New Readers (No Spoilers)

I still remember when I got that one, I distinctly remember reading it at a bus stop outside a Chinese place in Santa Cruz... good volume.:badbone:
 
グリフィス said:
I still remember when I got that one, I distinctly remember reading it at a bus stop outside a Chinese place in Santa Cruz... good volume.:badbone:
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Haha, awesome! It just arrived yesterday and I can't wait to dive into it. I'll probably start reading it tonight before bed.

Edit: Vol. 15 is awesome so far!
Master Fudo was beyond creepy and his fight with Kanemaki Jisai was awesome! I literally shouted "Fuck yeah!" when Jisai made his killing stroke and blood splattered all across his face. He looked so badass at that moment, even more so because he'd been acting so hesitant about the fight.
I just placed my order for Vol. 16 and hope to finish 15 later tonight or this weekend.
 
Rhombaad said:
Haha, awesome! It just arrived yesterday and I can't wait to dive into it. I'll probably start reading it tonight before bed.

Edit: Vol. 15 is awesome so far!
Master Fudo was beyond creepy and his fight with Kanemaki Jisai was awesome! I literally shouted "Fuck yeah!" when Jisai made his killing stroke and blood splattered all across his face. He looked so badass at that moment, even more so because he'd been acting so hesitant about the fight.
I just placed my order for Vol. 16 and hope to finish 15 later tonight or this weekend.
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I like you enthusiasm! :zodd:
Yeah, that's when the Kojiro arc really begins to pick up steam, just wait for the next volume though! :guts:

Volume 15:
Speaking of the creepy Master Fudo, a crazy old theory Walter and I have tossed back and forth; remember that line about how skilled Fudo was to wield the drying pole one handed and Jisai wondering if he once went by another, greater name? And, doesn't he also look kinda familiar? Hint: Volume 7.
 
グリフィス said:
I like you enthusiasm! :zodd:
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Thanks! Now that I've got some cash again I can start following the series more regularly.

グリフィス said:
Yeah, that's when the Kojiro arc really begins to pick up steam, just wait for the next volume though! :guts:
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I really like how it's shifted to follow Kojiro's story. It reminds me a lot of how Miura jumps back and forth between Guts and Griffith.

グリフィス said:
Volume 15:
Speaking of the creepy Master Fudo, a crazy old theory Walter and I have tossed back and forth; remember that line about how skilled Fudo was to wield the drying pole one handed and Jisai wondering if he once went by another, greater name? And, doesn't he also look kinda familiar? Hint: Volume 7.
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I thought maybe that would be something covered in future volumes when I read it last night. I'll take a look through Vol. 7 when I get home tonight.
 
Rhombaad said:
Thanks! Now that I've got some cash again I can start following the series more regularly.
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Good news all around!

Rhombaad said:
I really like how it's shifted to follow Kojiro's story. It reminds me a lot of how Miura jumps back and forth between Guts and Griffith.
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Yeah, another parallel! Though Inoue takes it to the extreme here.

Rhombaad said:
I thought maybe that would be something covered in future volumes when I read it last night. I'll take a look through Vol. 7 when I get home tonight.
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Cool, let me know if you see what I see. :slan:
 
Yeah, when I first saw master Fudo I thought he was
Kami'Izumi Ise no Kami
. It's good your making progress on your reading Rhombaad. Keep at it!
 
グリフィス said:
Cool, let me know if you see what I see. :slan:
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Kami'izumi Ise no Kami Hidetsuna? There's definitely a resemblance, and I don't think he'd have any trouble wielding a nodachi like "The Drying Pole" with one hand. Do you guys think he went crazy or something in his old age? He was in his 60s when he first taught Yagyu Muneyoshi and In'ei, so it's possible that he might still have been alive by the time Kojiro was nine. What do you guys think happened in the time between?
 
Rhombaad said:
Kami'izumi Ise no Kami Hidetsuna? There's definitely a resemblance, and I don't think he'd have any trouble wielding a nodachi like "The Drying Pole" with one hand. Do you guys think he went crazy or something in his old age? He was in his 60s when he first taught Yagyu Muneyoshi and In'ei, so it's possible that he might still have been alive by the time Kojiro was nine. What do you guys think happened in the time between?
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On the nose (though Branded gave it away =); also, in my copy of volume 7,
it says he was only 50 at the time he fought Yagyu and In'ei
, lending more credence to the plausibility.

Anyway, I don't have a solid theory as to what or why, perhaps he was simply driven mad by the sword; not his dedication to it, but his peerless excellence. Like that malaise you feel when you max out everything in a game (once, I went around and killed every single enemy and NPC in the original Fallout, "I won, right?" =).
Ittosai
has expressed boredom with being unrivaled on multiple occasions, and
Fudo
himself said, perhaps revealingly,
"Rather than being on top, it's better to work your way uphill... Heh heh heh... The way of the sword is magnificent."

