Arm of Kannon 8
Posted: December 6, 2009 Filed under: Arm of Kannon Leave a comment »Masakazu Yamaguchi – Tokyopop – 2006 – 9 volumes
Oh, Arm of Kannon. I just laugh my way through these volumes now. The story did start over again here. We went back to feudual Japan and a group of characters looking for… let’s see… the demon arm, in possession of the Onigami. The Onigami is Mao’s guard from the earlier part of the story, flung back in time when he sealed the Arm of Kannon possessed by Mao by slicing into space, or dimensions, or whatever it was he did there. He meets with a monk almost immediately that helps him out. It’s the man that later becomes the skeletal Daisoujou we saw earlier.
The guardian’s name is Ryo. Nobody ever calls him that, which is why the name has been eluding me all this time. The story is simple this time around. Ryo’s lost arm has been replaced with the Arm of Kannon (or something similar) that possesses a random bandit and turns him into a demon when he tries to cut it off while Ryo is unconscious. Ryo, the Monk, and a random villiager girl that seems to only be there to offer fanservice try to stop the bandit.
While I’m happy that this story segment at least has a character in common with the former ones, it still makes almost no sense to go back in history like this. Maybe it’s going somewhere with this, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s just supposed to be cool, since the possessed bandit can conjure demon servants and slay people in violent ways with old-fashioned weapons. At least we didn’t get any additions to the Arm mythos this time around, though those have been my favorite parts thus far. Not really because they’re particularly well-done, but they are surprisingly coherent and entertaining, and… well, Jesus. That’s just awesome.
Part of me wants the last volume to tie all three of these storylines together and bring back Mao. Part of me knows that I would keep reading if the series was longer, because there’s something pretty rad about it, despite the fact it’s borderline nonsensical and keeps jumping around for no reason. But the better part of me knows that it will probably just stop with almost no final resolution whatsoever, which is a real shame. I guess I’ll find out next volume, though.
