Fanfic situat abans d'acabar el capítol 25.
Per fi estava lliure d’horrors i de Meshia, gaudia de la companyia del seu estimat i mirava el futur amb optimisme. La felicitat de la Kaoru hauria estat completa si no fos perquè en Koga estava així. Ell no havia dit una paraula des que Zaruba havia deixat d'existir feia dos dies. Fa dol per l'únic amic que ha tingut en deu anys, es repetia a ella mateixa, no és estranya la seva tristor. Ella es va menjar el seu croissant sense gana. No hi havia res que pogués fer per alleujar el seu dolor, li caldria un temps.
"Me’n vaig a treballar".
Un lleu assentiment va ser la seva única resposta. Ella va posar-li la mà sobre l’esquena en senyal de solidaritat. Per primera vegada la va mirar, i va assentir novament.
Al llarg del matí la Kaoru també va haver d'anar a l'Oficina de Correus per a recollir una carta certificada. Venia d’una escola d’art italiana, potser era sobre la beca que havia sol · licitat feia uns quants mesos, abans de començar tot aquest embolic dels horrors. Va obrir el sobre amb ansietat. Era cert, que necessitaria el seu diccionari anglès-japonès, però el missatge central era clar: havia guanyat la beca!
Més tard, a casa, s'afanya cap a en Koga, que era a la seva sessió d'entrenament de tarda, i es va aturar un moment per mirar-la.
– No t’amoïnis– va dir, tot i la seva impaciència. –Esperaré que acabis.– Se sentia una mica decebuda de veure en ell continuava amb el seu entrenament però, què hi farem, és en Koga Saejima.
Quan va acabar, gairebé va córrer cap a ell i va començar a parlar emocionada, sacsejant la preciosa carta davant seu. Ell va contemplar el full, inexpressiu. Després que hagué acabat, en Koga va dir amb fredor:
–Felicitacions.– I va sortir de la sala d’entrenament sense ni tan sols fer-li una llambregada.
La vista de la Kaoru es va mantenir a la porta que ell acabava de tancat, amb la seva il.lusió de sobte robada.
Més tard, a l'hora de sopar, alguna cosa va canviar. Ella sentia sovint la vista d’ell a sobre. De vegades la hi tornava somrient, però en Koga no reaccionava. La seva mirada, cada vegada més intensa, la posava nerviosa, per la qual cosa no volia mirar-lo un altre cop. Tanmateix, això no servia per a calmar l'electricitat que s’anava aixecant entre tots dos, cosa que no l'alleugeria, precisament. Tan aviat com va acabar, féu bona nit i se’n va anar.
Sortia per la porta del menjador quan va sentir un soroll de cadira, i anava per mitja escala que va escoltar passos que s'apressaven rere seu. La Kaoru s’afanyà a obrir la porta de la seva habitació, però un braç va aparèixer des de la de la dreta i s’agafà al muntant oposat de la porta, barrant-li el pas.
Kaoru no va mirar en Koga, ja sabia què hi veuria. Ella es limità a contemplar l’interior de la seva habitació per damunt d’aquell braç vestit de pell negra, sabent que aquesta nit no hi entraria pas. Es va esforçar en calmar el salvatge batec del seu cor, encara més difícil, perquè la calor d'un altre cos s'havia afegit a la del seu propi, així com l'electricitat que semblava surar al seu voltant.
– D’això ...– Fins i tot la veu baixa d'ell va ser com una mena de explossió a la seva orella, quan s’hi havia acostat tant? –La teva habitació és massa petita.– Cada so d’aquella frase li va provocar petits espasmes al tot el cos.
La va sorprendre molt escoltar-se dir "on hauré d'anar?" La Kaoru ni reconeixia la seva pròpia veu tremolosa i inaudible, gairebé un xiuxiueig. Per què temia l'home que s’estimava?
Silenci. Quelcom invisible semblava espurnejar arreu. Silenci. Només la rítmica respiració d’ell colpejant la seva orella el trencava, malgrat el seu propi alè semblava absent. Llarg silenci. La seva ment es va tancar a tot, amb excepció de les onades de sensacions que anaven omplint el seu cos. Silenci inacabable.
Quan en Koga va atacar el seu coll, un gemec d'alleugeriment va escapar-se-li de la seva gola.
Es mostren els missatges amb l'etiqueta de comentaris saejima. Mostrar tots els missatges
Es mostren els missatges amb l'etiqueta de comentaris saejima. Mostrar tots els missatges
dissabte, 6 de desembre del 2008
dissabte, 22 de novembre del 2008
GARO fanfic - Anguish (3rd and last chapter)
Fanfic placed after chapter 15th and before the 17th.
One afternoon Kaoru was leaving her job and found them, facing each to another in the alley, their swords out. Both of them turned toward her at the same time. Kaoru became rooted to the ground. She had expected to see Rei, like almost every day, but she never would have dreamed she could find Kouga there.
Rei sheathed his swords, and hurried to extend his arm to her.
“Come on, princess. The cinema waits for us”.
But she did not dare to move, she did not how to react, as her eyes and mind were focused on Kouga.
“Do you want to go with him?” His voice and look were very hard, as so many times before. He turned his face to Rei slightly. “It looks like not”.
Rei came even closer to her, but his sight did not leave his opponent, whom he talked pretty sarcasticastic.
“Perhaps you’ve lost something?” Pause. “And, do you think you’re going to find it?”
Kouga’s jaws trembled slightly: so much pressure they carried. A smile as ironic as frozen on Rei’s Face allowed to guess an imminent danger.
“You’re already late: life doesn’t forgive those who waste their chances ... nor those who aren’t honest”.
He turned again to Kaoru and extended his arm again.
“Don’t pay attention to him. Soon you’ll find he isn’t worth treading the same ground as you”.
She had heard everything that Rei had said, and wondered for the umpteenth time what Kouga might have done to him. She could not forget Rei’s kindness, and his details, for many days. He tried hard to please her, as if he really liked her. Perhaps he did. He smiled a lot and, specially, provided to her the fuel needed by her hurt heart. Her hand reached his instinctively, but Kouga came closer, very slowly, focussing on her his entiere attention.
“Haven’t you finished to play, yet? You’ve done enough showing clearly how good you spent your time with him. That's enough. If you want to play you'll get a new set of brushes if you want, but I won’t let you to continue making a fool of yourself at all”.
Kaoru was speechless. If Kouga had spoke to her that way just a month earlier, she would steeped in fury. But, things had changed very much in a couple of weeks. Now she could not open her mouth: anger, hope and need tried to threaten her by losing her self-control.
His accusations were truly fair. The first day she came home with flowers given by Rei, the underlying jealousy oozing through every gesture and every word by Kouga made her secretly happy. Yes, it looked as he really loved her but, for she did not know why, he did not allowed himself to admit it. So, she decided to attack his barriers to force him to react. As they had a meal, in any time she thought it was right, she filled her unsociable host’s ears with news abut her going out with Rei, which they were planning ( "do you think I'm interested in your life the slightest?" he said), showing him the gifts received from Rei ("go on eating chocolates, and afterwards you’ll complain about the dentist’s bill") telling him the nice details by Rei ("a poem written inside the breakfast? awful!"). Nothing was any use. That day with the flowers seemed to be the first and last one. What did he want from her? Why was he protecting her? Tears were robbed from her eyes as if her skin was cut off.
Desperation turned her reckless. One day as they were having lunch, she lied him by saying that she had accepted a kiss from Rei. The glass whose Kouga was going to drink shattered among his fingers. Suddenly anxiety, and a joy as wild as repressed, aroused whithin her. Kaoru watched the mess of glasses and water around him and wondered if she had pushed him too far. She looked at him, knowing that he might attack her now, she almost hoped. But Kouga did not return her look. His eyes were closed strongly, while his hand was still pressing the glass pieces nailed into his flesh. Then, he began to remove them. He stood up, “I’m taking care of it”; his voice only reflected an intense exhaustion. Kaoru understood it as it was a goodbye forever. As he moved away, his wounded hand was crying red tears on the floor, because his eyes were not allowed to cry. She fell back, defeated and hopeless. Kouga never was going to struggle for her.
But, look at him, now, struggling for her in front of Rei, in his own scatterbrained and clumsy way, but he does! Excitement and hope compressed and ready to burst made her unable to open her mouth, when he took her wrist and dragged her along with him. But Rei stood in front of him with growing anger.
“You, troglodyte dressed in white! You make her to cry!” He drawed his swords again. “Leave her to go right now, or you and I are going to end up everything here and now!”
But he only gained from Kouga a look of complete disdain, and steeped with fury. One of his swords rushed toward Kouga’s neck, whose weapon intercepted it halfway, while the other shorter one stayed away from its target to prepare for a lunge. But Kaoru, after witnessing the exchange between both men, and not knowing whether to feel worried or pleased, put her free hand on Rei’s arm. She had to do much effort into talking.
“Rei, don’t be worried, I thank you everything you’ve done for me, but everything is fine”. And nodded to show her agreement.
The staple of the knight in black loosed, and his raised sword lowered slowly. He looked at her, incredulous, pained, without knowing what had just happened. Kaoru could not see the glance of victory Kouga had gifted him, just before feeling her arm being stretched again, and saw how Rei was left behind.
Not much later, Kouga stopped his fast walk and gazed at her. It was "that look". She saw it for the first time yesterday, when he returned to visit the Makai priest Amon. A sort of curtain had left his eyes, and their message was the one she understood well, the one she had bet so much. What did happen on that mysterious meeting? Truly, she did not mind.
For the third time she felt tighten her arm, but this time he received her to his chest. Kaoru felt as all the ghosts that had tormented her flied, scared by the heat of that body, by the soft brush of those lips, which seemed as if they were looking shyly for anything within her hair.
One afternoon Kaoru was leaving her job and found them, facing each to another in the alley, their swords out. Both of them turned toward her at the same time. Kaoru became rooted to the ground. She had expected to see Rei, like almost every day, but she never would have dreamed she could find Kouga there.
Rei sheathed his swords, and hurried to extend his arm to her.
“Come on, princess. The cinema waits for us”.
But she did not dare to move, she did not how to react, as her eyes and mind were focused on Kouga.
“Do you want to go with him?” His voice and look were very hard, as so many times before. He turned his face to Rei slightly. “It looks like not”.
Rei came even closer to her, but his sight did not leave his opponent, whom he talked pretty sarcasticastic.
“Perhaps you’ve lost something?” Pause. “And, do you think you’re going to find it?”
Kouga’s jaws trembled slightly: so much pressure they carried. A smile as ironic as frozen on Rei’s Face allowed to guess an imminent danger.
“You’re already late: life doesn’t forgive those who waste their chances ... nor those who aren’t honest”.
He turned again to Kaoru and extended his arm again.
“Don’t pay attention to him. Soon you’ll find he isn’t worth treading the same ground as you”.
She had heard everything that Rei had said, and wondered for the umpteenth time what Kouga might have done to him. She could not forget Rei’s kindness, and his details, for many days. He tried hard to please her, as if he really liked her. Perhaps he did. He smiled a lot and, specially, provided to her the fuel needed by her hurt heart. Her hand reached his instinctively, but Kouga came closer, very slowly, focussing on her his entiere attention.
“Haven’t you finished to play, yet? You’ve done enough showing clearly how good you spent your time with him. That's enough. If you want to play you'll get a new set of brushes if you want, but I won’t let you to continue making a fool of yourself at all”.
Kaoru was speechless. If Kouga had spoke to her that way just a month earlier, she would steeped in fury. But, things had changed very much in a couple of weeks. Now she could not open her mouth: anger, hope and need tried to threaten her by losing her self-control.
His accusations were truly fair. The first day she came home with flowers given by Rei, the underlying jealousy oozing through every gesture and every word by Kouga made her secretly happy. Yes, it looked as he really loved her but, for she did not know why, he did not allowed himself to admit it. So, she decided to attack his barriers to force him to react. As they had a meal, in any time she thought it was right, she filled her unsociable host’s ears with news abut her going out with Rei, which they were planning ( "do you think I'm interested in your life the slightest?" he said), showing him the gifts received from Rei ("go on eating chocolates, and afterwards you’ll complain about the dentist’s bill") telling him the nice details by Rei ("a poem written inside the breakfast? awful!"). Nothing was any use. That day with the flowers seemed to be the first and last one. What did he want from her? Why was he protecting her? Tears were robbed from her eyes as if her skin was cut off.
Desperation turned her reckless. One day as they were having lunch, she lied him by saying that she had accepted a kiss from Rei. The glass whose Kouga was going to drink shattered among his fingers. Suddenly anxiety, and a joy as wild as repressed, aroused whithin her. Kaoru watched the mess of glasses and water around him and wondered if she had pushed him too far. She looked at him, knowing that he might attack her now, she almost hoped. But Kouga did not return her look. His eyes were closed strongly, while his hand was still pressing the glass pieces nailed into his flesh. Then, he began to remove them. He stood up, “I’m taking care of it”; his voice only reflected an intense exhaustion. Kaoru understood it as it was a goodbye forever. As he moved away, his wounded hand was crying red tears on the floor, because his eyes were not allowed to cry. She fell back, defeated and hopeless. Kouga never was going to struggle for her.
But, look at him, now, struggling for her in front of Rei, in his own scatterbrained and clumsy way, but he does! Excitement and hope compressed and ready to burst made her unable to open her mouth, when he took her wrist and dragged her along with him. But Rei stood in front of him with growing anger.
“You, troglodyte dressed in white! You make her to cry!” He drawed his swords again. “Leave her to go right now, or you and I are going to end up everything here and now!”
But he only gained from Kouga a look of complete disdain, and steeped with fury. One of his swords rushed toward Kouga’s neck, whose weapon intercepted it halfway, while the other shorter one stayed away from its target to prepare for a lunge. But Kaoru, after witnessing the exchange between both men, and not knowing whether to feel worried or pleased, put her free hand on Rei’s arm. She had to do much effort into talking.
“Rei, don’t be worried, I thank you everything you’ve done for me, but everything is fine”. And nodded to show her agreement.
The staple of the knight in black loosed, and his raised sword lowered slowly. He looked at her, incredulous, pained, without knowing what had just happened. Kaoru could not see the glance of victory Kouga had gifted him, just before feeling her arm being stretched again, and saw how Rei was left behind.
Not much later, Kouga stopped his fast walk and gazed at her. It was "that look". She saw it for the first time yesterday, when he returned to visit the Makai priest Amon. A sort of curtain had left his eyes, and their message was the one she understood well, the one she had bet so much. What did happen on that mysterious meeting? Truly, she did not mind.
For the third time she felt tighten her arm, but this time he received her to his chest. Kaoru felt as all the ghosts that had tormented her flied, scared by the heat of that body, by the soft brush of those lips, which seemed as if they were looking shyly for anything within her hair.
diumenge, 16 de novembre del 2008
GARO fanfic - Angúnia (capítol 3r i últim)
Fanfic situat després del capítol 15 i abans del 17.
Una tarda, quan la Kaoru sortia de la feina, se’ls va trobar al carreró, encarats l’un a l’altre, espases fora. L’atmòsfera es podia tallar amb ganivet: era com si estiguessin submergits en un combat silenciós. Amdós es tombaren a l’uníson cap a ella. La Kaoru es quedà palplantada, havia esperat veure-hi en Rei, com quasi cada dia, però mai no hauria imaginat que podria trobar-hi en Koga.
En Rei es guardà les seves espases, s’avançà i allargà el braç cap a ella.
– Anem, princesa. El cinema ens espera.
Però ella no gosà moure’s, no sabent com reaccionar, fits com estaven el seus ulls en en Koga.
– Hi vols anar? –La veu i la mirada d’ell eren prou dures, com tantes altres vegades. Tombà lleugerament la seva cara cap a en Rei.– Sembla que no.
En Rei s’acostà encara més cap a ella, però no perdé de vista el seu adversari, a qui parlà amb un to sarcàstic.
– Que has perdut alguna cosa, potser? –Pausa.– I creus que la trobaràs?
L’esguard d’en Koga s’enfosquí. Un somriure tan irònic com congelat en el temps convertí el rostre d’en Rei en un avís de perill imminent.
– Ja fas tard: la vida no perdona els que malbaraten les seves oportunitats... ni tampoc els que no són honestos...
Es girà cap a la Kaoru i li tornà a allargar el seu braç.
– No li facis cas. Aviat t’adonaràs que no es mereix trepitjar el mateix terra que tu.
Ella havia escoltat tot el que en Rei havia dit i es preguntà, per enèsima vegada què li podia haver fet en Koga. No es pogué estar de recordar tota l’amabilitat i els detalls que en Rei havia tingut amb ella des de feia molts dies. Ell s’esforçava en plaure-la, com si realment fos molt important per a ell, somreia molt i, sobretot, li donava el combustible que el seu cor ferit necessitava. La seva mà s’estirà instintivament cap a ell, però en Koga avançà, molt a poc a poc, concentrant en ella tota la seva atenció.
– Encara no has acabat de jugar? Ja has fet prou evident com t’ho passes de bé amb ell. Ja n’hi ha prou. Si vols jugar et compraré un joc de pinzells si vols, però en cap cas no permetré que continuïs fent el ridícul.
La Kaoru se’l va mirar, estupefacta. Si en Koga li arriba a parlar així tan sols un mes abans, ella li hauria tirat la cavalleria per sobre. Però, molt havien canviat les coses en un parell de setmanes. Ara no podia obrir la boca: la ràbia, l’esperança i la necessitat amenaçaven de fer-li perdre el control sobre les seves emocions.
Les acusacions que ell li havia fet eren verídiques del tot. El primer dia que arribà a casa amb flors regalades per en Rei, la soterrada gelosia que traspuava cada gest i cada paraula d’en Koga la féu íntimament feliç. Sí, era veritat, ell l’estimava però, per alguna raó desconeguda, no es permetia de manifestar-ho. Així que decidí atacar les seves defenses per a obligar-lo a reaccionar. Durant els àpats, les estones mortes i qualsevol altre moment que a ella li semblés adient, omplia les oïdes del seu esquerp amfitrió amb notícies de les sortides que feia amb en Rei, de les que preparaven (“creus que m’interessa la teva vida en el més mínim?”, feia ell), li ensenyava els regals que en rebia (“ves menjant bombons, i després et queixaràs de la factura del dentista”), li parlava dels detalls que ell li tenia (“una poema escrit a dins de l’esmorzar? Quin fàstic!”). No hi havia res a fer, el dia de les flors va semblar ser el primer i l’últim. Què volia d’ella? Per què s’entestava en protegir-la, doncs? Les llàgrimes li eren arrabassades com si li arrenquessin la pell.
