sad yaichi in the snow

[retrocontinuity]

House of Five Leaves, episode 02-12.

Episode 02

• When reading the manga, I thought Yaichi was getting drugs because he was in the drug trade, but then I watched the episode and I thought, oh, it must be medicine for his back? But then I thought about it more, and I was sure it was sleeping powder for that episode's job. So many questions!



• Kitty. :(((


• One of the things I noticed was that Natsume Ono does this thing with panel compression, so that one panel covers many sequential actions. It's really obvious with the soup scene in this episode: in the manga, Ume calls for Okinu to bring soup to Masa in the same panel as Okinu bringing the soup to Masa. It's stretched out in this episode to multiple steps. In general, I think that's why the anime feels more action-packed than the manga.


• The other characters seem stern, but are actually very soft-hearted. It's Yaichi that Masa mistakes-- he hides a lot of steel under a wishy-washy approachable agreeable exterior. This becomes a huge theme later on, but this episode manifests it pretty early with Ume lecturing Masa.


• The weird dramatic music during "Yaichi is as popular as an actor"/ "come grocery shopping with me" really... ruins that scene for me, and it was one of my favorites in the manga because it's really where you realize that Masa is going to be dragged around by these guys for the rest of his stay in Edo.
  
  
• Goinkyo~~ ngl, I love the fact that Masa gets along best with old people and is secretly just a very bonyari old man behind a spacey expression. All of Goinkyo's place, though, is very much a haven away from the happenings of the city. Urban/rural divide?? TOO GEOPOLITICAL??


• Ume's comments that he doesn't trust Yaichi but has faith in him makes me think that really Ume and Masa are talking about two different kinds of "trust".


• oh! This is also where you start to realize that the episodes and the manga chapters are paced very differently. For instance, since the chapter originally ended with "I'm completely surrounded", it sounded more ominous, because it was a realization and a forewarning for us. But here, it's just one step in Masa's understanding of Five Leaves, since it's followed with Otake teasing Masa and Matsu entering Ume's shop. Then Masa's ill-fated attempt to withdraw from the group, followed by Ume/Otake bickering behind his back.


• Yagi kind of has that teasing older woman feel, doesn't he? Like Otake, but with swords. Obviously the "seven point leaf" he gives Masa is secretly a symbol of what's to come, but for the moment, just try to imagine it like a modern shoujo manga: AND THEN THE MAIN CHARACTER IS APPROACHED BY A BEAUTIFUL OLDER WOMAN IN A RED FERRARI--

Episode 03

• Masa is so unbelievably moe. Especially when he first meets Yuutarou, so much moe.


• Natsume Ono must really understand the harem genre, since episodes 2/3 are really "the development of Masa's harem": you have the boat ride with Otake, visiting Goinkyou with Ume, Matsu praising Masa's swordsmanship. It's typical "alone time with each haremette!!" plot development.


• Ume is really quite fond of Masa. I love opening planning scene right before the title card where the Five Leaves are just sitting around planning for Masa like fond parents planning a surprise party. And when Ume tries to wake Masa up after Masa hits his head falling down the stairs, haha.


• So much PMK flashbacking with Matsu reporting back to Yaichi, especially since Yaichi is smoking a pipe lounging in his robe.


• During Matsu and the Oumiya mistress's conversation, the BGM really gets in the way of the feel of the manga. Like in the original volume, there was a calm feel to it, like there are undercurrents of something happening and we're not entirely sure of what it is yet, but in the anime it's like, racing drum roll! excitement! intrigue!!


• Masa has absolutely no awareness whatsoever, it's amazing.


• Ume's face when he insults Matsu because of the adopted kid is the best ever. His seiyuu is absolutely fucking amazing during that moment, the little grunt of satisfaction at getting to say "I told you say" about Matsu. Who is he? Takatsuka Masaya? Oh shit, he's Sado in Level E. I would never have guessed that. Yeah, I don't think I've heard anything else he's done.


• Well fuck if that wasn't the heaviest flashback ever. Very Count Cain too.


• But we also cut out the bickering between Ume and Matsu. :((( nooooo.

Episode 04

• The Otake/Yaichi scene is amazing when animated. So many kudos for Sakurai's work. And something about it is just so much sleaze when you see it with Sakurai's voice in the background.


• The subtle color change of the green overtones for flashbacks-- I really like it. It's sort of a night vision effect that's subtle enough to clue you in and yet fits with the color palette of the rest of the series.


• Masa is one of those people who really needs to be liked, huh.


