lady_nara

lady_nara @ 2008-06-30T23:57:00

2008-07-01T07:20:21Z

Someone on my flist (I think) recently announced that a manga was being made for the MoB prequels, and that Hotaka Ran had been chosen as the artist.

I, of course, completely FREAKED OUT and just about exploded with fangirlish glee. Because:

1. New MoB manga. YAY.

2. Manga of the prequels. I adore the prequel-era yashashuu. It's all my favorite characters as sexy samurai, with much less angst, more crack, and slowly building sexual tension between ppl just recently mortal enemies. BWAHAHA.

3. Hotaka Ran is a goddess of a mangaka. She has the most beautiful, poignant, hilarious, in-character illustrations....thank you, thank you, publishers, sensei, editors, and whoever else might have had a hand in selecting her!

3. If the manga does well, perhaps there might be a prequel anime. *scream*

Since MoB is still popular enough for Sensei to continue writing prequels, and for a manga to be made, I am hoping against hope that this popularity may only build and lead to all the fun things which successful series can get. Such as, more anime, and maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe......official english translations of the novels (and manga)? >_< Please, oh please!

Unfortunately, I cannot quite remember who it was who mentioned this on her lj. It might have been quaint_twilight, but I can't be sure because I cannot find the entry. Or maybe starsandsmiles? Oh, dear...
In any case, I asked the person in question if they would crosspost the info to the mirageofblaze community, but so far I don't think she has. I would like to share the joy, but I'm afraid that she might be offended if I spread the news on the comm myself. Plus, I can't remember who to credit. ^^;;;

Well, I'm sure it's okay to talk about it on my own lj, anyway.

lady_nara @ 2008-06-30T22:40:00

2008-07-01T05:51:15Z

http://ritsu2.livejournal.com/42431.html

I ran across this post on ritsu2's lj. In the comments were some interesting comparisons between Kyo Kara Maoh and Mirage of Blaze, including these tidbits:

kanto_tiger
"...the part where you mention that you hope that the story in Maruma won't become more tragic made me remember this conversation I read between Takabayashi and her publisher on a Chinese forum. I noticed that you have read "Honoo no Mirage" before so you'll understand what it means. In the conversation, the publisher encouraged Takabayashi to make Maruma more angsty and to follow "Honoo no Mirage" as an example. T.T This is an explanation for why the "Conrad Betrayal" arc happened because Naoe once stood on the enemies side before he and Takaya got together again. This is one way for Maruma to become a long series by making it serious and more complicated. I am afraid that if the author is going by Naoe and Takaya's example, in the future, Conrad and Yuuri will suffer more. I just hope it doesn't end like Mirage. T_T "

ritsu2
"Ah about Conyuu will end like Naotaka... Actually Takabayashi sensei ALREADY have planned to KILL CONRAD.
I read them in one of Maruma info site. But GEG (her editor) stop that scared plan.
I never know about conversation between Takabayashi-san and Chinese publisher, but we can hope that Conrad will alive."

kanto_tiger
"Actually, the conversation wasn't between a Chinese publisher. I think it was her editor or publisher. I just read the conversation translated into Chinese. ^^;; So Takabayashi wanted to kill Conrad. Oh boy, he's so lucky the editor stopped the author...or maybe not.

I heard about what happened to Yozak. T_T I don't really think he's dead. I don't know why, but what happened to Yozak reminds me of what happened to Chiaki...

Do you think Yuuri will become blind later on? If he does, how can we read the story from his POV? Will the author switch the POV? Make it 3rd person or maybe we will read the story from a different character's POV? Conrad or Hazel's POV? When Takaya got Kagetora's memories back he started to suffer severely. I'm worried about what will happen to Yuuri.

I hope >_< Maruma won't end like MOB. It's the saddest ending I've ever read. Of course, I don't trust that there isn't a chance that Maruma won't become sad because Japanese novelist seem to love tragic endings."

Interesting, eh? Oh dear, the editor telling the author of KKM to use MoB as an example...-_-;;;
PLEASE DON'T MAKE KKM'S ENDING AS AWFUL, TAKABAYASHI-SENSEI!

I do think it is funny that MoB is so well-known and successful that other BL/borderline BL series are using it for a model.

lady_nara @ 2008-05-25T03:54:00

2008-05-25T11:05:53Z

Guh. Okay. It is nearly 4 in the morning, but I think I have finally caught up with my comments/emails.

A thousand apologies to the many people I have been so late in replying to! I have only just responded to several comments from around two months ago! Agh!

I can only say that the last few months have been completely overwhelming. Lack of sleep, not lack of interest, has been the primary cause of the rude delay. I'm afraid that I can't even promise not to do it again, as I do have a tendency of getting bowled over by life on a semi-regular basis. But, of course, I will do my best!

Now, I will say that if there is some sort of emergency, I do make a habit of checking and reading my messages somewhat promptly (I'm just sometimes too exhausted to muster any kind of coherent response at that moment), so just label it "EMERGENCY" or something, and I will try to deal with it right away!

