shinigami’s blog

I’m a bit of a Inoue Takehiko fan. A bit since I like his drawing style, “REAL” is one of my favorite manga, but “Chameleon Jail” not so much. I also like Eiji Yoshikawa’s book (this link contains some spoilers; check Amazon for info without spoilers) though it lacks subtlety and it borders at times on flowery, at least in the translation I read, and I rec it to people who like history, samurai, Musashi, even Zen. I also rec (and even provide a handy link to random translations I found ^^) Musashi’s Go Rin No Sho translated by Victor Harris, complete with notes and Sun Tzu’s Art of War with annotations that Wikipedia considers dated and a link to the annotations-free version.

All right, Go Rin No Sho obviously has a connection with this post, but what about Sun Tzu? Well, Sun Tzu’s Art of War is in fact mentioned in “Musashi”, though the scene was changed beyond recongnition in “Vagabond” (see bellow, no 3).

The post(s) will be about the differences between the book and manga. Some things have to be said first. One, while this is an anime/manga blog, and I do like Inoue Takehiko, I am not partial to some of the changes the manga made. Two, I won’t get much into the changes that are either explained by the different medium (no matter how much we talk about “visual novels” a manga is not a book and many details are lost to accomodate the format) or probably due to a need for brevity - at least when the first volumes were written.

Great. Let’s get to it.

Since I have a very persistent and intrusive real life (and a much more recently acquired MMO addiction) I’ll keep this first post shorter than it could have been: from the battle of Sekigahara (i.e. beginning of the story) till Musashi runs away from Minamoto. This spans the first 2 volumes of Vagabond and part of the 1st book of Musashi - Earth.

1. There are plenty of changes since the very scene to the moment when Takezo and Matahashi break off. I could list them all, but it’d take awhile, it’s prolly not very interesting, AND it’d ruin the “let’s read the book/manga too since it’s not exactly the same thing” (so I’m not just lazy, see? :P ). But there is an important point to be made here.

Everything that’s changed (and that isn’t just due to retelling what’s left after cutting out some stuff) serves the same purpose: Takezo is much more badass, Matahachi is much more wimpy and dislikeable, and the friendship between them is not emphasized at all.

The key element here are scenes that were added in (which is to say other stuff was cut out to make room for them). Most significantly, in the book Matahachi and the women leave overnight precisely to avoid a second confrontation with the bandits so the sex in the woods while Takezo fights scene doesn’t happen.

2. What happens after Takezo reaches Minamoto is restructured mostly because a lot is cut out. The manga and the book flow equally well though. The biggest changes are that Takuan doesn’t appear until much later while the book introduces him from the very start (this is important in light of no 3) and… where the fuck is Takezo’s sister Ogin?

3. Aside from Ogin, the greatest, most inexplicable, and quite annoying change is with Takuan’s character. Takuan not just loses plenty of scenes (understandable), but the scenes where he does appear are rewritten for no purpose I can see.

In the book Takuan is a vagabond (heh) Rinzai monk that actually embodies the Zen monk prototype. His scenes steal the limelight from everything else that happens (Ok, THIS might be the reason why they were changed? Heh.). He is an extraordinary man, so when he does something (capturing Takezo, for example - yes, HE is the one to capture Takezo in the book, but more on this later) you can see it happening. I didn’t get that feeling in the manga at all. Very disappointing.

I’d very much like to post the “Takuan confronting the samurai” scene as is in the book, but I don’t have an English version of it, so if anyone has it and could scan those pages (or if anyone has an e-book), that’d be awesome.

4. There are a few changes to give women more powa!
No, seriously.
Slight changes: Akemi is generally more assertive, throws stones at her father’s killer (instead of just freezing and shaking like in the book). Otsu is less polite and meek, especially with the mustachioed moron, she also refuses becoming part of Matahachi’s family in no uncertain terms on account of his betrayal.
Huge change: Takuan says Otsu will catch Takezo and she does (well, sorta). In the book Otsu does go with Takuan at his request, but it’s all his merit that Takezo yields.

YET there is one other change that goes in reverse.

Ok, I’d say this is a spoiler indeed and no way to phrase it in a non-spoilerish way.

…

In the book it’s Otsu that unties Takezo, not Takuan. She frees him, wants to go with him, and they establish a meeting later on. But things don’t go the way they were supposed to, and this starts a part of the plot.

In the manga Takezo is about to be killed by His Possible Future Rival when Takuan appears, has a manga-uncharacteristic cool moment, then takes Takezo away and saves him again with a nice speech.

…

End spoiler.

So the second volume of the manga ends in a very, very different place from the book. Not just in terms of who the “active” characters are, but also of Takezo’s motivation. In the book he wants to go save his imprisoned sister, who he loves. In the manga he is too much of a manly Lone Bad Ass Wolf-Demon, so he ends up with a preachy Takuan and what can only be assumed as “redemption time!”.

Done for now.

I’ll ask again: anyone who can provide English text would be very, very welcome. Takuan’s scene with the samurai leading the search (which is also relevant for Book!Otsu) would be most important, in my opinion. Also what Takuan says to Takezo last before he is freed, which is very unlike the manga speech at the end of vol 2.

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