Inuyasha Manga: 191 Reborn Tessaiga

Thanks for the emails (I know, PLURAL, right?) on this new "RT interview" making its rounds on the internet these days, friends. I appreciate the heads-up, and you know I had to go and have a look the moment I heard just in case one of my burning questions about the series was answered, but... I really urge everyone to be a little more skeptical about this. If you're on the younger side, you might not know that this kind of thing has happened before. I came across a couple of "interviews" back in my exploratory phase regarding this series that were just fanfiction people took a little too seriously if not entirely hoaxes. I'm not saying this one ABSOLUTELY is a hoax, by any means, but when the furthest it can be traced back by anyone is to a Chinese forum (not a Japanese media journalism site), and the subject matter is not only a series that has been done and over with for YEARS now, but a very specific side character in that done and over with series, I have to question if it's genuine.

The thing about fandoms though is that they're generally made up of people who think just about anything is possible, so who am I to dissuade a little suspension of disbelief for fun?

I mean, if you can suspend your disbelief for a dog-boy stabbing the shit out of a two-faced dragon, then you should be able to suspend disbelief for ANYTHING, right?

Not even Kagome seems to have done a sufficient amount of suspension of disbelief for Inuyasha stabbing Ryuukossei's heart, though, her and everyone else's mouths hanging open in shock. Fans have characters beat again, I suppose. Inuyasha braces against Ryuukossei's bleeding neck to yank Tessaiga out, leaving a long stream of blood in its wake as Inuyasha jumps downward and away from Ryuukossei's dragon mouth roaring in pain.

If that feeling is at all accurate, you might have traded one major problem for another. Unless of course you're more than happy trying to perform mundane tasks with a huge sword super-glued to your palm.

Ryuukossei has finally lost his cool, yelling at Inuyasha the whelp to die while the dragon mouth charges another incandescent blast in its throat. An indignant Shippou complains that this jerk seems to be a-okay despite the fact that it was just stabbed in the heart. Fair, you really WOULD think that would be the end of the whole ordeal. But Toutousai reminds Shippou that Ryuukossei gave even Inuyasha's dad trouble, quite the understatement about an opponent that eventually KILLED the guy, and says that Ryuukossei won't die until you absolutely destroy his body. The body off which Tessaiga just bounced with every blow except one.

... Should be easy.

Inuyasha leaps in the face of the most current blast from Ryuukossei, shouting cockily as it subsides that he's going to teach Ryuukossei that he's changed since the beginning of the fight. With this statement, there's a strange jagged ribbon of air glancing around the flat of the blade from the back. Inuyasha is surprised yet again, this time at the smell, which is the unique scent of Kaze no Kizu. Inuyasha gapes at the sword over his shoulder and mentally remarks that Kaze no Kizu appears to be encircling Tessaiga.

Ryuukossei charges and lets loose another bomb, and Inuyasha swings down the sword in response, demanding that Ryuukossei take this.

Did I say this should be easy? Sorry, I meant -

Miroku identifies Kaze no Kizu with amazement, while Shippou says that Inuyasha got Ryuukossei. Meanwhile, Inuyasha stares down at his sword with MOAR ASTONISHMENT at the fact that it's not just gotten lighter, but it seems he can do Kaze no Kizu whenever he damn well pleases now! Totally feels earned! Totally.

Inuyasha looks up at where Toutousai hovers on his magic flying three-eyed bull, asking if he saw what was done, because he's the stand-in for the absent father Inuyasha is trying to impress/surpass. There's a lot there. Toutousai congratulates Inuyasha for getting this far, but tells him it's too early to relax. Inuyasha sweatdrops in confusion. But he knocked the dragon over. That means he won, right? Well, maybe in any other series, but a rumble courses through the ground as Ryuukossei shifts.

Maybe it wasn't so easy after all? Inuyasha puts on that classic anime "I'm fucked" face, wide-eyed and wearing that little comedy smile. Shippou freaks out, asking what the fuck this dragon even IS. Kagome questions how it's perfectly okay after being hit with Kaze no Kizu, and Toutousai decides NOT to explain again how there's a more powerful strike that Inuyasha needs to figure out in order to kill this enemy that his giant-ass DAD couldn't fell. Thank all the gods. Just ALL of them.

However, Ryuukossei isn't above reminding Inuyasha that he said before his body was harder than steel. Just like all our favorite antagonists on this blog, he announces that it's now his turn, and charges up for attack. With sudden urgency, Toutousai tells Inuyasha to run away, to which Inuyasha whines in defiant irritation. Toutousai yells that Tessaiga is totally usable now, so he should just leave this fight at that, but Inuyasha calls this a "carefree" line with a scoff, whatever THAT means. He argues that Ryuukossei is really pushing this conflict, and while Ryuukossei bids him to go to the next world like his father, Inuyasha states his intent to surpass that old man of his right here and now, charging forward with his sword raised.

Miroku stutters over the sheer SIZE of this blast, Shippou just screams Inuyasha's name, and Toutousai mutters that Inuyasha is a fool. He knows that it will require Bakuryuuha to smash apart that tough dragon-scale, but Toutousai is under the impression that's impossible right now. Clearly he hasn't been paying attention to Tessaiga's quick-time responses to Inuyasha's affirmations.

Inuyasha is dwarfed by the giant ball of youki hurtling toward him, and he thinks it's on a completely different level than the others. Bigger than all the other vomit-blasts at the very least. He knows he can't avoid it, so he figures he's just gotta CUT it instead.

Oh ye of little faith. Not that I'm one to talk, my my need to squint and cock my head at everything I read. Can you die-hards spare a little for those of us that seem to have a deficit, please?

So, what did I think of this chapter overall? It felt very... rushed. The gains made by Inuyasha in ease and efficiency were so rapid-fire that they seemed less developments in the plot and more a gristly bit of connective tissue to storylines RT actually wanted to get to. Maybe the escalation of Inuyasha's transformations was going a bit too fast and RT needed a quick way to curb them to keep the demon-blood struggle from playing itself out too soon, or she had a difficult battle she needed to get to soon that wouldn't work very well if Inuyasha was handicapped. Hell, perhaps she just thought that particular brand of drama was over-saturating the overall plot and she needed to pull back for other conflicts for the time being.

Whatever the reason, as I suggested above, these solutions to Inuyasha's inability to hang on to Tessaiga and surpass his father didn't really feel earned. In the course of a single chapter, Inuyasha made a series of affirmations and was never once denied the ability to follow through on them. The most he had to do was declare his determination, and Tessaiga complied with it. The ONE moment where Inuyasha seemed to be in over his head was played as a joke before he immediately pulled Tessaiga's ultimate move out of nowhere. No progression of understanding or new perspective like with his grasp of Kaze no Kizu. Just "I'll slice through the youki!" and poof.

It's a shame, because the chapters leading up to this one were so rife with tension, building to expectations of something EPIC. And it SHOULD have been epic, because Inuyasha's dad is so legendary even Kaede knows about him, so it shouldn't be so simple as a few determined words to surpass the guy. But here we are...