*tries to imagine what sort of emergency might arise from fandom*
Um....
Well, I'm sure it'll be obvious if it happens.

lady_nara @ 2008-05-10T22:10:00

2008-05-11T02:32:48Z

Okay, I'm going to break my "this is fandom ONLY" journal thing this time, because...I HAVE OFFICIALLY GRADUATED FROM UNIVERSITY!
*happy tears*
There were times when I wondered if this day would ever come, and now, it is here! JOY.

On a completely unrelated note, I have been watching copious amounts of Kyou Kara Maoh, and....is it wrong that Josak sometimes sorta slightly reminds me of Chiaki?
Somebody shoot me.
Of course, that just gives me images of Chiaki crossdressing...XD
There's a fic in that somewhere, I swear.

In other news, rebelintosanity and I have forged a pact to switch fandoms for a fic. Which means, I will be attempting to write a Phoenix Wright fic involving Edgeworth and Gumshoe in some way in the near future. o.O Seeing as how I've played, like, two sections of a game and know practically nothing at all about PW...it shall be very interesting.

On the other hand, this means that rebelintosanity will be writing a MoB fic with Haruie and Kagetora. :D Can't wait to see how that turns out!

So I watched "Gohatto" (Taboo) on youtube today.
For those who don't know, it's a Japanese film set in the bakumatsu period (end of the samurai in the mid-19th century) in which a beautiful young man joins the local militia and wreaks havoc among his love-crazed fellow samurai.

Ha, I actually watched it thinking that it might help me understand Kagetora's situation a little better in his first life. I was thinking about Cerise Tennyo's "Tsukiyo" the whole time, to be honest. True, it's set in a much later period, but the main theme is the same. An incredibly desirable youth who inadvertantly (ahem) drives the men around him mad with passion, and brings trouble upon himself as a result. It also has a very interesting little twist in it.

It made me laugh at some inappropriate moments, as well, because I kept imagining Kagetora's possible reaction to some of the lines the guys were using. "I don't want to die before making love to you," or "I would give my life to hear the nightingale's song after having held you in my arms all night long."
XD I can just imagine Kagetora's expression.

Ah, warning for anyone who may watch it- there is some smut at one point.

lady_nara @ 2008-05-02T00:42:00

2008-05-02T05:30:00Z

And here's another comment that grew into a post. This time I was thinking about Naoe and rape. Sure, he raped Minako, and he was terribly sorry for it. But I would argue that not only did he mount serious sexual assaults on Takaya (six, to be exact), he actually raped him on three of those occasions. Love Naoe as I do, I'm not going to excuse his actions. The fact that most people, and Naoe himself, do not consider these three rapes to have been rapes and thus deserving at least some regret or apology concerns me. So here's my "comment":

First, since there is no national U.S. law on rape, I will put forward the definition used by my own state, which is similar to that used in most states, I'm pretty sure. Here it is:

"rape is defined as: sexual intercourse between persons without consent. The penetration can be in any form: penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth by an object or a sex organ. Either sex can be the victim or perpetrator of penetration. In other words, the following are considered rape, when:
-Someone mentally coerces or physically forces you to have sex.
-There is penetration of the vagina, anus or mouth made by anything including a penis, finger(s), a bottle, or other object."

Since "either sex can be the victim or perpertrator of penetration," that means that a woman who forces a man to penetrate her either vaginally, anally, or orally, is considered a rapist. I am quite sure that this would apply to a man who forces another man to penetrate him in some way, as well. Example: a man who performs a nonconsensual act of oral sex on another man = a rapist.

I have three instances in mind in which, under this definition, Naoe raped Takaya:
1. When Takaya is assaulted by Kaizaki in the hotel.
2. When Takaya is assaulted by Naoe just before he snaps out of his daze in vol. 20.
3. When Naoe does not stop upon Takaya's request to do so in vol. 20.

1. When Kaizaki takes advantage of Takaya in the hotel room, Takaya is a prisoner who has been handcuffed to the bed up until that point, though he wasn't when the assault began. This was to make it seem less rape-y, I guess, and also presumably because, drugged as he was, and unable to use his powers due to Naoe's acupuncture-chakra-disruption thingy, he posed no threat. Takaya was drugged up, mentally unstable, emotionally vulnerable, and had been stripped stark naked. Takaya was in no state to be offering consent, nor did he, unless you want to buy into Naoe's notion that the fact that Takaya didn't fight him automatically equalled consent.

Takaya to Kaizaki later on: Those are rapists' excuses!
Me: Damn straight.

This instance would fall under second degree rape, according to state law:
"when the victim is incapable of consent by reasons of being physically helpless or mentally incapacitated. Felony."

2. When Naoe assaults Takaya when he's mentally absent in vol. 20. Takaya's mind is not even working there. There could be no consent whatsoever- Takaya isn't aware of what is happening, and doesn't seem to remember it later. Naoe's assault at that point is tantamount to a caregiver raping a person in a vegetative state. This would also fall under second degree rape.