• There's a scene in this episode where they're at Goinkyo's house and you can hear the small sounds of the water boiling. And there's that same gentle drone in the background during the last Yaichi/Masa scene. That attention to detail is why Manglobe is amazing.


• The thing is with the flashback from last episode in place, you now know that Yaichi doesn't want to hear about being kidnapped, and the problems of being a kidnapper, but in the manga, you just think Yaichi doesn't like hearing about feelings. Period. I'm not sure I'm a big fan of that, but on the other hand, I just really like the impenetrable character of Yaichi. Like you can never tell what he's thinking, and that's how it should be.


• Speaking of Sakurai's seiyuu work and Yaichi's impenetrable nature, "how perceptive" is also a wonderful line in this episode, and delivered just perfectly. There's also so much inappropriate sexiness when Yaichi asks Masa what he wants to learn about himself. Man, Yaichi/Masa forever. ♥ Pretty sure there's a comparison between Masa and that recurring cat that I'm not picking up, especially when Masa returns to the apartment to find Otake petting the cat. In general, this episode is great if you're a Yaichi/Otake/Masa fan. (Obviously, I am.)
  
  
• By the way, I don't talk enough about the art in this series. The part with the sugar candies is rendered perfectly with Ono's thick lines and panel layout, and the colors! Sometimes Ono can seem a little messy in her art, because that's her style, but when it's animated, it just clicks together with the bgm and the animation and the lighting and the subdued mood.

Episode 05

• So I have real reservations about the way the anime is structured. I felt like this episode should have started with Ume and the turtle, just so we could pick up from the last episode, but instead we skip straight into a continuation of the flashback before picking back up with the Edo disease/beriberi issue. It's really strangely paced iin general, like shouldn't the flashback happen after Goinkyo's conversation with Masa, so that we know why the Five Leaves formed, and then see it happen?


• h/t to animesuki's Sol Falling for bringing up the possibility that we had the Matsu flashback in order to connect with Otake's comment that she also owes Yaichi a debt. But episode 5 starts with Ume's debt to Yaichi, and episode 06 does the same with Ume accepting a debt from Masa, so it's possible that it was just a way to introduce the various criss-crossing debts everyone owes each other.


• I'm not sure Ume's comment makes sense in the anime anymore, after the change with where the flashback was. What does he mean, he's talkative? Who was he talkative to? Originally I thought what it meant was that he had accidentally blabbed to Masa the story of the Five Leaves founding, even though he wasn't drunk, but since in the anime the flashback is spread throughout the episode, it'd have to refer to, hmmm, Ume's comment that his hands weren't clean to begin with?


• This episode still pushes the whole "Yaichi seems kind but is harsh, everyone else seems stern but is actually incredibly gentle" angle. Ume's spoiling of Masa is one of my favorite character developments of the series.



• Another thing Five Leaves shares with Samurai Champloo: women are for starting groups/strengthening groups, men are the ones who have honor/protect the group/sacrifice for it.


• Really, Edo sickness is a good metaphor: after Masa comes back from the "Edo sickness", he's able to more clearly see the people around him for what they are, and help them, instead of being blinded by their appearance. In a way, that's Edo sickness: the white rice seems a blessing, but really it disguises the danger of not eating enough vitamins; it's the illusion of glamour.


• Strangely, I feel Senkichi is more sympathetic in the anime, because it's so much more dramatic, and he looks so downtrodden, whereas in the manga I kind of got the impression that he was really trying to manipulate everyone around him, and it manages to catch on Ume's sense of guilt, haha. Which is another thing that Matsu and Ume share-- guilt.


• oh! The anime totally gets rid of that extra scene where we find out Matsu really wasn't trying to bag Otake, hahah, and so he and Ume are just fighting over... absolutely... nothing...hahaha oh god I ship Ume/Matsu so hard, that is so pathetic of me.

Episode 06

• Halfway point!


• Ume is so incredibly moe. He is the male tsundere to the end. I guess that makes Ichi the kuudere and Masa the dojikko. Otake is the Itsuki. OH MAN LOOK AT THAT, with a male reverse harem, the Itsuki is a girl, hahahah.


• Hm, there's really not much I want to say about this episode, except that Masa's past is built up as more momentous then it ends up being. I guess this is the first time you get Masa explicitely saying that the mamagoto bonds he formed with Five Leaves are more important than the "morality" he was chasing in the beginning, the idea that good people do right things and doing bad things makes you a bad person. But really, here, everyone is so mixed and ambiguous: Goinkyo is a "bad person", an ex-gangster, but he is a 'saint', Ume is a gruff ex-gangster himself, but he sacrifices for someone who hates him, because of that sense of guilt and responsibility he has, Matsu went into this line of work because of his life debts, Otake is basically a prostitute but she reads people better than anyone else, so on and so forth.


