Chapter 13
Pretty sweet how Kojiro utilised his fishing skills to grab the key, if he could apply that same ingenuity to his swordsmanship it could create an interesting sword style, especially since the Iron Oni blades so far have all been using that energy lassos thing. Kind of like how the real life Musashi was apparently inspired to create his unique sword style after watching the performance of the Japanese taiko drum or how Sasaki Kojiro’s Tsubame Gaeshi technique was based on the motion of a swallow's tail during flight. Speaking of which I wonder if this version of Kojiro has learned that technique yet. Coincidentally there’s someone named Tsubame in the arc though the two have no relation.
Seems the Oni will have elemental affinities, the red Kishin Engoku Tengu summoning fire and the blue Kodama basically becoming a tsunami, kind of weird that the tree spirit Oni is a water elemental though but I like the how they’ve found strength in numbers and unity not too different from humans. In Japanese folklore a Kodama’s life force is directly tied to the tree it inhabits, and if either the tree or the kodama dies, the other cannot live, that could be way to defeat them apart from type advantage if the weapons Bushi use have elemental affinities too.
So it’s pretty much confirmed Tsugumi will be joining the main cast, taking on her sister’s will to become the chief ninja commander of the strongest Bushidan and protecting the weak, also show through Tsugumi inheriting her weapon. Though that might put her at odds with Musashi eventually, since his reasoning for wanting to be a Bushi has nothing to do with protecting the weak or liberating Japan but more to do with making a name for himself and because he thinks it will be fun.
Liked the design of those disembodied head Oni that appeared in the flashback, they seem to be Tsurube otoshi. I’m guessing only low level Oni have those stars for faces.
Hideo’s authoritarian parenting style explains how Tsugumi ended up how she is currently, the character arcs of the main three seem to have two things in common, not conforming to those around you at the expense of yourself and living up to the virtues of Bushido envisioned by Nitobe Inazo.
Musashi being Honesty/Sincerity, Kojiro being Honour and Tsugumi being Courage, the characters start out lacking one of these virtues of Bushido but acquire them over the course of the story. This passage from the book pretty much describes Musashi’s character in the first chapter, Without veracity and sincerity, politeness is a farce and a show. "Propriety carried beyond right bounds," says Masamuné, "becomes a lie."
While Korjio’s arc is about him reacquiring his Samurai honour. ”THE sense of honour, implying a vivid consciousness of personal dignity and worth, could not fail to characterise the samurai, born and bred to value the duties and privileges of their profession.”
"He beareth not the sword in vain." What he carries in his belt is a symbol of what he carries in his mind and heart, loyalty and honour.
And this one describes Tsugumi situation until the end of the chapter. "Perceiving what is right," he says, "and doing it not, argues lack of courage." The books also chastises those that rush into the jaws of death calling it a dog’s death, which goes inline with how Hideo is handling the situation.
In the end it seems she’s finally ready to go against Hideo, doing what her sister could not do, keeping in with the theme of surpassing our predecessors.
Chapter 14
Really good art this chapter, the tsunami of Kodama approaching the castle really set the tone for how severe the situation is, a nice doomsday clock and since we met a few of the people in this Bushidan before hand there’s some investment in their fate.
Cool panel of Musashi and Kojiro standing amongst the defeated members of the Kosameda bushidan, kind of neat that before this on page 399 you can see Musashi behind members of the Bushidan amongst the smoke while they’re distracted by Hideo and Tsugumi talking.
Another one of the 18 Togakure Ryu Ninja skills used in this chapter, Tsugumi has utilised Taijutsu(when she fought with Musashi), Chi-Mon(her idea of escaping to higher ground to avoid the Oni) , Bo-Ryaku(her honey trap), Ba-Jutsu (but riding a motorcycle instead of a horse ),Kayaku-Jutsu(the smoke bombs this chapter), Seishin Teki Kyoyo (in chapter 13 where she was mentally preparing herself to go against Hideo and remember why she’s doing this)
Hideo seems to embody the values and beliefs that Samurai supposedly had in reality, considering it a dishonor to retreat, believing they “must fight Oni to the bitter end, down to the man”. Death before dishonor especially.
Tsugumi mentioning how he would implement Kiri sute gomen on those who dared to go against him and retreat. Even how he mentioned wanting to bring the necks of the attacking Oni back with him, which seems quite similar to head collecting an act where Samurai would present the heads of their enemies as proof of them fulfilling their duty.
Even his positive trait of faithfully serving his Lord Tokugawa is what the Samurai were excepted to do, I wouldn’t be surprised if he committed seppuku considering how much of a traditional samurai he is.
