou are similar, but she beats him to it. Kikyou says that although he doesn't want to admit it, it seems to her that Onigumo's feelings remain in the mass of evil, and he tried to kill her of in order to rid himself of them.

TOTALLY would have worked.

Inuyasha groans and grits his teeth, clearly not comfortable with this information. Kikyou pushes him away and starts to get up, having had enough. Her body is full of souls now anyway, so she's going to go the way of Felicia. Inuyasha shouts her name in protest, and insists that her going after Naraku by herself is no good. She reminds him that she's a priestess and her holy powers can completely remove Naraku from the world, but Inuyasha snaps he's not talking about that. He's just really sick at the thought that someone like Naraku is in love with Kikyou.

I guess if you want to call the desire to defile a woman and watch her suffer because she's just another nice thing he resents and feels entitled to love. I call it the manosphere.

Inuyasha grips her by the upper arms and states that if his life is hers like she said, then it stands to reason that her life belongs to him too. After a moment of saying one another's names again, they embrace.

Aaaand it just so happens that Kagome is dropping her oversized backpack into the grass next to the well as she complains that it's gotten really late right at this very moment! She thinks that Inuyasha must have calmed down by now, though. I wouldn't count on it, girl. It's a bit too dark for her to see the big ditch that giant shinidamachuu must have carved nearby, but she notices a glow from the trees while hoisting her backpack onto her shoulder.

She unwisely goes to investigate what the light is. The poor fool.

The poor DUMB fool.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Manufactured drama is manufactured. I feel like if the whole point of this little episode wasn't to have Kagome catch Inuyasha and Kikyou in a compromising position, Naraku would have come up with a much HARDIER way of dealing with Kikyou. Inuyasha slicing right through the thing with one stroke of his heavy-ass sword lickety-split was unsatisfying as action. As an excuse for dredging up more emotional turmoil, it's a bit ill-timed. We just saw Inuyasha and Kagome fighting over an interaction with Kouga, and this immediate descent into a drama with the shoe on the other foot KIND OF makes Kouga seem like discount Kikyou in a way. Like, a vehicle for Inuyasha's jealousy over Kagome so it doesn't have to be just her problem.

It's just a weird side-effect of the whole deal, especially when the gravity of THIS incident is so much greater than the one preceding.

Otherwise, I do think that Naraku's feelings over Kikyou are interesting, but in a way that wasn't really explored. I wasn't kidding about the "manosphere" comparison; Naraku is a very stereotypical denizen, but in a more focused way. He hates Kikyou and is suspicious of her, but that doesn't stop him from desiring her, because the very core of his toxic masculinity demands it, as well as the manner in which he desires her. Onigumo wasn't in love with Kikyou. He wanted to possess her and degrade her because in his mind, her purity was a kind of "stuck up" rejection of the dark he indulged within himself. He saw her caring for him and keeping him alive not so much as an obligation and respect for life in general, but as snobbish power exercised over him, and he wanted to exercise some power over her instead.

Now Naraku is NOT Onigumo. They're two different people. One just happens to have grown out from the other. And because Naraku grew out from Onigumo, his twisted emotions regarding Kikyou grew out as well, and turned into something else. An obsession that disguises itself as a need to monitor a dangerous element, to ruin the life and relationships of the obsession to steer her into despair and even take her down enough pegs to consider HIM the only one who is worthy of her broken spirit. It's not love, but it resembles a lot the strategies and cries of resentment from certain corners of the internet that loathe women and the rejections that come from them.

Basically, Naraku is 4chan personified. Just in case you didn't think he could get any creepier.

Yu-Gi-Oh Manga: 230 Defeating the Future!

This title is so triumphant, but the implications of the phrase didn't really occur to me in that way at all. When you're a part of a generation that faces an uncertain and bleak future due to a whole bunch of systemic injustice and a lot of change in global environment, the thought of a defeated future isn't exactly pleasant. But that's just coming from a poor woman with limited privilege and an attachment to her plants.

I'm sure the picture is quite different for a rich brat of a teenage boy who gets off on MOAR TECH.

Oh, and an ancient Egyptian dragon that he favors above all the rest of his ancient Egyptian monsters and gods. Which he doesn't believe are ancient Egyptian. His ideology is quite contradictory in places. It's fine.