Has anyone put that base appeal better? Further on down that road, what really makes it fun to compare them is the contrast between them. One was totally calm, centered and at peace, the source of
"no sword,"
while other was erratic, disturbed and chaotic,
coming to the psychotically zen conclusion immediately after losing his hand, "What was two is now one. In a sense it's less distracting."
Though, they were also both pure in their own way. Each arguably represents the extreme of "light" and "dark" that Yagyu and Ito are each aligned with respectively, and which Musashi struggles between. So, does that just prove they're truly different, or simply make the idea more intriguing that those two sides could manifest to such extremes in the same man, one incarnation the super-ego to the other's id, or as Mr. Burns would say, yin to the raging Yang? In any case, what does that say for the balance of that light and darkness overall, and most importantly, what does that say for the balance within and between Musashi and Kojiro?
 
グリフィス said:
On the nose (though Branded gave it away =); also, in my copy of volume 7,
it says he was only 50 at the time he fought Yagyu and In'ei
, lending more credence to the plausibility.
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I'll have to double check my volume, but my guess is it says the same thing. I was going off of memory, which is never a good idea haha. But yeah, that would make it even more likely that he was still alive at that time.

グリフィス said:
Anyway, I don't have a solid theory as to what or why, perhaps he was simply driven mad by the sword; not his dedication to it, but his peerless excellence. Like that malaise you feel when you max out everything in a game (once, I went around and killed every single enemy and NPC in the original Fallout, "I won, right?" =).
Ittosai
has expressed boredom with being unrivaled on multiple occasions, and
Fudo
himself said, perhaps revealingly,
"Rather than being on top, it's better to work your way uphill... Heh heh heh... The way of the sword is magnificent."
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The only problem I have with the idea is that he just didn't seem like someone who even cared how good he was. He seemed totally at peace with himself and his skill. However, if he started going mad due to an illness of some kind, that would all go out the window.

グリフィス said:
Has anyone put that base appeal better? Further on down that road, what really makes it fun to compare them is the contrast between them. One was totally calm, centered and at peace, the source of
"no sword,"
while other was erratic, disturbed and chaotic,
coming to the psychotically zen conclusion immediately after losing his hand, "What was two is now one. In a sense it's less distracting."
Though, they were also both pure in their own way. Each arguably represents the extreme of "light" and "dark" that Yagyu and Ito are each aligned with respectively, and which Musashi struggles between. So, does that just prove they're truly different, or simply make the idea more intriguing that those two sides could manifest to such extremes in the same man, one incarnation the super-ego to the other's id, or as Mr. Burns would say, yin to the raging Yang? In any case, what does that say for the balance of that light and darkness overall, and most importantly, what does that say for the balance within and between Musashi and Kojiro?
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It would certainly fit with the rest of the story and the internal struggle Musashi is constantly dealing with. Think Inoue will ever give a definitive answer? My gut tells me he's probably going to leave it at this.
 
I know we've tossed around the idea a few times before, but there are a few problems with it. I always thought we were joking too? Like, "*nyuk nyuk* wouldn't that be neat?" :troll: Anyway, here's my reasons why I don't think it's true.

There's no hint at all from Sekishusai that Kami'Izumi fell from grace (and what a fall from grace it'd be too...), so to speak. He still thinks fondly of his former master, and even dedicated a wing of his estate to him. Not to mention the resemblance between Fudo and Kami'Izumi isn't very strong. Particularly, Fudo looks quite a bit younger than even the flashback depiction of Kami'Izumi.
 
Walter said:
There's no hint at all from Sekishusai that Kami'Izumi fell from grace (and what a fall from grace it'd be too...), so to speak. He still thinks fondly of his former master, and even dedicated a wing of his estate to him. Not to mention the resemblance between Fudo and Kami'Izumi isn't very strong. Particularly, Fudo looks quite a bit younger than even the flashback depiction of Kami'Izumi.
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Even I'nei thinks fondly of his old master, which leads me to believe they were probably there at the end with him, or at least knew of his death. Fudo's facial structure is a bit different from Kami'izumi's, as well. There's a slight resemblance, but there's also a lot of differences.

I did enjoy that Fudo came up with "The Drying Pole" and not Sojiro. It was a pretty cool twist on history.
 
Rhombaad said:
The only problem I have with the idea is that he just didn't seem like someone who even cared how good he was. He seemed totally at peace with himself and his skill. However, if he started going mad due to an illness of some kind, that would all go out the window.
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We didn't really get that deep into the inner workings of his character, but imagine one having a cataclysmic shift in their way of looking at the world from one outlook to another... hmmm, I just realized there's a conversation I want to reference for this but can't without spoiling recent events (and it's not worth it for this =). So, I'm going to have to give you a rain check on this one, it's not like I'm going to fight to the death on this point anyway.

Rhombaad said:
It would certainly fit with the rest of the story and the internal struggle Musashi is constantly dealing with. Think Inoue will ever give a definitive answer? My gut tells me he's probably going to leave it at this.
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Yeah, I don't think so either, speaking of which...