La desesperació la tornà imprudent. Un dia va enganyar-lo dient-li que s’havien fet un petó amb en Rei. Estaven dinant, i el got del que en Koga es disposava a beure esclatà entre els seus dits. De sobte excitada per l’ànsia i una joia tan salvatge com reprimida, ella contemplà els trossos de vidre i el mullader escampats per arreu, i després a ell. En Koga no es dignà a mirar-la. Els seus ulls estaven tancats amb força i crispada la seva cara, mentre la mà encara apretava els vidres que hi tenia clavats. Després, començà a treure’s els vidres sangonosos. Les seves mandíbules tremolaven de tant que les apretava. S’aixecà, “vaig a curar-me”; la seva veu i el seus passos en caminar només reflectien un esgotament aclaparadorament intens. La Kaoru el veié marxar com si li acabés de dir un adéu per sempre. La mà ferida plorava llàgrimes vermelles sobre el parquet, perquè als seus ulls no els permetia de plorar. Ella es deixà caure enrera, derrotada i sense esperança. En Koga mai no lluitaria per ella.
Però aquí estava ara, lluitant per ella davant d’en Rei, a la seva pròpia forma poca-solta i maldestra, però ho feia! Emoció i esperança comprimides i a punt d’esclatar, li impediren de badar boca quan ell la prengué del canell i l’obligà a seguir-lo. Però en Rei s’hi plantà al davant amb enuig creixent.
– Tal.lós! Troglodita vestit de blanc! La fas plorar! –Tregué les espases un altre cop– Deixa-la anar o tu i jo ho acabarem tot ara i aquí!
Però en Koga només li dedicà una mirada d’absolut menyspreu, i la fúria d’en Rei s’encengué. Una de les seves espases es precipirà cap al coll d’en Koga, l’arma del qual la interceptà a mig camí, mentre l’altra s’allunyava del seu blanc per preparar una estocada. Però la Kaoru, què havia assistit a l’intercanvi dels dos nois no sabent si sentir-se preocupada o complaguda, posà la mà que li quedava lliure sobre el braç d’en Rei què, inútilment, pressionava cap al coll del seu adversari. Ella s’hagué d’esforçar molt en parlar.
– Rei, no t’amoïnis. T’agraeixo molt tot el que fas per mi, però tot està bé.
La grapa del cavaller de negre s’afluixà, i la seva espasa a punt de precipitar-se sobre la seva víctima, de mica en mica caigué, mentre se la mirava a ella, incrèdul, adolorit, sense saber ben bé què havia passat. La Kaoru no va poder veure la llambregada de victòria amb que en Koga obsequià al seu rival, just abans de sentir-se estirar el braç un altre cop, i veure com quedava enrere.
No gaire després, en Koga aturà la seva ràpida marxa i la mirà. Era “aquella mirada”. L’havia vista per primer cop el dia abans, que ell va tornar de visitar el Sacerdot Makai Amon. Una mena de cortina s’havia apartat dels seus ulls i revel.laven el missatge que mai no havien volgut dir, què ella entenia bé i pel qual havia apostat tant. Què hauria pogut passar en aquella misteriosa trobada? La veritat és que tant se li’n donava.
Per tercera vegada ell la tibà del braç, però aquest cop la rebé al seu pit. La Kaoru sentí com fugien tots els fantasmes que l’havien turmentada, espaordits pel calor d’aquell cos, i pel suau refrec d’aquells llavis que, tímidament, semblaven cercar alguna cosa entre els seus cabells.
Una tarda, quan la Kaoru sortia de la feina, se’ls va trobar al carreró, encarats l’un a l’altre, espases fora. L’atmòsfera es podia tallar amb ganivet: era com si estiguessin submergits en un combat silenciós. Amdós es tombaren a l’uníson cap a ella. La Kaoru es quedà palplantada, havia esperat veure-hi en Rei, com quasi cada dia, però mai no hauria imaginat que podria trobar-hi en Koga.
En Rei es guardà les seves espases, s’avançà i allargà el braç cap a ella.
– Anem, princesa. El cinema ens espera.
Però ella no gosà moure’s, no sabent com reaccionar, fits com estaven el seus ulls en en Koga.
– Hi vols anar? –La veu i la mirada d’ell eren prou dures, com tantes altres vegades. Tombà lleugerament la seva cara cap a en Rei.– Sembla que no.
En Rei s’acostà encara més cap a ella, però no perdé de vista el seu adversari, a qui parlà amb un to sarcàstic.
– Que has perdut alguna cosa, potser? –Pausa.– I creus que la trobaràs?
L’esguard d’en Koga s’enfosquí. Un somriure tan irònic com congelat en el temps convertí el rostre d’en Rei en un avís de perill imminent.
– Ja fas tard: la vida no perdona els que malbaraten les seves oportunitats... ni tampoc els que no són honestos...
Es girà cap a la Kaoru i li tornà a allargar el seu braç.
– No li facis cas. Aviat t’adonaràs que no es mereix trepitjar el mateix terra que tu.
Ella havia escoltat tot el que en Rei havia dit i es preguntà, per enèsima vegada què li podia haver fet en Koga. No es pogué estar de recordar tota l’amabilitat i els detalls que en Rei havia tingut amb ella des de feia molts dies. Ell s’esforçava en plaure-la, com si realment fos molt important per a ell, somreia molt i, sobretot, li donava el combustible que el seu cor ferit necessitava. La seva mà s’estirà instintivament cap a ell, però en Koga avançà, molt a poc a poc, concentrant en ella tota la seva atenció.
– Encara no has acabat de jugar? Ja has fet prou evident com t’ho passes de bé amb ell. Ja n’hi ha prou. Si vols jugar et compraré un joc de pinzells si vols, però en cap cas no permetré que continuïs fent el ridícul.
La Kaoru se’l va mirar, estupefacta. Si en Koga li arriba a parlar així tan sols un mes abans, ella li hauria tirat la cavalleria per sobre. Però, molt havien canviat les coses en un parell de setmanes. Ara no podia obrir la boca: la ràbia, l’esperança i la necessitat amenaçaven de fer-li perdre el control sobre les seves emocions.
Les acusacions que ell li havia fet eren verídiques del tot. El primer dia que arribà a casa amb flors regalades per en Rei, la soterrada gelosia que traspuava cada gest i cada paraula d’en Koga la féu íntimament feliç. Sí, era veritat, ell l’estimava però, per alguna raó desconeguda, no es permetia de manifestar-ho. Així que decidí atacar les seves defenses per a obligar-lo a reaccionar. Durant els àpats, les estones mortes i qualsevol altre moment que a ella li semblés adient, omplia les oïdes del seu esquerp amfitrió amb notícies de les sortides que feia amb en Rei, de les que preparaven (“creus que m’interessa la teva vida en el més mínim?”, feia ell), li ensenyava els regals que en rebia (“ves menjant bombons, i després et queixaràs de la factura del dentista”), li parlava dels detalls que ell li tenia (“una poema escrit a dins de l’esmorzar? Quin fàstic!”). No hi havia res a fer, el dia de les flors va semblar ser el primer i l’últim. Què volia d’ella? Per què s’entestava en protegir-la, doncs? Les llàgrimes li eren arrabassades com si li arrenquessin la pell.
La desesperació la tornà imprudent. Un dia va enganyar-lo dient-li que s’havien fet un petó amb en Rei. Estaven dinant, i el got del que en Koga es disposava a beure esclatà entre els seus dits. De sobte excitada per l’ànsia i una joia tan salvatge com reprimida, ella contemplà els trossos de vidre i el mullader escampats per arreu, i després a ell. En Koga no es dignà a mirar-la. Els seus ulls estaven tancats amb força i crispada la seva cara, mentre la mà encara apretava els vidres que hi tenia clavats. Després, començà a treure’s els vidres sangonosos. Les seves mandíbules tremolaven de tant que les apretava. S’aixecà, “vaig a curar-me”; la seva veu i el seus passos en caminar només reflectien un esgotament aclaparadorament intens. La Kaoru el veié marxar com si li acabés de dir un adéu per sempre. La mà ferida plorava llàgrimes vermelles sobre el parquet, perquè als seus ulls no els permetia de plorar. Ella es deixà caure enrera, derrotada i sense esperança. En Koga mai no lluitaria per ella.
Però aquí estava ara, lluitant per ella davant d’en Rei, a la seva pròpia forma poca-solta i maldestra, però ho feia! Emoció i esperança comprimides i a punt d’esclatar, li impediren de badar boca quan ell la prengué del canell i l’obligà a seguir-lo. Però en Rei s’hi plantà al davant amb enuig creixent.
– Tal.lós! Troglodita vestit de blanc! La fas plorar! –Tregué les espases un altre cop– Deixa-la anar o tu i jo ho acabarem tot ara i aquí!
Però en Koga només li dedicà una mirada d’absolut menyspreu, i la fúria d’en Rei s’encengué. Una de les seves espases es precipirà cap al coll d’en Koga, l’arma del qual la interceptà a mig camí, mentre l’altra s’allunyava del seu blanc per preparar una estocada. Però la Kaoru, què havia assistit a l’intercanvi dels dos nois no sabent si sentir-se preocupada o complaguda, posà la mà que li quedava lliure sobre el braç d’en Rei què, inútilment, pressionava cap al coll del seu adversari. Ella s’hagué d’esforçar molt en parlar.
– Rei, no t’amoïnis. T’agraeixo molt tot el que fas per mi, però tot està bé.
La grapa del cavaller de negre s’afluixà, i la seva espasa a punt de precipitar-se sobre la seva víctima, de mica en mica caigué, mentre se la mirava a ella, incrèdul, adolorit, sense saber ben bé què havia passat. La Kaoru no va poder veure la llambregada de victòria amb que en Koga obsequià al seu rival, just abans de sentir-se estirar el braç un altre cop, i veure com quedava enrere.
No gaire després, en Koga aturà la seva ràpida marxa i la mirà. Era “aquella mirada”. L’havia vista per primer cop el dia abans, que ell va tornar de visitar el Sacerdot Makai Amon. Una mena de cortina s’havia apartat dels seus ulls i revel.laven el missatge que mai no havien volgut dir, què ella entenia bé i pel qual havia apostat tant. Què hauria pogut passar en aquella misteriosa trobada? La veritat és que tant se li’n donava.
Per tercera vegada ell la tibà del braç, però aquest cop la rebé al seu pit. La Kaoru sentí com fugien tots els fantasmes que l’havien turmentada, espaordits pel calor d’aquell cos, i pel suau refrec d’aquells llavis que, tímidament, semblaven cercar alguna cosa entre els seus cabells.
FI
diumenge, 9 de novembre del 2008
GARO Fanfic - Anguish (Chapter 2nd)
Fanfic placed after chapter 15 and before the 17th.
Kouga was reading when Kaoru arrived. A bouquet of red and white roses that covered a half of her face aroused his curiosity, but before he could consider whether to do a comment or not, Gonza went ahead.
“Oh, Kaoru-sama, what beautiful roses!”
“Yes, they are”. She beamed. “A messenger delivered them to me at work today”.
“A secret admirer, I suppose?,” the butler added in complicity.
“Oh, no, they’re from Rei Suzumura, another Makai Knight. Do you know him?”
“Not very well ...” Gonza had lost his conviction all of a sudden. His eyes escaped to Kouga and, after welcoming her, he went away.
Wham! The big book closed suddenly between Kouga’s hands, and scared Kaoru. He got up from his chair. While he was approaching to her, he felt all the muscles in his body getting an almost painful tension. Kaoru opened his eyes a lot and made a step back when he stopped in front of her.
“I wonder if your brain does something else than enabling you with an unprecedented ability to chatter and to put yourself in trouble”.
Anger replaced alarm in her face.
“Why do you care?”
“This guy wants you dead, and you ask why do I care? Your memory is very short”
“You should know, this,” she suddenly placed the bouquet at his nose, “is his offer of peace!”
He pushed her arm away, as if the flowers could contaminate him.
“He said it and you believe him!” Kouga could not believe that this woman to trust that turncoat. “He knows I’ll protect you, so he wants to take you away from me”.
Kaoru’s look softened, with a touch of sadness which did he to wonder if he had gone too far in his comments.
“No, Kouga, Rei doesn’t wish me any harm”.
Kaoru buried her face among the roses for a moment, a gesture that forced him to suppress his impulse to take them one at a time and to squelch them among his fingers.
“How can you know this?”
Her eyes focused on him.
“For a reason I don’t know, who he wants to harm is you, Kouga. And sometimes he thinks that threatening me will hurt you”. She giggled without any joy, and some few tears moistened her eyes. “Poor miserable! But I’m safe. You do have to take care. I couldn’t persuade him to...” She turned his face away. “I’m sorry”.
Kouga knew such an assumption was largely true, and he was ready to take it. But he had a bad feeling about the phrase she had left without ending.
“You didn’t want to put up in between, right?” Pause. She did not reply. “What did he do to you?”
“It’s nothing”. Kaoru hurried to the stairs, but a strong and offhand grip grasped her free arm.
“What did he do to you?”, he repeated. He softened his clutch when felt a warm tear on his hand. “Tell me.”
These last words were so gentle that she turned to look at him, as if she did not believe. His hand left her go.
“Well, I ... I went to ask him ... to make peace with you”.
Kouga felt moved by her courage. And her innocence. If he had dared, he would have embraced her right then. His beautiful careless one. He invited her to continue:
“He said no...”
“It is obvious, isn’t it?” Another giggle, unaccompanied by her eyes, turned her face into a mask momentarily.
“What did he say? Perhaps I’ll be able to deduce what he’s against me”.
“I don’t think so. He just...” She sighed. “He tried to kiss me”.
It was like a slap.
After being astonished, Kouga steeped in fury. Now he understood everything! Rei wanted to win Kaoru to weaken him, to make him angry, so he could make a mistake. But he must not fall into this trap. He will protect her because Rei would end up killing her. However, he would not intervene until she or he did something unusual, such as leaving his own area of influence, or... better not think about it. If such a thing happened, nobody could stop him, and will kill Rei if needed: he won’t allow anyone to threaten Kaoru’s life!
Forgetting her presence, Kouga closed eyes and breathed deeply several times to control his anger. And asked to his soul strengh enough to bear which was going to fall upon him.
Kouga was reading when Kaoru arrived. A bouquet of red and white roses that covered a half of her face aroused his curiosity, but before he could consider whether to do a comment or not, Gonza went ahead.
“Oh, Kaoru-sama, what beautiful roses!”
“Yes, they are”. She beamed. “A messenger delivered them to me at work today”.
“A secret admirer, I suppose?,” the butler added in complicity.
“Oh, no, they’re from Rei Suzumura, another Makai Knight. Do you know him?”
“Not very well ...” Gonza had lost his conviction all of a sudden. His eyes escaped to Kouga and, after welcoming her, he went away.
Wham! The big book closed suddenly between Kouga’s hands, and scared Kaoru. He got up from his chair. While he was approaching to her, he felt all the muscles in his body getting an almost painful tension. Kaoru opened his eyes a lot and made a step back when he stopped in front of her.
“I wonder if your brain does something else than enabling you with an unprecedented ability to chatter and to put yourself in trouble”.
Anger replaced alarm in her face.
“Why do you care?”
“This guy wants you dead, and you ask why do I care? Your memory is very short”
“You should know, this,” she suddenly placed the bouquet at his nose, “is his offer of peace!”
He pushed her arm away, as if the flowers could contaminate him.
“He said it and you believe him!” Kouga could not believe that this woman to trust that turncoat. “He knows I’ll protect you, so he wants to take you away from me”.
Kaoru’s look softened, with a touch of sadness which did he to wonder if he had gone too far in his comments.
“No, Kouga, Rei doesn’t wish me any harm”.
Kaoru buried her face among the roses for a moment, a gesture that forced him to suppress his impulse to take them one at a time and to squelch them among his fingers.
“How can you know this?”
Her eyes focused on him.
“For a reason I don’t know, who he wants to harm is you, Kouga. And sometimes he thinks that threatening me will hurt you”. She giggled without any joy, and some few tears moistened her eyes. “Poor miserable! But I’m safe. You do have to take care. I couldn’t persuade him to...” She turned his face away. “I’m sorry”.
Kouga knew such an assumption was largely true, and he was ready to take it. But he had a bad feeling about the phrase she had left without ending.
“You didn’t want to put up in between, right?” Pause. She did not reply. “What did he do to you?”
“It’s nothing”. Kaoru hurried to the stairs, but a strong and offhand grip grasped her free arm.
“What did he do to you?”, he repeated. He softened his clutch when felt a warm tear on his hand. “Tell me.”
These last words were so gentle that she turned to look at him, as if she did not believe. His hand left her go.
“Well, I ... I went to ask him ... to make peace with you”.
Kouga felt moved by her courage. And her innocence. If he had dared, he would have embraced her right then. His beautiful careless one. He invited her to continue:
“He said no...”
“It is obvious, isn’t it?” Another giggle, unaccompanied by her eyes, turned her face into a mask momentarily.
“What did he say? Perhaps I’ll be able to deduce what he’s against me”.
“I don’t think so. He just...” She sighed. “He tried to kiss me”.
It was like a slap.
After being astonished, Kouga steeped in fury. Now he understood everything! Rei wanted to win Kaoru to weaken him, to make him angry, so he could make a mistake. But he must not fall into this trap. He will protect her because Rei would end up killing her. However, he would not intervene until she or he did something unusual, such as leaving his own area of influence, or... better not think about it. If such a thing happened, nobody could stop him, and will kill Rei if needed: he won’t allow anyone to threaten Kaoru’s life!
Forgetting her presence, Kouga closed eyes and breathed deeply several times to control his anger. And asked to his soul strengh enough to bear which was going to fall upon him.
dilluns, 3 de novembre del 2008
GARO Fanfic – Angúnia. (Capítol 2n)
Fanfic situat després del capítol 15 i abans del 17.
