these far and starlit shores

New Saiyuki! translated by the wonderful, wonderful people over at saiyuki_manga.

There are two chapters, the last chapter of the sky burial arc, and the first chapter of a new arc that is bringing ALL OF THE AWESOME.

( spoilers! )

In the long wait between chapters, I reread what we've got so far of Ibun, and was struck by the huge gap between the world were seeing in Ibun, and the world we see now. So Ibun is really setting up the question: what on earth happened? ( ibun spoilers )

Somehow I hadn't quite processed before what it meant that Sanzo is carrying the Maten Sutra, the one that should be held by a youkai. In a very real way, this makes him more one of the ikkou: not quite human, not quite youkai, somewhere in between. And, moreover, as it is with Gojyo and Hakkai, Sanzo's halfway status is a reflection of pain, and of things not going right, or at least, not according to plan. Which adds more dimensions to the way he resists thinking of himself as part of the ikkou for so long, or the way he keeps grumbling that he's completely human, stop lumping him in with his youkai servants -- of course, the fact that he's carrying a youkai scripture, that he is in some weird metaphysical way a halfbreed priest, is deeply reflective of what he sees as his failure, and Koumyou's.

Right, so, Gaiden is over. The last chapter just went up over at saiyuki_manga (and thank you so much again to everyone involved in that community).

I'm not going to be terribly coherent.

( spoilers and flail )