Maniwa Houou (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
musubitori) wrote2017-03-05 04:13 pm
musubitori) wrote2017-03-05 04:13 pm
Entry tags:
History
Overview of Katanagatari:
Both wiki pages for Katanagatari are incredibly lacking, but the series offers us this information.
Katanagatari, literally meaning ‘sword story’, is the tale of a nation-wide search by the shogun’s strategian, Togame, and her companion, Shichika, for 12 deviant blades each with different characteristics and abilities, crafted by an ancient but infamous swordsmith.
Houou is one of the 12 heads of the Maniwa Village. The heads are a group of shinobi who make a living for themselves and their small village by taking contracts from the shogunate, until the strategian crosses their path. Since a single sword is worth a king's ransom and will free the Maniwa financially and guarantee their survival, one of the Maniwa heads agrees to assist the strategian but betrays her once he locates the blade and flees with it. The entire village absconds overnight with the hopes to start afresh with the payload of the sword but the head is killed and the blade taken from him, leaving the clan, with Houou as their leader, scrambling to make the best of a bad situation and retrieve any blade they can in the hopes of making another deal with Togame. Unfortunately news of the sword hunt has got out, so they are no longer up against only one opponent.
Houou meets with the strategian to apologise for the betrayal and to offer a truce. He even goes as far to offer to cut off his own arm in exchange for her to hear him out, and does so before she really has the opportunity to answer. He is said to be stronger than all the other heads in his clan, so he goes the extra mile to prove to her that he deeply apologises for his other head betraying her. The truce is accepted and they agree to hunt for the blades in the opposite order to one another.
The truce is broken when another Maniwa head, enraged at their pitiful situation and the losses of their friends, confronts the strategian; forcing Houou and another of his clan to pursue. During the chase Houou confides in his companion that they may have to die to see the survival of the truce and even the rest of their clan. His fellow maniwa agrees to the possibility and later Houou is forced to kill him, again to maintain the truce. It isn’t an entire waste though, as using his ability Houou takes the arm of the downed Maniwa and so takes on all his abilities too.
After following several leads the Maniwa finally track down and retrieve one of the swords; Dokutou Mekki, the poison sword, which has the ability to corrupt the user using a part of the spirit of it’s creator trapped inside it. However, by this point the other 10 Maniwa heads have been killed, leaving only Houou and one other remaining to lead the clan. the princess in Owari who is also on the hunt for the swords sends her bodyguard, Emonzaemon, after them with intention to destroy what’s left of the Maniwa heads, and Houou enters into single combat with him. Houou recognises Emonzaemon as a man he knew long ago, and the other Maniwa head remarks as they fight that they are so familiar with each other that they have shared training styles, making it clear that it would have to be a fight to the death and would ultimately be a draw either way. To hopefully give Houou the upper hand, the head tosses him the sword they have collected, but Houou catches it with the hand he took from Kawauso, which has psychometric abilities, and amplifies the effect of the sword and immediately Houou is possessed by the spirit of the swordsmith and the evil trapped inside. He attacks Emonzaemon and Pengin, leaving them for dead before escaping back to the new Maniwa Village.
There, Houou is forced to watch as the swordsmith, using his body against his will, slaughters every man, woman and child within the walls and then destroys those too, along with the buildings and any and all structures surrounding, and then waits.
.
Finally, Shichika and Togame arrive to retrieve the final blade from him and Houou - or rather, the swordsmith - is eager to engage in battle. Mercifully, Houou falls in the ensuing duel, finally succumbing to death after almost two centuries of struggle.
Overview of Maniwagatari:
Through my own shaky translation efforts I have also found out the following. (in no particular order)
- Houou was young when he became the head of the Maniwa and was the sole leader for some number of years before the events of Maniwagatari.
- He had an inseparable friendship with Souda Aioi (Souda Emonzaemon in ktngt) as young men, but being from rival clans, ultimately betrayed that friendship and stole a portion of Souda's face after Houou assumed he was dead. Houou's own power meant he replaced what he lost with everything Souda knew, including part of his personality.
- The above happened after Houou defeated another potential leader of the Maniwa and lost his abilities to the curse/power of that ninja's ultimate ability.