3. Naoe not stopping when Takaya tells him to stop in vol. 20. Aside from even that, consider: Naoe was rough with Takaya to the point of causing him to bleed copiously and scream in pain. Now, Takaya is not a weakling. He was beaten regularly as a young child, got into gang fights and burned himself with cigarettes (without making a sound or even changing expression) to show his courage as a pre-teen, and he has been fighting in a war for quite a while now. Whatever makes him scream must REALLY. EFFING. HURT. Even if he hadn't told Naoe to stop, that kind of sexual violence would probably constitute some kind of abuse, at the very least.
But Takaya did tell Naoe to stop, and Naoe refused to stop. Not stopping a sex act when requested to do so, even when in the middle of one, is considered rape in most (possibly all?) states in the U.S. It falls under the definition of First Degree rape, "Forcible compulsion."

So, there you go. Naoe is a rapist, and not only of Minako. This list does not even include his other sexual molestations of Takaya in which no penetration took place, which would most likely count as "sexual assault" or "sexual battery." Hm. Perhaps I will add to this later after checking up on Japanese rape laws. In any case, this will suffice for now. In the United States, Naoe would be considered a rapist, and a repeated offender, for what he did to Takaya.

I will probably go into mitigating factors, relationship quirks, etc., on another post. But I think it is important, before all of that, to acknowledge that what Naoe did was wrong, that it was very wrong, and that there is nothing that can excuse rape. Period.

lady_nara @ 2008-05-01T17:15:00

2008-05-01T22:16:14Z

As is often the case, I began writing a comment to someone else's post, but wound up deciding not to put it up after all because it got too long and off-topic. ^^;
I decided that it was an interesting enough topic to stand on its own in my journal, however, so here are some thoughts on Naoe's voice:

Naoe is extremely clever in giving subtle spins to what he says, and just in using his voice effectively in general, whatever body he's in. At first I had thought that it was just the cleverness of his phrasing and the beauty of his voice as Yoshiaki, but then I remembered that Kaizaki's voice seemed to have the same effect on people. So rather than relying on the excellence of a particular body's voice, a lot of it must be in the intonation, I'm guessing. The skill of the musician draws out the full potential of the instrument.

Naoe is well aware of the effect his voice has on people, especially when it's right up close to their ears, and he uses that to his advantage shamelessly. Even Takaya is affected, though he tries hard not to be. But he can't hide it anymore when Kaizaki corners him in that tourist attraction, ha!

I keep thinking back to that one scene in the Wadatsumi arc where he's talking with a bed partner the morning after, and she starts raving about how handsome he is, how he's so good in bed (the best she's ever had) that she'd thought she would die, and how much his voice turns her on, especially when he's talking dirty. In fact, she says that his low and beautiful voice in her ears makes her feel like he's already inside her...XD
Naoe, of course, is completely unsurprised and entirely smug. That whole scene cracked me up SO much. It made me think, too, that if Naoe's voice low and right in someone's ears can feel so sensual, intimate, and overwhelmingly, er, penetrative, it's no wonder that it causes Takaya to freak out so much- both in the sense of turning him on against his will, and also in causing him to panic.

We see the lighter side of this in the cd telephone tracks which ai_no_tsubasa made available and skinintheway translated. Naoe keeps murmuring teasingly in Takaya's ear while Takaya keeps protesting and saying how gross it is. "Ew," right, Takaya. WE ALL KNOW WHAT YOU'RE REALLY FEELING. Naoe certainly does, anyway.

I was thinking to myself the other day that Naoe's voice is kind of like Kagetora's eyes. It gives him power over other people, whether he's trying to persuade, calm, mock, intimidate, or seduce. Of course, one major difference would be that when Naoe uses his voice to manipulate people, he's not lying exactly, but he is making them hear what he wants them to hear. The virtue of Kagetora's eyes, on the other hand, is their extreme clarity. His eyes are truly windows to his soul, and his soul is so overwhelmingly powerful and beautiful, that people are swept away.

Of course, when Naoe couples his gorgeous voice with passionate sincerity, it completely blows Takaya away. Fair enough, as one glance into Takaya's eyes is enough to render Naoe utterly mesmerized, as he admits himself.

I have to admit here that while Naoe's voice (seiyuu Sho Hayami's) in the anime and drama cd's is beautiful, I am much more taken with Takaya's voice (seiyuu Toshihiko Seki's). I especially adore the way Seki-san does Kagetora's voice, and yes, there is a big difference. At times it does seem like Seki is overplaying Takaya's teenage-dirtbag-baby-ness in the way he speaks, which is a little annoying when you realize how gorgeous Kagetora's voice is, and how the extreme teenage speech patterns can sometimes obscure that.

But I think probably the one at fault for that is really the director rather than the seiyuu. I recently came across an interview of Seki for MoB in which he mentioned that the director made a big deal about the fact that the seiyuu who were acting young people needed to be careful that they came across as young, since the seiyuu themselves were much older than their characters. Seki laughingly admitted that he and the others had felt a bit self-conscious about their age, after that.

So if Seki perhaps goes a bit overboard on trying to make Takaya sound like a bratty teenager, it's not entirely his fault. He certainly does do a good job of differentiating Takaya's voice from Kagetora's, in any case. Kagetora's voice is deep, vibrant, and powerful. And really, really hot. Or did I already mention that? ^____^
I would describe Naoe's voice, on the other hand, as low (though not as much as Kagetora's, surprisingly), rich, and possessing a sort of sensual, languid* quality while being very exact in pronunciation and controlled in intonation. Bascially, Naoe's voice is like a finely-tuned instrument wielded with finesse. Or, a better comparison, given the way he uses it, might be a sword of elegant design borne with practiced grace.
Takaya's voice, when he's in uber-brat mode, makes me laugh. Naoe's voice makes a good counter-point, anyway, especially when they're being naughty together and teasing Kousaka or something (see the drama cd with the part-time job hell or whatever it was called).