Kaiba tells Ishizu that he's let her see now the form of his servant inheriting his pride and soul. This dude got all poetic all of a sudden. He announces that Obelisk is one of the sacrifices that will bring said servant forth, Obelisk and mystery!monster surrounded with those sacrificial whirlwinds behind him. Ishizu is of course just flabbergasted that Kaiba would use OBELISK as a sacrifice, as is other!Marik, though he looks a bit on the indignant side too. Jonouchi and Yami lean forward with gapes and eyes wide in shock at Kaiba's actions. After her moment of pure alarm, Ishizu is now mixing it with a realization: the future has changed.

As according to the Millennium Necklace, it has. And I'm still not sure how much I trust that dealie.

No one bothered to translate Kaiba's shout in the last panel of the page, leaving the speech bubble blank, but I'm pretty sure we can guess what was supposed to be there.

 

Is Sinatra bigger than he usually is? Is that just because he had to eat a fucking massive GOD to get on the stage or what? 

Jonouchi is in disbelief over the appearance of the Blue Eyes, and Yami can't help but wonder WHY Kaiba would sacrifice a god card to summon it. Uhhhh, he's been pretty clear about how much he likes this xenomorph-looking fucker. The question really should be what he WON'T sacrifice for it.

Meanwhile, other!Marik has now drawn the conclusion that the Millennium Rod he's currently giving a scandalized look has had an effect on Kaiba's memory. He remembers the stone tablet depicting that duel with the pharaoh and unknown priest, recalling that the priest had the Millennium Rod, and was directing a white beast. Yeah dude, Ishizu already informed everyone of that connection at the beginning of the arc. Try to keep up, won't you?

On the platform, Kaiba is asking Ishizu if the Blue Eyes White Dragon existed in the future she saw. When she just stares at him, speechless, he smirks and says that it must not have. He declares it's because this is HIS future, fist clenched in determination. Ishizu finally puts away her shock and inclines her head, closing her eyes, knowing that she's lost. Kaiba doesn't notice, ranting on about how this is his way of battle. He yells at his Blue Eyes to come out, though it was already out? I don't know. Everyone else watches the creature with varying degrees of awe and acceptance, the latter in Ishizu's case.

The Blue Eyes White Dragon pretty much unhinges its jaw like a feeding snake, but for a giant ball of energy on its way out, pointed directly at Ishizu. She stares straight at it, facing her defeat with more dignity that Kaiba has ever had. He screams to his dragon to attack the future, and I'm curious how many times this attack has to be called out before it actually happens.

THERE it is. About time.

Kaiba declares that he's won with the customary dramatic pose, and Ishizu bows her head. When she looks back up, she congratulates Kaiba on changing the future, and formally states that he is the new true owner of the god card. Kaiba indulges in a long blink as well, and trains his glare back on Ishizu to lecture her about how peoples' hearts contain things they believe in that surpass even God, and he believes in THAT. It doesn't sound like nonsense at all. (/sarcasm)

He starts to leave the platform, but after a moment, Ishizu calls out to him, letting him know that she's actually learned something important through this duel. He pauses to peer at her out of his periphery, and she says the lesson she learned was the light of hope. Awwww, that's nice. She gestures to the necklace around her neck and postulates that the future her Millennium Item predicted was one determined by darkness and despair. As Kaiba observes her, she's got a critical eye on other!Marik. She thinks on if she had won and concludes that the possibility of rescuing her brother is null, even if she forfeits her life. Still not sure what either ONE of those things have to do with saving Marik, but I thought you were all positive and seeing the light of hope now, Ishizu? What's with the about-face? Other!Marik chuckles at her glare.

And she's back to being optimistic when she addresses Kaiba again with the conviction that people CAN change the future. Well, then you can figure out a way to save your asshole brother without cards. Kaiba scoffs and says a person who follows the future has no light, which doesn't seem to ADD anything to the conversation, but it does make Ishizu a bit contemplative, so that's good, I guess. She supposes that out of those duelists who won this round of the finals, specifically the three who are NOT Marik, must be someone who can rescue the little jerk. She believes now in the thing that can't be seen.

Man, that little riddle just pops up in the least-expected places, doesn't it?

Isono raises his arm and declares Kaiba the winner of this round, a bit on the late side, as the platform lowers again to the level of the spectators. Kaiba descends the stairs and passes Yami without comment. At first.

