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So did I ever mention I had finished Basara? I have finished Basara! It continues to be grade-A ridiculously dramatic crack all the way through.
There was a while there in the middle where I had a private theory that Basara and Angel Sanctuary must have been coming out at the same time; there were a few (hilarious) narrative choices that seemed directly designed to compete with Kaori Yuki's preferred incest-and-zombies plotting style. EXHIBITS A AND B
EXHIBIT A:
SHURI: My girlfriend . . . is my worst enemy?!? Oh no!
SHURI: If only she had been my sister! That would have been WAY LESS AWFUL, I could totally have dealt with that! Why wasn't she just my sister!!!
BECCA: Shuri, there . . . was no chance and no hints that she was your sister . . . so I am not sure where you are getting this from . . .
YUMI TAMURA: Incest, pshh. Tragic incest is nothing as compared to STAR-CROSSED WORST ENEMIES MEETING ON THE BATTLEFIELD! (But if you guys really want I'll throw in some incest later just for you, I've been keeping the White King on the back-burner for it and everything.)
EXHIBIT B:
NACHI: Oh, no, bleeding seriously, might not make it!
HIJIRI: Nachi! Don't you dare die! Here, eat of my flesh! Drink of my blood! *BITES A CHUNK out of his own arm and waves the BLEEDING WOUND in Nachi's face*
NACHI: . . . blood transfusions don't work that way! I'm not a vampire!
HIJIRI: . . . . . *sulk*
BECCA: LOOOOOOOOOOL okay I will admit this even more hilarious than the "eat of my flesh, my zombie father!" scene in Angel Sanctuary. WELL PLAYED, YUMI TAMURA.
But then I found out that Angel Sanctuary didn't start coming out until Basara was almost over so my pet theory was disproved. However, this does not make these scenes any less hilarious.
I also really approve of the profusion of different kinds of female characters in the second half. I especially approve of the fact that Yumi Tamura's way of getting the story out of severe narrative depression when both leads have plummeted into BSOD pits of despair is to throw in a SPUNKY TEENAGED GENIUS INVENTOR SPY ASSASSIN GIRL to be best friends with her heroine. Kikune, you make everything better! (I also really like Kikune's narrative arc towards the end, because how often do you see stories about ladies being torn between loyalty to a female mentor and a female best friend? NOT OFTEN.) I thoroughly enjoyed the whole Lady Purple storyline too. As for the White King . . . I was taking her tragedy seriously! I was! And then there was the side story in which, well . . .
WHITE KING: So I have lost everything I love, been horribly abused by my family, and am now partially paralyzed and psychologically scarred in twelve different ways, and as the icing on the cake my childhood boyfriend is directly to blame for it all!
CHILDHOOD BOYFRIEND: I know you will always hate me! I hate me too. I will dedicate my life to serving you and protecting you and allowing you to abuse me in an excess of unhealthy codependency!
WHITE KING: Oh well, the one upside to this situation is we can have lots of really hot hatesex, y/y? :D
CHILDHOOD BOYFRIEND: I am sorry I did not think to mention this when I applied for this unhealthy codependency situation, but . . . all of our shared trauma has left me impotent. :( Hatesex is unpossible.
WHITE KING: . . . . . WELL THIS IS JUST THE LAST STRAW, ISN'T IT.
And only then could I truly appreciate her tragedy as it was meant to be appreciated. (Never change, Yumi Tamura. NEVER CHANGE.)
The one thing that confused me about the ending was that Asagi did not die? Look, I have nothing in particular against Asagi, he's a total jerk but he makes me laugh enough with his constant delicate flower whining that I am okay keeping him around. It's just, I mean, the dude has flip-flopped sides at least twice per volume ever since he appeared, and I find his final change of heart for the positive . . . unconvincing? A little?
Also poor Muratake (whom I love, by the way! HIS SAD LITTLE PUT-UPON FACE! The least dignified assassin!) does not deserve to be stuck babysitting Asagi for the rest of his life, although again I will forgive this because HILARITY.
Is there other Yumi Tamura manga I should be reading? If her plot sensibilities are always as amazing as they are in Basara I will fall upon her other works like a whole pack of wolves!
There was a while there in the middle where I had a private theory that Basara and Angel Sanctuary must have been coming out at the same time; there were a few (hilarious) narrative choices that seemed directly designed to compete with Kaori Yuki's preferred incest-and-zombies plotting style. EXHIBITS A AND B
EXHIBIT A:
SHURI: My girlfriend . . . is my worst enemy?!? Oh no!
SHURI: If only she had been my sister! That would have been WAY LESS AWFUL, I could totally have dealt with that! Why wasn't she just my sister!!!