• I guess, actually, this is the first time you really see the ambiguity of black and white in this series. There are people who are outright, you know, despicable, like Ootsuya (later on) and here, Denshichi, but for the most part lines are pretty blurred here, and that's also reflected in Okinu's questioning of her father. She knows that her father is doing something bad, and not really for selfless purposes, but she accepts him.


• Ume: manliest moe character of this entire anime.


• Here is the hint that everyone does things for Five Leaves as a group not in order to make money, but to keep the group together as family. Matsu following Denshichi is one of them, but that doesn't become explicit until 1) Masa points that out (haha, oh Masa, you sweet thing) and 2) Masa saves Matsu in the next arc. Again with the MANLY MOE; what is more MANLY MOE than people protecting each other silently?


• Masa is like everyone's pet; they just like tapping him on the head and telling him good job but he really just wants Yaichi to praise him.


• MORE COMPLAINTS ABOUT WEIRD EPISODE PACING--

Episode 07

• The opening BGM with Otake and Ume is absolutely fucking amazing.


• But really, with the pacing; I feel like the repeated couple of minutes of episode 7 were completely unnecessary. Why couldn't they have just ended Episode 06 with Masa/Ume/Otake's conversation, started with the Ume/Otake conversation and titlecarded at Yaichi revealing himself to Goinkyo? But then this reminds me of what Yoshinaga Fumi said about how as a mangaka, she realized it went more slowly when she saw how the anime restructured her story; in an anime, you want the overreaching arc to be more obvious, so here we push for cliffhangers that relate to Yaichi's real identity.


• The mamagoto of this anime comes through even stronger than in Samurai Champloo and Cowboy Bebop, I think. ♥ man, I love stories about forging families.


• Since we already know Ume's background, we have to move onto Matsukichi. Both Ume and Matsu are the stereotypical "men" of this series, so it isn't surprising that they are the ones in a "love triangle" around Otake, isn't it?


• It's interesting to go back to these episodes after being finished with the series: for instance, here, Yaichi first tells Masa that he is trying to enjoy the present, and it sounds really sincere. But in retrospect we know he is just trying to convince himself. Then it starts snowing, haha, as a foreshadowing of what is to come, and it isn't something you realize until much later how momentous this conversation really is.


• Also, I was absolutely convinced the first time around when watching this that Yagi was up to no good, haha. But really the story does such a good job of setting him up to be the End Big Bad.


• Here, too though, we see the need for closure and how difficult it is to find. Masa is unable to escape his personality, and he feels like the solution has to be to escape that personality, when really his attempt to be someone he isn't is what is bringing pain into his life. The sword fight, his own monologue, the fight with Ichi. But Masa doesn't realize that's the problem. He keeps thinking the solution is to change his personality, when really it's to find acceptance with who he is.

Episode 08

• Ume and Matsu both have that gruff manly thing going on for them, which is the same kind of relationship they have with Masa-- Masa thinks they both dislike him, but actually he ends up intruding in their lives in heartwarming ways. Especially Ume and Masa, but with Matsu, there's his interaction with Sachi, and how Masa is the one who goes out of his way to save Matsu.


• Again with the repetition from the end of the last episode! I guess this is the difference between manga and 12 episode anime, in that one needs more continuity than the other, and Natsume Ono feels more comfortable stringing us along chronologically and the anime feels the need to go forward and backward in time constantly to fill in narrative gaps.


• This episode is the "strange friends" episode: you have the whole concept of these guys hanging around just shooting the breeze at Ume's, but you also have, for example, Masa practicing his sword while Yaichi teases him, Yagi explicitly noting the strangeness of Yaichi and Masa hanging around together, Kikuya commenting on Ume/Masa/Matsu being friends. This is also the first time where you have a joint venture Five Leaves undertakes that is not about money. Since Ume no longer has a stake in the Five Leaves game, he shouldn't care about Matsu. In fact, arguably, Matsu isn't even a friend! But still, they band together to save Matsu.


• Animesuki's thread had a great point about the importance of Yaichi's "narrative authority" in the series, in that you implicitly believe everything Yaichi says, and that strings you along until you get to the end and you realize Yaichi is actually an unreliable narrator. So when Yaichi says there's something untrustworthy about Yagi, you believe him-- even though Yagi is actually completely innocent!