Yami, Jonouchi and Anzu watch Kaiba fuck off, with Anzu contemplating how she and Yami saw that stone tablet, and the engraving of the destined future. Great, now the stone CARVING is predicting the fucking future. Can we all just stop looking for oracles in everything? I'm starting to understand Kaiba's level of annoyance with it.

And you know how I feel about empathizing with KAIBA. *gag*

The blimp keeps on speeding through the air as Kaiba arrives in a sort of control room somewhere within its bowels. Mokuba appears to be the only one in there, sitting at one of the many monitors and such lining the wall, and he greets his brother happily upon his entrance. Mokuba says he believed all along that his big brother could win, which probably didn't need to be said.

Which must be why Kaiba ignores it and skips straight to asking if they got the image of the Ra card in. Mokuba says it'll finish soon, but when Kaiba looks over Mokuba's shoulder to take a peek at the screen, it's clear as a bell on there. Perhaps Kaiba was actually asking if the text on the card had been translated yet? Either way, this little discrepancy isn't really in the realm of Kaiba's worry right now. Examining the symbols on the card closer, it's like he's been hit by lightning, what with all the arcs of it criss-crossing the panel. He's in shock and disbelief again over the fact that he understands the words there, and Ra's special ability with it.

Mokuba asks in a panic what's wrong with Seto as he doubles over and holds his head in his palm once more, groaning.

This sure bodes well.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? I like how fast it went with the last move. It didn't feel like there was a lot of fluff padding it out like there has been in similar chapters in the past, so I was able to get through this one in record time. It wasn't as concise as it could have been, but I think it was one of the more straightforward in the entire series so far. At the very least, the reactions from the spectating characters didn't seem quite as superfluous as they usually do, because they were short and sweet for the most part.

I also continue to like the contrast that Ishizu and Kaiba play out while they interact. There's something really complimentary about Ishizu's quiet dignity in her loss and Kaiba's over-the-top spastic victory. Even Rishid and Jonouchi's opposite attitudes didn't produce the kind of satisfaction in their contrary back-and-forth. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that this is the only duel in the semi-finals that didn't end in utter tragedy, because that definitely helps to lighten the overall mood of the end.

Ishizu finding optimism in her defeat added a touch of honey to the pot too, and not just because it was nice to see a character voice value in losing the game again. I'd like to draw attention once again to the streak of Yami's success mostly being due to his flexibility and adaptability in the midst of a game. Ishizu is the most extreme example of the opposite that we've seen so far - rigidity in strategy so stringent that there can be no other way of going about things. She was so certain that what the Millennium Necklace was showing her was the only way to go about things that she was convinced it was FATE. Kaiba has lately been learning how to let go of the obvious course of action when it doesn't benefit him, adapting to what does. His accumulated experience might have been helpful in his decision to follow his crazy hallucination instead of attacking directly with his god card. He's MORE than acquainted with carving the path he wants with unlikely tools at this juncture, which is part of the point; seeing ways of accomplishing your goals that others don't, even when those others claim to have all the information. The future is only set in stone when you don't act with fluidity in the present.

Speaking of having all the information, I'm still VERY curious as to what it is these Millennium Items actually do. Is it possible that the Millennium Necklace neglected a few variables in determining its version of the future, or did ISHIZU ignore those variables and see what she wanted? What about the Millennium Rod? It seemed to have imparted some knowledge of a dead language onto Kaiba as well as a choice memory.

Because having the ability to beam language skills into targets seems like a super handy skill. I gotta get me one of them.

Inuyasha Manga: 171 Kikyou's Crisis

Now, this isn't my first rodeo. In fact, this post will be the 400th chapter I've covered on this blog, so you can be reasonably sure that I've seen most of the weird trends in decision-making for both stories I've been reading through. I try to get inside the author's head to figure out what might have been going through it at the time, but I can't always wrap my brain around it. This, for example, is a little mystifying to me:

If it's KIKYOU'S crisis, why is Kagome the representative for the chapter? Just because they look alike as a matter of canon doesn't mean the audience can't easily distinguish between the two. Especially when their fashion sense is so distinct to their respective eras.

