I’m starting to understand where Yuu Watase’s comic book artistry shines. Some artists excel at tight panel composition, but that’s not her strength; Watase’s considerable talents lie at the opposite end, when she abandons traditional panels and positions her characters freely on the page to let them flow into each other. It’s a gift.
Written and illustrated by Yuu Watase
Takiko has found three Celestial Warriors, but four remain hidden. While she and her friends journey to the Oracle Anlu, who may have the power to locate the remaining warriors, Limdo travels undercover with the army of Qu-dong. At Turning Point Rockfield, their destinies will intertwine again…and Takiko will learn that her quest is more difficult than she imagined. If she’s already located three of the seven warriors, why does the Oracle claim there are five still to be found?
Work Rate: Yuu Watase published this story at a rate of two volumes per year, and draws about one page a day. So each week of this summer binge we cover six months of her work. It’s almost insulting to give her so little time.
Plot Points Hidden in the Japanese Language: The other name for Limdo is Uruki, and in Japanese that names contains the character for “woman.” Another celestial warrior is Namama, an angry rock, and his character has “wall” in it.
Fantasy Map Bravery: The first map of the world isn’t found until this volume. Your average fantasy book puts it in page zero of book one. (And most unpublished fantasy authors never get further than that.) Placing the first map back here, as part of Takiko herself finding it, is a great beat.
Spontaneous Transsexual Update: Limdo is drifting forward. like a zen stream, around all the sex issues of his fellow travelers. Chamka yelled at Limdo to put his boobs away while they were eating. Takiko slapped Limdo when she saw his penis while they were naked in a bath spring together, and yelled at him to go back to female form. The only person who doesn’t care what sex Limdo is is Limdo.
Known facts about Limdo: Limdo was born male. At some point he become female for the first time. At some point he decided that it didn’t matter what sex he was. I don’t know the ordering of those two events, but it may be important.
(This ongoing feature of discussing Limdo’s sex is my favorite part of the summer binge.)
Improvement Recommendation in the Translation or Writing: At one point the writer/translater simply wrote “defiant now” in a panel and pointed to a dialog bubble by Takiko. We didn’t need that note. We could have seen that by simply not having Takiko stutter, like she always does.
Wonky Panel Transition Note: Comic theorist Scott McCloud wrote that manga uses an above-average number of aspect-to-aspect panel transitions. Fushigi Yûgi: Genbu Kaiden uses those often at the bottom of pages for scene changes.
Art Wish: Some backgrounds are filled with Adobe Photoshop’s transparency box fill, what you see when there is no background. This is just used for style, I don’t believe this technique is being used to represent a true void of background and context, but now I want to see it used like that in any comic.
Wonky Character Note: I don’t think any of these characters are round, at least not in the E. M. Forester sense that they are capable of “convincing surprise.” Fushigi Yûgi: Genbu Kaiden is a story full of very archetypical players and relationships. Takiko gives her first non-reactive statement here, and all she says is, “I want to be able to help someone,” which is exactly what you’d expect from her. One possible exception is Limdo. In this volume, Takiko was stuck in a stone wall and needed a step stool, but instead, Limdo cuddled her to hold her up. That was a surprise, but definitely not out of character.
Limdo’s Limit Break Of This Volume: Hurricane Slash.
