So the twist in this week's Souboutei hit me so hard that I actually headed back and read the series from the start and well --it was all right there. This isn't even really a twist as much as it was a accumulation of events thus far into a wonderfully executed crescendo. I just never really took notice until it was staring me in the face --Seiichi has always had a younger sibling, but Fujita was always very careful to not reveal their gender until just now --it's true, so true! Kaerikuro is in fact Seiichi's little sister Makoto (who's name was written in hiragana up until now where the kanji was revealed and while I don't have the wherewithal to say whether her name is more feminine this way or not, it's telling that only now Fujita felt the need to reveal this information.) Though even then in the story proper it's not as if this name upgrade happened on it's own --no, a classmate of Seiichi who knew the siblings is the one to reveal this information and call Makoto by her "proper" name. Meanwhile Kaerikuro's memories of her life until now start to form and she remembers who she is. I somewhat remember that Kaerikuro wasn't familiar with modern luxuries and that'd make sense if she's from the same time period as Seiichi (the 70s.) It also means she's related to Takoha, hmm...
We find that the elderly ladies who trained Kaerikuro only did so after they found her --separated through time and space from her older brother. It's now that everything makes sense --her training, her abilities and most of all why she didn't have a past until now. I wouldn't have figured that Seiichi and Kaeriku--er, Makoto would have this kind of connection, and it shows Fujita's chops as a writer as it was always there in the background as a possibility even if it was merely that. Not only that, but it doesn't come off as a last ditch effort for drama or a final save for Seiichi, no, this was building up silently in the background for some time now. Though Makoto's reveal isn't the only thing to come from the shadows this week --Shino's still around and she's possessed a child to kill Takoha who's clearly the biggest threat in the Souboutei with his ability to shake people out of it's grasp, and she can't have him mucking things up any more than he has.
But Takoha has no need to worry, as Makoto Takoha has regained her memories and is ready to join the fight with the same abilities her older brother has! To explain a bit --they were both thrown for a loop in time, but Makoto returned to a time period slightly before Seiichi's which is why she's older than her elder brother. It's weird, and understandably so, but it explains a few things at least. Seiichi's in trouble against his former classmate but at least for now he's going to have to hang in there as the next chapter is Shino vs Makoto!
Evans has a color page which you can check out in the Features section, but this week's chapter is about the desires of foolish, foolish men. Maxwell Quaid is Evans "intern" of sorts (different from Ted who's his assistant) and the trio are investigating a past acquaintance con-lady Shirley Rhand (Forgive me if the spelling is off.) and a ring that seems to have been nicked. Evans clearly has one thing in mind but figures he can't be unprofessional on the clock --especially when he's got an impressionable assistant and a less impressionable intern watching him. If only he knew that one of these two is of the same perverted mind as him (Max), and wouldn't mind a little tender T&A if he could get away with it. Shirley claims to be clean and crime free, even offering Evans the chance to do a body search (for a fee....that Max is willing to pay until Ted tells him to knock it off.) It's hilarious that between the three of them, it's Ted who's the most responsible.
The chapter works on this level of simplicity because of the bottom line --these two are idiots who are on the same wavelength but don't realize it. To be fair, Evans does at least have the notion of not being outwardly unprofessional even as Max pushes all the buttons he can. Really Kuriyama plays on that expectation a bit in ways that are unexpected. Yes Evans does want a peek up her dress but not for the reasons you'd think --it's clear she's packing heat and he's trying to ascertain that. (Okay and maybe to get a peek of that too.) And just when he's close enough it turns out the ring is also in an unfortunate place which pretty much leaves Evans no choice but to look despite it being against his better judgement. In the end it really was just a case of the ring being lost rather than stolen, and everything works out ---except Shirley really was packing heat and isn't shy to show it off...a shame Evans is too awkward about the whole situation by that time to look.
This might be the most important chapter of Marry Grave to date. I'm not entirely sure however where this'll lead us next, but with ethos this good, I'm more than happy to let Yamaji lead me wherever he wants to go. This was just so well put together and bittersweet that even if Marry Grave is to end next week (It's not, no worries), I honestly think that'd be --disappointing in fairness, but still fulfilling.
To cut right to the chase, the little girl (who's name is still not revealed in this chapter.) treasures Rosalie's necklace as given to her by Sawyer back in their younger days not because she's a clone or someone from an alternate universe....Rosalie is actually her ancestor. Now in the scope of things Marry Grave is a story that's taken place over 100 years, so a lot that has unfurled over a few weeks for us has been many years in the making for the characters in the story. Whether you're morally against it or not, Sawyer and Rosalie clearly had carnal relations before marriage as it's revealed she was actually pregnant fairly early into her journey for the Deadman's recipe and stopped her quest to have a child. It might be easy to think she gave up her kid for her husband but no --Rosalie actually did stop journeying and raise their boy into a teenager, though she did keep one eye on the recipe over the years....something her son noticed as a teenager. He makes an passionate plea to his mother to seek her happiness and come back home --with his father in tow.