*I think I stole the word "languid" from Petronia for describing Naoe's voice...it just fits so well, I couldn't think of a better adjective.

lady_nara @ 2008-04-18T01:45:00

2008-04-18T05:45:13Z

Whoo-hoo! I also found a page with most (all?) of the MoB novel covers. Some of these I have been seeking for AGES.
http://cobalt.shueisha.co.jp/meisaku/mirage/series.html

lady_nara @ 2008-04-18T01:23:00

2008-04-18T05:32:08Z

Okay, I just ran across a german MoB fansite with a TON of screencaptures from the main series and OVA. Thought I'd go ahead and post the link in the hope that ~~someone will make icons~~ others may enjoy them. I am so charitable that I astonish myself sometimes. XD

http://www.mangaplanet.net/mirageofblaze/ff.php

There's a pretty good capture of that moment in the Minako flashback where Naoe is cradling Kagetora's corpse. You can't see them real well, but enough to notice that 1) Kagetora does look to be about the same age as Naoe (which feels very strange- I've gotten too used to having them at different ages) and 2) Kagetora looks kinda HOT. As does Naoe. It's really a pity that the animators don't give us a clearer image of them. I understand why they didn't, but...*sigh*

Oh, and for rebelintosanity only, there are Ranmaru pics under the "TV" category in Pictures. They probably won't be that interesting to you- they just have some close-ups of this fairly pretty guy. Don't know why they didn't capture him looking more sinister...oh well. Now you can't say I never gave you anything Ranmaru-related!

lady_nara @ 2008-04-12T18:46:00

2008-04-12T22:46:46Z

As part of my search for The Real Kagetora, I think I will occasionally post random little things I think I have discovered about Kagetora.

Today's thought: Kagetora= Not a cocktease.

All things considered, Kagetora is remarkably not a cocktease. Now, I will tack on the disclaimer that I have not had access to all of the canon, and it would be very easy for me to miss something, therefore. But from everything I HAVE seen, there is nowhere (before book 20, anyway) the slightest hint of Kagetora deliberately attempting to be seductive. Nowhere! Nor is there anything to suggest that he behaved otherwise before his Takaya possession. The man is fundamentally uncomfortable with sex, and understandably so. He endured a horrific gang rape at a young age. Apparently he didn’t even like having sex with his first wife. He did, to fulfill his duty of begetting an heir, but he felt “dirty.” After that, the only other hint we have that he may have had an intimate relationship with someone is Minako. And we’re never told whether he actually slept with her. One might wonder, for instance, how he immediately knew that Minako’s child was not his? Personally, I am inclined to think that he did sleep with her, if only because there are some mentions made of him reclining on her “motherly” bosom, a description which kind of made me go o.O Okay, so Minako was motherly to him, and he views Naoe as a father figure (at least at first)? Yeesh. But I digress.

Yes, he might have slept with Minako, but that was obviously a serious relationship. In the Takaya possession, he never dated or had a girlfriend, though according to Saori “lots” of girls probably liked him. In the manga based on 5.5, we see girls hitting on him and his disinterested dismissal. Mitsui notes that Takaya seems uncomfortable with sex, and makes fun of him for it. Mitsui hits on him (very creepily), and Takaya responds by slamming him in the gut so hard he flies across the room. When Naoe reveals to Takaya that he has a penchant for one-night stands, he notices that Takaya seems weirded out by the thought, and chalks it up to “a prudish streak” or just immaturity.

My point in all this should be clear, as I’ve repeated it half a dozen times: Kagetora is very uncomfortable with sex. He does not behave in a sexual manner except within the context of a serious relationship (so far as we know, and I think that’s a reasonable assumption), and those are few and far between.

The one who uses sex as a weapon in their relationship is Naoe. Whenever he wants to get a rise out of Kagetora, Naoe either molests him or says something sexual to him (or both). Why? Because he knows it bothers him. Sex is about the only area where Naoe has the upper hand, and he knows it, though he doesn't know why.

Kagetora never says or does anything to Naoe that could be construed as sexual in nature unless he is forced, protesting what is happening, or referring to their win/lose thing (and only then in a very vague way). The closest Kagetora ever comes to voluntarily bringing up the subject with Naoe is when he uses what Naoe said earlier to try and keep him interested in their win/lose thing: “If you beat me, then you can hold me.” That bet is referred to multiple times, later.

The impression I got from that whole thing was that this was something new, a gauntlet that Kagetora had tossed down in sheer desperation to keep Naoe from giving up and leaving. It seems, from other places in the novels, that both Kagetora and Naoe think that Kagetora going to bed with Naoe would signal that he had lost/surrendered. So, really, it isn’t as though Kagetora is saying anything new, so much as rephrasing it to slap Naoe in the face with some of his own dirty talk (with the really bad bits cut out). So I interpret it as more like he’s saying “You haven’t beaten me yet, bastard. You’ll just have to keep trying.” Oh, and he does say one other “sexual” thing- during a fight, he makes the comment, “sleeping around doesn’t make it any better, does it?” Which is pretty nasty, but not exactly a come-on. And again, nowhere near the direct dirty talk that Naoe uses to freak Kagetora out.

