Finally finished this huge novel last night, after about two years of procrastination on my part. Great ending, surprisingly amazingly paced towards the end of an otherwise frustratingly structured book.
Yoshikawa's world definitely involves more characters, or at least, focuses on them more than Inoue. This is one aspect that I lean more towards Inoue in. The first half of the book, I could put up with the side characters and their various stories and how they ultimately intertwined, but around the 10th Iori-gets-into-trouble-and-has-to-work-at-the-tea-house chapter, I gave up on reading those seriously.
Obviously, the Musashi chapters are the most intriguing and offer the most insight into Yoshikawa's vision of this legendary figure. His interpretation of Kojiro and Musashi's dynamic has been compared to Satan and Jesus, which I still find... odd. I think they're incredibly similar in many ways while obviously being spiritually polar opposites.
I find Yoshikawa's Kojiro is far more sympathetic than it appears on the surface (though nowhere near the same as Inoue's). Musashi, of course, is also far from perfection even towards the end of the novel. He still encounters missteps, and by his own admission has a long way to go. That being said, the final form of Musashi we have by the end of the novel is an awe-inspiring figure that really did leave a lasting impression on me.
This is all to say I wonder who Musashi will end up being once the series is deemed "complete" by Inoue. The comparison between manga and novel also begs the question: at what point WILL it end?
I've got a few thoughts on the ending myself, but Ill wait for more input from you guys.
Yoshikawa's world definitely involves more characters, or at least, focuses on them more than Inoue. This is one aspect that I lean more towards Inoue in. The first half of the book, I could put up with the side characters and their various stories and how they ultimately intertwined, but around the 10th Iori-gets-into-trouble-and-has-to-work-at-the-tea-house chapter, I gave up on reading those seriously.
Obviously, the Musashi chapters are the most intriguing and offer the most insight into Yoshikawa's vision of this legendary figure. His interpretation of Kojiro and Musashi's dynamic has been compared to Satan and Jesus, which I still find... odd. I think they're incredibly similar in many ways while obviously being spiritually polar opposites.
I find Yoshikawa's Kojiro is far more sympathetic than it appears on the surface (though nowhere near the same as Inoue's). Musashi, of course, is also far from perfection even towards the end of the novel. He still encounters missteps, and by his own admission has a long way to go. That being said, the final form of Musashi we have by the end of the novel is an awe-inspiring figure that really did leave a lasting impression on me.
This is all to say I wonder who Musashi will end up being once the series is deemed "complete" by Inoue. The comparison between manga and novel also begs the question: at what point WILL it end?
I've got a few thoughts on the ending myself, but Ill wait for more input from you guys.