• Ume's "kouzo!!" is totally his gangster coming out. Also "That's cool, Ume." Kyaaaa~ Ichi~~~ The seiyuu in this series are so expertly chosen.


• Again with the contradiction of appearances: Matsu seems calm, but really he's the most hot-headed of them all. Masa seems the most cowardly, but he is the one who risks his neck to save Matsu. Yaichi seems the most carefree and wise, but really he is tied down by his past and kind of stupid. etc etc. It's very similar to what Yoshinaga says in the interview for the Antique Bakery anime, that when you first meet Ono and Tachibana, you think Ono is the nice one and Tachibana is the cruel one, but really it's Ono who's selfish, and Tachibana who is gentle and self-sacrificing! Haha, isn't Masa very much Chikage to Yaichi's Tachibana? Otake can be Ono, and Ume/Matsu can split Eiji's part.


• lolololol also Yagi is totally horning in on Yaichi's property over Masa. I SEE HOW THIS IS, you are trying to use favors to win over Masa's heart!! POOR YAICHI MUST GO AND DRINK AWAY HIS SORROWS-- okay i will stop trying to make this a bl dating sim.

Episode 09

• This is the first time you see Masa actually actively doing something, as opposed to being dragged along into situations, with the Five Leaves and with Yaichi. Usually, people force his hand, but here, Masa forces everyone else's hand.


• Matsu admitting to Ume that he gets digusted by families but that Ume is a good man, this episode is really the epitome of manliness. From Kikuya's admission that he will take responsibility for the lost wooden tickets, to Masa insinuating that the other Ootsuya bodyguard is unreliable, to Matsu telling Masa he is already done too much for him, to Yagi being, well... Yagi...


• "Perhaps people are reckless because they have a reason to be" is basically the motto of this entire series. As well as "I am going to save you."


• So now we have a criss-crossing web of favors that connects pretty much everyone in the entire circle of the Five Leaves members. Later on, this is important, as pretty much this entire cast is connected by a web of "debt through kindness", even Yagi with the original Yaichi.


• Also there is that riverside conversation between Matsu and Masa, which is even more about the ambiguity of good and bad. Matsu not only becomes more humane, but he also shows genuine interest in Masa's life, and shows that he has a Robin Hood attitude towards the Five Leaves ransom money.


• Yaichi tips his hand that he knows much more than he's letting on when he tells Matsu that Yagi was adopted. Such a tiny little statement, haha. In retrospect the first sign that Yagi and Yaichi are far from what they seem.


• Masa's sister has a really nice deep voice that I wasn't expecting, I love it.


• CAT AS A MASA METAPHOR RETURNS :D


• Masa taking initiative in this episode is paired with his handling of Sachi-- he really does sound like a reliable brother all of a sudden. It's also a nice segue into "what is it that people protect?" The answer ends up being "family" in pretty much everyone's case, minus Otake, who remains a mystery even at the end of this series.


• OTAKE AND THE GIRLS OF THIS SERIES-- THE BEST.


• Meanwhile apparently Yaichi and Masa are having a tete a tete in Yaichi's bedroom, in my favorite scene (so far) of the manga. In the anime it seems less obvious that Masa realizes that Yaichi is just playing with him. Anime!Masa seems to keep his cool better at realizing that Yaichi was playing with him, but manga!Masa was really relieved, and obviously so.


• CAT :D HAPPY FAT CAT :D yes these are my important observations.


• A surprisingly low key ending scene from the last couple of cliffhangers. BUT WHY. WHY DIDN'T THIS EPISODE END WITH THE MAN WITH THE SCAR TALKING TO TOKU. see, this is why I don't understand the pacing of this series. Although it's good to start and end with Matsu and themes of family, I suppose.

Episode 10

• That opening flashback is incredible, with the POV camerawork and the blurring that shows Seinoshin was crying, and how when Seinoshin becomes "Yaichi", the camera turns to a third-party POV to show you Otake and the now!Yaichi. Ahhhh so amazing, even from a meta level, to move out of Seinoshin the minute he becomes Yaichi.


• Again, I feel weird about the placement of the titlecards in this series. For some reason I feel like it would make more sense for Yaichi to ask for a smoke, and then for the Katsuraya ane-san to call him a dirty stray cat, and then titlecard. :?