Walter said:
I know we've tossed around the idea a few times before, but there are a few problems with it. I always thought we were joking too? Like, "*nyuk nyuk* wouldn't that be neat?" :troll:
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Yeah, I was just running with the idea, and forget to add disclaimers
that the Jisai thing about a more renowned name was probably just a throwaway line to add some extra gravitas to the scene, and
that the whole thing is really more of a "what if." It was fun though, and I do think it's possible, but either way, the comparison makes for good commentary on the possible limitations of the "dark" approach to the sword, and bigger picture, how it pertains to both Musashi and Kojiro (in this case, I'm thinking more Kojiro).

Walter said:
Anyway, here's my reasons why I don't think it's true.

There's no hint at all from Sekishusai that Kami'Izumi fell from grace (and what a fall from grace it'd be too...), so to speak. He still thinks fondly of his former master, and even dedicated a wing of his estate to him.
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I'll play devil's advocate and say that doesn't confirm or deny it.
Yagyu
wouldn't have to necessarily know exactly what became of his old master, especially if he disappeared into obscure living.

Walter said:
Not to mention the resemblance between Fudo and Kami'Izumi isn't very strong. Particularly, Fudo looks quite a bit younger than even the flashback depiction of Kami'Izumi.[/spoiler]
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We'll have to agree to disagree on those points, particularly the latter. Comparing them,
Kami's
features don't look so old as wise to me, and while
Fudo
could just be naturally more wrinkled, ragged, and ugly from hard living, I can also plausibly see his face as an older, ravaged, version of
Kami's
. He still would have aged very well, but then, so has Ittosai. :guts:

Or, to put it another way, I think
Fudo
resembles
Kami
as much as Baiken resembles Kohei. Anyway, to be clear, it's just a "what if" scenario, nobody should look at it as anything more, and certainly not the default interpretation.
 
Just poping in to say I love the manga, I'm ... 4 books in ?

Anyway It makes me want to watch some old movies my uncle found that are based around Musashi too
 
Gah! Vol. 16 is way overpriced on Amazon.com and emerchandise.com just canceled my order. I'm gonna roll on down to Kinokuniya today and see if they still have a copy in. Otherwise, I may have to pick it up on Amazon.com anyway...
 
Syaoran said:
Just poping in to say I love the manga, I'm ... 4 books in ?

Anyway It makes me want to watch some old movies my uncle found that are based around Musashi too
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Welcome Syaoran, hope to hear more from you.

Rhombaad said:
Gah! Vol. 16 is way overpriced on Amazon.com and emerchandise.com just canceled my order. I'm gonna roll on down to Kinokuniya today and see if they still have a copy in. Otherwise, I may have to pick it up on Amazon.com anyway...
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Whoa, you weren't kidding, for some reason 16 is listed at $45.95 through Viz Store/Amazon, I thought it was a typo, but 15 is also listed at $33.50 (I notice searching the old fashioned way on amazon reveals they're all from private sellers). 14 and 17 are both the normal $9.95, as are the others I randomly clicked, so it seems like a bizarre lack of supply with those two volumes in particular. Weird.
 
For a while, volume 15 of Berserk was also a rarity and overpriced. Thankfully they made a second (third?) run of it, and all is well now. I wonder what's so special about the teen numbers...?
 
Yeah, seems like that's around where some volumes fall into no man's land between new release and reissue. It probably doesn't help that Viz also has a competing reissue format in VizBig editions, making reprints of those volumes redundant.
 
Damn, that's ironic considering your previous purchasing limitations, but we've got another full-fledged addict among our ranks! :zodd:
 
グリフィス said:
Damn, that's ironic considering your previous purchasing limitations, but we've got another full-fledged addict among our ranks! :zodd:
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Damn indeed, but nonetheless for Vagabond it's totally worth it. :guts:
 
グリフィス said:
Damn, that's ironic considering your previous purchasing limitations, but we've got another full-fledged addict among our ranks! :zodd:
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Haha, this time I put in on my credit card instead of using my checking account. But yeah, I'd say I'm addicted. :carcus:
 
I was by this bookstore over the weekend. They have a manga section there. I bought 5 volumes of GTO for 25 bucks and I saw VAgabond 16 and almost the entire series, for 8 bucks a piece. Vol. 16 was in very good condition and it had no signs of damage. I"ll probably get it next time, just in case.
 
I finished Vol. 16 last night and promptly ordered Vol. 17 (thankfully, it's available on www.amazon.com at the normal price).
I really liked the fact that Denshichiro encounters Ittousai and Kojiro on the beach, along with Ueda and three other samurai. It was cool seeing Den before he had "cut anyone" and how Ittousai belittles him. The point system Ittousai established was hilarious, too. Too bad the volume ends on another one of those insane cliffhangers.
I can't wait until Vol. 17 arrives. :guts:
 
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