Otherwise, he barely even acknowledges that Naoe wants him that way- he tends to think of Naoe’s feelings towards him (and everyone else’s) in a non-sexual light, even when it’s reached the point where you’re wondering how dense he can possibly be. Example: Naoe’s first come-on to Takaya. In the novels, he forcibly kisses him. Takaya’s reaction: why does he hate me? What did he want to do to me? Um….Takaya, dude. What do you think he wanted to do to you?! “Immature” or not, you’re a high schooler in a country where kids your age and younger are highly sexualized. And, y’know, he kissed you. Shouldn’t that be a dead giveaway?

But the thought that someone would be attracted to him does not easily enter Kagetora’s mind. Sure, he notices that people are hitting on him (sometimes) but it seems like he usually thinks that they’re just trying to dominate him, not actually finding him attractive (the fact that the desire to dominate him usually DOES combine with attraction toward him aggravates the problem). Kagetora does not view himself as a desirable person. And when people come on to him, it isn't because he does anything in particular to attract or encourage their interest, and he frequently is not aware that they even have any. It's just that Kagetora has some kind of animal magnetism, an immense sex appeal that he has no control over and seems to be completely unaware of.

Consider: when Kaizaki-Naoe has him handcuffed naked and drugged to a bed, and takes the opportunity to molest him quite thoroughly, Kagetora's first theory as to why this occurs is pity. He thinks it was a pity fuck! Dude. What makes it really ridiculous is that this took place after that other guy had come in and tried to molest him immediately prior to Kaizaki's entrance. And then Kaizaki had started flirting with him right off the bat, before Kagetora became upset. Good grief, he still thinks it's pity even when Kaizaki comes and meets him much later on and gropes him. How clueless can you be?

Kagetora: I don’t want your damn pity!
Kaizaki: Oh, come on. You can't honestly think that’s all it is.
Kagetora (thinking FURIOUSLY): ? Well, come to think of it, he was pretty rough with me, which wouldn't make much sense if he was just trying to be comforting.
Kagetora:...
Kagetora: (surprised): He wanted me. Right?

Give the man a prize.

Kagetora doesn’t really think that Naoe finds him desirable, either. He thinks that Naoe just wants to "conquer" him, that it's all some domination game to him. And when it's over, Naoe will just get bored and wander off. Which is why he refuses to give in to Naoe in the first place. Putting sexual intimacy issues and personal dislike of being used/subjugated aside, Kagetora won't allow himself to give in to his feelings toward Naoe because he thinks the minute he does, Naoe will be off to the races. Even if Naoe actually does love and want him, the real him, which Kagetora HIGHLY doubts, he considers any love which he might inspire to be insufficient to have kept the man by his side all this time. Really, it must all be about Naoe's ego. Naoe wants to win. When he does, the game will be over and he will leave. Kagetora can't stand the thought of losing Naoe, so he plays along. He may have other reasons for doing so, as well, but his primary motivation is keeping Naoe with him.

Conclusion: Kagetora does not cocktease. There is no real evidence of him doing so, and it is highly unlikely given what we know of his character and past that he would. Kagetora is extremely uncomfortable with sex. He doesn’t think of himself as desirable, either, which would mean that it probably wouldn’t occur to him to use his sex appeal to his advantage. Within the context of the Naoe/Kagetora dynamic, it is primarily Naoe who uses sexuality as a weapon.

lady_nara @ 2008-04-12T15:46:00

2008-04-12T22:45:01Z

Okay, so I've been trying to get a handle on the characters of Mirage of Blaze for a while, now. They are all pretty difficult, but Kagetora is probably still the most mysterious to me. We see something of Takaya, but our perception of Takaya is nearly as confused as Takaya's view of himself. Takaya never really had a lot of self-knowledge to begin with, and adding a bunch of muddled memories and an identity crisis into the mix doesn't help any. Kagetora, in his full centuries-spanning warlord-ly glory is hinted at, but we just never get as clear an image of him as of the other characters.

Another problem is that Kagetora likes to keep his feelings bottled up and secret (sometimes even from himself) and he tries to maintain an outward image which doesn't always correspond to the reality. So we get a lot of bystanders carrying away radically different impressions of him. Even the ones who suspect how complicated Kagetora really is wind up formulating theories as to what is actually going on in there which conflict with each other.

So, we get all these outsiders having extreme reactions to him (and they are ALWAYS extreme), and we get some conflicting theories as to what is causing those reactions, and then we get a bit of Kagetora's take on things, which is generally clouded by the fact that he doesn't think much of himself and barely notices the impression he makes on people.

Others: Kagetora is COOL and SEXY and PURE and SCARY and GENTLE and INTENSE and MASTERFUL and CHILDLIKE and MANIPULATIVE and INNOCENT and COLDHEARTED and SENSITIVE and EMPATHETIC and SADISTIC and MASOCHISTIC and CAN'T STAND TO HURT OTHERS and TERRIFIED OF BEING HURT and....just perfect, really.

