Inuyasha Manga: 165 Juuroumaru

No, no, go away Juuroumaru, I'm far too busy! 4th of July weekend was enough of a doozy, with so much to do and see while my husband had a rare four days off, and I got almost nothing important done. Now my parents and sister are visiting town in a couple of days and I'm going to be getting just as little done playing host. There's too much demand on my attention for me to give any of it to a Naraku incarnation who is turning out to be pretty derivative of his late older brother. The speed, bloodlust and gluttony were all present in Goshinki, who also broke the "K"-name trend first, BTW. The only thing this new guy isn't following Goshinki's obnoxious example on is the amount of talking he does. Hasn't released any stupid commentary thus far, so that's refreshing.

If Inuyasha and company are lucky, they won't have to listen to edgy reiteration of their own thoughts while they kill this one.

But before that, Kouga has to do a test run on this enemy. Aaaaand he seems just as impatient about this as I am right now. He just wants to get revenge on Naraku for the deaths of his friends, but Naraku chuckles at this, brushing aside the tarp hung over the top of the wagon to reveal bars on a cage, behind which he says is the opponent Kouga will REALLY be engaging this evening. Kouga looks surprised by the pen. The back panel swings upward with the dark figure of the new incarnation lurking behind it, placing a delicate chained hand on the edge of the wagon only when Naraku bids Juuroumaru to come forward.

Kind of an awkwardly long wrist this guy has here...

Kouga wonders what's up with him, watching Juuroumaru jangling his chains. Kouga demands that Naraku remove them, along with the mask, asking what the meaning is of the restraints anyway. It's beyond Naraku why it might not be the best look to present Kouga with a guy in chains to fight instead of the free puppetmaster right behind. He claims that Juuroumaru is a sufficient challenge just as he is, thank you very much.

For some reason Kouga doesn't argue, just warning that he'll attack without hesitation if that's the way Naraku wants it as he lunges for Juuroumaru. I guess he's not yet at the point when he questions why his enemy would want him wasting energy on some nobody instead. How adorable. When he reaches Juuroumaru and takes a mighty swipe at him, Juuroumaru jumps into the air swiftly to avoid the blow. A shocked Kouga looks over to find Juuroumaru's arm already streaking toward his throat.

Luckily, Kouga retaliates with a kick to Juuroumaru's stomach, calling him a bastard. As Juuroumaru lands in a crouch a ways away, Kouga puts yet more distance between them by leaping back. He now has some finger marks on his neck, and Kouga thinks that his own speed isn't going to afford him much advantage over another fast opponent. Another matter altogether is the chill Kouga feels coming from behind that mask of Juuroumaru's.

While Kouga stays still pondering this too long, Juuroumaru makes another swift move to lunge, and Kouga shivers.

Nearby...

Inuyasha don't give a fuck, even when Miroku reminds him with some irritation that he still can't use the heavier Tessaiga yet. He just tells Miroku to shut up, as he thinks it's not JUST Naraku he smells, but the jerk Kouga too. He's so determined to be the one to destroy Naraku, that he's not allowing Kouga to get ahead of him on that goal for anything.

And then who should appear parallel to Inuyasha, rushing in the opposite direction, but that jerk Kouga himself! Inuyasha veers over to greet him with a shout and Kouga glares into his periphery toward where Inuyasha is leaning out of the trees he just passed, appearing quite confused. Running to catch up, Inuyasha asks Kouga what in the hell he's doing, and Kouga refuses to explain, because he doesn't have the time.

I relate to this panel on a spiritual level right now.

I feel grateful that THIS is where my spiritual simile with Kouga comes to an abrupt end.

Kouga twists to look over his shoulder, mentally cursing that Juuroumaru seems to be catching up to him at his top speed. But he doesn't have long to worry about it, because Juuroumaru's glare switches to Inuyasha beside him so fast that the outline of his iris staggers over the path it takes to get to the corner of his eye. It's a super cool image.

Then he pulls a super lame move right there. High contrast style.

Inuyasha groans as he lands from leaping out of the way, and Juuroumaru starts for him yet again. For some reason, this takes long enough for Inuyasha to yell at Kouga not to run away and turn to realize that Kouga is already long gone leaving his dust tornado in his wake as always. I suppose even Juuroumaru can pause for a joke, though he doesn't seem to be the brightest bulb. No matter, he's back to forcing Inuyasha to leap out of the way as he claws into the ground where he was sitting a moment before.

A familiar voice floats out of the forest, commenting on how Inuyasha has finally arrived. Juuroumaru is sitting still once more as Naraku in his baboon pelt comes out of the trees, and Inuyasha spits his name with disgust. Inuyasha's companions all identify him as well, having caught up with the commotion at last. Naraku supposes that Kouga realized the fight was hopeless and took off, then chuckles that the wolf prince is a bigger smarty than he got credit for.

On his feet once more, Inuyasha scoffs and insists he's nothing like that cowardly wolf. Not sure if he's suggesting that Naraku is labeling Kouga with the wrong word here or if he equates intelligence with cowardice here, but whatevz. Naraku just giggles at him some more. Miroku wonders aloud if this is the fourth of Naraku's youkai offspring, Kagome observes with some trepidation the mask and chain, and Sango asks why they exist.

Of course, this is Naraku's cue to tell Juuroumaru that he's breaking those restraints on him so he can be free to fight to his heart's content. The mask dissolves away like crumbling ashes, and the manacles around his wrists snap away. Once they've clattered away from him, the first thing Juuroumaru does is whirl around and slashes Naraku's head, baboon mask and all, clean off him. Can't blame him for being sour for the whole chain situation, so I guess this particular brand of "rudeness" isn't going to be punished like the last.

Naraku's head falls to the ground and Inuyasha's group gapes in confusion.

Is that a Pavlovian response to all the potential victims in the area or does he just perpetually drool like that? Gross.

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? Fast enemies don't really do RT many favors, do they? When you get to certain speeds, it's difficult to depict in a still image. The closeup on Juuroumaru's eyes moving to Inuyasha was superb, but otherwise there was little to distinguish Juuroumaru's speed from Kouga's, except Kouga's word, of course. It's a limitation of the medium, so I can't complain too much, and I'm just glad that there aren't any further attempts on super fast opponents in the future. Not only do they get too fast to properly depict after a while in a comic, but no doubt RT values the harmonious interplay between her action and comedy to have them interfere too much with each other by breakneck pace in the future. Putting a pause on Juuroumaru for the sake of that little chuckle really broke the chapter in half for me.

As for Kouga's rapid acceptance of fighting Juuroumaru instead of Naraku for the time being, it was really disappointing to me, and way out of character. This is the guy who was stuck on the notion that he had to get revenge on INUYASHA for killing his pack rather than Naraku, despite even KAGOME assuring him that Inuyasha had nothing to do with it. The guy isn't easily sidetracked. It would have been far better for him to have questioned why he should fight Juuroumaru when Naraku APPEARED to be right in front of him, and even gone for Naraku as the cage was being opened, because that's been his real target since the death of his fellows. Him not even being PERSUADED to fight Juuroumaru instead just smacks of laziness to me, since the scene could easily have gone over with little rearranging if Juuroumaru had attacked Kouga while Kouga was trying to get at Naraku.

But I suppose there wasn't much of an incentive for Juuroumaru to protect Naraku. He probably would have been beheaded right then and there, and then he wouldn't have been able to go to gloat at Inuyasha in the end. Seems like a poor consolation for character inconsistency, though.