En Koga llegia quan la Kaoru arribà. Un ram de roses vermelles i blanques que li mig tapaven la cara despertà la seva curiositat, però abans que pogués considerar si feia o no cap comentari, en Gonza se li anticipà.
–Ah, senyoreta, quin ram! És una bellesa.
–Sí que ho és. –Ella somrigué– Un missatger me l’ha lliurat avui a la feina.
–Un admirador secret, potser? –afegí el majordom, amb to còmplice.
–Ah, no! És d’en Rei Suzumura, un altre Cavaller Makai. El coneixes?
–No ben bé... –En Gonza havia perdut la seva seguretat i cordialitat de sobte. Els seus ulls s’escapaven cap a en Koga i, després de saludar-la, se n’anà.
Pam! El gran llibre es tancà de sobte entre les mans d’en Koga, espantant la Kaoru. Ell s’havia aixecat de la cadira. Mentre s’hi acostava va notar com tots els músculs del seu cos entraven en una tensió quasi dolorosa. La Kaoru obrí molt els ulls i féu un pas enrere quan ell es plantà davant seu.
–Em pregunto si el teu cervell fa alguna cosa més, a part de donar-te una capacitat inaudita per a la xerrera i per a ficar-te en embolics.
L’enuig substituí l’alarma al rostre de la noia.
–I a tu què t’hi va, ara?
–Aquest individu t’hauria mort de bona gana i encara em preguntes què m’hi va? Tan curta és la teva memòria?
–Per a que ho sàpigues, això –ella li entaforà de sobte el ram sota el nas– és una oferta de pau per part seva!
Ell li empenyé el braç lluny, com si les flors poguessin contaminar-lo.
–T’ho ha dit i tu t’ho has cregut! –Aixecava la veu; no es podia creure que aquesta dona es refiés d’aquell caragirat.– Sap que jo et protegiré, per això vol allunyar-te de mi.
L’esguard de la Kaoru se suavitzà, amb un matís de tristesa que a ell el féu preguntar-se si no s’hauria passat en els seus comentaris.
–No, Koga, en Rei no em vol pas mal.
La Kaoru ensorrà un moment la seva cara entre les roses, gest que a ell l’obligà a reprimir l’impuls d’agafar-les d’una en una i esclafar-les entre els seus dits.
–Com ho pots saber, això?
Ella el fità.
–Per alguna raó que ignoro, és a tu a qui vol perjudicar, Koga, i de vegades es pensa que amenaçant-me a mi et fa mal a tu. –Ella rigué sense alegria, i unes poques llàgrimes li humitejaren els ulls.– Pobre desgraciat! Però no em farà res. Tú sí que has de prendre’n cura. No vaig poder convèncer-lo de... –Ella tombà la cara en una altra direcció.– Em sap greu.
En Koga sabia que la seva suposició tenia bona part de veritat, i estava preparat per a assumir-la. Però el que pressentia de la frase que ella havia deixat a mig fer no li agradava gens.
–No hauràs volgut ficar-te entremig, oi? –Pausa. Ella no respongué.– Què t’ha fet?
–Res. –La Kaoru s’apressà cap a l’escala, però una mà forta i sense miraments li atenallà el braç que li quedava lliure.
–Què t’ha fet? –repetí. Afluixà la seva grapa en notar-la humida per una llàgrima càlida.– Digues...
Aquesta última paraula va ser tan suau i gentil que ella es tombà a mirar-lo com si no s'ho acabés de creure. La mà que l’agafava la deixà anar.
–Bé, jo... vaig anar a demanar-li... que fes les paus amb tu.
En Koga estava commogut per la seva valentia. I per la seva innocència. Si hagués gosat, l’hauria abraçada en aquell mateix moment. La seva bella imprudent. La convidà a continuar:
–Va dir que no...
–És evident, oi? –Una altra rialla, què no fou acompanyada pels ulls, convertí momentàniament el seu rostre en una màscara.
–Què va dir? Potser així podré deduir què té en contra meu.
–No ho crec. Es va limitar a ... –Ella sospirà.– Va intentar fer-me un petó.
Fou com una bufetada.
Quan sortí del seu estat d’estupefacció, en Koga se sentí amarat per la fúria. Ara ho entenia tot! En Rei volia conquistar la Kaoru per a debilitar-lo, encoleritzar-lo i obligar-lo a donar un pas en fals. Però ell no cauria en aquest parany. La protegiria a ella perquè en Rei l’acabaria matant de totes passades. Tanmateix, no hi intervindria fins que ella o ell fessin alguna cosa rara, com ara sortir de la seva àrea d’influència o... millor no pensar-hi. Si tals cosa passaven ningú podria aturar-lo, i mataria en Rei si calia: no permetria que ningú amenacés la vida de la Kaoru!
Oblidant-se completament de la presència d’ella, tancà els ulls i respirà a fons diverses vegades per controlar la seva ira. I demanà força a la seva ànima per a suportar el que a partir d’ara li cauria a sobre.
En Koga llegia quan la Kaoru arribà. Un ram de roses vermelles i blanques que li mig tapaven la cara despertà la seva curiositat, però abans que pogués considerar si feia o no cap comentari, en Gonza se li anticipà.
–Ah, senyoreta, quin ram! És una bellesa.
–Sí que ho és. –Ella somrigué– Un missatger me l’ha lliurat avui a la feina.
–Un admirador secret, potser? –afegí el majordom, amb to còmplice.
–Ah, no! És d’en Rei Suzumura, un altre Cavaller Makai. El coneixes?
–No ben bé... –En Gonza havia perdut la seva seguretat i cordialitat de sobte. Els seus ulls s’escapaven cap a en Koga i, després de saludar-la, se n’anà.
Pam! El gran llibre es tancà de sobte entre les mans d’en Koga, espantant la Kaoru. Ell s’havia aixecat de la cadira. Mentre s’hi acostava va notar com tots els músculs del seu cos entraven en una tensió quasi dolorosa. La Kaoru obrí molt els ulls i féu un pas enrere quan ell es plantà davant seu.
–Em pregunto si el teu cervell fa alguna cosa més, a part de donar-te una capacitat inaudita per a la xerrera i per a ficar-te en embolics.
L’enuig substituí l’alarma al rostre de la noia.
–I a tu què t’hi va, ara?
–Aquest individu t’hauria mort de bona gana i encara em preguntes què m’hi va? Tan curta és la teva memòria?
–Per a que ho sàpigues, això –ella li entaforà de sobte el ram sota el nas– és una oferta de pau per part seva!
Ell li empenyé el braç lluny, com si les flors poguessin contaminar-lo.
–T’ho ha dit i tu t’ho has cregut! –Aixecava la veu; no es podia creure que aquesta dona es refiés d’aquell caragirat.– Sap que jo et protegiré, per això vol allunyar-te de mi.
L’esguard de la Kaoru se suavitzà, amb un matís de tristesa que a ell el féu preguntar-se si no s’hauria passat en els seus comentaris.
–No, Koga, en Rei no em vol pas mal.
La Kaoru ensorrà un moment la seva cara entre les roses, gest que a ell l’obligà a reprimir l’impuls d’agafar-les d’una en una i esclafar-les entre els seus dits.
–Com ho pots saber, això?
Ella el fità.
–Per alguna raó que ignoro, és a tu a qui vol perjudicar, Koga, i de vegades es pensa que amenaçant-me a mi et fa mal a tu. –Ella rigué sense alegria, i unes poques llàgrimes li humitejaren els ulls.– Pobre desgraciat! Però no em farà res. Tú sí que has de prendre’n cura. No vaig poder convèncer-lo de... –Ella tombà la cara en una altra direcció.– Em sap greu.
En Koga sabia que la seva suposició tenia bona part de veritat, i estava preparat per a assumir-la. Però el que pressentia de la frase que ella havia deixat a mig fer no li agradava gens.
–No hauràs volgut ficar-te entremig, oi? –Pausa. Ella no respongué.– Què t’ha fet?
–Res. –La Kaoru s’apressà cap a l’escala, però una mà forta i sense miraments li atenallà el braç que li quedava lliure.
–Què t’ha fet? –repetí. Afluixà la seva grapa en notar-la humida per una llàgrima càlida.– Digues...
Aquesta última paraula va ser tan suau i gentil que ella es tombà a mirar-lo com si no s'ho acabés de creure. La mà que l’agafava la deixà anar.
–Bé, jo... vaig anar a demanar-li... que fes les paus amb tu.
En Koga estava commogut per la seva valentia. I per la seva innocència. Si hagués gosat, l’hauria abraçada en aquell mateix moment. La seva bella imprudent. La convidà a continuar:
–Va dir que no...
–És evident, oi? –Una altra rialla, què no fou acompanyada pels ulls, convertí momentàniament el seu rostre en una màscara.
–Què va dir? Potser així podré deduir què té en contra meu.
–No ho crec. Es va limitar a ... –Ella sospirà.– Va intentar fer-me un petó.
Fou com una bufetada.
Quan sortí del seu estat d’estupefacció, en Koga se sentí amarat per la fúria. Ara ho entenia tot! En Rei volia conquistar la Kaoru per a debilitar-lo, encoleritzar-lo i obligar-lo a donar un pas en fals. Però ell no cauria en aquest parany. La protegiria a ella perquè en Rei l’acabaria matant de totes passades. Tanmateix, no hi intervindria fins que ella o ell fessin alguna cosa rara, com ara sortir de la seva àrea d’influència o... millor no pensar-hi. Si tals cosa passaven ningú podria aturar-lo, i mataria en Rei si calia: no permetria que ningú amenacés la vida de la Kaoru!
Oblidant-se completament de la presència d’ella, tancà els ulls i respirà a fons diverses vegades per controlar la seva ira. I demanà força a la seva ànima per a suportar el que a partir d’ara li cauria a sobre.
dimarts, 21 d’octubre del 2008
GARO Special – Kouga’s evolution
SPOILERS!!!
We have to add very few things about his idealism and faith. His only doubt, a logical scepticism about young Rin skills, was banished after her first demonstration, and he will be able to entrust his life to her.
Chapter 1. Kouga has not been tolerant to Rin when she did not want to return to Kantai so early, and he dragged her along; he let himself go when she took his hand, but now he tries hard on speaking to her about their respective mothers. It will become a feeling of evident affection.
We see a great change in the development of the social aspect. Even though as much serious and elusive he still is, he finishes with a girlfriend -even though we knew it since before- he is among people in farewell time and, when Tsubasa says " we are in Kantai and we will do things in my way" he answers "we do things in our way": in his case, the use of plural uncovers a sort of consciousness of group.
His bumping into Tsubasa was unavoidable due to their pride, but he tries hard on being kind with Rin, and Garai, and it is clear that he gets along with Rei. Even dares to scold Tsubasa because he is so cold with his little sister. For him, you can not behave like this with those people you love.
But Kouga’s case goes beyond.
Chapter 2. Even though at first he himself is not much courteous to Rin, we can not disregard his great alarm, very emotional when, after finishing their first fight against Lègules, Kouga runs to her side and see her hurt by the demoniac blood.
In this scene, even Jabi has been forgotten, though she was a bit hurt too and was closer to him. Is he rmembering Kaoru’s case through the young Rin?
But there is another possibility. If we accept that the relationship between he and Jabi was a sort of continuation of the one that they had as being children, look at his reaction when he sees her after taking her from the magical tree –his brighting face– and when he knows, perhaps telepathically, that has gone out of saving Rin and surviving, and he pronounces her name. It looks like a very deep friendship. We also remember how he was affected |in the series -chapter 18- when was noticed about the dead of the Makai priest Amon. We might conclude that Kouga is a man of some few friends, but very good ones, and he is ready to do everything for them.
Certainly, this allows us to ask why such a powerful defensive barrier –his closed nature– turned up. Perhaps he thought that this emotional capacity made him vulnerable. Suture against the loss of his parents? We aimed the importance of this factor at the comments about the series, but we did not say anything about a possible emotional past of him, led to be interrupted before or after his father’s dead. Did he lose anybody else?
A friend of mine thinks that between Kouga and Jabi had something more than a childhood friendship, and we have seen already there are some scenes supporting such a theory. Thus, it would make some sense Jabi’s violent reaction as they met in the series, accusing him of letting her to win when they played -chapter 18-, and her sweeter reaction afterwards too. Did one of them break up? Did either person or circumstance split them apart, and things kept on cooling in the time? The poor boy must have panic of losing also Kaoru. How can we not understand his first incapability of accepting his feelings towards her!
We can not answer any question made here but, oh yes, there was an emotional past for Kouga, blocked, and retrieved since he fell in love. It looks that for him, friendship and love can be equally intense, only different in nuance.
Chapter 2. In the two chapters of the special we have attended some details telling us that Koga is still in love. When at last Kaoru comes back, we feel comforting to see he has learned of his feelings. Enough about of taking her wrist and dragging her along: now he waits for her to want to go with him.
Thanks very much for the screenshots, Radix.
We have to add very few things about his idealism and faith. His only doubt, a logical scepticism about young Rin skills, was banished after her first demonstration, and he will be able to entrust his life to her.
Chapter 1. Kouga has not been tolerant to Rin when she did not want to return to Kantai so early, and he dragged her along; he let himself go when she took his hand, but now he tries hard on speaking to her about their respective mothers. It will become a feeling of evident affection.
We see a great change in the development of the social aspect. Even though as much serious and elusive he still is, he finishes with a girlfriend -even though we knew it since before- he is among people in farewell time and, when Tsubasa says " we are in Kantai and we will do things in my way" he answers "we do things in our way": in his case, the use of plural uncovers a sort of consciousness of group.
His bumping into Tsubasa was unavoidable due to their pride, but he tries hard on being kind with Rin, and Garai, and it is clear that he gets along with Rei. Even dares to scold Tsubasa because he is so cold with his little sister. For him, you can not behave like this with those people you love.
But Kouga’s case goes beyond.
Chapter 2. Even though at first he himself is not much courteous to Rin, we can not disregard his great alarm, very emotional when, after finishing their first fight against Lègules, Kouga runs to her side and see her hurt by the demoniac blood.
In this scene, even Jabi has been forgotten, though she was a bit hurt too and was closer to him. Is he rmembering Kaoru’s case through the young Rin?
But there is another possibility. If we accept that the relationship between he and Jabi was a sort of continuation of the one that they had as being children, look at his reaction when he sees her after taking her from the magical tree –his brighting face– and when he knows, perhaps telepathically, that has gone out of saving Rin and surviving, and he pronounces her name. It looks like a very deep friendship. We also remember how he was affected |in the series -chapter 18- when was noticed about the dead of the Makai priest Amon. We might conclude that Kouga is a man of some few friends, but very good ones, and he is ready to do everything for them.
Certainly, this allows us to ask why such a powerful defensive barrier –his closed nature– turned up. Perhaps he thought that this emotional capacity made him vulnerable. Suture against the loss of his parents? We aimed the importance of this factor at the comments about the series, but we did not say anything about a possible emotional past of him, led to be interrupted before or after his father’s dead. Did he lose anybody else?
A friend of mine thinks that between Kouga and Jabi had something more than a childhood friendship, and we have seen already there are some scenes supporting such a theory. Thus, it would make some sense Jabi’s violent reaction as they met in the series, accusing him of letting her to win when they played -chapter 18-, and her sweeter reaction afterwards too. Did one of them break up? Did either person or circumstance split them apart, and things kept on cooling in the time? The poor boy must have panic of losing also Kaoru. How can we not understand his first incapability of accepting his feelings towards her!
We can not answer any question made here but, oh yes, there was an emotional past for Kouga, blocked, and retrieved since he fell in love. It looks that for him, friendship and love can be equally intense, only different in nuance.
Chapter 2. In the two chapters of the special we have attended some details telling us that Koga is still in love. When at last Kaoru comes back, we feel comforting to see he has learned of his feelings. Enough about of taking her wrist and dragging her along: now he waits for her to want to go with him.
Thanks very much for the screenshots, Radix.
divendres, 17 d’octubre del 2008
GARO Especial - La evolución de Koga
SPOILERS!!!
Poco tenemos que añadir sobre su idealismo y su fe. Su única duda, un lógico excepticismo ante las capacidades de la joven Rin, es alejada completamente tras la primera demostración, y llegará a poder confiarle su vida.
Capítulo 1. Koga no ha tolerado que Rin le llevara la contraria, la ha arrastrado hacia Kantai a pesar de su oposición, y se ha soltado cuando ella le cogía de la mano, pero ahora se esfuerza en hablar con ella de sus respectivas madres. Evolucionará hacia un sentimiento de afecto evidente.
El gran cambio lo vemos en el patente desarrollo de su aspecto social. Aunque continúa siendo tan serio y arisco como siempre, es significativo que acabe emparejado -aunque eso ya lo sabíamos de antes-, que esté rodeado de gente a la hora de la despedida y que, cuando Tsubasa le dice "estamos en Kantai y haremos las cosas a mi manera" responda "nosotros hacemos las cosas a nuestra manera": en su caso, el uso del plural es sintomático de la conciencia de grupo.
El encontronazo con Tsubasa era inevitable debido al orgullo de ambos, pero se esfuerza en ser amable con Rin, con Garai, y es evidente que se lleva bien con Rei. Incluso osa, él, reñir a Tsubasa por ser tan frío con su hermana. Para él está claro que uno no se puede comportar así con los que ama.
Pero el caso de Koga va más allá.
Capítulo 2. Aunque al principio él mismo no es muy gentil con Rin, es defícil ignorar su gran alarma, emocional a todas luces, cuando al acabar el primer combate contra Légules, Koga acude corriendo a su lado y la ve tocada por la sangre demoníaca.
En esta escena incluso ha olvidado siquiera mirar a Jabi, qué estaba más cerca de él, y también con alguna dificultad. ¿Le recordaba Rin el caso de Kaoru?
