THIS IS A MANGA ONLY DISCUSSION POST. DO NOT DISCUSS ANYTHING BEYOND THIS CHAPTER.
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Made a lot of notes for the past five chapters. Here they are:
Some notes I made on these chapters:
**Chapter 46**:
*I think we’ve got a really complex character composition on the titular page. As of now, I think Inoue likes to distinct the placement of characters into two meanings: the physical and the mental (and/or spiritual). Here, Musashi dominates the foreground, which I think suggests his spirit is still strongly bursting forth. However, despite Inshun vertically lower, I still see that he is looking *down* on Musashi, standing over him despite his foreground dominance. Part of that, I believe, is just because of how damn good Inoue is at drawing faces: Inshun is almost looking at me and Musashi at the same time! And another part is the spear hilt standing even taller over the foreground-dominating Musashi. So, Inshun’s spear — entirely a physical object, devoid of emotion, mind, or spirit — stands over Musashi, and it seems almost a part of Inshun. Inshun also has a very closed stance (difficult to attack, that is), whereas Musashi is kneeling and practically defenseless. Therefore, Inshun dominates the scene physically. However, Musashi’s foreground placement still allows him to exude far more mental/spiritual presence.
*And we see in the following pages that most of Musashi’s spirit is going into fighting Fear, rather than Inshun.
*And, following that, we see why else Musashi dominates spiritually… Inshun is just so loose!
**Chapter 47**:
*Interesting to see the chapter start off with inner dialogue on Inshun’s part.
*Even Inshun recognizes that, while he is winning physically, Musashi is still overflowing with spirit. Only Musashi knows, however, that his spirit is fighting another opponent. Perhaps if he could put both mind and spirit together and disregard the second opponent (Fear) he could easily have beaten Inshun from the start. Well, maybe not easily, but more so than now.
*Toji mentions that reflection Musashi projects that the old man talked of. Except he is projecting “blood thirst” onto Fear, rather than Inshun.
**Chapter 48**:
*The forced perspectives on Inshun’s spear are fantastic. Makes it look like a vaulting pole, and Musashi’s practice sword a dagger.
*Oddly, though the perspective on the weapons causes physical distance between the two, it seems as if they are getting closer. Mainly due to Musashi losing his coherence and blacking out. While in his perspective, we see the spear tip loom closer, but the onlookers of the fight appear blurred and far away compared to Inshun and his weapon.
*Musashi attempts to use the same move he did on Agon, but Inshun is a bit more vigorous. And now, Inshun looks more beastly, shall we say, as he tried to be before when he mimicked Musashi’s howl in the previous chapter.
*Musashi’s gonna have a massive headache.
**Chapter 49**:
*Opening page of this chapter shows a spiritual and physical domination on Inshun’s part. His blown-up portrait in the background implies the spiritual, and the stances of the two fighters the physical.
*We also see on the same page that Musashi is still trying to fight two opponents: Inshun and Fear. He is now beginning to lose both battles, as can be shown in the page just after the title, with the insect claw reaching over his cheek.
*Musashi is on his last legs, and you know what they say about cornered animals…
*Inshun has learned more than Musashi in this fight. I think there are three reasons to infer this, besides the obvious “he’s winning”. One, the perspectives of the last few chapters have mostly been Inshun’s, and we get a lot of inner dialogue just like we have with Musashi when he learns new things mid-battle. Two, Musashi is being overcome by Fear mentally and Inshun physically. He has learned nothing; he is only applying what he knew before, and that was to overcome his opponents through sheer spirit (anger) and finish them with the physical (sword, duh). Coming across an opponent both willing to fight to the death (unlike Seijuro) and able to calmly navigate his spiritual thrusts has completely swamped him spiritually, where they may be relatively equal physically. He has no idea how to overcome Fear when used against him in an antithetical manner (calm/playful to his enraged/bloodthirsty). Three, Inshun has actually been absorbing things, things one is only able to learn in battles of life and death. I think it all clicked for him when he realized, for sure, that one of the two men had to die.
*Musashi tries one last time for the surprise cheap shot (sand) but Inshun deflects even that. Pitiable.
**Chapter 50**:
*Ahh and we shift from Inshun vs Musashi to Denshichiro arriving at the Yagyu. Lovely lol.
*Never mind, back to Musashi!
*Inshun’s words “Thank you, Musashi … for teaching me about *life*” seem far more sinister to Musashi now. The looming presence of Inshun in the panel and the shadowing add to that.
*And now we get the reveal. So succinct, too. “I am Hozoin In’ei.” Very nice.
*Why Musashi started crying then is tough to say, but I’m gonna guess one of two things at this point. Either he was very clever and immediately pieced together all the little hints about him being In’ei and Inshun’s comments on his master, and was just overcome with what he overlooked; or the fact that one of the strongest fighters in Japan is tending his wounds after he fled from a fight overcame him. Either way, he was essentially overcome by his incompetence. |