The CLAMP Project: Episode 9: RG Veda volume 8

Finally, we have five of the six stars! And we've known about all five for half the series. Why did it have to be such a secret if it was going to be the most obvious choice? Yasha, Ashura, Ryuu, and Sohma are all Stars, along with Karura. The big question going into volume 9 is "Who is the sixth star?" The options seem to be Tenou, the kindhearted prince who is Ashura's brother, Kendappa, the royal harpist who now is clearly manipulating things so that Taishakuten will be defeated, or perhaps the general with a weakness for Karura whose name is escaping me because these names are killers.

There's another mystery repeated in volume 8, but I can't see how that really matters: "Who is the fourth great general?" 

As we start volume 8, Karura makes short work of Aguni, which of course she does, because she's a woman and so is Aguni and somehow the women always end up fighting one another in these types of series. Everyone learns that Rasetsu is dead, including Shara, who grieves for about a second before offering some horses to Yasha and the rest. She says that she promised Rasetsu that she would not cry when he died. It's the type of promise that people make and keep all the time in fiction that I don't think would ever work in real life. (Anyway, she doesn't have long to pretend not to grieve, because she kills herself soon after they leave. Supposedly this is because she doesn't want to reveal their whereabouts, but it's also because she doesn't want to live on without her husband, and because she's a character who isn't super duper important to the story, and so she can't be allowed to live.)

Ashura pops into his demon form and reveals that lo and behold, we've had four of the Six Stars all along, and Karura makes five! Then he changes back to his real form and says that he wants to go to Taishakuten's castle. He wants to confront his mother about why she tried to kill him. And he wants to confront Taishakuten about why he keeps killing people and causing sadness.

Tenou and Ashura

On the way there, our party runs into Tenou and Kendappa on a date. Tenou has just asked Kendappa to marry him, the poor fool. Kendappa and Sohma stare longingly. Tenou and Ashura have a psychic connection of some sort and realize one another's identity, but there won't be any time for a real meeting, because Komoukuten shows up, looking very much like a character right out of Ruroni Kenshin.

Komoukuten fights with Yasha, unwisely taunting him with tales of how he killed Rasetsu and split Shara's body in half. Yasha gets furious and does something that I can only describe as "going Super Saiyan". He glows, his hair flows up into the air, and his fighting aura becomes a physical thing that literally disintegrates Komoukuten.

Is this CLAMP or Dragonball?

At this point, the artwork is the main reason to read RG Veda, and it continues to stun. There are some great two-page panels, like the silent meeting of the eyes between Tenou and Ashura as they realize that they are brothers, or Tenou revealing a field of giant flowing blossoms to Kendappa, or Komoukuten facing off against Yasha. The magical auras in the fight scenes flow around the page like fire or wind. I never cease to be impressed with the way that things flow in CLAMP artwork.

I'm happy to only have two books left and to be able to move on soon. Tokyo Babylon is calling to me, and it's only a few short volumes away.