Compared to the Takeda(except that guy who raised a death flag for Naotora) and Tsubame who seem much more like freedom fighters or superheroes than Samurai. Even their clothing shows this Hideo has traditional samurai wear and wears his hear in a ponytail. While the Takdea looked more like Super Sentai or Kamen rider superheroes, the Takeda even had the ability to fly to top it off.
Its seems like there was a shift in what it meant to be a Samurai in this world when the Oni appeared, and while most people managed to make a smooth transition, there still seems to be people like Hideo who are still stuck in the old ways.
So one of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s scions is still alive, weird how even though Kosameda Hideo is serving under him and yet he has his own Bushidan. I’m interested to see what kind of person this successor is and how most people perceived him, considering how his predecessor is being lambasted so hard that even students are taught how horrible he supposedly was before his death.
Chapter 15
Great action this chapter, though a bit cluttered in some parts. There were some great moments like Hideo doing that deflection parry on Tsugumi’s attack, loved the after image like effect to convey to the motions of parry and also how he countered Tsugumi’s Tomoe nage.
Kind of surprised that Tsugumi is the one taking on Hideo directly I thought she wouldn’t do able to considering how soon this is happening after her other failed attempts to go against him. But it’s nice that she’s fighting her own battles I suppose.
The Kodama look like a literal tsunami in that first page, fitting since the origin of the term Oni was to conceptualise natural disasters like thunder, storms and earthquakes.
There seems to be some parallels between the humans and the Oni.
The Kodama are labeled low level Oni that are weak individually, Hideo refer to the citizens as weak creatures that can’t live on their own.
They both make up for this weakness by travelling as a group, the Bushidan for the humans and the Tsunami form for the Kodama.
Both can’t live without a certain element they’re dependent on, family for the humans and the tree that the Kodama inhabits, and if either the tree or the Kodama dies, the other cannot live (if the manga uses that trait they have from Japanese folklore)
The difference is that the humans are in compete disarray due to their conflicting interests while the Kodama Oni are perfectly unified, kind of ironic. Even these low level Oni are immensely strong compared to the humans.
Hideo is holding kin punishment over the heads of the citizens, not sure how he plans to enforce it though under the current situation. Supposedly samurai would go to great lengths to protect and glorify the name of their household/clan in action and in battle. The importances of the name was placed above the individual members of the clan. So kin punishment was the worse thing you could do to someone and since one of the themes of this manga is legacy and this act is applied with the purpose of destroying ones legacy I’m interested to see how this will be utilised later in the series against actual Samurai.
Despite the military advancement and new systems created to combat the Oni, the Bushi or at least Kosameda is held back by traditions. Which, ironically make the new systems more dangerous to humans rather than the Oni, because the Bushidan effectively makes citizens apart of the military force against the Oni. Hideo sees no problem in applying the ideals of the Samurai (like death before dishonour) on to them and expecting them to follow. Leading an entire town to its death.
Also the idea that Bushidan are a family give him complete control, based on how Japanese households at the time put fathers at the top of the family hierarchy and give them absolute authority. While those who were younger and are females were expected to be absolutely obedient. With seemingly no other generals or advisor to for him to confine in and have a council of war, creating a despotism type of rule.
Tsugumi is probably trying to invoke the power of the individual, “What is needed most in a society dominated by oppressive government is role models who show by example what it means to be free” - Academy of Ideas
By gathering the courage to confront Hideo, and boldly speaking her mind against his him, she has become a role model for the citizens. If she can defeat him in battle the ultimate form of defiance in front of them, the others will follow suit and defy his orders, which is what she mean when saying defeating Hideo will free their hearts.
Chapter 16
Hideo’s defeat was kind of underwhelming, especially after how well he fought in the previous chapter. Funny how even though the bow seems to be his signature weapon he lost as soon as he started using it.
Ohtaka really loves drawing these motorcycle double spreads huh? Not that I’m complaining. Nice little gag with that one Kodama trying to eat the bottom of the motorcycle. Speaking of eating won’t that sea of Kodama get more powerful after eating the castle?
In the final page I think I see Hideo still attached to Tsugumi’s weapons so he’s still alive, so I hope his character gets more to do later on.
So how are these people going to get to safety now? Musashi and Kojiro were traveling for a week and couldn’t find civilisation and the only communication they seem to have is that Horagai Hideo used to call Tsugumi during her fight with Musashi. Interesting how this arc concluded with a pyrrhic victory, especially this early in the series. I guess it just goes to show how the odds are stacked against the humans.
