So, it has been more than a year... issues settled and maybe...almost back to normal. the Kenshin Hokkaido Arc restarted in the Jump monthly serials, and Watsuki promised fans a good story, as a way for himself to reflect and repent etc. 2 new manga volumes have been published and the 2nd volume made it to the Top 3 selling chart (The other 2 are both current weekly serials, and I guess it just shows how robust Kenshin’s old fan base is) New kenshin movie is in the making - though I really have doubts about Takeru Sato pulling it off as teenage kenshin this time... (isn’t he also well in his 30s now??) but never mind...
In this whole time I have been ruminating, and am still ruminating now. About Watsuki, about Kenshin, Saitou, Kaoru, Hiko-sensei...the familiar storyline playing over in my head again and again.
and I guess mostly about myself, and why this continues to haunt me so much.
Loyal fans have come to Kenshin’s defense and the most often heard argument has been the need to separate the art from the artist, though in my mind that is almost a whitewashed lie. Art simply cannot be separated from the artist and in many ways art really IS the artist. What you commit to paper is often the innermost you coming under the sun - ironically more vulnerable and exposed than a pedophilia arrest in the news.
I guess that is where I get stuck.
I have been quite disappointed at the Hokkaido story since its 1st chapter, even with Watsuki’s moral failings aside, and the subsequent chapters so far did very little to salvage it.
What’s with the agitated parade of all the past popular characters in the initial chapters? And in the recent ones even Hiko-sensei? He’s in the mountains making pottery and the story hasn’t hit the critical point so leave him alone! Just an attempt completely lacking in confidence to grab hold of the different fan bases so they don’t drop out? -_-|||||
I won’t even mention the fact that Saitou-san appeared in almost all the marketing materials yet his role in the story was fleeting and he shyed away from showing the world that his left hand was injuried in battle against a powerful opponent — that’s really not Saitou-san is it?
I am dreading but also waiting for Hokkaido Arc to end quickly and prove that it is pale, feeble and crap so I can really fly off the handle about it. Yes I know I am just an angry obsessional perfectionistic fan who’s on the lookout for something to be pissed off about—-
But maybe the anger did not stem from Hokkaido - it was elusive but raising its head already back in Tokyo with the Jinchu Arc. Though somewhat representing the good and evil polarity, siblings Tomoe and Enishi actually were both rather chaotic in their coping style facing grief and loss. It is hardly explainable only by the loss of a mother when they were young but the role of their father seemed very much missing —yet we at least know he was well and alive and held a respectable position in the Bakumastu at least till Tomoe was at a marriageable age....
If he remained invisible and absent till the end that was that, but a bit later in the story this jovial irrelevant and somewhat out of place old man popped up in the village of the fallen — first doing some supportive counseling to Kenshin and later, aromatherapy to Enishi... and somehow in the midst of all these low key psychological support stuff he revealed himself to be Tomoe’s father (hence - Enishi’s father too and Kenshin’s father in law?)
Even as a teenager I found it very odd and unconvincing and doesn’t quite make sense.
And just maybe, the very same odd and incoherent sentiment,15 years later, drove the naggingly unsettling pretext from which all the events take place in Hokkaido - the hegira in search of Kaoru’s absent father - who was assumed dead for years and was hardly missed in the original story. yes Kaoru was in the habit of picking up older men off the streets (lol) but she was quite clear in her need for servants to do her household chores and not for paternal replacements. Funny enough, even in the midst of this current Hegira, Kaoru 5 years older and now a mother herself, still seemed rather chilled about all this kerfuffle. The proactive one jumping up and down about finding this new father-in-law he never met and drove all this adventure to take place - is Kenshin.
I do find this misplaced father complex rather cringeworthy. My fondest memories about the Kenshin story and what made it full of warmth, hope and security is its offering of a glimpse to a world, though toxic, ruthless, and misleading, without a care for its young and weak—is also littered with spiritual fathers left right and centre, who come in all ages shapes and forms but invariably true to their values, honest to their feelings and noble at hearts, who will meet you along the treacherous road, each playing his part guide you through bits of the journey till you safely reach the other end.
I really missed that. And I kept wondering what happened, for Watsuki who created this glorious world full of brillant fathers, to spiral down into this pitiable regressed form, repetitively, pathologically depicting the process of finding a wayward father home as the ultimate fulfilment, as well as the desperate need to show that despite absence and abandonment, such a father is still a very good father and even his absence must have been for a decent and noble reason.
And ultimately what does this say about me? - who remain on ill terms with both parents, perhaps for a very long time too, just that getting married made everything came out under the sun a lot more. — who have been in this state of chronic dysthymia and acopia perhaps because there were never much faith (or shall we say illusions?)in my biological father’s ability to tackle the world. - who as a teenager found the Kenshin story life changing and inspiring and wanting to create a secure world of fathers of my own but now many years later as a disgruntled middle aged woman really doubting this could even be done—
And yet...I am feeble and ambivalent even in this acceptance of the impossible - now and then I would still dig some graves and rattle some long dead bones...hoping to replicate this security...for myself and maybe for others...someday...somehow.
Though as I was venting, the latest chapter of Hokkaido Arc came out - in its last page, there was half a silhouette of Saitou-san, with an injured arm still recovering—
But still standing tall, still smoking, and will still give Kenshin some attitude once he walks through that door. Not parental at all but most containing.
And that was enough. I am feeling hopeful again, maybe just enough for me to survive another day of suppressing negative emotions dealing with my family of origin.