• One of the things about Five Leaves, I think, is that relationships cannot just go one way. You can't hope to conduct a friendship simply through how you want it done. It has to be reciprocal. Up until now, Yaichi has strung everyone along and simply done things his way, but that's not real. It's not actually a friendship until Masa pokes his nose into his business and makes Yaichi relate to them all as a real person.


• Sachi and Masa eating dango the same way is the most. amazing. thing. ever.


• So okay, flashback to at least half of Yagi and "Yaichi's" backstory. Clearly Masa is a lot like Yaichi to "Yaichi", and that's why "Yaichi" is interested in him. This reminds me of that moment in Ex Machina where Kremlin says that Mitchell doesn't let anyone into his life that wasn't there from the beginning, except for Bradbury. In a way, isn't Yagi a lot like Ume? In personality, anyway? They even try to take care of Masa, and have a weakness for that kind of subtle, helpless kindness. I'm also glad that we connected the Heizamon conversation from the first episode. SEE THIS IS WHAT I MEAN when I say I don't like flashbacks in the first episode-- I waited nine episodes for this explanation, hunting through the narrative threads for it. Shoulda just made like the commentors on Animesuki and checked the seiyuu list.

Episode 11

• And here is where the series starts working backwards, so that we end where we begin, with episode 01. We start with Yaichi and Masa together, then switch to a Five Leaves group scene, then go to Masa accompanying Yaichi for a job. "Why are you following me?" and "This isn't the way to Katsuraya" is very much like the first conversation Yaichi and Masa have about Katsuraya.


• Yaichi in this episode is finally starting to show his true colors, like a cat being pressed into a corner and thus arching its back and showing his claws. *___*


• In a way, I wonder if Jin is the reason why Yaichi kept Masa around after their first job, because he knew that he needed a loyal dog with good swordsmanship to protect him when Jin finally makes Yaichi pay for his Bakuro sins. But maybe I am making Yaichi out to be more manipulative than he is. But you know, in many ways, Yaichi's story and Tachibana's (from Antique Bakery) is very similar. They both start an enterprise meaning to end something from their past, both of them were kidnapping victims from a rich family, both of them start a fake family and realize they can't leave it, both of them find closure, but not really.


• CAT CAT CAT :D honestly, there is a really great cat/Masa metaphor in here that I can't articulate, except that the cat is an avatar for Masa.


• You know the "don't teach people things you yourself cannot accomplish" line from the Katsuraya ane was a foreshadowing of what Masa does to Yaichi in this episode. Up until now, there hasn't been someone in Yaichi's life who wants to know him completely and expose themselves completely. Hmm, or it's possible that Yaichi is afraid he's going to have to betray Masa again, like he betrayed Jin, or that Masa will betray him like he thought the first Yaichi did, so he closed himself off.


• One thing Masa/"Yaichi's" lesson doesn't tell us is that there has to be closure in order for us to forget the past; Masa needed acceptance in order to realize that Five Leaves was enough for him, Seinoshin needs closure with Yaichi-- visiting Yaichi's grave, or payment for his past crimes, was that closure. It's a common theme, you know, but you can see Samurai Champloo's fingerprints all over this, at least from a meta level.


• The flashback with Jin and Kuhei/Benzou is one of those classic "family is not the only bond" scenes; there are some bonds that are forged through difficulties and self-sacrifice, and you can see Seinoshin fuck that up in the beheading scene, in that he is unwilling to take the compromises demanded of a family, whether that be the pretense of hesitation or the mercy of taking only a finger. Which is also why Jin socks him in the face-- it's not that he didn't think the beheading had to be done, but he wanted something human from Sei in that moment. I think this is a post-Otake Sei, one that already has adopted "Yaichi" as his name, because it seems he's so dead.


• Ume's place as a sanctuary is more strong than ever in retrospect, especially with Yaichi at the end of this episode: it's where each of the parties can go to reflect on their past misdeeds, since Goinkyo's is where the past catches up with you and Katsuraya's is also for nostalgia and discomfort etc; in Ume's place, no one disturbs you; you can slip into the past and no one wakes you out of it. Which is no wonder Five Leaves chooses it as their meeting place, yeah?


• Such a flawless soundtrack in the last scene. *contended sigh*

Episode 12

• A total return to episode 01 here, where we repeat the flashback, but at least this time we know the context. So maybe there is something to be said for flashbacks, because you can use them again for emotional shorthands.


• Mmmph, for once I love the use of title card in this episode.