Pero hay otra posibilidad. Si aceptamos que la relación entre él y la Jabi es una especie de continuación de la que tuvieron cuando eran niños, tenemos suficiente con ver sus reacciones cuando la ve a ella después de sacarla del árbol mágico -se le ilumina la cara- y cuando sabe, podríamos decir que telepáticamente, que ha triunfado en salvar a Rin y sobrevivir, y pronuncia su nombre. No hay duda que se trata de una amistad profunda. Recordamos también cómo lo afectó en la serie -capítulo 18- enterarse de la muerte de Amon, el sacerdote Makai. Podríamos concluir que en Koga es un hombre de pocos amigos, pero verdaderos, y está dispuesto a todo por ellos.
Claro está que eso también podría hacer replantearnos el por qué de esta poderosa barrera defensiva que es su carácter tan cerrado. Quizás se formó cuando creyó que esta capacidad emocional lo hacía vulnerable. ¿Se trata de puntos de sutura contra la pérdida de los padres? Apuntábamos en los comentarios sobre la serie la importancia de este factor, pero no decíamos nada de un posible pasado emocional que creyó que tenía que interrumpir antes o después de la muerte de su padre. ¿Perdió a alguien más?
Un amigo mío piensa que entre Koga y Jabi hubo algo cosa más que una amistad de infancia, y ya hemos visto que hay escenas a favor de tal teoría. Así, incluso tendría sentido la reacción violenta de ella cuando se reencontraron en la serie, acusándolo de ser condescendiente con ella cuando jugaban -capítulo 18-, y la reacción más dulce de después también. ¿Uno de ellos rompió? ¿O otra persona o circunstancia los separó, y la cosa se fue enfriando con el tiempo? ¡El pobre chico debió tener pánico de perder también a Kaoru: cómo no comprender que fuera incapaz de aceptar sus sentimientos hacia ella!
No podemos responder a ninguna de las preguntas formuladas, pero decididamente, hay un pasado emocional para Koga, qué fue bloqueado, y recuperado desde que se enamoró. Parece que para él amor y amistad no es una cuestión de intensidad, sino de matiz.
Captítulo 2. Durante los dos capítulos del especial hemos asistido a detalles que nos indicaban que Koga continúa enamorado. Cuando por fin Kaoru vuelve, es reconfortante ver que él ha aprendido de sus sentimientos. Ya no la toma por la muñeca y la arrastra a donde sea: ahora espera que ella quiera venir con él.
Muchas gracias por las tomas, Radix.
Poco tenemos que añadir sobre su idealismo y su fe. Su única duda, un lógico excepticismo ante las capacidades de la joven Rin, es alejada completamente tras la primera demostración, y llegará a poder confiarle su vida.
Capítulo 1. Koga no ha tolerado que Rin le llevara la contraria, la ha arrastrado hacia Kantai a pesar de su oposición, y se ha soltado cuando ella le cogía de la mano, pero ahora se esfuerza en hablar con ella de sus respectivas madres. Evolucionará hacia un sentimiento de afecto evidente.
El gran cambio lo vemos en el patente desarrollo de su aspecto social. Aunque continúa siendo tan serio y arisco como siempre, es significativo que acabe emparejado -aunque eso ya lo sabíamos de antes-, que esté rodeado de gente a la hora de la despedida y que, cuando Tsubasa le dice "estamos en Kantai y haremos las cosas a mi manera" responda "nosotros hacemos las cosas a nuestra manera": en su caso, el uso del plural es sintomático de la conciencia de grupo.
El encontronazo con Tsubasa era inevitable debido al orgullo de ambos, pero se esfuerza en ser amable con Rin, con Garai, y es evidente que se lleva bien con Rei. Incluso osa, él, reñir a Tsubasa por ser tan frío con su hermana. Para él está claro que uno no se puede comportar así con los que ama.
Pero el caso de Koga va más allá.
Capítulo 2. Aunque al principio él mismo no es muy gentil con Rin, es defícil ignorar su gran alarma, emocional a todas luces, cuando al acabar el primer combate contra Légules, Koga acude corriendo a su lado y la ve tocada por la sangre demoníaca.
En esta escena incluso ha olvidado siquiera mirar a Jabi, qué estaba más cerca de él, y también con alguna dificultad. ¿Le recordaba Rin el caso de Kaoru?
Pero hay otra posibilidad. Si aceptamos que la relación entre él y la Jabi es una especie de continuación de la que tuvieron cuando eran niños, tenemos suficiente con ver sus reacciones cuando la ve a ella después de sacarla del árbol mágico -se le ilumina la cara- y cuando sabe, podríamos decir que telepáticamente, que ha triunfado en salvar a Rin y sobrevivir, y pronuncia su nombre. No hay duda que se trata de una amistad profunda. Recordamos también cómo lo afectó en la serie -capítulo 18- enterarse de la muerte de Amon, el sacerdote Makai. Podríamos concluir que en Koga es un hombre de pocos amigos, pero verdaderos, y está dispuesto a todo por ellos.
Claro está que eso también podría hacer replantearnos el por qué de esta poderosa barrera defensiva que es su carácter tan cerrado. Quizás se formó cuando creyó que esta capacidad emocional lo hacía vulnerable. ¿Se trata de puntos de sutura contra la pérdida de los padres? Apuntábamos en los comentarios sobre la serie la importancia de este factor, pero no decíamos nada de un posible pasado emocional que creyó que tenía que interrumpir antes o después de la muerte de su padre. ¿Perdió a alguien más?
Un amigo mío piensa que entre Koga y Jabi hubo algo cosa más que una amistad de infancia, y ya hemos visto que hay escenas a favor de tal teoría. Así, incluso tendría sentido la reacción violenta de ella cuando se reencontraron en la serie, acusándolo de ser condescendiente con ella cuando jugaban -capítulo 18-, y la reacción más dulce de después también. ¿Uno de ellos rompió? ¿O otra persona o circunstancia los separó, y la cosa se fue enfriando con el tiempo? ¡El pobre chico debió tener pánico de perder también a Kaoru: cómo no comprender que fuera incapaz de aceptar sus sentimientos hacia ella!
No podemos responder a ninguna de las preguntas formuladas, pero decididamente, hay un pasado emocional para Koga, qué fue bloqueado, y recuperado desde que se enamoró. Parece que para él amor y amistad no es una cuestión de intensidad, sino de matiz.
Captítulo 2. Durante los dos capítulos del especial hemos asistido a detalles que nos indicaban que Koga continúa enamorado. Cuando por fin Kaoru vuelve, es reconfortante ver que él ha aprendido de sus sentimientos. Ya no la toma por la muñeca y la arrastra a donde sea: ahora espera que ella quiera venir con él.
Muchas gracias por las tomas, Radix.
divendres, 10 d’octubre del 2008
GARO Especial - L'evolució d'en Koga
SPOILERS!!!
Poc hem d’afegir sobre el seu idealisme i la seva fe. El seu únic dubte, un lògic excepticisme sobre les capacitats de la jove Rin, és bandejat totalment després de la primera demostració, i arribarà a ser capaç de confiar-li la seva vida.
Capítol 1. En Koga no ha tolerat que la Rin li portés la contrària i l’ha arrossegada cap a Kantai sisplau-per-força, se n’ha deixat anar quan ella li agafava la mà, però ara s’esforça en parlar-hi sobre les seves respectives mares. Evolucionarà cap a un sentiment d’afecte evident.
El gran canvi el veiem en el clar desenvolupament de l’aspecte social. Tot i que continua essent tant seriós i esquerp com sempre, és significatiu que acabi emparellat –malgrat que això ja ho sabíem d’abans–, que estigui envoltat de gent a l’hora dels comiats i que, quan en Tsubasa li diu “som a Kantai i farem les coses a la meva manera” respongui “nosaltres fem les coses a la nostra manera”: en el seu cas, l’ús del plural és simptomàtic de la consciència de grup.
La topada amb en Tsubasa era inevitable degut a l’orgull d’ambdós, però s’esforça en ser amable amb la Rin, amb la Garai, i és evident que s’avé amb en Rei. Fins i tot gosa, ell, renyar en Tsubasa per ser tan fred amb la seva germana. Per a ell és clar que hom no es pot captenir així amb els que estima.
Però el cas d’en Koga va més enllà.
Capítol 2. Malgrat que al començament ell mateix no és gaire gentil amb la Rin, és defícil passar per alt la seva gran alarma, clarament emocional, quan en acabar el primer combat contra Lègules, en Koga acudeix corrents al seu costat i la veu tocada per la sang demoníaca.
En aquesta escena fins i tot ha oblidat mirar-se la Jabi, què era més a prop d’ell i també amb alguna dificultat. Li recordava la Rin el cas de la Kaoru?
Però hi ha una altra possibilitat. Si acceptem que la relació entre ell i la Jabi és una mena de continuació de la que van tenir quan eren infants, n’hi ha prou amb veure les seves reaccions quan la veu a ella després de treure-la de l’arbre màgic –se li il.lumina la cara– i quan sap, podríem dir que telepàticament, que se n’ha sortit de salvar la Rin i sobreviure-hi, i pronuncia el seu nom. No hi ha dubte que es tracta d’una amistat profunda. Recordem també con el va afectar a la sèrie –capítol 18– assabentar-se de la mort d’Amon, el sacerdot Makai. Podríem concloure que en Koga és un home de pocs amics, però veritables, i està disposat a tot per ells.
És clar que això també ens podria fer replantejar-nos el per què d’aquesta poderosa barrera defensiva que és el seu caràcter tan tancat. Potser va formar-se quan va creure que aquesta capacitat emocional el feia vulnerable. Punts de sutura contra la pèrdua dels pares? Apuntàvem als comentaris sobre la sèrie la importància d’aquest factor, però no dèiem res d’un possible passat emocional que va creure que havia d’interrompre abans o després de la mort del seu pare. Va perdre algú més?
Un amic meu pensa que entre en Koga i la Jabi va haver alguna cosa més que una amistat d’infància, i ja hem vist que hi ha escenes a favor d’una tal teoria. Així, fins i tot tindria sentit la reacció violenta de la Jabi quan van retrobar-se a la sèrie, acusant-lo de ser condescendent amb ella quan jugaven –capítol 18–, i la reacció més melosa de després, també. Un d’ells va trencar? O alguna persona o circumstància els va separar, i la cosa es va anar refredant amb el temps? El pobre noi devia tenir pànic de perdre també la Kaoru, com no comprendre que fos incapaç d’acceptar els seus sentiments cap a ella!
No podem respondre a cap de les preguntes formulades però, decididament, hi ha un passat emocional per a en Koga, què fou bloquejat, i recuperat d’ençà que es va enamorar. Sembla que per a ell amor i amistat no és una qüestió d’intensitat, sinó de matís.
Captítol 2. Durant els dos capítols de l’especial hem assistit a detalls que ens indicaven que en Koga continua enamorat. Quan per fi la Kaoru torna, és reconfortant veure que ell ha après dels seus sentiments. Ja no l’agafa pel canyell i l’arrossega allà on sigui: ara espera que ella vulgui venir amb ell.
Moltes gràcies per les preses, Radix.
Poc hem d’afegir sobre el seu idealisme i la seva fe. El seu únic dubte, un lògic excepticisme sobre les capacitats de la jove Rin, és bandejat totalment després de la primera demostració, i arribarà a ser capaç de confiar-li la seva vida.
Capítol 1. En Koga no ha tolerat que la Rin li portés la contrària i l’ha arrossegada cap a Kantai sisplau-per-força, se n’ha deixat anar quan ella li agafava la mà, però ara s’esforça en parlar-hi sobre les seves respectives mares. Evolucionarà cap a un sentiment d’afecte evident.
El gran canvi el veiem en el clar desenvolupament de l’aspecte social. Tot i que continua essent tant seriós i esquerp com sempre, és significatiu que acabi emparellat –malgrat que això ja ho sabíem d’abans–, que estigui envoltat de gent a l’hora dels comiats i que, quan en Tsubasa li diu “som a Kantai i farem les coses a la meva manera” respongui “nosaltres fem les coses a la nostra manera”: en el seu cas, l’ús del plural és simptomàtic de la consciència de grup.
La topada amb en Tsubasa era inevitable degut a l’orgull d’ambdós, però s’esforça en ser amable amb la Rin, amb la Garai, i és evident que s’avé amb en Rei. Fins i tot gosa, ell, renyar en Tsubasa per ser tan fred amb la seva germana. Per a ell és clar que hom no es pot captenir així amb els que estima.
Però el cas d’en Koga va més enllà.
Capítol 2. Malgrat que al començament ell mateix no és gaire gentil amb la Rin, és defícil passar per alt la seva gran alarma, clarament emocional, quan en acabar el primer combat contra Lègules, en Koga acudeix corrents al seu costat i la veu tocada per la sang demoníaca.
En aquesta escena fins i tot ha oblidat mirar-se la Jabi, què era més a prop d’ell i també amb alguna dificultat. Li recordava la Rin el cas de la Kaoru?
Però hi ha una altra possibilitat. Si acceptem que la relació entre ell i la Jabi és una mena de continuació de la que van tenir quan eren infants, n’hi ha prou amb veure les seves reaccions quan la veu a ella després de treure-la de l’arbre màgic –se li il.lumina la cara– i quan sap, podríem dir que telepàticament, que se n’ha sortit de salvar la Rin i sobreviure-hi, i pronuncia el seu nom. No hi ha dubte que es tracta d’una amistat profunda. Recordem també con el va afectar a la sèrie –capítol 18– assabentar-se de la mort d’Amon, el sacerdot Makai. Podríem concloure que en Koga és un home de pocs amics, però veritables, i està disposat a tot per ells.
És clar que això també ens podria fer replantejar-nos el per què d’aquesta poderosa barrera defensiva que és el seu caràcter tan tancat. Potser va formar-se quan va creure que aquesta capacitat emocional el feia vulnerable. Punts de sutura contra la pèrdua dels pares? Apuntàvem als comentaris sobre la sèrie la importància d’aquest factor, però no dèiem res d’un possible passat emocional que va creure que havia d’interrompre abans o després de la mort del seu pare. Va perdre algú més?
Un amic meu pensa que entre en Koga i la Jabi va haver alguna cosa més que una amistat d’infància, i ja hem vist que hi ha escenes a favor d’una tal teoria. Així, fins i tot tindria sentit la reacció violenta de la Jabi quan van retrobar-se a la sèrie, acusant-lo de ser condescendent amb ella quan jugaven –capítol 18–, i la reacció més melosa de després, també. Un d’ells va trencar? O alguna persona o circumstància els va separar, i la cosa es va anar refredant amb el temps? El pobre noi devia tenir pànic de perdre també la Kaoru, com no comprendre que fos incapaç d’acceptar els seus sentiments cap a ella!
No podem respondre a cap de les preguntes formulades però, decididament, hi ha un passat emocional per a en Koga, què fou bloquejat, i recuperat d’ençà que es va enamorar. Sembla que per a ell amor i amistat no és una qüestió d’intensitat, sinó de matís.
Captítol 2. Durant els dos capítols de l’especial hem assistit a detalls que ens indicaven que en Koga continua enamorat. Quan per fi la Kaoru torna, és reconfortant veure que ell ha après dels seus sentiments. Ja no l’agafa pel canyell i l’arrossega allà on sigui: ara espera que ella vulgui venir amb ell.
Moltes gràcies per les preses, Radix.
dimecres, 24 de setembre del 2008
GARO Special - Personal Impressions
Update: December 6th, 2008.
This text contains spoilers, be warned.
The Beast of the White Night. This is the title of the special having two episodes of 50 minutes each one, which finishes Garo. It is an amusing story, tieing what came off loose in the series. Rather two stories, one by chapter, even though the second interweaves since the first episode.
All emblematic characters of the series are present, and there are some new ones. The first, specially clearly in the younger ones, seem to attain the interpretative maturity of their roles. On the new ones, I have read in other reviews that the best among them is the little Rin; I find her exasperating -in original version, at last- and quite farfetched. Certainly, it is quite odd to speak about implausibility in a fantastic show, but for everything there is a boundary: she can do one or other thing, or that she has got a power or another one but, should she make such things without a supervision, and putting on her young shoulders the responsibility of some human lives?
But, on unbelievable things, Jabi’s reappearance is the biggest. Those who saw what happened to her in the series, perhaps we would not find a better explanation than the one suggested by a friend of mine: teleportation, even though it is difficult for me to relate Garo with the series Star Trek. It is not that I complain: Jabi has a justified role in the film, but even fantasy has to have its own logic, and in no moment anybody has said how has she ended up into the trunk of the magical tree.
A pair of things. At the forest of Naraku the trees seem demeanour of a straight line. The second is that, as well as it happened often in the series, there are scenes altered in the time, that is: an image/scene is chronologically posterior to the one coming next. This last one has disconcerted me a bit. In any case, wrongs of every kind have diminished, with respect to the series.
Some review say that it lacks enough epics, but I believe that the special has enough of it and, as well as in the series, the most epic scenes are helped –very much– for the magnificent soundtrack. Had I not say anything of the soundtrack, yet? I think it is brilliant!
Someone also criticized that new character Tsubasa Yamagatana is almost a clon of Kouga... but more talkative. I think that precisely this thing attains to communicate us what sort of work makes a Makai knight, the tremendous pressure upon his soul. Rei’s exception also speaks about how important is environment and individuality, as variables in the formation of personality. Everything say us that a Makai knight is, firstly, a human being.
The armor of the new knight Dan (Tsubasa) is worthy of the other two. White color and with a short red cape, it also has got less animal reminiscences than those of Garo and Zero. And, since we speak about armors, let me say that the last transformation of Garo, in my opinion, is superb and lovely.
In the series it drew my attention how a great spill of blood -a big splash that blurred in the air- was shown. Even though there is not persistence on showing it to us, now it is much more realistic, at least regarding the human blood, and it adds more impact to the scenes needed of it.
There are two things that I have liked especially, Firsty, of course, the conversation -rather a speech- in which Kouga attempts to face Tsubasa with his feelings. And also, how has illustrated the explanation of the relation among Legules and the Phosphore Arrow: the schematic drawings, totally in accordance to the ornamental style of the series, they are a mixture of aesthetics and of brightness or, at least, mute loquacity. I add the pleasant surprise that it has been to see Rei on a motorbike, and Kouga "surfing".
Some lack I find? I miss a little more of romanticism: the final scene is very short. Of course, you can discern a romantic background in some other scenes: Kouga’s anger when Rin spoils the famous picture of the landscape, and the speech of Kouga to Tsubasa.