I couldn't include the picture, but when Rosalie does leave home again, he is seen with a girlfriend of his own, and thus Marry Grave is a story of a love over generations. A tale about how death is an ending, not the ending. Even as I write this blog, I wonder if years later people will read it and think about Shounen Sunday as it is today at this very moment....will I be connected to someone else in the future even after I'm long gone? Whoa, this just got really deep --but that goes to show you how important this chapter of Marry Grave was to me. Many generations of people, emotions, and life brought this little girl to Sawyer's side (and her father's name is Sawyer as a side note.). Though that gets me wondering now....clearly this story isn't going to end with Sawyer giving up on Rosalie and settling down to get to know his family, but it almost feels like....not a waste but unnecessary for him to revive Rosalie now when things are so happy as is, right? Still the show must go on.....
The more Xeno marches on the more it gets hard to justify Kai as a bad guy. Or at least not the bad guy. When Manami breaks down after a repeat attack from the armored individual the person she sees in her mind's eye is one Shichiro Kai who asks if she's going to just die without knowing what's going on in the darkness of the Kuga clan. This is what summons enough resolve in our heroine for her to stand up and resist just long enough for Ayla to come in and save the day. Really it was a good week for the heroines of Xeno, and I'm all for it. The last few weeks of the series have been leaning harder on the action elements and I'm all for it. It kind of reminds me of Saike where the protagonist while possessing smarts is actually among the weaker members of the cast and relies on his friends to make up for what he lacks. But yes, Manami is saved from the brink of death by the resident bad guy Kai which gets me wondering who is he, really?
For now at least that's a question unanswered, though at long last the group is reunited. The man in the armor is Kisaragi, and not Kinoshita as Manami first speculated. Not only that since Ichizou is alive, this likely means we will eventually find out more about Kai eventually. Most importantly however is the fact that Xeno has figured out this is the fourth "murder room" and now knows how to solve this mystery. Two more things of note are that Mai's body has disappeared --and Xeno giving Ayla genuine praise as seen above --she's adorable and totally deserves it. Xeno's been on a roll, and I'm looking forward to the climax of this arc.
Memesis has been incredibly short on page count for the last few weeks for whatever reason, but when the chapter is as silly as this I can't complain much. I've said it before, I don't mind that Memesis is more of a comedy than an action series (even if it is a weird choice with it's amazing art, but...) it was just the same joke every week that wore thin on me. Now that Yagyuu is doing other things with the comedy I'm actually okay with the slower pacing. Though I have to wonder if everything is okay since he's handing in 8 page manuscripts now. That's even shorter than Komi and Maoujo, and those are pure slice of life/comedies. In any case it makes a write up pretty easy as not a lot happens. A new demon lord officer shows up and seemingly has no interest in actually fighting Ash and Kijira, instead challenging them to contests until they see Rose and immediately falls in love with her. She rebuffs a marriage proposal, but is fine with a friendship. So just like that our heroes have a rather unlikely ally on their side. The preview implies they finally reach the castle itself next week....what can we expect from this motley crew once they arrive?
Speaking of pacing, I never thought I'd be happy for something to not be developing it's major plot at all, but here we are. Saike has essentially gone off on a detour for two weeks and I'm rather pleased by this if only it because it means Fukuchi is aiming for a final arc rather than a final volume, and he's being given time by the higher ups to give all of his characters enough time to cover their various character arcs rather than rushing something to get out of the door. It's this alone that might just push Saike over Anagle Mole in the Fukuchi universe. (Though to be fair Anagle's situation was much different, and sadly not quite as fortuitous.) But yes, this week is about my thinly veiled favorite character Ana, and while I am a bit sad that she's being written out of the conclusion (though I'm sure Fukuchi will find a means to involve her.) I'm glad we got a cute chapter about her efforts to show Saike how much she appreciates all he's done for her.
It's adorable too that she and Mikan have become friends to the point that the former seeks the latter out for advice in regard to expressing her feelings. (Also apparently Ana has no romantic feelings toward Saike at all, which seems to be a little bit of a relief to Mikan.) With Valentines day approaching in the world of Saike, Mikan suggests making chocolates for Saike to convey her feelings, and as seen above it's a lot of hard work but Anna pulls it off --just for her efforts to be in vain after saving a child from an unfortunate accident causing the chocolate to get broken up....but Saike insists on having it anyway and thinks it's delicious, making it a happy ending for everyone after all. A simple chapter but at this point and time in the series I'm just happy to see that Saike has a little more time with us.
And that's it for the editorial this time around! It was kind of short with Youkai Giga being off this week, but things should be back to normal-ish next week. All in all this weeks lineup was really special even if not a lot happened! ...weird praise I know but it really was a strong issue overall. Till next week --take care!
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