- Houou was the first leader of the Maniwa to unite them in a hierarchy of the 12 heads and three man squads. His theory being that no leader should be irreplaceable and their collective strength would be enough to wipe out their rivals.
Both wiki pages for Katanagatari are incredibly lacking, but the series offers us this information.
Katanagatari, literally meaning ‘sword story’, is the tale of a nation-wide search by the shogun’s strategian, Togame, and her companion, Shichika, for 12 deviant blades each with different characteristics and abilities, crafted by an ancient but infamous swordsmith.
Houou is one of the 12 heads of the Maniwa Village. The heads are a group of shinobi who make a living for themselves and their small village by taking contracts from the shogunate, until the strategian crosses their path. Since a single sword is worth a king's ransom and will free the Maniwa financially and guarantee their survival, one of the Maniwa heads agrees to assist the strategian but betrays her once he locates the blade and flees with it. The entire village absconds overnight with the hopes to start afresh with the payload of the sword but the head is killed and the blade taken from him, leaving the clan, with Houou as their leader, scrambling to make the best of a bad situation and retrieve any blade they can in the hopes of making another deal with Togame. Unfortunately news of the sword hunt has got out, so they are no longer up against only one opponent.
Houou meets with the strategian to apologise for the betrayal and to offer a truce. He even goes as far to offer to cut off his own arm in exchange for her to hear him out, and does so before she really has the opportunity to answer. He is said to be stronger than all the other heads in his clan, so he goes the extra mile to prove to her that he deeply apologises for his other head betraying her. The truce is accepted and they agree to hunt for the blades in the opposite order to one another.
The truce is broken when another Maniwa head, enraged at their pitiful situation and the losses of their friends, confronts the strategian; forcing Houou and another of his clan to pursue. During the chase Houou confides in his companion that they may have to die to see the survival of the truce and even the rest of their clan. His fellow maniwa agrees to the possibility and later Houou is forced to kill him, again to maintain the truce. It isn’t an entire waste though, as using his ability Houou takes the arm of the downed Maniwa and so takes on all his abilities too.
After following several leads the Maniwa finally track down and retrieve one of the swords; Dokutou Mekki, the poison sword, which has the ability to corrupt the user using a part of the spirit of it’s creator trapped inside it. However, by this point the other 10 Maniwa heads have been killed, leaving only Houou and one other remaining to lead the clan. the princess in Owari who is also on the hunt for the swords sends her bodyguard, Emonzaemon, after them with intention to destroy what’s left of the Maniwa heads, and Houou enters into single combat with him. Houou recognises Emonzaemon as a man he knew long ago, and the other Maniwa head remarks as they fight that they are so familiar with each other that they have shared training styles, making it clear that it would have to be a fight to the death and would ultimately be a draw either way. To hopefully give Houou the upper hand, the head tosses him the sword they have collected, but Houou catches it with the hand he took from Kawauso, which has psychometric abilities, and amplifies the effect of the sword and immediately Houou is possessed by the spirit of the swordsmith and the evil trapped inside. He attacks Emonzaemon and Pengin, leaving them for dead before escaping back to the new Maniwa Village.
There, Houou is forced to watch as the swordsmith, using his body against his will, slaughters every man, woman and child within the walls and then destroys those too, along with the buildings and any and all structures surrounding, and then waits.
.
Finally, Shichika and Togame arrive to retrieve the final blade from him and Houou - or rather, the swordsmith - is eager to engage in battle. Mercifully, Houou falls in the ensuing duel, finally succumbing to death after almost two centuries of struggle.
Overview of Maniwagatari:
Through my own shaky translation efforts I have also found out the following. (in no particular order)
- Houou was young when he became the head of the Maniwa and was the sole leader for some number of years before the events of Maniwagatari.
- He had an inseparable friendship with Souda Aioi (Souda Emonzaemon in ktngt) as young men, but being from rival clans, ultimately betrayed that friendship and stole a portion of Souda's face after Houou assumed he was dead. Houou's own power meant he replaced what he lost with everything Souda knew, including part of his personality.
- The above happened after Houou defeated another potential leader of the Maniwa and lost his abilities to the curse/power of that ninja's ultimate ability.
- Houou was the first leader of the Maniwa to unite them in a hierarchy of the 12 heads and three man squads. His theory being that no leader should be irreplaceable and their collective strength would be enough to wipe out their rivals.