Basara 2
Posted: January 30, 2009 Filed under: Basara 14 Comments »Oh, Sarasa, Shuri. You two crazy star-crossed lovers. I hope the convenient meetings at the hot springs will continue for a while yet, but I must say I’m a big fan of communicating via parrot, too. Here’s hoping the owl will grow up and get in on the messenger service action.
I liked… well, everything about this volume. The best action section was probably Tatara’s trip through the underground tunnel to reach the city with the Suzaku sword. I liked the various traps, pitfalls, and dangers, and I liked the way the main character collected herself to overcome the challenge. Though I feel like pointing out that the little owl probably wouldn’t have survived that swim at the end.
The other action scene, where we meet Hayato and he does his bad decision thing, was not as good only because… Tatara pretty much tells you exactly what is going to happen, and Hayato is kind of annoying. He seems to be sticking around, and he’ll probably be the one wielding the Suzaku sword, so I guess I should get used to him.
Bonus: not one, but two couples sleep together in this story. Of course, one was far less… erotic than the other, but I’m rooting for the non-erotic couple more. They did sleep together naked, but the actual sex was had by the nearly-married couple. It was tragic sex, so I guess that means I shouldn’t get too attached to Shido, then?
I’m also looking for more opportunities for Ageha to enter the story. He’s just awesome.
I’m actually kind of surprised that the story contains somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-10 characters as of the second volume, and I have absolutely no trouble keeping any of them straight. If only Hoshin Engi had these powers.
Yay, I’m glad you’re continuing to enjoy it.
Random points:
* I heart the little owl. Shinbashi FTW.
* Ageha is indeed awesome. I predict that you will only love him more as things progress.
* Hayato is indeed annoying.
Yay!
Just … yay!
And you’ve only just begun meeting characters. You have yet to see Muratake, Kikune, Hiiragi, Chacha, Zaki, Yuna, Asato, Nakijin, Unten, Lady Ginkgo, the Purple Lady, Wind Owl, the Serpent King, Taro, Houzumi, Renko, Hijiri, Nachi, Sakaki, Basho, Masunaga, Tamon, Hagiwara, Tachibana, Momonoi, Sakurada, etc, and they are all pretty important characters. Oh, and you haven’t met Asagi, who is my favorite character in all of Basara. And the wonderful thing is, it’s easy to keep all of them straight!
Sara K.: I’m really, really amazed at how easy it is to keep them straight so far. I’m reading the third volume right now, and I can tell that at least two more major characters have joined up (Chacha and her guy on the ship). I don’t think there’s any way for me to confuse Chacha with someone else or forget her name, and her guy has the extensive tattooing, so he’s not hard to forget either. It’s actually pretty cool. Chacha makes up for Hayato, who I still don’t really like.
Of course, it’s gets tricky when you’re trying to figure out the royal family. Yumi Tamura deliberately made some of the blood relationships ambiguous … so King Ukon might have five (living) sons, or only two. Personally, I think all five of them are King Ukon’s flesh and blood because things just make more sense that way, but it is definitely possible some of those “sons” have a different paternity. You can decide.
Jun: I’m a little sorry to hear that the Hayato situation does not improve. I’m sure he sticks around, being the bearer of the Suzaku sword and all that, but is he… a really, really main character? As of volume 3, I’m starting to see the various methods of juggling a lot of characters, and I have to admit I kind of like it, because everyone I like still appears a lot, and, for instance, Hayato was only in a few panels.
Sara K.: Haha, I thought that the Red King had… three sons? Maybe four? I guess I’ll just take them as they come. One was vaguely introduced just now in volume 3.
The four lead characters are Sarasa, Shuri, Ageha, and Asagi. They appear a lot, and have something important to do in most volumes. If you dislike one of these four, you are going to have some serious irritation while reading Basara. If you love all four of them (as I do), you’ll love Basara.
All of the other major characters are only important for a few volumes, and revert to either support, background, or non-appearing characters during all other volumes. Both Hayato and Chacha are in this category. So Hayato only has limited opportunities to annoy you. And if you miss Chacha, well, you can look forward to the awesome characters who appear later.
Ah, good to know that will be the system. I kind of like the rotating system, though I have to admit I am kind of fond of Chacha. And I’m totally in love with Sarasa, Shuri, and Ageha so far, so I don’t think I’ll have much trouble with them sticking around. I can’t recall who Asagi is, though. Am I just misplacing a name? There’s a few characters I can’t put a name to, but none of them seem like major characters. It would be awesome if one of them rose up the ranks, though.
i mispoke myself, it is, indeed volume 20 which i do not have and which is 300 some odd dollars on amazon. it would be so cool if viz ever released it in the VizBig collections..but i guess that probably won’t happen…
Although Asagi hasn’t shown his face yet, he’s already pretty busy, and has a strong influence on what happens in volume three. You meet him in Volume 4.
No, you haven’t met Asagi yet. :)
ame: Both 19 and 20 are more than I want to pay right now, unfortunately. I didn’t wind up getting ahold of 19, so now I’ve got to look for both of them. I’m keeping my eye for random unsuspecting volumes popping up on eBay, and I’m also looking a few other places for them. I’m secretly hoping for the VizBig versions too, though apparently it’s unlikely at the moment. A real shame, too, because Basara is definitely the type of series that would benefit from 3-in-1 volumes.
Michelle and Sara K.: Good to know. Now I can keep an eye out for him and know that he’ll be around awhile.
I just checked and … while Asagi is physically present in Volume 4, his name is not revealed. His name is first mentioned in Volume 5.