Speaking of which, Kagome stands in the doorway of Kaede's hut and states she's going back to hers with a bitter look over her backpacked shoulder and a rhetorical question about whether that's alright with Inuyasha. Inuyasha loftily encourages Kagome to shut up and just go already. As she wraps a bandage around Inuyasha's middle, Kaede says with some irritation that Inuyasha and Kagome are fighting every time they come back. Inuyasha glares at her out of the corner of his eye and Miroku remains silently suffering all the drama with his eyes closed across the fire pit.

While she's disappearing behind the hanging bamboo curtain out the door, Kagome says she'll leave the rest of Inuyasha's treatment in Kaede's hands. She starts on her way, maintaining her sour look and silently complaining that Inuyasha is an idiot, because he's being so difficult about her stopping his fight with Kouga even though she did it out of worry for his physical well-being. You'd think the impulse to fight until death would be restricted to when his youkai blood takes over, but apparently he'll make a conscious decision to do just that with juuuuuuuust the right amount of toxic masculinity.

She props her knee up on the lip of the old well in preparation to jump inside, but Shippou stands up there next to her and asks her to reconsider, because Inuyasha's jealousy isn't like normal. She greets Shippou with his own name, and he launches into an explanation surrounding how Kouga was holding her hands and declaring that she's his woman - Inuyasha took that nonsense seriously because he's a "low-grade" kind of guy. Yeah, I'm sure you have NEVER gotten worked up over petty bullshit before, Shippou. NEVER. He proceeds to characterize Inuyasha as miserable and lacking self-esteem, conditions that can only be worsened by his love for Kagome.

She smiles and says she knows, but she's only going to be gone a little while, collecting bandages and medicine and the like. Ah, she's going for the old "make him sweat a bit" tactic. That never works in my experience, but, you know, I'm sure that this makes sense to a 15-year-old.

Meanwhile and elsewhere, a dark cloud has rolled in over the temple where Kikyou has been nursing all those soldiers back to health, and one of them states that it's been hanging out there all afternoon. As they all watch it, another says it looks rather ominous. Kikyou herself observes the cloud silently, and the spheres of light speckling its mass.

Looks kind of familiar, huh Kikyou?

Her brows are heavy over her wide eyes as she thinks this must be Naraku's challenge. Naraku himself is, as per usual, sitting in his comfy room in his castle, recalling how Kikyou said it seemed Onigumo's feelings remained stronger than she thought. He pouts a bit over these feels, recalling "that filthy wild-thief" laying bandaged head-to-foot and immobile in that cave, intensity of his despicable thoughts growing while Kikyou sat by his side and kept him alive.

To those who are embarrassed by the story of THEIR conception, I submit this weird orgy of a feast.

Also, I have to express some appreciation for one of Onigumo's feet up there as this strange lumpy creature munches on his calf. It makes me laugh and I don't know why?

Naraku broods over the revelation that the foolish human's yearning for Kikyou still linger in him. I have feelings from my school days that pop up randomly every once in a while, too. That's just kind of how feelings work, dude. He smirks with a scoff and says something is useless. Not sure what, but I can tell you it's NOT the incomplete marble he holds in his palm. Naraku accuses Kikyou of underestimating him, because now that he's obtain almost the whole Shikon no Tama, there's no point in him letting Kikyou live any longer. He's sure this is the end for her, because he's planning on sending her back to the afterlife.

In the most indirect way possible. Kikyou runs down a hill, her soul collecting creatures gliding alongside her, as she glares out of her periphery out of the corner of her eye. She curses Naraku, who's no doubt planning to have this thing following her eat up all the dead souls in the area. It's basically a gigantic Shinidamachuu, hovering over the forest like the UFO for a hostile alien species, while the smaller versions glance off of it in their ineffectual attacks.

Kikyou draws back her bow with shaking arms, worrying that if this gigantic monster eats all the souls, her body won't be able to move anymore. Her only hope is to destroy it while she still has the strength to shoot arrows. Unfortunately, strength isn't the only obstacle.

You and Inuyasha at least had the shitty aim in common. Not something to hinge a whole relationship on, but I'm sure the small talk was fun.

Kikyou lurches back, horrified that her dead-soul gasoline has been drawn right out of her. This just isn't her day.