Kagetora: I actually kind of really suck. I hope no one notices. *largely oblivious to the extreme reactions*

Reader: ...whaaa?

Oi. And then, making it all even more confusing, there's all the fanon theories of what Kagetora is really like. Which would be all over the place just from what we see in canon (I would think), but the skewed anime makes it a complete mess. Because people get the wrong idea about who Naoe is, and then, seeing what Naoe has done and the way he blames a lot of it on Kagetora, they come up with a rather twisted idea of what sort of person Kagetora must be to make someone like Naoe behave in that way.

-_-;

So, basically, it is really hard to try to understand Kagetora. Making it both fascinating and frustrating to have him as your favorite character. Which he is. *pets*

lady_nara @ 2008-03-26T01:25:00

2008-03-26T05:46:54Z

Well, if anyone is interested, kat_tyan has put up russian translations of several Mirage of Blaze novels/sections of novels, including what I believe is almost the entire wadatsumi arc, on her website. I have not gotten through all of it yet, but I am currently working my way through the wadatsumi arc.

I, of course, cannot read russian. But I have found that using babelfish to translate, while referring to some of the summaries of that arc which have been written by sargraf, I can pretty much figure out what's going on most of the time. That is not to say that it is easy or particularly clear (I have to stop and sort of uncross my eyes every once in a while), but it is possible and significantly better than the nothing which is currently available of that arc in english otherwise.

kat_tyan's website is here: http://mirage.karlson.ru/
If you punch that address into babelfish and set it to translate from russian to english, the first category on the menu to the left should translate as "books." Click on that, and then select "transfer" for the items that are listed under "books." I belive that "transfer" just means translation in this context. The "empress of coastal waters" parts I, II and III are what she has up of the wadatsumi arc. For those of you who don't know, that arc is what immediately follows the events of the MoB ova, ending (I believe) with the death of a *ahem* significant character. I do highly recommend reading Sargraf's summaries along with the babelfish translations, if anyone decides to try this, as Sargraf directly translates several of the most important conversations in her summaries, and they are of course MUCH better translations than babelfish can manage.

Sargraf's summaries of the wadatsumi arc can be found here:
http://sargraf.livejournal.com/41694.html

Actually the above link is for the fourth part of her wadatsumi arc summary, but it has the links to the previous three parts.

lady_nara @ 2008-03-19T00:17:00

2008-03-19T04:23:46Z

Okay, what follows is a response that I made to a question asked on the mirageofblaze lj community that just got too long. The question was essentially: Was the ending of the Mirage of Blaze novel series happy or sad? What better grand finale might you have wished for?

I answer with a bit of a rant and some probably very silly wishful thinking.

I think that the ending was supposed to be both sad and happy. One the one hand, the Japanese seem to think that the most beautiful romances end in tragedy (especially BL ones). So we get the whole doomed love thing where one lover dies dramatically in the other's arms. Naoe and Kagetora never really get to just be together (y'know, as PEOPLE) the way they've always longed for.

On the other hand, a piece of Kagetora's soul enters Naoe and will most likely gradually become a part of him. Now, Naoe has been talking about wanting to "merge" with Kagetora for forever, for his own soul to be transformed and saved by Kagetora's. So he gets his wish- sorta. And in a certain sense, they can't be separated anymore. Kinda. Plus, Naoe gets to be really noble and romantic and swear to keep living on as long as possible to keep that scrap of Kagetora alive.
If you can call that "Kagetora" and "alive."

So you get the obligatory doomed romance, the heroic love that transcends death, and you also get the lovers-united-even-more-intimately-than-before-for-all-of-time. Plus, this way Naoe gets to keep living in a fairly stable condition without seeming shallow, rather than committing suicide in despair or something.

So, some may call it pure genius, to put all those elements together in one overwhelming ending.

Personally, I hate it. I think the term here would be “literary betrayal”? We the readers have been strung along for forty freaking books, hearts bleeding profusely, watching the fated lovers’ desire for union and happiness be thwarted over and over and OVER again.

“But surely,” the innocent reader thinks, “with all this prolonged misery, there must be a light at the end of the tunnel. Look at all the hints- admonitions to hope and demonstrations that love conquers all, and even all the shounen crap about how those who try their damnedest will eventually succeed…surely there must be a happy ending!”

Surely not, poor reader. All the suffering, all the heroism, all the obsessive romantic comparisons to flowers and Christ and beasts and moons and motherhood and, God save us, even male unmentionables- all for nothing! Unless you count the spiritual journey that Naoe has undergone, which is very interesting and moving, but COME ON. To my mind Naoe himself would say SCREW SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT, I WANT KAGETORA! Preferably in molestable form.

Naoe’s been carrying on conversations with the Kagetora Voice In His Head (AKA His Conscience) for a good long while already, and obviously not finding it very satisfying. I fail to see how this could be much better.

So, no, I don’t like it. In some ways it kind of feels like Kuwabara-sensei went “HA! I know what you guys want and I’ve been leading up to for forever- but I’m not going to give it to you because it’s too obvious and I want to have an unpredictable, artsy ending.”