The special deals mainly about fight, and the remaining things are causes to fight. The characters themselves get little attention. Even Kouga and Rei merely reassert themselves in the trends which already were starting to be seen in the series. I do not know if it will be my imagination, but it seems that the one more careful treated (but always static) was Rin.
And some ones that we did not expect as well: does Rei return Silver’s love?, finally? Jokes aside, there is a disturbing evidence affecting Kouga: he can grasp that Jabi has gone out of the great of curing Rin, in a distance. But in the series it happened to him with Kaoru, too...
This text contains spoilers, be warned.
The Beast of the White Night. This is the title of the special having two episodes of 50 minutes each one, which finishes Garo. It is an amusing story, tieing what came off loose in the series. Rather two stories, one by chapter, even though the second interweaves since the first episode.
All emblematic characters of the series are present, and there are some new ones. The first, specially clearly in the younger ones, seem to attain the interpretative maturity of their roles. On the new ones, I have read in other reviews that the best among them is the little Rin; I find her exasperating -in original version, at last- and quite farfetched. Certainly, it is quite odd to speak about implausibility in a fantastic show, but for everything there is a boundary: she can do one or other thing, or that she has got a power or another one but, should she make such things without a supervision, and putting on her young shoulders the responsibility of some human lives?
But, on unbelievable things, Jabi’s reappearance is the biggest. Those who saw what happened to her in the series, perhaps we would not find a better explanation than the one suggested by a friend of mine: teleportation, even though it is difficult for me to relate Garo with the series Star Trek. It is not that I complain: Jabi has a justified role in the film, but even fantasy has to have its own logic, and in no moment anybody has said how has she ended up into the trunk of the magical tree.
A pair of things. At the forest of Naraku the trees seem demeanour of a straight line. The second is that, as well as it happened often in the series, there are scenes altered in the time, that is: an image/scene is chronologically posterior to the one coming next. This last one has disconcerted me a bit. In any case, wrongs of every kind have diminished, with respect to the series.
Some review say that it lacks enough epics, but I believe that the special has enough of it and, as well as in the series, the most epic scenes are helped –very much– for the magnificent soundtrack. Had I not say anything of the soundtrack, yet? I think it is brilliant!
Someone also criticized that new character Tsubasa Yamagatana is almost a clon of Kouga... but more talkative. I think that precisely this thing attains to communicate us what sort of work makes a Makai knight, the tremendous pressure upon his soul. Rei’s exception also speaks about how important is environment and individuality, as variables in the formation of personality. Everything say us that a Makai knight is, firstly, a human being.
The armor of the new knight Dan (Tsubasa) is worthy of the other two. White color and with a short red cape, it also has got less animal reminiscences than those of Garo and Zero. And, since we speak about armors, let me say that the last transformation of Garo, in my opinion, is superb and lovely.
In the series it drew my attention how a great spill of blood -a big splash that blurred in the air- was shown. Even though there is not persistence on showing it to us, now it is much more realistic, at least regarding the human blood, and it adds more impact to the scenes needed of it.
There are two things that I have liked especially, Firsty, of course, the conversation -rather a speech- in which Kouga attempts to face Tsubasa with his feelings. And also, how has illustrated the explanation of the relation among Legules and the Phosphore Arrow: the schematic drawings, totally in accordance to the ornamental style of the series, they are a mixture of aesthetics and of brightness or, at least, mute loquacity. I add the pleasant surprise that it has been to see Rei on a motorbike, and Kouga "surfing".
Some lack I find? I miss a little more of romanticism: the final scene is very short. Of course, you can discern a romantic background in some other scenes: Kouga’s anger when Rin spoils the famous picture of the landscape, and the speech of Kouga to Tsubasa.
The special deals mainly about fight, and the remaining things are causes to fight. The characters themselves get little attention. Even Kouga and Rei merely reassert themselves in the trends which already were starting to be seen in the series. I do not know if it will be my imagination, but it seems that the one more careful treated (but always static) was Rin.
And some ones that we did not expect as well: does Rei return Silver’s love?, finally? Jokes aside, there is a disturbing evidence affecting Kouga: he can grasp that Jabi has gone out of the great of curing Rin, in a distance. But in the series it happened to him with Kaoru, too...
diumenge, 21 de setembre del 2008
GARO Especial - Impressions personals
Actualització: 6 de desembre, 2008.
Aquest text conté spoilers, quedeu avisats.
La Bèstia de la Nit Blanca. Aquest és el títol de l’especial de dos episodis de 50 minuts cadascun amb el que d’acaba Garo. És una història entretinguda, i lliga el que quedava solt al final de la sèrie. Més aviat dues històries, una per capítol, tot i que la segona s’entrellaça des del primer episodi.
Hom manté tots els personatges emblemàtics de la sèrie, i n’hi ha de nous. Els antics, especialment clar en els joves, semblen assolir la maduresa interpretativa dels seus papers, se’ls nota segurs del terreny que trepitgen. Dels nous, he llegit en altres crítiques que el millor és el de la petita Rin; jo el trobo exasperant –en versió original, sin més no- i força inversemblant. Cert, és relatiu parlar d’inversemblança en un programa fantàstic, però per a tot hi ha un límit: una cosa és que pugui fer tal o qual cosa, o que tingui un poder o un altre, però una altra de ben diferent és que hagi de sortir-se’n sense supervisió, i posant sobre les seves joves espatlles la responsabilitat de vides humanes.
Per a coses increïbles, però, la reaparició de la Jabi. Als que hem vist què li va passar a la sèrie, potser no trobaríem altra explicació que la que ha suggerit un amic meu: la teleportació, tot i que a mi em resulta difícil relacionar Garo amb les sèries Star Trek. No és que em queixi: la Jabi té un paper justificat a la pel.lícula, però fins i tot la fantasia ha de tenir la seva pròpia lògica, i en cap moment ningú ha dit com hi ha anat a parar, al tronc de l’arbre màgic.
Un parell de coses. Al bosc de Naraku els arbres semblen posats en línia recta. La segona és que, com també passava sovint a la sèrie, hi ha escenes alterades en el temps, és a dir, que una imatge/escena és cronològicament posterior a la que ve tot seguit. Reconec que aquesta última m’ha desconcertat una mica. En tot cas, les falles de tota mena han disminuït, i força, respecte a la sèrie.
Algunes crítiques diuen que li manca l’èpica de la sèrie, però jo crec que l’especial va prou ben servit en aquest aspecte i, igual que a la sèrie, les escenes més èpiques són ajudades, i molt, per la magnífica banda sonora. Encara no havia dit res de la banda sonora, oi? La trobo genial!
També se li critica que el personatge nou de Tsubasa Yamagatana és gairebé clònic del d’en Koga –però més parlador–. Jo trobo que precisament això assoleix comunicar-nos la mena de feina que fa un cavaller Makai, la tremenda pressió que exerceix sobre la seva ànima. L’excepció d’en Rei també ens parla de la importància de l’entorn i de la individualitat com a variables en la formació del caràcter. Tot plegat ens diu que un cavaller Makai és, per damunt de tot, un ésser humà.
L’armadura del nou cavaller Dan (Tsubasa) és digna de les altres dues. De color blanc i amb una curta capa vermella, té també menys reminiscències animals que les de Garo i Zero. I ja que parlem d’armadures, deixeu-me dir que l’última transformació de Garo, en opinió meva, és superba i preciosa.
A la sèrie em va cridar l’atenció de quina manera era representat un gran vessament de sang –un gran esquitx que es difuminava en l’aire–. Tot i que no hi ha insistència en ensenyar-nos-la, ara és molt més realista, almenys pel que fa a la sang humana, i afegeix impacte a determinades escenes destinades precisament a això.
Hi ha dues coses que m’han agradat especialment, En primer lloc, és clar, la conversa –més aviat discurs– en la qual en Koga intenta encarar en Tsubasa amb els seus sentiments. I també, com ha quedat il.lustrada l’explicació de la relació entre Lègules i la Fletxa Falcó: els esquemàtics dibuixos, totalment en línia amb l’estil ornamental de la sèrie, són una barreja d’estètica i de vivesa o, si més no, de loquacitat muda. Afegeixo l’agradable sorpresa que ha estat veure a en Rei conduïnt una moto, i a en Koga “fent surf”.
Alguna mancança que li trobo? Enyoro una mica més de romanticisme: l’escena final és molt curta. Això sí, pots entreveure un rerafons romàntic en algunes altres escenes: l’enuig d’en Koga quan la Rin desgracia el famós quadre del paisatge, i el discurs d’en Koga a en Tsubasa.
L'especial tracta bàsicament sobre lluita, i la resta només són excuses per a lluitar. El caràcter dels personatges rep poca atenció, ja qui fins i tot en Koga i en Rei no fan més que reafirmar-se en les tendències que ja despuntaven a la sèrie. No sé si seran imaginacions meves, però sembla que el més cuidat (però sense evolucionar) sigui el de la Rin.
I també en algunes que no esperàvem: correspon en Rei, finalment, a l’enamorament de la Sílver? Bromes a part, hi ha un indici inquietant que afecta en Koga: ell pot copsar a distància que la Jabi se n’ha sortit del gran risc que suposava la curació de la Rin. Però és que a la sèrie li passava el mateix amb la Kaoru...
Aquest text conté spoilers, quedeu avisats.
La Bèstia de la Nit Blanca. Aquest és el títol de l’especial de dos episodis de 50 minuts cadascun amb el que d’acaba Garo. És una història entretinguda, i lliga el que quedava solt al final de la sèrie. Més aviat dues històries, una per capítol, tot i que la segona s’entrellaça des del primer episodi.
Hom manté tots els personatges emblemàtics de la sèrie, i n’hi ha de nous. Els antics, especialment clar en els joves, semblen assolir la maduresa interpretativa dels seus papers, se’ls nota segurs del terreny que trepitgen. Dels nous, he llegit en altres crítiques que el millor és el de la petita Rin; jo el trobo exasperant –en versió original, sin més no- i força inversemblant. Cert, és relatiu parlar d’inversemblança en un programa fantàstic, però per a tot hi ha un límit: una cosa és que pugui fer tal o qual cosa, o que tingui un poder o un altre, però una altra de ben diferent és que hagi de sortir-se’n sense supervisió, i posant sobre les seves joves espatlles la responsabilitat de vides humanes.
Per a coses increïbles, però, la reaparició de la Jabi. Als que hem vist què li va passar a la sèrie, potser no trobaríem altra explicació que la que ha suggerit un amic meu: la teleportació, tot i que a mi em resulta difícil relacionar Garo amb les sèries Star Trek. No és que em queixi: la Jabi té un paper justificat a la pel.lícula, però fins i tot la fantasia ha de tenir la seva pròpia lògica, i en cap moment ningú ha dit com hi ha anat a parar, al tronc de l’arbre màgic.
Un parell de coses. Al bosc de Naraku els arbres semblen posats en línia recta. La segona és que, com també passava sovint a la sèrie, hi ha escenes alterades en el temps, és a dir, que una imatge/escena és cronològicament posterior a la que ve tot seguit. Reconec que aquesta última m’ha desconcertat una mica. En tot cas, les falles de tota mena han disminuït, i força, respecte a la sèrie.
Algunes crítiques diuen que li manca l’èpica de la sèrie, però jo crec que l’especial va prou ben servit en aquest aspecte i, igual que a la sèrie, les escenes més èpiques són ajudades, i molt, per la magnífica banda sonora. Encara no havia dit res de la banda sonora, oi? La trobo genial!
També se li critica que el personatge nou de Tsubasa Yamagatana és gairebé clònic del d’en Koga –però més parlador–. Jo trobo que precisament això assoleix comunicar-nos la mena de feina que fa un cavaller Makai, la tremenda pressió que exerceix sobre la seva ànima. L’excepció d’en Rei també ens parla de la importància de l’entorn i de la individualitat com a variables en la formació del caràcter. Tot plegat ens diu que un cavaller Makai és, per damunt de tot, un ésser humà.
L’armadura del nou cavaller Dan (Tsubasa) és digna de les altres dues. De color blanc i amb una curta capa vermella, té també menys reminiscències animals que les de Garo i Zero. I ja que parlem d’armadures, deixeu-me dir que l’última transformació de Garo, en opinió meva, és superba i preciosa.
A la sèrie em va cridar l’atenció de quina manera era representat un gran vessament de sang –un gran esquitx que es difuminava en l’aire–. Tot i que no hi ha insistència en ensenyar-nos-la, ara és molt més realista, almenys pel que fa a la sang humana, i afegeix impacte a determinades escenes destinades precisament a això.
Hi ha dues coses que m’han agradat especialment, En primer lloc, és clar, la conversa –més aviat discurs– en la qual en Koga intenta encarar en Tsubasa amb els seus sentiments. I també, com ha quedat il.lustrada l’explicació de la relació entre Lègules i la Fletxa Falcó: els esquemàtics dibuixos, totalment en línia amb l’estil ornamental de la sèrie, són una barreja d’estètica i de vivesa o, si més no, de loquacitat muda. Afegeixo l’agradable sorpresa que ha estat veure a en Rei conduïnt una moto, i a en Koga “fent surf”.
Alguna mancança que li trobo? Enyoro una mica més de romanticisme: l’escena final és molt curta. Això sí, pots entreveure un rerafons romàntic en algunes altres escenes: l’enuig d’en Koga quan la Rin desgracia el famós quadre del paisatge, i el discurs d’en Koga a en Tsubasa.
L'especial tracta bàsicament sobre lluita, i la resta només són excuses per a lluitar. El caràcter dels personatges rep poca atenció, ja qui fins i tot en Koga i en Rei no fan més que reafirmar-se en les tendències que ja despuntaven a la sèrie. No sé si seran imaginacions meves, però sembla que el més cuidat (però sense evolucionar) sigui el de la Rin.
I també en algunes que no esperàvem: correspon en Rei, finalment, a l’enamorament de la Sílver? Bromes a part, hi ha un indici inquietant que afecta en Koga: ell pot copsar a distància que la Jabi se n’ha sortit del gran risc que suposava la curació de la Rin. Però és que a la sèrie li passava el mateix amb la Kaoru...
divendres, 29 d’agost del 2008
GARO – Kaoru Mitsuki: when a pawn is the hinge of the game, and destiny plays the pieces.
ATTENTION: Remember, if you have not seen the series yet, reading this text could frustrate you.
At chess, a pawn is a simple piece, limited in movements, used to give support to greater strategies; there are many of them; it can be sacrificed. It is also which does to progress a game; the one that can give a big surprise elimitating a greater piece or to become one, excepting the king. But it is difficult that a single pawn happen to be the goal of the greater pieces of both sides, it does not have resources to be so feared or appraised, excepting if its race to get the oposite basis line, or to the enemy king, is quite clear. Here is Kaoru: a privileged pawn.
And, be damned if she has wishes to be it! She found in this game by the will of someone else, and by the will of someone else has continued towards its end; she has not neither voice nor vote; she can not even see the board and, moreover, until late she does not realize it.
Chap. 1. The picture book with the golden knight, its empty final: these far remembrances appear in Kaoru’s dreams announcing the irruption of somthing from the past into the present. Chap. 10. Her old teddy bear: another child symbol that also materializes because it was preserved by the publisher of the book. When the teddy bear becomes threatening and makes her to awake so upset, is telling that something is not what seems, and that there is a motives to fear it. It might be announcing her hidden self, the one known and fostered by Ryuzaki: the one that makes her the right host to Meshia, the greatest horror.
A simple girl with dreams of greatness, it is so, a very normal girl that, thanks to her dreams and some events marked within her subconscious mind when she was a little girl, will find tied herself to a mortal game. She was also the daughter of a man who, somehow, found himself to, but with a lot of lesser intensity.
So, Kaoru is a master piece in the framework of destiny, a coveted pawn by both conscious and subconscious selves from both sides. All they have come into the world to make their work, in order to give more hope to mankind. But to reach it, a lot of threats will have had to soar over them to make that those predestinaded pieces could get some resources from the depth of their souls.
Kaoru, as a good pawn, was used, and sustained in the ignorance of her role, which avoided her weakening. This purpose by fate has taken different aspects in the ones that would have been able to make a revelation to her.
Barago is the most evident case of deliberation with few ethical goals, sustained for many years. Sure, he wanted to preserve her whole integrity, and approached to her as the psychologist Karune Ryuzaki. She could vent before him, he always understood her, and never pressed her; he showed to have a professional but warm interest about her; offering her support and high spirits, welcoming her when she ran away from Kouga and felt the first effects of her next agony. Plus, he believed her story. In no moment he discovered the smallest evidence of his masquerade. Luckily, when he showed it, she had completely reinstated her trust on Kouga.
Chap. 24. Kaoru has been possessed by Meshia. But she did not want to share power with anybody else and ate Barago. Kouga and Rei will not find easy to free her, since they can not to attack her . If they had not been so disposed, she would have remained as a host of Meshia forever.
Kouga is the other major piece that has Korus’s life in his hands, quite literally, and who would have to tell her. It is humanly understandable that he found difficult to notice her which, indeed, was a death sentence; but it was a duty accepted when he decided to spare her life. It seems that he intended to postpone it exactly until before accomplishing a hundred days when, predictably, she would be bad enough to accept willingly the sacrifice. But as he is brought over the moment of making it, he is still unable; he clutches at her life as if it was his own. He even risks to obtain himself the Barancas fruit which he has so few possibilities to get. Thanks to his unability to accept her fatal fate, Kaoru survived.
Even if he did not it deliberately, it is true that Kouga took advantage of her power of attraction towards horrors to do his work. But she is still alive and, in spite of her initial resistance, she finished trusting him up.
Chap. 5. When Kouga told Kaoru (chap. 3) that he wanted her to remain near him –he already had given her the ring- she interpreted it as a covered marriage proposal, and became angry. Now, being homeless due to her disastrous economy that makes her changing work often, she takes advantage of that unawary proposal: an evidence of his ignorance about some social ways. He did not remember his offer -rather, a commandment- but asked her to do some works at the house in exchange. Kaoru will not complain about his respectability and will find him worthy of trust, but she also will get some sharp remarks by him.
