Samurai Deeper Kyo, vols. 30-31 (Akimine Kamijyo)

[chomiji]

SDK seems to occupy a kind of middle ground for me between Bleach – which is probably the most shounen-ish shounen series I'm reading seriously (Hoshin Engi continues to mainly confuse me) and Saiyuki – which isn't really a shounen series at all, it just plays one on TV.

These two volumes illustrate the point pretty well. They're mostly about Hotaru, the wolf-child space-cadet with the very short attention span, double-ended sword, and deadly magical fire skills. Because SDK is mostly a shounen series, Hotaru's scenes are very much about getting stronger and mastering himself. But because SDK is SDK, there's also lashings of backstory – tasty and humorous backstory. Hotaru doesn't really do angst, so there isn't much, but parts of his story are surprisingly touching. They also involve the last big crew of new characters we'll meet in the series.

There's also bigtime angst for Kyo and Kyoushirou, a little more Mibu villainy, a tough situation for Akira's ego, Yuya fanservice, the re-appearance of someone we haven't seen for a very long time, and almost no Yukimura-san >snif!< at all, unless you count one of the extras in vol. 30.

Samurai Deeper Kyo, vols. 30-31 (review)

BTW, I know there are a couple of people on the f-list who are reading SDK and who have not (to my knowledge) gone after the scanslations, so please try to avoid spoiling the remaining volumes for them. I'll try too - it's hard, isn't it? Think about it: if the current release schedule keeps up, we'll be reading the last volume at this time next year.

OK, down to brass tacks: I have come to like Yuya - even love her. But I find Anna and Angelica even more awesome – they deserve a lot more time than they get. Anna has, of course, the big-sister-beats-everyone joke-thing going on, but she's also both a truly sweet and generous (if somewhat short-tempered and potty-mouthed) hostess, and her attempts to convince Hotaru that he can't fight his not-quite-relatives are really kind and heartfelt. (Her obtuseness about Hotaru's "cuteness" also makes her the perfect foster-mom for him.) Angelica's deadpan reactions and solutions to variously brotherly transgressions slay me, and there's also her completely selfless bravery in standing unarmed to ward Yuan off from Hotaru, when he'd already pretty much proved that he wasn't (as far as she knew) going to let family feelings stand in the way of dealing with a rebel. Finally, there's just the details of how they're drawn: Anna's overly-lively hair, scary manicure, and sweet smile (which makes a helluva contrast to roaring, terrifying SDF-Anna when she's mad), and spacey, shoujo-heroine-beautiful Angelica with her layered belly shirts, primitive jewelry, and inky ringlets.

Can anyone who knows the original Japanese tell me whether the kids call Anna anything special? I know they call Yuan Aniki, which is also what Gojyo-chan called Jien (and what Yakuza underlings call their mentor-types, right?).

Also, I like sanada's translation of Angelica's comment on Anthony – after Benitora says "Does he look like a bookworm to you?" – a lot better than the official one. sanada had her say "I know, he's really let himself go," but Tokyopop has "He rebelled a while back," which is bo-ring.

The big fight between Yuan and Hotaru was actually probably the scariest fight in the series for me, even though I theoretically knew how it came out. The effectiveness of Yuan's evil psycho soul-eater act on top of his martial arts prowess makes the reveal, when we find out it's all been a fake (well, not quite - he did want to challenge Hotaru's skills and will), really dramatic. And we'll certainly never think of that cutesy wittle kitty-pat quite the same way ... .

Meanwhile, I want to know where Kyoushirou got that sleazy-cute negligee for Yuya. I can't see Sakuya wearing it. What aren't you telling us, Kyoushirou?

Poor Akira! He always has to do it the hard way! I can't wait for the next volume (should be in the mail to me now!) because I believe this is his big scene coming up next.

ETA: meganbmoore reviewed vol. 30 here and vol. 31 here; magicnoire writes up vol. 30 here.