You're welcome! :D
Personally, I feel like Tatsuma was trying to kill Yagyuu, because obviously sealing him didn't work; they tried by gouging out his eye, where they thought his power was stored. Yagyuu (and his destructive power) is still in an organic body, so I feel he can be killed. Anyway, Tatsuma made his first priority saving Ryuuji (Chaos) which he managed to do - however, it looked like Yagyuu fled the battlefield because of that, and Tatsuma followed. So I guess you can't say Tatsuma failed since technically the battle didn't end.
From my understanding, Genma Hiyuu and his comrades (all the old guys XD) are not Vessels. Tatsuma's father was the only one who died; if the other men were Vessels, then there wouldn't be Deities reincarnated into Daigo, Kisaragi, Alan, and Claire - they'd still be in Arai, Doushin, Narutaki, and Kamui. Indeed, reading the Japanese information, they don't even bother telling you the Stars that these original warriors were born under; I believe they just made mention of Genma being born under an "unlucky" or "bad omen" star...
When Arai-sensei told the Magami kids that their Stars of Fate had them also fighting Yagyuu, he just meant their conjoined destiny. If you read into the Questions, theories and facts thread, you'll find a little discussion on horoscopes and such, which is all Star of Fate refers to - it's not specific to the Golden Dragon and Four Gods.
So they were originally fighting Yagyuu with nothing more than their Taoist and Shinto supernatural powers. Which, I guess, is no big surprise then that Yagyuu broke free after a time.
Yeah, Yagyuu had 17 years to regain his strength, and plot his moves - because clearly he was the only one aware of Ryuuji (Chaos) being the Yin to Tatsuma's Yang. Obviously, he kept one step ahead. But actually, he had at least 150 years to glean knowledge and watch the world; Munetaka Yagyuu also appears in the videogame Gehouchou, and is manipulating the players in the Edo timeline, too. He's one old magician. *_*
Maybe too many characters, no doubt due to the fact they were trying to include as many original VG characters as possible. The plot and its unsatisfying ending is moreso a result of the manga's story, and not the cast of RPG characters (see the Dai ni maku: The end? thread). |