• It's interesting because we expect Yagi to be the "enemy", in that we think from the beginning he is a kind of threat of Five Leaves, but really the threat is from Jin and, more specifically, Yaichi himself; Yagi is only the enemy insofar as Yaichi wants to escape from his old past, and Yagi has perfectly preserved that past for him.


• Yaichi turning around in his chair to face Yagi-- a metaphor for finally turning to face the past instead of running from it?


• When I was writing observations for this anime without getting to Jin's deathbed revelation, I had written: "I feel like Yaichi was probably trying to protect Seinoshin by offing him to some thieves that he knew wouldn't kill him; he knew Seinoshin wasn't safe anyway, but the young Sei didn't comprehend that " Now that we know Jin never asked the name of the servant who brought Seinoshin to the thieves, it doesn't really hold true, but the emotional heart of it still does. Seinoshin, even when he became "Yaichi", never thought through the sacrifices other people made for him, whether in his interest or not. He was a child and remained so as "Yaichi", and it took the sacrifices made by Five Leaves, for him and for each other, and him facing up to his past, before he understood how to be a part of a family, and how to care for another person without hurting them.


• Again, the women of the series are the most observant; the naïve too, since it's Masa and Okinu who can see through Yaichi's emotional fronting.


• MATSU AND UME ARE MY SECRET HOUSE OF FIVE LEAVES OTP.


• The sky transition from Okinu to Yaichi is actually really interesting. Because, what does it mean? That they are all under the same sky? That a storm is coming but we can't tell because there is no light? That it is dark and Okinu is a symbol of it because she takes down the lantern? That the light disappears with her, and we are "in the dark" with Sei and Jin? "I am looking into the darkness because I can't see anything": Again, I'm reminded that though Yaichi seems to us to be the "sage" of the series, it isn't until we get to the end that we realize he is one of the stupidest, because he is so entangled in the past that he can't see anything but that past.


• CAT. CAT. CAT.


• The bridge after the cat scene: perfect use of Natsume Ono's artwork to transition into the anime artwork when you notice the pillar closest to the "camera". In fact, the rocks along the river too, the thick brushstroke like outlines.


• There is a kind of interesting logic in the climax of the sword fight, where Jin reties one mamagoto line just in time for Yaichi to sever another, which is tied again after his death with "you would have been killed". One strikes me the most about this scene is that Yaichi isn't exactly making a mistake-- Jin would have killed him if he didn't kill Jin first. But there is still an emotional betrayal, in that he is the cause of death for yet another protector, but one he wasn't aware of. Maybe, in a way, that's why he strikes out against Masa in the earlier episodes, because he doesn't want Masa to die protecting him as well. I mean, Jin is so gentle with Yaichi in this scene. They are after each other's throats, but it's so painful to watch, because the hate is wrapped up in these issues of family and tragedy and love. You know, Sei might have let himself be killed if Jin didn't say anything about Yaichi, because to him that would have just been another betrayal of "family", as he had been betrayed all his life. Like, "my life isn't important, not even to Five Leaves/Masa, because they would just betray me/ I would betray them in the end." But knowing that Yaichi did nothing of the sort allowed Yaichi to fend for himself, because he knew there was still "family" left behind to protect.


• I also love that tiny scene we see where Masa gets this sense that something is wrong, and runs, towards what, he doesn't know, but it isn't the swordfight-- he doesn't even see Jin's body floating in the river; what he knows is somewhere, somewhere, Yaichi needs him to retie that bond of "family". It's completely unimportant to him what the result of the Sei/Jin battle is. What's important to him is "Yaichi." Also the fact that when it comes to the graveyard scene, Masa brings with him the "light" of morning.


• Sei visiting Yaichi's gravestone is finally him putting Yaichi to rest. It's probably one of the most heart-wrenching moments of the entire series when he cries on Masa's knee. In visiting Yaichi at Yaichi's grave, you get the sense that Seinoshin has finally passed on Yaichi's spirit to the rightful successor-- Masa. Empty of his own need for rage, Sei needs to go find "himself" to be, and so wanders off.


• Then, we get all the auxiliary characters of Yaichi's life: the ane-san of Katsuraya, Goinkyo, Masa, Ume, the rest of Five Leaves, all sitting around waiting for him to come back to himself, a true self that isn't wrapped up with Yaichi and revenge.


• GOD, UME, SUCH A TSUNDERE. Masa, you're such a dog running after your owner. And the introduction of Yagi, as the promise of something more and something in the future, an expansion of "family" and a reminder of the true past of Yaichi. And Yaichi/Seinoshin, a kuudere to the end.