As to an alternate ending- I’ve been pondering that recently. I don’t know enough about the novels to really work everything out, but I did have a general sort of idea. Given how ridiculously powerful and alluring and charismatic, etc., Kagetora is, not to mention all the intense self-sacrificial suffering he’s undergone for the last few centuries, particularly recently (much of which is in order to protect the next Buddha, no less!) it seems to me that he should enter the realm of the gods. Dude, if Kenshin got to go, Kagetora certainly should.

Kagetora definitely demonstrates a sense of righteousness and a willingness to sacrifice everything for the good of all far beyond that of most mortal men. That would be why people keep comparing him to Christ. So why shouldn’t something supernatural happen and Kagetora winds up not soul-imploding because he’s reached his capacity as a human, but being given the capacity of a god and sort of exploding into divinity?

Yeah, he and Naoe still wouldn’t be able to be together in the present. But then you could have something fun like Naoe entering god-Kagetora’s service on earth (ooh, he can get pumped full of Kagetora-power and intimately linked with him just as the Yashashuu did with Bishamonten! You want a piece of Kagetora in Naoe? Naoe can carry Kagetora's presence/power like Kagetora carried Bishamonten's, like "a woman being forced to carry the child of a man she doesn't love"- only, voluntary, and Naoe does actually love him. It all fits! And the spiritual pregnancy theme of MoB is fulfilled!) and being promised that if he serves well for a time and develops further (with Kagetora’s divine help) he’ll get the chance to follow his beloved and they can have an awesome divine love fest 4-eva! *_____*

After all, it is more than implied that Naoe is himself a fairly remarkable human being, and rather similar to Kagetora in many respects, especially toward the end there. And he has come so far in four hundred years. He's even a monk in this life! I could see him pursuing the path of godhood with a fair chance of success, especially with Kagetora helping him.

So there you have Naoe's spiritual journey, a bittersweet parting, a heroic love that transcends time and mortality, and even a lovers-united-even-more-intimately-than-before with an even-MORE-intimately-for-all-time to follow. Plus, all the stuff that Kagetora’s been fighting for and the whole series has been praising won’t just be completely cut off and BETRAYED at the end. And the story is left sort of open-ended, which seems to be something that Kuwabara-sensei was shooting for.
And Kagetora will finally get what he deserves from Karma.

*happy tears*

Of course, that’s ignoring the horrendous mess I probably just made of the particular brand of Buddhism MoB claims to follow. Sigh.

lady_nara @ 2008-02-15T03:09:00

2008-02-15T08:44:49Z

Okay, I know that I promised MoB fic in honor of Valentine's Day, and I promise that I have already started. But I'm afraid that it simply isn't ready to post yet. Sorry! I will get it up eventually, I swear!

So, to make up for that, I went ahead and scanned my copy of MoB manga volume 4, and am making it available here.

This volume covers Takaya's backstory (junior high student Takaya! Eee!) as well as including a cute little story about Naoe taking Takaya out for his birthday (so it sort of fits the Valentine's theme...just ignore the "Merry Christmas" at the end ^^;).

I do not speak Japanese, so these are all raw. Hopefully those of you who don't have this volume already will enjoy looking at it anyway. I have a vague idea of what's going on which I picked up from some site that I can no longer find. So, I'll put a brief summary-ish thing up soon, probably tomorrow if I have time.

Unfortunately, because I know nothing about computers and was trying to use an unfamiliar program to scan and save the images in a format which would allow users without that particular program to open them, the instructions for actually getting the files and viewing them are rather long. Sorry!!

If you still want to bother, here's what you have to do:

First go here to get the download: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=JJPORS20

You will need winrar to open it. If you don’t already have winrar, go here and click “download now” to get the free trial version: http://www.download.com/WinRAR/3000-2250_4-10007677.html

Right click on the manga file and select “open with.” Hit “choose program” and browse to find your newly downloaded winrar and click on that to open the file.

Once you’ve opened the file in winrar, you should see a bunch of .tif files. Right click on one of them and choose “select all.” Then right click again and select “ extract to the specified folder.” Choose the desired location (I would suggest an empty folder), then hit “ok” and wait for the files to extract- this should only take a few seconds.

Go to that folder. You should now be able to open the .tif files, but if your computer is like mine, they will be negatives. I don’t know why. -_-;

To fix this, open your start menu. Select “all programs,” then “Microsoft office,” “Microsoft office tools,” and click on “Microsoft office document imaging.” Once that program is up, go to “file,” hit “open” and browse to find your .tif files. You’ll have to open them one by one, but they’ll be properly viewable, finally.

I am so sorry that this is so complicated! I will try to figure out a simpler way to do this, but for now, this is the best I can do.

Happy Valentine’s Day, all!

lady_nara @ 2008-02-10T06:07:00

2008-02-10T11:09:02Z

meganinhiding posted an interesting rant regarding the popular practice of heaping all the blame for the agony of the Naoe/Kagetora romance squarely on Kagetora's shoulders and putting Naoe forward as some kind of martyr. I quite sympathize with the irritation that she expressed with this unfortunate misrepresentation, and was inspired to write my own rant.

