Samurai Deeper Kyo: Double Visions (Kamijyo's Character Portraits)

There's something that Samurai Deeper Kyo mangaka Akimine Kamijyo does that I haven't noticed in the few other series I've read, and I'm wondering whether this is something fairly common in manga or not. Basically, there will be an illustration that consists of a long pull-back shot of the scene with an inserted close-up of the face(s) of the character(s). A few of them have borders between the elements, but even then, there's usually some element bridging the two sections.

I didn't see any striking examples early in the series, but by vol. 6, they're occurring fairly regularly. Sometimes they're used when a character is introduced, and sometimes they're just used when a character appears dramatically (the kind of thing that would get a "ZAA!!" in Saiyuki). Anyway, below the cut are several examples (some pretty large), and I'll talk about the characters and scenes a bit as well ....

( ...so there will be some spoilers )