But it was lucky to reach this point, because this pair remained chained each to other from the very first episode. It was a pitty that this confidence, already very clear and reinforced by other feelings, was betrayed. The chain broke. She ran away, without the ring that asured her survival, and she could not be located anymore. To Kaoru it was very difficult to overcome such a disappointment. Only her nearby death gives a chance to Kouga of showing his authentic feelings by facts. A new chain builded right then will be neither a monitoring ring nor any kind of Damocles’ sword, but will be forged of love and trustfulness, and even will allow them to share feelings being apart.
Chap. 22. Her conscious alliance to two “major pieces” makes Kaoru, from a pawn, to become the king. Her moves still goes on limited, and she is still the center of the game, but no one has her in the ignorance any more.
The other great piece that would have been able to talk to her about that stuff was Rei Suzumura. He wished to annoy Kouga so much that it is surprising that he did not do it. Perhaps the reason was that he accepted Kouga as the responsible person because it was his work to kill her. We also have some details showing that he believed them to be lovers, or so. It looks as Rei did not think to have any right to talk to her without Kouga’s permision. When at last he said something, already knew a part of the story and the tie with Kouga was virtually broken.
We have the right to ask if to use her as a bait was the only reason or the main one to leave her alive after her first encounter with Kouga at the art gallery.
Later we see that the famous picture of the landscape had impressed him more than seemed, specially when they turned up in situ and when realized that she had painted herself with her bouquet in her hand. A very special inspiration, this one. Perhaps Kouga believed she had the gift to shape a moment from the future. So, when they met at the magical world in chapter 24, he tried to use its amplified forces in behalf of the picture (still not drawn) of the winged Garo. Hardly these wings could appear in the world of the humans, so, if they had to appear, it had to be in this dimension. In any case, he trusted that Kaoru might put the magic in motion.
Chaps. 24 & 25. At the magical world, Kaoru and Kouga see the pictures she has painted, plus one still undrawn: a stylized winged golden knight. His look to her is revealing: first surprise/admitation, afterwards tenderness, and later a "let’s try!" Next, he takes the picture to be absorbed by his heart, which surprised her. While Kouga fights to Meshia, Kaoru is visited by her deceased father; he advises to paint, so someone will be able to take out strength from the image. Then the elements to paint appear and soon the winged knight is shaped. Just being finished, Kouga’s body, virtually buried under lots of horrors, generates an energetic burst that melts down all of them, that brings his armor, that has given him wings and, maybe, that has expanded his fighting skills or powers.
There is another evidence of this gift. Episode 14th, she painted Garo and Zero back to back, and soon visualizes them struggling, as indeed it will happen few chapters afterwards, and she runs out to try to block it, in spite of her former failure to appease Rei’s hostility.
Another possible one? The end: Kaoru has given to Kouga one of the picture books by her father, and she has painted the last. What will she have invoked from the future, cappable to make Kouga to cry! Imagination is free.
So light evidences? Maybe. But once a horror disguised as a bad sculptor gave her an answer to the enigma of the empty page, which she ended considering it up seriously: "it’s your future", he said with a very different goal.
Another time, an infuriated Kouga brands her drawings as "scribbles", even if he does not consider them like this; but at that moment such a word has a shocking effect on her. We know that she has forgotten why she wanted to be an artist; in thoughts, she complains can not draw like before: her finger do not obey. Then it is, too, when she strolls her hand, as being a caress, on the drawing of Kouga’s hand, which is the first signal we have on her feelings towards him. In short, it is a sensitive moment.
And the one that will help her to overcome the artistic crisis will be another horror. The serial murderer that steals fingers will tell her that the magic of painting is to shape the one thing being important at a moment. Kaoru understands it.
The part of the crisis depending on Koga will not be so easy to solve. He has noticed what is happening within him, so he is in full phase of selfnegation. He considers her to be butterfingers and that makes a great fuss of everything; but she only gnores everything about him and the Makai Knights, and is an expressive person, opposite to him.
Chaps. 1 & 2. To rush a girl, to immobilize her against a column, to take her neck, to put a lighter almost on her face, and to impose her a ring –which she can not take out- to be locable everytime, is not the best way to start a relationship. But Kouga does not mind; to pursue a horror until an operating theater or until the dressing room of a girls’ high school, either. No one but him is capable of giving such absurd orders as "do not approach to watches this evening ", or "since now I want you close to me", without any other explanation, and to expect that Kaoru obeys. No wonder that she finds him quite unkind and can not see his nobility and kindness easily, well hidden under his surly façade.
Hearing such things as "... and you weighed more I guessed," or "I don’t mind anything of someone else", or "you’re in the way, get out!", are not touching to a girl’s heart. Not easy to supose what joined Kaoru and Kouga, so different as they are. But, as everybody know, falling in love is a blind thing, and anything can activate it.
I do not know if it is truth, but I feel like, even though we are often allowed to listen Kaoru’s thoughts, we have very little information to know the evolution of her feelings towards Kouga. We know, indeed, that it implies trust, easily deductible since the end of chapter 4th. So Kouga goes out without problems in the episode 11th, after she is given back her soul, some residual sensation had to remain on her lips by his kiss. She asked him if he had not made her anything weird, and he could lie with impunity.
Chap. 14. With her best purpose, Kaoru has gone to meet Rei; she gave a cake to him -he has a sweet tooth- and has asked him to make peace with Kouga, wishing they to work together. Rei does not believe her or does not want to believe; he knocks her down on his bed; only the intervention of his madou pendant avoids her to be kissed. She will run away so taught a lesson that in arriving at home she will be not able to notice that Kouga is interested (it is the first time) about what happens to her. She will reject him with roughness, leaving him like “what have I made?”.
In spite of his selfnegation, Kaoru erodes Kouga’s protective shield, and it does not take long before to see some signals. She must notice that something had changed when he came back from his appointment with the Makai priest Amon. She herself seems to be thrilled to see him. To me, it looks as they both “know”.
Pity that he was not capable to talk to her, when already there was a Barancas fruit for her. I think that to listen the truth from the mouth of an almost dead horror was a lot worse that to hear it from him. Hardly she would have become so overwhelmed if such a disappointment had not had a strong component of romantic crisis.
If Ryuzaki received her at his home or if he went to look for her as soon as he knew she was rounding over there is not important. Because he offered to her the support she needed, and took care of. His offer of letting her remain at his home must not obey just to make her to feel safe, but to mantain her under his authority, because his big stroke was nearby. But Kaoru has terryfying visions derivative from her state of victim of blood of a horror reaching a hundred days, and she runs away frightened. Barago will endeavour it, but he will not be able to find her immediately.
They had said to her that she was left some few days of life, that her death would be agonic, that it did not have any way to run away from the horrors that besieged her since several months ago, and there was a group of mad Makai people that wanted to kill her. Moreover, the one person that she had trusted the most, the one that she had learned to love, and to whom also she had seemed to like, had used her to his demon hunting, such addict at work he is. No wonder that the poor girl did not wish to live anymore.
Chap. 19. Rei had found and brought Kaoru at the Makai settlement to coerce Kouga. This one achieved to free her thanks to a stratagem, so he had to fight to death with Rei. But she does not let herself to be impressed by it, neither seeing him strongly injured, nor when the Makai priestess Jabi, who arrived in time of saving him, denied that there was bad faith by him. Kaoru will not dare to believe anything. Her wound looks deep. It will be difficult to Gonza to retain her.
Only when she starts her last journey, hope will prick to her door, because Kouga, blind to any evidence of her rejection, has a will stronger than any prevention by her. Such a great faith shows that he expects Kaoru to trust him. And, it will be so since now. Did anybody doubt about Kouga’s mental power?
Then, psychologically speaking, we might guess another theory - complementing the others- about why Kaoru was left alive. He could have seen in her his own flight from his absorbent world of darkness -if this had been the goal of his soul-, in an absolutely unaware way, and, therefore, he was the apparently unintentional instigator of this relationship. Such a vision would explain why he is capable to let her entering within his life, and to develope passionate feelings: he was of so closed nature that he was going to need many years to reach it, even more than a single life.
Then, the chain that ties them since the beginning, although it is the same one, would have two aspects: "I leave to you alive and save you from the horrors that will come towards you", and "I kidnap you so you can save me from the horrors that have kidnapped my life ". The second aspect of the chain would be the one that would go on after the series finished, the one that would mark Kouga’s dependency. His faith and his love allows her to leave to achieve her dream, but we have already seen what happens when somebody puts between them, like Barago. Kouga would not incline towards the dark side again because he learned a terryfying lesson, but he seems capable to show violent jealousy, at least until he could manage his own humanity, and until it balances his ideals. There would be another possibility, however, if he would lose his hope: he would withdraw again to his world of darkness, now as a suicidal act, which would be coherent with his introverted nature.
But we are realistic and consistent with the trend of a series finishing well: Kouga’s will/faith -which is his own magic- would do impossibe the appearance of somebody or something trully capable of breaking the psychic chain joining Kaoru and him.
Fairly corresponding, Kaoru would also have an unconscious psychological reason to build her part of the chain. These chains are always a thing between two ones. How popopularment is said, two ones do not quarrel if one does not want. Kouga would never have been able to drag her if she was not the suitable person. In the same way, Barago would never have found Kaoru or, if having meet her, symbols would not have pointed her out as the best candidate to be Meshia’s host, and he would have gone on searching. By her alliance with Kouga, she might be seeking –unaware– the means of freeing from what is dark within herself. That dark self is made evident in her contact with horrors:
Beaten Barago, Meshia and Kiva, mankind will not have so much pressure of horrors and other possibilities can be opened. The question is not if there will continue existing horrors, but if mankind will be able to generate light enough, so they have less place. Light is created when we, humans, learn lessons by the fate or, how Asians say, when we burn karma. This is the traditional mean of spiritual evolution.
And they lived happily even after? Not so much. Poor Kouga does not know how to tell Kaoru he loves her, in spite of he has shown it widely. He only said, pressed by circumstances, he needs her, and he had opened his heart to her. Maybe she understood it. Badly if not.
Chap. 25 Kaoru remains shocked hearing from him that she has talent, and going beyond with a deep bow. Really, he values her work and perhaps she did not know. We want to suppose that he does not go with her to the airport because horrors do not give him a truce.
ESOTERICAL NOTE. In real life, horrors are egregors, shapes of imperfect thought, which attract similar thoughts from everywhere. So people having this sort of thoughts will be overwhelmed and, perhaps, surpassed: possessed. Also, there are equivalents to Makai Knights, but they are not an only group of people or a single person, but many of them, by all the world. Any person who puts his/her will on purification of the human species and their environment, might be considered a makai knight. Summarizing: pure thoughts drive away harmful shapes of thought. Heaven has hope in our victory agains evil; because of that, from time to time, It sends to incarnate superior/perfect people that make an extra contribution of light and teach others to use it. Hope is the only thing that we have.
Radix, many thanks again for your help.
At chess, a pawn is a simple piece, limited in movements, used to give support to greater strategies; there are many of them; it can be sacrificed. It is also which does to progress a game; the one that can give a big surprise elimitating a greater piece or to become one, excepting the king. But it is difficult that a single pawn happen to be the goal of the greater pieces of both sides, it does not have resources to be so feared or appraised, excepting if its race to get the oposite basis line, or to the enemy king, is quite clear. Here is Kaoru: a privileged pawn.
And, be damned if she has wishes to be it! She found in this game by the will of someone else, and by the will of someone else has continued towards its end; she has not neither voice nor vote; she can not even see the board and, moreover, until late she does not realize it.
Chap. 1. The picture book with the golden knight, its empty final: these far remembrances appear in Kaoru’s dreams announcing the irruption of somthing from the past into the present. Chap. 10. Her old teddy bear: another child symbol that also materializes because it was preserved by the publisher of the book. When the teddy bear becomes threatening and makes her to awake so upset, is telling that something is not what seems, and that there is a motives to fear it. It might be announcing her hidden self, the one known and fostered by Ryuzaki: the one that makes her the right host to Meshia, the greatest horror.
A simple girl with dreams of greatness, it is so, a very normal girl that, thanks to her dreams and some events marked within her subconscious mind when she was a little girl, will find tied herself to a mortal game. She was also the daughter of a man who, somehow, found himself to, but with a lot of lesser intensity.
So, Kaoru is a master piece in the framework of destiny, a coveted pawn by both conscious and subconscious selves from both sides. All they have come into the world to make their work, in order to give more hope to mankind. But to reach it, a lot of threats will have had to soar over them to make that those predestinaded pieces could get some resources from the depth of their souls.
Kaoru, as a good pawn, was used, and sustained in the ignorance of her role, which avoided her weakening. This purpose by fate has taken different aspects in the ones that would have been able to make a revelation to her.
Barago is the most evident case of deliberation with few ethical goals, sustained for many years. Sure, he wanted to preserve her whole integrity, and approached to her as the psychologist Karune Ryuzaki. She could vent before him, he always understood her, and never pressed her; he showed to have a professional but warm interest about her; offering her support and high spirits, welcoming her when she ran away from Kouga and felt the first effects of her next agony. Plus, he believed her story. In no moment he discovered the smallest evidence of his masquerade. Luckily, when he showed it, she had completely reinstated her trust on Kouga.
Chap. 24. Kaoru has been possessed by Meshia. But she did not want to share power with anybody else and ate Barago. Kouga and Rei will not find easy to free her, since they can not to attack her . If they had not been so disposed, she would have remained as a host of Meshia forever.
Kouga is the other major piece that has Korus’s life in his hands, quite literally, and who would have to tell her. It is humanly understandable that he found difficult to notice her which, indeed, was a death sentence; but it was a duty accepted when he decided to spare her life. It seems that he intended to postpone it exactly until before accomplishing a hundred days when, predictably, she would be bad enough to accept willingly the sacrifice. But as he is brought over the moment of making it, he is still unable; he clutches at her life as if it was his own. He even risks to obtain himself the Barancas fruit which he has so few possibilities to get. Thanks to his unability to accept her fatal fate, Kaoru survived.
Even if he did not it deliberately, it is true that Kouga took advantage of her power of attraction towards horrors to do his work. But she is still alive and, in spite of her initial resistance, she finished trusting him up.
Chap. 5. When Kouga told Kaoru (chap. 3) that he wanted her to remain near him –he already had given her the ring- she interpreted it as a covered marriage proposal, and became angry. Now, being homeless due to her disastrous economy that makes her changing work often, she takes advantage of that unawary proposal: an evidence of his ignorance about some social ways. He did not remember his offer -rather, a commandment- but asked her to do some works at the house in exchange. Kaoru will not complain about his respectability and will find him worthy of trust, but she also will get some sharp remarks by him.
But it was lucky to reach this point, because this pair remained chained each to other from the very first episode. It was a pitty that this confidence, already very clear and reinforced by other feelings, was betrayed. The chain broke. She ran away, without the ring that asured her survival, and she could not be located anymore. To Kaoru it was very difficult to overcome such a disappointment. Only her nearby death gives a chance to Kouga of showing his authentic feelings by facts. A new chain builded right then will be neither a monitoring ring nor any kind of Damocles’ sword, but will be forged of love and trustfulness, and even will allow them to share feelings being apart.
Chap. 22. Her conscious alliance to two “major pieces” makes Kaoru, from a pawn, to become the king. Her moves still goes on limited, and she is still the center of the game, but no one has her in the ignorance any more.
The other great piece that would have been able to talk to her about that stuff was Rei Suzumura. He wished to annoy Kouga so much that it is surprising that he did not do it. Perhaps the reason was that he accepted Kouga as the responsible person because it was his work to kill her. We also have some details showing that he believed them to be lovers, or so. It looks as Rei did not think to have any right to talk to her without Kouga’s permision. When at last he said something, already knew a part of the story and the tie with Kouga was virtually broken.
We have the right to ask if to use her as a bait was the only reason or the main one to leave her alive after her first encounter with Kouga at the art gallery.
Later we see that the famous picture of the landscape had impressed him more than seemed, specially when they turned up in situ and when realized that she had painted herself with her bouquet in her hand. A very special inspiration, this one. Perhaps Kouga believed she had the gift to shape a moment from the future. So, when they met at the magical world in chapter 24, he tried to use its amplified forces in behalf of the picture (still not drawn) of the winged Garo. Hardly these wings could appear in the world of the humans, so, if they had to appear, it had to be in this dimension. In any case, he trusted that Kaoru might put the magic in motion.
Chaps. 24 & 25. At the magical world, Kaoru and Kouga see the pictures she has painted, plus one still undrawn: a stylized winged golden knight. His look to her is revealing: first surprise/admitation, afterwards tenderness, and later a "let’s try!" Next, he takes the picture to be absorbed by his heart, which surprised her. While Kouga fights to Meshia, Kaoru is visited by her deceased father; he advises to paint, so someone will be able to take out strength from the image. Then the elements to paint appear and soon the winged knight is shaped. Just being finished, Kouga’s body, virtually buried under lots of horrors, generates an energetic burst that melts down all of them, that brings his armor, that has given him wings and, maybe, that has expanded his fighting skills or powers.
There is another evidence of this gift. Episode 14th, she painted Garo and Zero back to back, and soon visualizes them struggling, as indeed it will happen few chapters afterwards, and she runs out to try to block it, in spite of her former failure to appease Rei’s hostility.
Another possible one? The end: Kaoru has given to Kouga one of the picture books by her father, and she has painted the last. What will she have invoked from the future, cappable to make Kouga to cry! Imagination is free.
So light evidences? Maybe. But once a horror disguised as a bad sculptor gave her an answer to the enigma of the empty page, which she ended considering it up seriously: "it’s your future", he said with a very different goal.
Another time, an infuriated Kouga brands her drawings as "scribbles", even if he does not consider them like this; but at that moment such a word has a shocking effect on her. We know that she has forgotten why she wanted to be an artist; in thoughts, she complains can not draw like before: her finger do not obey. Then it is, too, when she strolls her hand, as being a caress, on the drawing of Kouga’s hand, which is the first signal we have on her feelings towards him. In short, it is a sensitive moment.
And the one that will help her to overcome the artistic crisis will be another horror. The serial murderer that steals fingers will tell her that the magic of painting is to shape the one thing being important at a moment. Kaoru understands it.