Rather than go over the bad Kagetora / poor Naoe idea which has already been sufficiently debunked by meganinhiding, Sargraf, etc., I thought I'd contemplate the understandably-bad-because-of-trauma Kagetora / poor Naoe concept. Herein lie speculative, much too long ramblings, some spoilers, and many unflattering things said about Naoe. I should probably say right up front that while I openly admit that Kagetora is my favorite character, I do love Naoe to pieces as well. Actually, I probably like him more for being such an interesting, complex character with a dark side than I would if he really was just a good guy dropped into awful circumstances.

Read at your own risk.

Even those fans who remain sympathetic to Kagetora often accept the idea of Naoe as the really-nice-guy-tortured-beyond-human-capacity-into-evil-actions-that-he-is-therefore-not-responsible-for, and excuse Kagetora's negative reaction to him as arising entirely from rape trauma. Certainly the anime encourages this view.

The novels, however, seem to reveal a Naoe who wears his compassionate, trustworthy persona like a mask that can be dropped whenever it no longer suits his purposes. The real Naoe is much colder, more ruthless, and astoundingly selfish. Even without Kagetora's sexual trauma, there would be plenty of reasons why he might not want to hop into bed with Naoe, one BIG one being Naoe's intense resentment toward him for his "perfection" and the resulting desire to utterly subjugate him.

When Naoe flips out and rants about how Kagetora is torturing him, he's usually not referring to Kagetora's spurning of his affections, supposed sadistic cockteasing, or general cruelty. Rather, his main complaint is that Kagetora is just so frickin' AWESOME that Naoe feels "inferior," "threatened," "driven to the edge," etc., because Naoe is an incredibly arrogant and competitive person who can't stand the thought that someone else might be all-around "better" than him. The fact that Kagetora's sheer awesomeness has actually caused Naoe to fall in love with him only makes it that much more humiliating.

If you’ve read the Memorial Book story “Guilty Night,” you might remember that Kagetora keeps trying to get closer to Naoe and is pushed away, until Naoe comes right out and says that the only way they can have any kind of relationship beyond that of master and subordinate would be if Kagetora switched places with him and submitted to him utterly.

Now, this story, despite being written by the actual author, was definitely not included in the series for a reason. In order to take the characters where she (and the fangirls distraught over Mirage’s ending) wanted them to go, both Naoe and Kagetora are made to do things their personalities wouldn’t normally permit and several important issues are ignored entirely (like Kagetora’s Rape Trauma Syndrome, for one). Despite this, I would say that there are still quite a few insights into their characters and motivations to be drawn from “Guilty Night” which are most likely reliable. I would argue that this scene provides one of them.

Naoe’s own pride prevents him from entering into an intimate relationship with Kagetora as long as Kagetora is in a superior position, both as his actual superior in chain of command and as his superior in perfection within Naoe’s own mind. Notice, Naoe doesn’t try to seduce Kagetora (at least, within Takaya’s lifetime), he tries to rape him. Is this because he deems attempts at courtship to be hopeless from previous failed attempts and simply loses control? Or because he’s never honestly tried to court Kagetora, and his attempts to force sex are really rooted in domination (though involving a real, frustrated desire)?

I think it quite interesting that the author only allows Naoe and Takaya to be together in volume 20 when Naoe has finally given up on his centuries-old goal of conquering Kagetora. It takes a Kagetora who has been brought down to the point where he is completely at Naoe’s mercy, both physically and emotionally, for Naoe to realize that no, he doesn’t really want to crushify him. And it takes the same plus Naoe not squashing/abandoning Kagetora even when the latter is absolutely helpless and at his lowest/most pathetic for Kagetora to trust him.

So really, both of them have major issues and are at fault for the twisted mess of their relationship. Kagetora has trust issues and Naoe has competition issues. Both are quite sympathetic characters in their own way. But considering the way that Naoe treats Kagetora, even just in the anime, and especially given the vulnerability of Kagetora’s amnesiac state, I am frequently astonished by how little compassion Kagetora is shown by fans. Naoe is cut a ton of slack while Kagetora gets little to none and all the blame besides.

What is the reason for this? meganinhiding, among others, has theorized that Naoe seems to embody an ideal as a sophisticated, romantic older gentlemen which endears him to female Mirage enthusiasts. The anime leaves out and changes a good deal to smooth over the rough edges of his character and past, and to reinforce this idealized Naoe. Plus, in the anime at least, as meganinhiding points out, Kagetora’s motivations are not explored to the same degree that Naoe’s are, but his actions are left the same while Naoe’s are prettied up.

What is my point? I wish that people would stop acting as though Kagetora was the one to screw up his relationship with Naoe, rather than it being a joint failure. Kagetora has a list of issues that could go on for miles that cause him to do all sorts of stupid, self-defeating, nasty, easily-misinterpretable things. But Naoe, too, has problems and personality flaws which frequently cause him to (let's be frank) act like a complete bastard even when he's not raping innocent young women.

This is not to say that I particularly blame anyone for holding the view which I oppose here. I quite understand that things being as they are with the inaccurate anime and the only partially fan-translated novels, it is an easy mistake to make. Regardless, I would like to see as many people come to realize that it is a mistake as possible.