X Ponderings and XXXholic cracky thoughts.

[katharos]

So I have just finished reading X. (Thank you ninjatrauma!!!! It's all your fault!!!!)

I am now one among the multitude, wailing:

Why does it stop there?!

(That said I'm missing chapters 6+ of volume 18. Can anyone help me out? *blinks prettily*)

Plus side, I can now write various Tsubasa side story fic without feeling like I'm betraying my fannish principles. : D




God do I love Sorata. And Arashi. And Sorashi. And Yuzurihara. And Yuuto, though I think I was predisposed to like him thanks to insaneidiot I also love Kakyou and have decided he needs a vampire Hokuto to come and mock him out of his death wish.

Seishirou and Subaru... *sniffle*

I've been reading TB as Tokyopop comes out with it so I haven't seen the ending properly though I know what happens through fandom osmosis, and I suspect I'm going to have to go back and reread all the seishirou/Subaru moments after that, but even so... *whimper.* I had a lump in my throat all through Rainbow Bridge even though I knew practically blow by blow what would happen... (The only other scene that affected me that much was Inuki's death. I had to go and cuddle with my own dog for a bit, who bore it patiently. ;-))

It was all inevitable given who the characters are and what has happened between them, yet I find myself joining the majority of the fandom in saying, you're so stupid. Seishirou, you obviously 'wished' for someone to eat ice cream with you, so why didn't you just go find Subaru and stop making do with a substitute?! (And oh, god, that scene where Subaru hugged the canister with the eye in it to him... :-( )

I also think Seishirou needs the clue wrecking ball from Kusanagi over the whole people/objects thing.

What was really weird was getting to know the canon!Kamui after having only known the fanon! one. I think I was expecting to get a lot more annoyed with him than I did - but that might be a consequence of reading the whole series practically in one go. The cumulative affect of the SHIT he goes through is immediatly obvious.

Kamui's personality in the first half of the manga was especially a shock what with the disregading innocent bystanders and the threatening to kill people with a truly insane look on his face. I suppose if he had chosen to become the Dragon of Earth that side would have grown more pronounced, while that other side of Fuuma would have faded away as he became the Dragon of Heaven in the opposite of what actually happened with Kamui's 'gentler' aspect dominant.


I love Sorashi. I love Yuruzihara/Kusanagi, which would make me feel dirty if it wasn't so sweet. I love Keiichi, and I could love Kamui/Keiichii just because it isn't 'written,' because they aren't 'destined, because they aren't soulmates. Because they could just be two people who could create something simply good between them.




And then after I'd finished X, I went to catch up on XXXholic.



This might have already been pointed out, but...

You know those white soul sucking wings? The ones that cause a complete personality change by...

(Quoting from BWYS translation V5 ch4:

Yuuko: Those wings can numb a part of the heart... the 'suppression' mentality. The part of you that endures and accepts. If you want to socialise at all... having this is very, very important. For example, it's the same with love. If you don't know how to suppress it, even love can turn into plain violence.

Now, usually I believe CLAMP goes the traditional route of white angel wings = good. Except in one specific case when.

White angel wings = Fuuma/'Kamui', the dark 'other' self.

...and in at least one piece of official art Watanuki is shown with mini Kamui bat-wings - this one, in fact.

Comments

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Eh, that's a clever observation. Except the Fuuma!Kamui angel wings make biblical sense. The Chi no Ryuu are sometimes called "angels" while Ten no Ryuu are "seals", making a reference to the book of revelations. So if Fuuma and his dragons are "angels", he has to have angel wings.

Meanwhile, Maru and Moro have little wings (one angel/bird, one devil/bat; can't remember which one has which) in their outfits, too.

[katharos-8.livejournal.com]

True. Still, I found the link between Yuuko's decriptions of what the wings do to people and the way Fuuma changed, becoming the darker 'other' intersting. (Ack I'd forgotten Maru and Moro - still I suspect that's more Yuuko's sense of humour (and aesthetics) given that neither of them acts particularly angelic. : D)

[silvermuse89.livejournal.com]

Yay, you're alive! ^_^

Tsubasa side fic is a good thing!

Isn't all of TB already out? I've seen all seven volumes in English.

Interesting observation. I don't remember that part in xxholic but the picture looks familiar. Hmmm, I wonder if that means CLAMP are planning to incorporate something from X in xxholic.

[katharos-8.livejournal.com]

Risen from the dead!

There's a couple of requests on fic_on_demand I've been thinking of trying but I've held back because I only know the characters through fandom.

All of TB might be translated but so far we're only up to volume 4 here in England. I caved and bought the last few Saiyuki over amazon and am now watching impatiently as the volumes on the bookshop shelf inch their way up to Saiyuki Reload 1. The bookshops are only just beginning to catch on over here that there's money in manga.