The part of the crisis depending on Koga will not be so easy to solve. He has noticed what is happening within him, so he is in full phase of selfnegation. He considers her to be butterfingers and that makes a great fuss of everything; but she only gnores everything about him and the Makai Knights, and is an expressive person, opposite to him.
Chaps. 1 & 2. To rush a girl, to immobilize her against a column, to take her neck, to put a lighter almost on her face, and to impose her a ring –which she can not take out- to be locable everytime, is not the best way to start a relationship. But Kouga does not mind; to pursue a horror until an operating theater or until the dressing room of a girls’ high school, either. No one but him is capable of giving such absurd orders as "do not approach to watches this evening ", or "since now I want you close to me", without any other explanation, and to expect that Kaoru obeys. No wonder that she finds him quite unkind and can not see his nobility and kindness easily, well hidden under his surly façade.
Hearing such things as "... and you weighed more I guessed," or "I don’t mind anything of someone else", or "you’re in the way, get out!", are not touching to a girl’s heart. Not easy to supose what joined Kaoru and Kouga, so different as they are. But, as everybody know, falling in love is a blind thing, and anything can activate it.
I do not know if it is truth, but I feel like, even though we are often allowed to listen Kaoru’s thoughts, we have very little information to know the evolution of her feelings towards Kouga. We know, indeed, that it implies trust, easily deductible since the end of chapter 4th. So Kouga goes out without problems in the episode 11th, after she is given back her soul, some residual sensation had to remain on her lips by his kiss. She asked him if he had not made her anything weird, and he could lie with impunity.
Chap. 14. With her best purpose, Kaoru has gone to meet Rei; she gave a cake to him -he has a sweet tooth- and has asked him to make peace with Kouga, wishing they to work together. Rei does not believe her or does not want to believe; he knocks her down on his bed; only the intervention of his madou pendant avoids her to be kissed. She will run away so taught a lesson that in arriving at home she will be not able to notice that Kouga is interested (it is the first time) about what happens to her. She will reject him with roughness, leaving him like “what have I made?”.
In spite of his selfnegation, Kaoru erodes Kouga’s protective shield, and it does not take long before to see some signals. She must notice that something had changed when he came back from his appointment with the Makai priest Amon. She herself seems to be thrilled to see him. To me, it looks as they both “know”.
Pity that he was not capable to talk to her, when already there was a Barancas fruit for her. I think that to listen the truth from the mouth of an almost dead horror was a lot worse that to hear it from him. Hardly she would have become so overwhelmed if such a disappointment had not had a strong component of romantic crisis.
If Ryuzaki received her at his home or if he went to look for her as soon as he knew she was rounding over there is not important. Because he offered to her the support she needed, and took care of. His offer of letting her remain at his home must not obey just to make her to feel safe, but to mantain her under his authority, because his big stroke was nearby. But Kaoru has terryfying visions derivative from her state of victim of blood of a horror reaching a hundred days, and she runs away frightened. Barago will endeavour it, but he will not be able to find her immediately.
They had said to her that she was left some few days of life, that her death would be agonic, that it did not have any way to run away from the horrors that besieged her since several months ago, and there was a group of mad Makai people that wanted to kill her. Moreover, the one person that she had trusted the most, the one that she had learned to love, and to whom also she had seemed to like, had used her to his demon hunting, such addict at work he is. No wonder that the poor girl did not wish to live anymore.
Chap. 19. Rei had found and brought Kaoru at the Makai settlement to coerce Kouga. This one achieved to free her thanks to a stratagem, so he had to fight to death with Rei. But she does not let herself to be impressed by it, neither seeing him strongly injured, nor when the Makai priestess Jabi, who arrived in time of saving him, denied that there was bad faith by him. Kaoru will not dare to believe anything. Her wound looks deep. It will be difficult to Gonza to retain her.
Only when she starts her last journey, hope will prick to her door, because Kouga, blind to any evidence of her rejection, has a will stronger than any prevention by her. Such a great faith shows that he expects Kaoru to trust him. And, it will be so since now. Did anybody doubt about Kouga’s mental power?
Then, psychologically speaking, we might guess another theory - complementing the others- about why Kaoru was left alive. He could have seen in her his own flight from his absorbent world of darkness -if this had been the goal of his soul-, in an absolutely unaware way, and, therefore, he was the apparently unintentional instigator of this relationship. Such a vision would explain why he is capable to let her entering within his life, and to develope passionate feelings: he was of so closed nature that he was going to need many years to reach it, even more than a single life.
Then, the chain that ties them since the beginning, although it is the same one, would have two aspects: "I leave to you alive and save you from the horrors that will come towards you", and "I kidnap you so you can save me from the horrors that have kidnapped my life ". The second aspect of the chain would be the one that would go on after the series finished, the one that would mark Kouga’s dependency. His faith and his love allows her to leave to achieve her dream, but we have already seen what happens when somebody puts between them, like Barago. Kouga would not incline towards the dark side again because he learned a terryfying lesson, but he seems capable to show violent jealousy, at least until he could manage his own humanity, and until it balances his ideals. There would be another possibility, however, if he would lose his hope: he would withdraw again to his world of darkness, now as a suicidal act, which would be coherent with his introverted nature.
But we are realistic and consistent with the trend of a series finishing well: Kouga’s will/faith -which is his own magic- would do impossibe the appearance of somebody or something trully capable of breaking the psychic chain joining Kaoru and him.
Fairly corresponding, Kaoru would also have an unconscious psychological reason to build her part of the chain. These chains are always a thing between two ones. How popopularment is said, two ones do not quarrel if one does not want. Kouga would never have been able to drag her if she was not the suitable person. In the same way, Barago would never have found Kaoru or, if having meet her, symbols would not have pointed her out as the best candidate to be Meshia’s host, and he would have gone on searching. By her alliance with Kouga, she might be seeking –unaware– the means of freeing from what is dark within herself. That dark self is made evident in her contact with horrors:
- She decided to become a famous artist, and a horror that manages an art gallery offers her a chance that, otherwise, she would not have been able to obtain. A serious warning to be realistic: to work more, to dream less (chap.1)
- She wants to make easy money, and falls down inside the paws of a swindler. Curiously, it is not so important if that woman was possessed. (chap. 2).
- She realizes that her pictorial milestones are passed the deadline fixed while being a little girl, and a demoniac clock/watch leaves her without time: her thought materialised because it was strong. Being so dreamy, his energy/time is lost at the mental world. At the end, even Koga says her to value it more (chap. 3)
- Even a temporary crisis -with its corresponding shadows- can be a target of a horror. She has forgotten why she paints, and a horror gives her an answer belonging to its possessed victim. She could have left then, but instead she plays the piano (?) to the horror and falls down before it (chap. 8)
- Her obsession with the void page of the picture book by her father leads her into the den of a horror what, logically, has an useful answer (chap. 15).
Beaten Barago, Meshia and Kiva, mankind will not have so much pressure of horrors and other possibilities can be opened. The question is not if there will continue existing horrors, but if mankind will be able to generate light enough, so they have less place. Light is created when we, humans, learn lessons by the fate or, how Asians say, when we burn karma. This is the traditional mean of spiritual evolution.
And they lived happily even after? Not so much. Poor Kouga does not know how to tell Kaoru he loves her, in spite of he has shown it widely. He only said, pressed by circumstances, he needs her, and he had opened his heart to her. Maybe she understood it. Badly if not.
Chap. 25 Kaoru remains shocked hearing from him that she has talent, and going beyond with a deep bow. Really, he values her work and perhaps she did not know. We want to suppose that he does not go with her to the airport because horrors do not give him a truce.
ESOTERICAL NOTE. In real life, horrors are egregors, shapes of imperfect thought, which attract similar thoughts from everywhere. So people having this sort of thoughts will be overwhelmed and, perhaps, surpassed: possessed. Also, there are equivalents to Makai Knights, but they are not an only group of people or a single person, but many of them, by all the world. Any person who puts his/her will on purification of the human species and their environment, might be considered a makai knight. Summarizing: pure thoughts drive away harmful shapes of thought. Heaven has hope in our victory agains evil; because of that, from time to time, It sends to incarnate superior/perfect people that make an extra contribution of light and teach others to use it. Hope is the only thing that we have.
Radix, many thanks again for your help.
diumenge, 17 d’agost del 2008
GARO - Kouga Saejima: a lonely hero unintentionaly searching his humanity.
ATTENTION: Remember, if you have not seen the series yet, reading this text could frustrate you.
If anything is heavy in Kouga’s life, this is his father. Or, rather, his death. It is difficult to believe that Taiga had allowed, if alive, that his son had developed without a minimum social environment which –leaving aside to allow him to save his smile– would have given him some elementary models of social behavior. So, Kouga is a bit wild, unawares a lot about the human relationships; even he is not interested at all. Moreover, he talks little, is closed, elusive and devoted to work. He is unsociable and, thanks to his basic kindness and his idealism, both combined, he is not antisocial.
But Taiga died and his son, a boy which did not have his mother either, poured his whole being into what his father had ordered him via post-mortem communication: to claim the inheritance of Garo and all what it involved about protection towards mankind. An inherited idealism, and an idealized father.
Chap. 7. Rei provokes Kouga, but only he can do him to annoy when he insults his father’s memory. It is not a soft reaction.
Chap. 12. Kouga bears, writen on his face, his stolen childhood and the heavy inheritance which was put on his young shoulders.
Perhaps at first sight it can seem that his heroic mission was accepted just as a dogmatic truth, but it had to be some degree of conviction. If not why, in episode 2nd, he asked the horror which took Kaoru’s money to return it because she needed it to accoplish her dreams, if Kouga knew that there were less than one hundred days left to Kaoru to live, and that he himself had to be the hangman?
This thing about dreams is very curious. He, who has renounced to his own, defends those of the other ones. He looks as being a sacrificial victim: after the first half of the series, we can see that he has renounced to his human life for the others to enjoy theirs. I believe that because of this, he is upset when Makai priest Amon tells –chapter 16– that Makai Knights’ fight will be eternal because always it will have wickedness inside human heart: if there is not hope, why he had to defend anybody or, as said more personally, why have him sacrificed his humanity? Right then, Kaoru’s presence was already very strong, he had just noticed that in the life everything was not about to hunt horrors.
Perhaps this is because in the following episode he asks if a human murderer deserves to be protected by him; he would have rejected such a question some few weeks before. But, when that guy chose Kaoru as his next victim, Kouga wanted to kill him. Her magnanimity spared him from being run through by Kouga’s sword, but this one did not understand why such a being must to be left alive. Kaoru had to remind him that no human is perfect. Each criminal became a mockery toward what he makes for mankind.
His existential conflict does not mix well to his increasing consciousness of feelings, just as we have seen in the case of the murderer. Their mutual effects add up or multiply; then, they are more difficult to control. His indifferent stoicism, or, his coolness, is relegated to his quiet moments. Feelings are always what shoot his emotional reactions; if they are not touched, he is capable of keeping calm because, despite everything, he believes in his cause.
Chap. 21. Shot, insulted, disarmed, injured, induced to mistrust what he believes, threatened with imminent death by a man who looks for revenge. Kouga has swallowed, but keeping his doubts for himself, without losing his selfcontrol, allows him to go out.
Such a faith is questioned in chapter 22: he notices that his work has been useful for catering Barago.
Worse: he betrays his beliefs strongly in episode 23. Excited by the events, and his personal feelings being the trigger once again –Kaoru’s kidnapping, a previous defeat against Barago, and the remembrance of Jabi’s murder – he pays the price of his lack of emotional skills, and leaves wrath to take control. His armor reaches is limit time, but he does not send it away. It becomes deformed and all what the man is, starts to be destroyed. In extremis Rei achieves to rescue him from the paws of his dark self, only because Kouga’s faith, even deeply buried, remains there. When he meets Barago again, perhaps because this experience is too recent, he does not dare to call his armor: now he respects it a lot more, actually he knows that it is a double-edged weapon. He really starts to understand what being Garo means. Especially, Kouga has not ever seen his path so clearly: darkness is not his way. His soul is safe and his faith is stronger.
Chap. 23. His personal feelings, fired and perverted by wrath, take the power at the worst time. Body, soul and ideals become twisted until they come off unrecognizable: the only way to beat wickedness is wickedness.
Yes, faith is his strong point. And allied to love, once overcome the hard test in chapter 23, it will be the strength that will expel Meshia from Kaoru’s body; the energy that will allow Kaoru to exercise her own magic and, consequently, Meshia manages to be defeated. Certainly, he owes the wings in his armor to Kaoru, but he could keep them virtually time enough to achieve his goal, even when his armor is gone.
Still more. Fighting to Kiva he could not sumon his armor. Environment is extremely difficult: a giant ring soaring and falling down on the city. There is something more than instinct of survival in front of the one that is a living legend. He is capable of facing the macabre scene that has pursued him all his life: a terrible paw turning up in front of his face after piercing his father’s body and armor. He manages to perforate Kiva’s hand, Barago’s alter ego and master. This, which entails the demystification of Kiva, has a side effect: the only stone that mediated between Kouga and his ancestors, his father’s death, disappeared. So, when at last he could to summon his armor, already in mainland, he could be conscious for the first time of all the force that descended through his bloodline from the precedents Garo to him. Koga went beyond his individuality to become a group soul. Or, explaining it in a simpler way, faith scrolls mountains.
As a good hero, Kouga never gives his idealism up, we have seen it. It was specified and demythologized, but this is which makes to show his best self. If it first was the only reason of his life, when Kaoru became another, it avoids him to be launched towards feelings and sustains balance; it is so, until there is an attempt against his feelings that, do not forget it, he is not used to take into any consideration. For him, they are like bombs. But Kouga’s idealism is the starting of his unsociability.
Service to humanity, when it does not come from a spiritual maturity, is satisfactory for a solitaire individual: it gives him a high boundary that pleases his soul and avoids any commitment and problems coming from people relationships. Kouga does not need anything else to feel well himself and to the world. Until his feelings do not color his life, he does not mind if those who he defends deserve it or not: human smallness is too under his wider vision and, of course, a forest does not let for him to see a tree.
When he forces himself to speak to somebody, interest is its cause. Chapter 4 is revealing. He starts a conversation and listen a story of a poor woman who looks for her disappeared husband after visiting a doctor-horror and, when he has got all the information he needs, he leaves wihout saying neither thank you nor goodbye. Kaoru’s case is atypical from the beginning. If he carries her at home and watches over her, after he was going to kill her, we have to understand that he accepts the responsibility of protecting her; everything tells it to us afterwards.
Kouga does a giant step on accepting Kaoru at his house in chapter 5. Sometimes he regrets this decission: when the his solitaire self rebels against this invasion, and against the subtlest erosion that her presence causes on him.
At the end of chapter 6 we have the first evidence that she is something else than a bait to him, and looks that Rei Suzumura sees it too. If we see Kouga’s fists when Rei menaces her, we can understand it as a protective instinct, but if we see signals of uneasyness when the other Makai knight insinuates that he wants her, it looks another thing. Equally, on finishing chapter 7, his anxious "where she is?" would have been colder if just it was a question of responsibility for somebody to whom it is necessary to guard from danger.
Chap. 3. To Kouga, Kaoru’s expressive exuberance is a nuisance. These screenshots show them after he saved her from a horror while she was unconscious. She awakened on his arms, and shouts, shakes her legs and arms, saying him to let go, and he lets her fall down on ground, uncerimoniously.
In episode 16 Kouga says to have observed his feelings. Sure, he realized his reactions. He never thought these feeling might manage to affect him. In chapter 5 a curious Zaruba comments about how much complicated were relationships between men and women, and Kouga declares that it does not interest him at all. So, it is not probable that feelings liked him. Since episode 8th to 11th he is the same cold and unsociable guy we know. Even, ending the 9th, when at last he tells the Kaoru the first nice thing - "you have a magnificent look today" – it seems the simple confirmation of a fact, and nothing else: she had changed very favorably her opinion on her father, and this could have provided her with a radiant aspect.
Probably Kaoru did not want to exasperate him in episode 11. She insists him on going with her to a competition of television. Curiously, his anger starts when she insinuates to make the same proposal to Rei. Maybe his look after it implied some repentance, but there is not doubt that Kouga will try hard to rescue her from the paws of the horror that takes advantage of her sorrow. Without concealing his aversion, he will allow to be convinced by the demon to play his game, even though the price of his failure is to lose both souls, Kaoru’s and his. It is not a banal bet; but he has ever not been banal. Watching over his protegée, o something else?
Chap. 11. Subjected to that for him are nonsenses -games and tests- by a horror which is a bad loser too, Kouga’s patience, wit and determination will be tested to attain to retrieve Kaoru’s body and soul... and not losing his own in the process.
The scriptwriter is an accomplice of our curiosity, his humor makes him to invent a ritual of soul refund that implies a kiss. Kouga accomplishes it scientifically: he looks so disturbed afterwards, when being seated on the stairs while Kaoru leaves leaves her head to fall down on his shoulder. Welcome this kiss, in spite to be discreetly hidden by a brilliant dot, since it will be the only one that we will see among the protagonists.
Chap. 11. Kouga recites the ancient spell as a part of the ritual of soul refunding. Curious posture. Sure that his closed eyes and that hand strolling softly on Kaouru’s head are contributions of his which not even he knows being made.
Old priest Amon spurs the ghosts from his insconscient self: his father died because he loved him, and he does not dare to love feiaring to suffer the same loss –Kaoru has few days left. Feeling ressed, Kouga gives a verbal form to his half built thoughts, and he ends up knowing what he wants: he will struggle for Kaoru as long as she had any life, and he will sacrifice her a day before making a hundred, in order to spare her the agony; his only ambition is that "her light shines all time possible". So, Kouga finishes, at last, to fight against his feelings.
Chap. 16. Kouga comes back from visiting Amon. A joyous Kaoru receives him, who has thrilled to see him. His coolness has disappeared, and his eyes do not hide anything any more.
Unfortunately, he is still unable to verbalize anything in front of her, and loses his big chance to tell her situation. So, that same day she was going to know, from the mouth of a dieing horror, that she has been used as a bait.