Chapter 17
I don’t know how I feel about Tsugumi and the others leaving the citizens with Hideo, if they leave what’s stopping Hideo from repeating his recent actions unopposed? I get the best thing to do when recovering from an abusive relationship is to separate oneself from the abuser as to not lapse back into that same unpleasant situation. But the same could be said for the citizens the only reason they opposed Hideo was because of Tsugumi, they should have atleast waited until reinforcement arrived. Or what if more Oni attack? Speaking of which the Kodama Oni apparently didn’t eat all the metal since they’re using construction tools.
Nice character moment between Musashi and Tsugumi, delving into the idea of family. Hideo wasn’t plain evil so may be in the future they can work things out.
This arc was pretty good overall, new tidbits of world building, new party member who underwent a character arc, a decent antagonist that contrasts with someone of the previously established characters, who is still alive with option to be expanded on more in future.
Expanded on ideas like inheriting not only the strengths of your predecessors but some of their flaws as well, family going beyond blood and showcased why the humans have been losing this war for 150 or so years.
One of the five sins that might affect a general according the Art of War is “a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame” a trait often associated with Samurai. A sense of honor is mostly a good thing, but it can be hazardous when the thought of shame leads to losing actions, such as entering into a battle that cannot be won.
The Art of War also agree with that last point since it states in the five essentials for victory, “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight”
“He will win who choose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks” This might also be noteworthy since Hideo and Tsugumi had a disagreement to what even constitutes a Bushi.
Between the Oni rule and this Bushidan, there seems to be a lot of things stopping people from being self reliant and individuals. In schools people are being trained in obedience, destroying their ability to be self reliance as shown with Musashi in chapter 8 durning his argument with Kojiro.
Interesting how even after him embarking on his endeavor, he still relies on some of the ideas placed on him at the mining school. I guess that explains why his character design still has him wearing the mining uniform instead of changing into a Bushi one.
Even Hideo was trying to downplay the citizens ability to live by themselves and saying they all will be fine as long as they listen to him. He did the same to Tsugumi, kept saying she’s useless without him. But by Musashi breaking out of the chains of conformity, urging Tsugumi to do the same, who then went on the inspire the citizens. This is creating a domino effect that could bring about a huge change for all of Japan.
“Only a change in the attitude of the Individual can initiate a change in the psychology of the nation” - Carl Jung
So yeah good arc though I prefer the first arc.
Chapter 18
This chapter probably felt the most like reading Magi again especially the omake chapters.
The way Tsugumi was acting towards Musashi was similar to how she acted around Hideo in chapter 9. Showing despite defeating him she still has some lingering hang ups.
Really weird advice Tsugumi got from her sister, but I guess it reinforces the idea that we inherit both good and bad things from our predecessors, in this case the good being the ideal of protecting those weaker than you and the bad being the falling back striping.
This scene kind of reminds of the scene where Musashi and Kojiro meet in the novel named after the former by Eiji Yoshikawa. Musashi and Kojiro locked eyes while Musashi was being clung to by a girl, there it was a character called Akemi. This scene was considerably more comedic though.
So Musashi has an older woman fetish, hopefully that will quell anything shipping nonsense regarding him for a while at least, shipping always seems to bring out the worst in the fanbases of these shonen battle manga.
Though portrayed in a comedic light here, this chapter shows how much the Oni rule has altered or stunted their development, that this simple act became this huge ordeal. Whether it’s Kojiro being ostracised for being related to a Bushi or the mining school restricting Musashi actions.
Chapter 19
Like the new guys design, he’s wearing a cross and a cowl, so he seems to be a Christian. I wonder how Christianity will be used in this series, another adversary like the Buddhism based Kishin, another system of control?
Cool double spread showing all those swords, not sure what valuable weapons are doing out here without any wielders. Funny how close Hideo was to this treasure trove of swords when he was desperately seeking equipment for his cause. So it this place a graveyard or is the new guy sword smith or something?
Finally Musashi has his sword from the first promo image, his attack seemed to be lightning elemental, since the Kodama apparently frequents this area a lot and they’re going after that blue Kishin, he seems to have lucked out in that regard. Though Tsugumi and the Takeda’s weapon didn’t seem to have an element (unless they’re just light elemental) so I wonder why his weapon differs.
The crystals protruding out of Musashi’s body when he grabbed the sword was kind of reminiscent of the transformation of the Entengu Kishin after it ate that metal offering. As well as the motorcycles, I guess most things are powered by that sand Oni become when defeated, fighting fire with fire. Hopefully be learning more about this series battle system soon.
