Manga Snark

Apologies to any potentially staunch Christian readers, but the title here does not, in fact, refer to the mark of the beast or the number 666. Then again, I don't know if there are any really fundamentalist Christians who would much care for this series, on account of the fact that it features and encourages empathy for demonic characters. Any Christians who are fans are probably the liberal types who aren't much interested in end-times prophecies or other such fringe interpretations of their holy text. If I'm wrong, I hope a person who IS will let me know how their cognitive dissonance is so incredibly sturdy.



( Onward )

Yeesh, spiders are bad enough, but DEMON spiders? They've got to be the worst. Forget about being afraid of bites or one of those suckers crawling into your mouth while you sleep, because imagining a spider controlling you through demonic possession is so much more terrifying. And to think about how BIG that thing would be...



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Such sweet sorrow, as Shakespeare would say. Goodbyes aren't easy, especially when you grow so attached to things and they can't stick around, but I wonder if having more time to say it makes it more or less bearable. Like, if you had, say, two months before someone that meant so much to you and did so much for people, if only in symbol alone, stepped out of the limelight. Is that better because there's at least a little time to cling to them, or worse because you see the looming horizon on which something SO MUCH WORSE is coming?



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That's... not a terribly descriptive title, I'm afraid to say. What is it our heroes are regaining? Ground? Pride? Dignity? Consciousness after having a whole person thrown unceremoniously at your head? That last one is probably Kagome's biggest possible concern at this point. With how pissed off Sesshoumaru is at her right now, I wouldn't be surprised if he just stabbed her while she was out cold to spite her and Inuyasha at the same time.



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Oh good, someone has FINALLY noticed that Sesshoumaru's left arm hasn't just grown back. Limbs don't really do that, so I don't know why no one wouldn't have figured he was wearing someone else's right off the bat. Although, I guess no one really knows what he's capable of, considering he rarely lets anyone get away from him alive. Maybe Inuyasha just assumed this is one of those things that ultra-powerful demons like the one he wants to become are able to do. You would think he might have learned that there was probably a trick behind it much like when Sesshoumaru brought his "mother" back from the dead.

Of course, BOTH of these parlor tricks will turn out to be perfectly within Sesshoumaru's actual abilities further down the line, but we'll ignore THAT for the time being...



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That's a mouthful, and unlike the previous chapter titles, this one doesn't have an English translation to go with it. In my official copy of the Viz manga, the chapter's name is "The Sting of Victory," which at least gives a native English speaker an idea of what they might expect. There's going to be victory, but it's going to sting. Other than that, there's no telling what Inuyasha's going to get up to in this one.



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Because that sword can't possibly just transform from a small skinny katana to a hulking boner sword complete with fur at the hilt. That's the only magical thing we've seen it do so far, and there doesn't appear to be any reason for it aside from the obviously naughty joke it tells. It's not even an original joke, either, because people have been commenting on the over-compensation represented by giant murder cocks for ages now. Let's see what this particular murder cock can REALLY do.



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Only temporary? With both of my natural ones fully intact, I could use a few extra arms to work with, ones that are decidedly permanent. But a combination of how difficult it must be to find suitable prosthetics in Feudal Japan, how short a time they must last, and how finicky the person looking happens to be must add up to a steady STRING of temporary arms. The only question here is whether or not I'm sympathetic to the plight of our disabled subject.

No. No I'm not.



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Tainted ink doesn't even begin to cover it, chapter. The ink only did the job of bringing the painter's drawings to life; everything after that is his own doing. But I mean, let's be honest, it IS a pretty tempting prospect isn't it? I'm a terrible artist, so I wouldn't be too thrilled if my drawings came to life, but if you're a good one, wouldn't you at least CONSIDER doing what it took to keep that drawing alive and produce others like it? Or if, say, RT were to come across a pen that brought her creations to life, wouldn't you be super thrilled?

... I'm imagining that world, and it isn't very nice.



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This probably doesn't reference the MODERN painter's dream, which would be better described as work being featured in a high-class gallery and making money from their craft WITHOUT catching a ton of flak for not having a REAL job. Yeah, sure, you're famous enough to get tons of requests to see more of your art on various websites, but when you produce prints for people to buy you're suddenly under scrutiny for e-begging and leeching. You're great as long as the product of weeks of effort is on display for FREE and a labor of love. If there's ever a price tag on it, you're a HACK! A HACK I SAY!

Ahem...



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