Kaoru’s grief to know she has been deceived is comparable to Kouga’s commotion. His secret has been put under light, and she makes him to take off the ring and runs away. His best intentions –there was already a Barancas fruit for her- fall down, and she has left exposed to the attack of any horror, just when a hundred days are about to finish.
Chap. 19. Jabi has saved Kouga from being killed by Rei, and she has taken care of him. She makes a pass at him, but Kouga neither rejects her openly nor react to it. He makes the effort of begging her to help him to save Kaoru. In spite of herself, Jabi accepts.
Since now Kouga has to arrange a situation that he himself has created, aggravated by external facts -his rebellion against the Eastern Sanctuary, the consequences of Amon’s murder-, and we will see what he can make for love: he takes Kaoru from the hands of an anxious-for-revenge Rei, so must fight to death with him; he dares, with well few chances of success, to achieve the Barancas fruit when the only two people who would have been able to help him were killed; he has to persuade Kaoru of keep her with to live, so he can get time to bring the Barancas fruit; he starts a titanic fight to save her once he knows that she become a gate for Meshia and, in this process, he will be tempted almost fatally by the dark side, and will face Barago, almost without possibilities to win; he will not be able to use other arms than faith and love to expel Meshia from Kaoru’s body and, once achieved, he will have to penetrate into the horror’s world to avoid Meshia to posses her again. Finally, he will let her to go to Italy for that starts in order to materialize her longtime dream to become a great artist. So, Kouga has become a romantic hero.
Chap. 20. Compelled by Amon’s and Jabi’s deaths, Kouga has dared to pick up the Barancas fruit needed for Kaoru’s survival, alone, in a magical place any Makai Knight has many chances. The unexpected intervention by Rei avoids that Kouga, exhausted by his fight against the electromechanical guardian of the fruit, finishes badly just when he had obtained it.
So many events have touched him so closely, and strongly, that his cold indifference has been left aside and his feelings come out in a torrential way, but through his actions. And through his eyes, I say. Even when he proposes to Kaoru, he does not seem to do it, only in an indirect way, which leaves her confused.
Chap. 21. Kouga begins to take some consideration towards the feelings of the other ones. He attempts to relieve Kaoru’s and Gonza’s worry, when they know that he goes to get consciously into a trap. "I am going to come back", he says.
His relationship with Rei is a lot tense from the beginning. Without any will, Kouga will find himself struggling for his life, pointed at a colleague with a rage he can not understand. However, specially this relationship shows us his nobility better. He does not attack him when he falls down; he does not doubt on forgetting that he has been about to kill him when there are more important things to consider, like the return of the little daggers to horrors’ world, and trusting that Rei will appraise the situation impartially too. Either he does not avoid from helping him to escape staple of a giant horror.
But he does not forget. He repproaches his previous wickedness when Rei accepts his error on attacking him. For the common good, and for Kaoru, however, he can disregard everything. Rei corresponds with a so high level of selfishness as intense as his former vindictive self, and Kouga will have a lot will to thank him.
Gonza, the steward, is undoubtedly a subordinate, and this comes off very clear, but it is a correct and respectful relationship. It is also evident that Gonza loves the boy whom he has almost bred, and he knows him well. But only about the end we see Kouga become interested in his health and having mercy of his feelings.
Chap. 18. Confronted by the possession of the little daggers from the Eastern Sanctuary, Jabi accuses Kouga of letting himself win by her when they played while being childred. "Your kindness is your greater fault"!, she says. She insults and despises him because he does not want to attack even though she puts herself hard to it.
Regarding Zaruba, the madou ring, we attend to a more complex relationship. Curious, Zaruba looks the human member in this special couple. Sometimes it expresses what we should expect from Kouga. Chapter 16: Kouga goes to visit Amon:
Zaruba: "This wind arrives loaded of remembrances".
Kouga: "Yes".
This does not mean that it is a sentimentalist. Chapter 17: Kouga already has accepted his feelings for Kaoru; they can not find a horror, even though they know it is over there.
Zaruba: "There is not alternative. You have to make Kaoru come here".
Kouga: "To be used as a bait"?
Zaruba: "Are you concerned with it now? Did you not spare her life for this"?
Zaruba has been the only friend of Kouga for many years, and its loss was felt strongly. By Rei’s reaction to it, we can know that the Makai Knights have a deep relationship with their madou jewels.
Thank you, Radix, for your graphical collaboration, again.
If anything is heavy in Kouga’s life, this is his father. Or, rather, his death. It is difficult to believe that Taiga had allowed, if alive, that his son had developed without a minimum social environment which –leaving aside to allow him to save his smile– would have given him some elementary models of social behavior. So, Kouga is a bit wild, unawares a lot about the human relationships; even he is not interested at all. Moreover, he talks little, is closed, elusive and devoted to work. He is unsociable and, thanks to his basic kindness and his idealism, both combined, he is not antisocial.
But Taiga died and his son, a boy which did not have his mother either, poured his whole being into what his father had ordered him via post-mortem communication: to claim the inheritance of Garo and all what it involved about protection towards mankind. An inherited idealism, and an idealized father.
Chap. 7. Rei provokes Kouga, but only he can do him to annoy when he insults his father’s memory. It is not a soft reaction.
Chap. 12. Kouga bears, writen on his face, his stolen childhood and the heavy inheritance which was put on his young shoulders.
Perhaps at first sight it can seem that his heroic mission was accepted just as a dogmatic truth, but it had to be some degree of conviction. If not why, in episode 2nd, he asked the horror which took Kaoru’s money to return it because she needed it to accoplish her dreams, if Kouga knew that there were less than one hundred days left to Kaoru to live, and that he himself had to be the hangman?
This thing about dreams is very curious. He, who has renounced to his own, defends those of the other ones. He looks as being a sacrificial victim: after the first half of the series, we can see that he has renounced to his human life for the others to enjoy theirs. I believe that because of this, he is upset when Makai priest Amon tells –chapter 16– that Makai Knights’ fight will be eternal because always it will have wickedness inside human heart: if there is not hope, why he had to defend anybody or, as said more personally, why have him sacrificed his humanity? Right then, Kaoru’s presence was already very strong, he had just noticed that in the life everything was not about to hunt horrors.
Perhaps this is because in the following episode he asks if a human murderer deserves to be protected by him; he would have rejected such a question some few weeks before. But, when that guy chose Kaoru as his next victim, Kouga wanted to kill him. Her magnanimity spared him from being run through by Kouga’s sword, but this one did not understand why such a being must to be left alive. Kaoru had to remind him that no human is perfect. Each criminal became a mockery toward what he makes for mankind.
His existential conflict does not mix well to his increasing consciousness of feelings, just as we have seen in the case of the murderer. Their mutual effects add up or multiply; then, they are more difficult to control. His indifferent stoicism, or, his coolness, is relegated to his quiet moments. Feelings are always what shoot his emotional reactions; if they are not touched, he is capable of keeping calm because, despite everything, he believes in his cause.
Chap. 21. Shot, insulted, disarmed, injured, induced to mistrust what he believes, threatened with imminent death by a man who looks for revenge. Kouga has swallowed, but keeping his doubts for himself, without losing his selfcontrol, allows him to go out.
Such a faith is questioned in chapter 22: he notices that his work has been useful for catering Barago.
Worse: he betrays his beliefs strongly in episode 23. Excited by the events, and his personal feelings being the trigger once again –Kaoru’s kidnapping, a previous defeat against Barago, and the remembrance of Jabi’s murder – he pays the price of his lack of emotional skills, and leaves wrath to take control. His armor reaches is limit time, but he does not send it away. It becomes deformed and all what the man is, starts to be destroyed. In extremis Rei achieves to rescue him from the paws of his dark self, only because Kouga’s faith, even deeply buried, remains there. When he meets Barago again, perhaps because this experience is too recent, he does not dare to call his armor: now he respects it a lot more, actually he knows that it is a double-edged weapon. He really starts to understand what being Garo means. Especially, Kouga has not ever seen his path so clearly: darkness is not his way. His soul is safe and his faith is stronger.
Chap. 23. His personal feelings, fired and perverted by wrath, take the power at the worst time. Body, soul and ideals become twisted until they come off unrecognizable: the only way to beat wickedness is wickedness.
Yes, faith is his strong point. And allied to love, once overcome the hard test in chapter 23, it will be the strength that will expel Meshia from Kaoru’s body; the energy that will allow Kaoru to exercise her own magic and, consequently, Meshia manages to be defeated. Certainly, he owes the wings in his armor to Kaoru, but he could keep them virtually time enough to achieve his goal, even when his armor is gone.
Still more. Fighting to Kiva he could not sumon his armor. Environment is extremely difficult: a giant ring soaring and falling down on the city. There is something more than instinct of survival in front of the one that is a living legend. He is capable of facing the macabre scene that has pursued him all his life: a terrible paw turning up in front of his face after piercing his father’s body and armor. He manages to perforate Kiva’s hand, Barago’s alter ego and master. This, which entails the demystification of Kiva, has a side effect: the only stone that mediated between Kouga and his ancestors, his father’s death, disappeared. So, when at last he could to summon his armor, already in mainland, he could be conscious for the first time of all the force that descended through his bloodline from the precedents Garo to him. Koga went beyond his individuality to become a group soul. Or, explaining it in a simpler way, faith scrolls mountains.
As a good hero, Kouga never gives his idealism up, we have seen it. It was specified and demythologized, but this is which makes to show his best self. If it first was the only reason of his life, when Kaoru became another, it avoids him to be launched towards feelings and sustains balance; it is so, until there is an attempt against his feelings that, do not forget it, he is not used to take into any consideration. For him, they are like bombs. But Kouga’s idealism is the starting of his unsociability.
Service to humanity, when it does not come from a spiritual maturity, is satisfactory for a solitaire individual: it gives him a high boundary that pleases his soul and avoids any commitment and problems coming from people relationships. Kouga does not need anything else to feel well himself and to the world. Until his feelings do not color his life, he does not mind if those who he defends deserve it or not: human smallness is too under his wider vision and, of course, a forest does not let for him to see a tree.
When he forces himself to speak to somebody, interest is its cause. Chapter 4 is revealing. He starts a conversation and listen a story of a poor woman who looks for her disappeared husband after visiting a doctor-horror and, when he has got all the information he needs, he leaves wihout saying neither thank you nor goodbye. Kaoru’s case is atypical from the beginning. If he carries her at home and watches over her, after he was going to kill her, we have to understand that he accepts the responsibility of protecting her; everything tells it to us afterwards.
Kouga does a giant step on accepting Kaoru at his house in chapter 5. Sometimes he regrets this decission: when the his solitaire self rebels against this invasion, and against the subtlest erosion that her presence causes on him.
At the end of chapter 6 we have the first evidence that she is something else than a bait to him, and looks that Rei Suzumura sees it too. If we see Kouga’s fists when Rei menaces her, we can understand it as a protective instinct, but if we see signals of uneasyness when the other Makai knight insinuates that he wants her, it looks another thing. Equally, on finishing chapter 7, his anxious "where she is?" would have been colder if just it was a question of responsibility for somebody to whom it is necessary to guard from danger.
Chap. 3. To Kouga, Kaoru’s expressive exuberance is a nuisance. These screenshots show them after he saved her from a horror while she was unconscious. She awakened on his arms, and shouts, shakes her legs and arms, saying him to let go, and he lets her fall down on ground, uncerimoniously.
In episode 16 Kouga says to have observed his feelings. Sure, he realized his reactions. He never thought these feeling might manage to affect him. In chapter 5 a curious Zaruba comments about how much complicated were relationships between men and women, and Kouga declares that it does not interest him at all. So, it is not probable that feelings liked him. Since episode 8th to 11th he is the same cold and unsociable guy we know. Even, ending the 9th, when at last he tells the Kaoru the first nice thing - "you have a magnificent look today" – it seems the simple confirmation of a fact, and nothing else: she had changed very favorably her opinion on her father, and this could have provided her with a radiant aspect.
Probably Kaoru did not want to exasperate him in episode 11. She insists him on going with her to a competition of television. Curiously, his anger starts when she insinuates to make the same proposal to Rei. Maybe his look after it implied some repentance, but there is not doubt that Kouga will try hard to rescue her from the paws of the horror that takes advantage of her sorrow. Without concealing his aversion, he will allow to be convinced by the demon to play his game, even though the price of his failure is to lose both souls, Kaoru’s and his. It is not a banal bet; but he has ever not been banal. Watching over his protegée, o something else?
Chap. 11. Subjected to that for him are nonsenses -games and tests- by a horror which is a bad loser too, Kouga’s patience, wit and determination will be tested to attain to retrieve Kaoru’s body and soul... and not losing his own in the process.
The scriptwriter is an accomplice of our curiosity, his humor makes him to invent a ritual of soul refund that implies a kiss. Kouga accomplishes it scientifically: he looks so disturbed afterwards, when being seated on the stairs while Kaoru leaves leaves her head to fall down on his shoulder. Welcome this kiss, in spite to be discreetly hidden by a brilliant dot, since it will be the only one that we will see among the protagonists.
Chap. 11. Kouga recites the ancient spell as a part of the ritual of soul refunding. Curious posture. Sure that his closed eyes and that hand strolling softly on Kaouru’s head are contributions of his which not even he knows being made.
Old priest Amon spurs the ghosts from his insconscient self: his father died because he loved him, and he does not dare to love feiaring to suffer the same loss –Kaoru has few days left. Feeling ressed, Kouga gives a verbal form to his half built thoughts, and he ends up knowing what he wants: he will struggle for Kaoru as long as she had any life, and he will sacrifice her a day before making a hundred, in order to spare her the agony; his only ambition is that "her light shines all time possible". So, Kouga finishes, at last, to fight against his feelings.
Chap. 16. Kouga comes back from visiting Amon. A joyous Kaoru receives him, who has thrilled to see him. His coolness has disappeared, and his eyes do not hide anything any more.
Unfortunately, he is still unable to verbalize anything in front of her, and loses his big chance to tell her situation. So, that same day she was going to know, from the mouth of a dieing horror, that she has been used as a bait.
Kaoru’s grief to know she has been deceived is comparable to Kouga’s commotion. His secret has been put under light, and she makes him to take off the ring and runs away. His best intentions –there was already a Barancas fruit for her- fall down, and she has left exposed to the attack of any horror, just when a hundred days are about to finish.
Chap. 19. Jabi has saved Kouga from being killed by Rei, and she has taken care of him. She makes a pass at him, but Kouga neither rejects her openly nor react to it. He makes the effort of begging her to help him to save Kaoru. In spite of herself, Jabi accepts.
Since now Kouga has to arrange a situation that he himself has created, aggravated by external facts -his rebellion against the Eastern Sanctuary, the consequences of Amon’s murder-, and we will see what he can make for love: he takes Kaoru from the hands of an anxious-for-revenge Rei, so must fight to death with him; he dares, with well few chances of success, to achieve the Barancas fruit when the only two people who would have been able to help him were killed; he has to persuade Kaoru of keep her with to live, so he can get time to bring the Barancas fruit; he starts a titanic fight to save her once he knows that she become a gate for Meshia and, in this process, he will be tempted almost fatally by the dark side, and will face Barago, almost without possibilities to win; he will not be able to use other arms than faith and love to expel Meshia from Kaoru’s body and, once achieved, he will have to penetrate into the horror’s world to avoid Meshia to posses her again. Finally, he will let her to go to Italy for that starts in order to materialize her longtime dream to become a great artist. So, Kouga has become a romantic hero.
Chap. 20. Compelled by Amon’s and Jabi’s deaths, Kouga has dared to pick up the Barancas fruit needed for Kaoru’s survival, alone, in a magical place any Makai Knight has many chances. The unexpected intervention by Rei avoids that Kouga, exhausted by his fight against the electromechanical guardian of the fruit, finishes badly just when he had obtained it.
So many events have touched him so closely, and strongly, that his cold indifference has been left aside and his feelings come out in a torrential way, but through his actions. And through his eyes, I say. Even when he proposes to Kaoru, he does not seem to do it, only in an indirect way, which leaves her confused.
Chap. 21. Kouga begins to take some consideration towards the feelings of the other ones. He attempts to relieve Kaoru’s and Gonza’s worry, when they know that he goes to get consciously into a trap. "I am going to come back", he says.
His relationship with Rei is a lot tense from the beginning. Without any will, Kouga will find himself struggling for his life, pointed at a colleague with a rage he can not understand. However, specially this relationship shows us his nobility better. He does not attack him when he falls down; he does not doubt on forgetting that he has been about to kill him when there are more important things to consider, like the return of the little daggers to horrors’ world, and trusting that Rei will appraise the situation impartially too. Either he does not avoid from helping him to escape staple of a giant horror.
But he does not forget. He repproaches his previous wickedness when Rei accepts his error on attacking him. For the common good, and for Kaoru, however, he can disregard everything. Rei corresponds with a so high level of selfishness as intense as his former vindictive self, and Kouga will have a lot will to thank him.
Gonza, the steward, is undoubtedly a subordinate, and this comes off very clear, but it is a correct and respectful relationship. It is also evident that Gonza loves the boy whom he has almost bred, and he knows him well. But only about the end we see Kouga become interested in his health and having mercy of his feelings.
Chap. 18. Confronted by the possession of the little daggers from the Eastern Sanctuary, Jabi accuses Kouga of letting himself win by her when they played while being childred. "Your kindness is your greater fault"!, she says. She insults and despises him because he does not want to attack even though she puts herself hard to it.
Regarding Zaruba, the madou ring, we attend to a more complex relationship. Curious, Zaruba looks the human member in this special couple. Sometimes it expresses what we should expect from Kouga. Chapter 16: Kouga goes to visit Amon:
Zaruba: "This wind arrives loaded of remembrances".
Kouga: "Yes".
This does not mean that it is a sentimentalist. Chapter 17: Kouga already has accepted his feelings for Kaoru; they can not find a horror, even though they know it is over there.
Zaruba: "There is not alternative. You have to make Kaoru come here".
Kouga: "To be used as a bait"?
Zaruba: "Are you concerned with it now? Did you not spare her life for this"?
Zaruba has been the only friend of Kouga for many years, and its loss was felt strongly. By Rei’s reaction to it, we can know that the Makai Knights have a deep relationship with their madou jewels.
Thank you, Radix, for your graphical collaboration, again.
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