BECCA: Shuri, there . . . was no chance and no hints that she was your sister . . . so I am not sure where you are getting this from . . .
YUMI TAMURA: Incest, pshh. Tragic incest is nothing as compared to STAR-CROSSED WORST ENEMIES MEETING ON THE BATTLEFIELD! (But if you guys really want I'll throw in some incest later just for you, I've been keeping the White King on the back-burner for it and everything.)
EXHIBIT B:
NACHI: Oh, no, bleeding seriously, might not make it!
HIJIRI: Nachi! Don't you dare die! Here, eat of my flesh! Drink of my blood! *BITES A CHUNK out of his own arm and waves the BLEEDING WOUND in Nachi's face*
NACHI: . . . blood transfusions don't work that way! I'm not a vampire!
HIJIRI: . . . . . *sulk*
BECCA: LOOOOOOOOOOL okay I will admit this even more hilarious than the "eat of my flesh, my zombie father!" scene in Angel Sanctuary. WELL PLAYED, YUMI TAMURA.
But then I found out that Angel Sanctuary didn't start coming out until Basara was almost over so my pet theory was disproved. However, this does not make these scenes any less hilarious.
I also really approve of the profusion of different kinds of female characters in the second half. I especially approve of the fact that Yumi Tamura's way of getting the story out of severe narrative depression when both leads have plummeted into BSOD pits of despair is to throw in a SPUNKY TEENAGED GENIUS INVENTOR SPY ASSASSIN GIRL to be best friends with her heroine. Kikune, you make everything better! (I also really like Kikune's narrative arc towards the end, because how often do you see stories about ladies being torn between loyalty to a female mentor and a female best friend? NOT OFTEN.) I thoroughly enjoyed the whole Lady Purple storyline too. As for the White King . . . I was taking her tragedy seriously! I was! And then there was the side story in which, well . . .
WHITE KING: So I have lost everything I love, been horribly abused by my family, and am now partially paralyzed and psychologically scarred in twelve different ways, and as the icing on the cake my childhood boyfriend is directly to blame for it all!
CHILDHOOD BOYFRIEND: I know you will always hate me! I hate me too. I will dedicate my life to serving you and protecting you and allowing you to abuse me in an excess of unhealthy codependency!
WHITE KING: Oh well, the one upside to this situation is we can have lots of really hot hatesex, y/y? :D
CHILDHOOD BOYFRIEND: I am sorry I did not think to mention this when I applied for this unhealthy codependency situation, but . . . all of our shared trauma has left me impotent. :( Hatesex is unpossible.
WHITE KING: . . . . . WELL THIS IS JUST THE LAST STRAW, ISN'T IT.
And only then could I truly appreciate her tragedy as it was meant to be appreciated. (Never change, Yumi Tamura. NEVER CHANGE.)
The one thing that confused me about the ending was that Asagi did not die? Look, I have nothing in particular against Asagi, he's a total jerk but he makes me laugh enough with his constant delicate flower whining that I am okay keeping him around. It's just, I mean, the dude has flip-flopped sides at least twice per volume ever since he appeared, and I find his final change of heart for the positive . . . unconvincing? A little?
Also poor Muratake (whom I love, by the way! HIS SAD LITTLE PUT-UPON FACE! The least dignified assassin!) does not deserve to be stuck babysitting Asagi for the rest of his life, although again I will forgive this because HILARITY.
Is there other Yumi Tamura manga I should be reading? If her plot sensibilities are always as amazing as they are in Basara I will fall upon her other works like a whole pack of wolves!
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(If this is relevant, I know there are a couple relatively cheap volumes of Basara floating around Housing Works, or at least there were as of last week.)
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(I am somewhere around vol. 21, where they're sending balloons back at Shuri's army and the emperor is planning to use the White King to make them bring each other down. (But I think Shuri has a PLAN for this, because no way did he not suspect.) I think I will have to wait on continuing until the first weekend after classes start, because if I read more I won't be able to stop until I'm done.)
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(You know you only have less than four volumes left of the story proper, right? The last two-and-a-bit volumes are side stories! *HELPFUL* It's like you're BASICALLY DONE.)
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Second the rec for 7 SEEDS, which much as I like Basara, I love even more. WHY OH WHY IS THIS AWARDWINNING POSTAPOCALYPTIC SERIES WRITTEN FOR WOMEN NOT LICENSED???
---L.
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I think at this point I am waiting on 7 Seeds until after my finals are done, at which point I fully expect to spend an AMAZING WEEKEND doing nothing but reading scanlations. IT WILL BE GLORIOUS.
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---L.