Back at Kaede's, Miroku has turned an irritated look at Inuyasha lounging on his side while the rest of the group are served soup from a cauldron on the central fire pit. He asks if Inuyasha doesn't intend to go pick up Kagome, probably trying to get his moody ass out of there so they don't have to deal with him anymore. Inuyasha snaps back at Miroku to shut up, because it's way more relaxing without Kagome around. Sango suggests that if he's so fucking relaxed, then he maybe should stop acting so annoyed with everyone, because she's getting a bit sick of it. Miroku says that Kagome deserves some credit for being around Inuyasha so much as well, to which Sango agrees heartily, in her own words. Inuyasha glares out of his periphery at her.

Shippou stays quietly concentrated on his bowl of stew, remembering how Kagome asked him to keep secret that she was coming back soon from Inuyasha, because she wanted to make him worry. He plans to keep his promise. Good thing everyone is so preoccupied with the atmosphere Inuyasha has created with his bad mood, because otherwise Shippou's comparative silence might look a tad suspicious.

Miroku and Sango continue to disguise their provoking of Inuyasha as idle chit-chat, the former saying it's pretty obvious that Kouga's love is unrequited, and the latter saying it's truly nothing to be afraid of. Finally, Inuyasha has had enough, and he sits upright to bang both fists on the floor like the baby child he is.

That'll show 'em.

After his super mature flounce, Inuyasha sits with his arms crossed over the lip of the well, thinking of Kagome as an idiot half-heartedly. Since he assumes she's not coming back soon, he also thinks it makes him seem like the one at fault. He wonders what it was that he DID. I don't know, kiddo, opened your mouth? That action in particular seems precede Kagome's irritation with you 9/10 times.

Gazing plaintively into the well, Inuyasha supposes that Kagome really is angry, and wonders what she's doing right now. Strangely disjointed thoughts that are interrupted by a powerful rustle of the surrounding trees, carrying a youkai's scent. He jumps to his feet in time to see the giant shinidamachuu bursting from the nearby trees. Inuyasha is alarmed by its appearance, but even more so by Kikyou stumbling from the trees herself not too far behind.

Kikyou's eyes roll back and she collapses on her face, Inuyasha running toward her and calling her name. He lifts her up out of the dirt into his arms and begins to ask her why, and she answers his trailing question that this is all Naraku and his evil-doing. Inuyasha looks panicked as he draws the conclusion that Naraku is trying to finish Kikyou off.

Pretty straightforward.

You're never going to forgive YOURSELF if you accidentally stick those sharp claws of yours into Kikyou's boob. Just watch where you point those things.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Kikyou must have been conveniently nearby her hometown if she was able to stumble over there with a gigantic creature sapping her energy the whole way. It makes some sense that she would want to be nearby, considering how stuck in her own past she is as a character, but did Inuyasha not notice this upon returning to the area? Guess she was downwind when they rolled up into town or something.

As usual, I think Inuyasha and Kagome's actions in this chapter are so authentic in their adolescence that it's endearing. They express pretty similar confusions on their parts in the argument, and what the other is angry about. While I do think Kagome was right to want to stop Inuyasha from fighting in his condition, she's being just as bone-headed as Inuyasha if she doesn't understand why she hurt his pride, and continues to do so every time she pulls out that emasculating sit command in front of Kouga. Also, while Inuyasha's childish refusal to apologize is worthy of an eye-roll, she's not much better with her manipulative move to make him feel bad by allowing him to believe she wasn't going to come back for a while. It's hilarious that they haven't figured out they're both assholes yet.

Though Naraku had to one-up them with setting loose a hit-shinidamachuu on Kikyou because he can't deal with his feelings like a 50-year-old should be capable of. In fact, it seems to be a bit of a substitution; instead of facing the emotions he's inherited from Onigumo, he'll just have something else get rid of her. The logic seems to not only be he won't have to worry about her being vaguely dangerous anymore, but also no more Kikyou, no more feelings. He's in for as rude an awakening as the young couple deflecting their own insecurities onto one another.

It's actually an interesting parallel between him and Inuyasha/Kagome - all three are trying to diminish the vulnerabilities they're experiencing by lashing out at the person who brought them up. The latter two are doing it to a far lesser extent than the former, but the discomfort of having squirmy emotions is brought up in all of them. Instead of facing the obvious on the inside, they direct their frustrations outside, but it won't work for any of them.

As we'll soon see.