I think there's already some bits from X in XXXholic - I know that in one of the colour spreads Yuuko had an ankle bangle shaped like the sigil on Hinoto's forehead. And I'm sure they'll include more eventually - I remembering hearing second hand that CLAMP said in an interview that Yuuko knew everything that went on in all the CLAMP worlds, so more X stuff is likely. : D

[silvermuse89.livejournal.com]

I didn't realize that manga in England was released at the same time as in the US. Well, I foresee it becoming a huge business soon, that certainly has happened in the US.

You're a Saiyuki fan too? I never knew that! Yay, another person I can fangirl with ^_^ Have you read Saiyuki Gaiden?

The only X reference I remember off hand is Yuuko commenting about Subaru. You're really observant to have caught all that.

Any chance that you've seen/watched Bleach?

[katharos-8.livejournal.com]

not exactly the same time - hence the problem of impatience.

Yep, I've read it. And it - it makes you really glad that the guys, no matter how fucked up they are - are who they are now. Because they're far more themselves, if you know what I mean. Have you read ciceqi's Dead Again? It follows Sanzo-ikkou through their lives from their Gaiden selves until they become who we see in Saiyuki and it is awesome. Ciceqi writes the best Sanzo. Here's a link if you want it: http://www.livejournal.com/users/ciceqi/166202.html

I confess I didn't originally notice it myself - I remember someone else pointing it out ages ago. *grin* Subaru does seem to have a habit of meeting strange people in parks, doesn't he?

I will not be sucked into another huge series. See? This is me resolved. Resolve face. Absolutly.

[silvermuse89.livejournal.com]

Oops, I meant to say wasn't released at the same time ^^;

Yeah, I think they are happier even though they are all haunted by the past. Thanks for the link, I haven't read it though I've read her FMA fic.

You've read the Subaru meets Yuuko fic by elihice, right? If not, here's a link: http://www.livejournal.com/users/elihice/41675.html?style=mine

A huge series? It's not as bad as Naruto or PoT, not yet at least ^^; Plus the plot and characters are just brilliant and it's just such a wonderful series. You know you want to be sucked into it, don't deny it! ^_^

[katharos-8.livejournal.com]

(sorry I'm so (very) late replying!)

Yes, I've read it - it's wonderfully creepy!

I suspect I will be sucked into it sooner or later... BUt I odn't mean 'big' as much in size as in scpoe. The world seems to get huge in the Soul society arc

[beckerbell.livejournal.com]

I also love Kakyou and have decided he needs a vampire Hokuto to come and mock him out of his death wish.

That would be all kinds of awesome. Awesome. (Though, I'm not sure there actually is anymore? I forget exactly where it stopped, but I don't think X18 ever made it to prince because CLAMP stopped in the middle? I might be wrong about that, towards the end everything got a little fuzzy.)

White angel wings = Fuuma/'Kamui', the dark 'other' self.

If you go back to volume eight and look at that scene where the 'Kamui' awakens in Fuuma, watch the second Kamui pull what look like the shadowed white feathery wings, not the black bat wings that Kamui keeps. I keep thinking it should be the other way around, but the black wings seem to indicate "good", the white ones "bad".

(But can you really say they're "bad"? Fuuma rarely does that much to people that isn't their secret Wish to have done. You get the real sense that the city is decaying, that people secretly Wish to die and the Dark Kamui is a reflection of those Wishes. Plus, the Planet needs saving, too, y'know. ^_~)

[katharos-8.livejournal.com]

(Sorry for the (very) late reply!)

I don't think X18 ever made it to prince because CLAMP stopped in the middle? I might be wrong about that, towards the end everything got a little fuzzy.)

Do you mean X19? I've managed to find scanalations for the first half of Volume 18 and BWYS have scnalated the first two chapters of what would have been volume 19. And I've got Russian scalations of the rest. (which I can't understand a word of, but at least I can look at the pretty pictures)If you don't have them, do you want them? I think I can upload...

(But can you really say they're "bad"? Fuuma rarely does that much to people that isn't their secret Wish to have done. You get the real sense that the city is decaying, that people secretly Wish to die and the Dark Kamui is a reflection of those Wishes. Plus, the Planet needs saving, too, y'know. ^_~)

Yet do all hose people wish to die? Most of the time it seems that what they really wish is to do somethng else - and that dying is the only way they feel they can express that wish to its utmost.

I guess that's the difference between Fuuma and Yuuko. Fuuma fulfills a Wish to its very end - utterly and completly. Beyond 'Wishing' the Wisher has no more to say about it. While Yuuko tends not to fulfill a persons Wish directly - rather she gives them the means to do so themselves, and they choose exactly how or if their Wish wil be fulfilled.

(But what's with all the images of the 'earth shattering'? Won't the Earth shatter if the Seals win? Pollution and the ozone and all?)

[-dancegirl.livejournal.com]

Hello katharos_8,
i saw something like this at http://www.livejournal.com/users/_dancegirl/928523.html (http://art-attack.com/users/andy21/928523.html)