Shonen Bride Volume 4 by Okano Maria and illustrated by Honami Yukine

[insaneneko]

Tsurugi to Mizu no Mai (Dance of Sword and Water) has probably my favorite cover of the series so far. I love the composition and the colors...Honami-sensei, you totally rule. XD In any case, I feel kind of silly posting about this stupid series when there are better books out there I could be talking about...Of course, talking about those better books takes a lot more time. It's easy to scan all the pics in these books and post them up with some brief (though sometimes not so brief) description.

I suppose it'd be easier to just throw the pics up with nothing at all, but frankly I find novel illustrations by themselves rather boring without the context. Maybe one of these days I'll give a similar treatment to one of those not very good books Yamane Ayano keeps illustrating (I have yet to come across a good book illustrated by her, for some reason), just for fun. But before that maybe I should finish that summary I've put off for a couple of months because I kept translating passages from the book...*sighs*






Our lovers are interrupted while making out (or more like Kohji trying to get a reluctant Shinobu to go along, still not knowing that Shinobu is worried about getting pregnant...) by the as yet unnamed (I think) supernatural kitten. Kitten wants to join in! (Okay, not really, the kitten just wants to play with Shinobu's moving foot...)




Shinobu goes on a club trip to a ryokan with his club, an ouendan. Usually ouendans are "all-male cheer squad wearing highly stylized black uniforms (based on gaku-ran Japanese school uniforms)" [from wikipedia], which is why Shinobu joined in the first place (in his quest to become manly and stuff). But his school's ouendan actually only has like three guys, and the rest are girls. He is assured by Kohji that his going on a trip will not mess up the cleansing ceremony, and yet is surprised to find Kohji (in "disguise" with fugly glasses and a disgustingly fake name to boot) at the ryokan. He's bought out the ryokan with his allowance.

The girls warn Shinobu that icky looking creepy owner dude (aka Kohji) is after his ass and that he should watch out (even suggesting that he should stay in their room at night for safety). Of course he can't tell the girls that it'd only be natural for Kohji to be after his ass...



The girls of course want to wear yukata at a ryokan, and drag Shinobu into it as well. He ends up putting the yukata on everyone (his bride training wasn't all for naught, after all!), making some lame excuse as to why he was so good at putting on women's clothing. At one point one of the girls sees Shinobu gracefully hold his sleeve and daintily drink something and comments that it's awfully unfair and hateful that Shinobu is prettier and more ladylike than the rest of them.

And the guys peeking into the room are Shinobu's buddies. He hadn't told them about his club trip, but they knew something was up, found out where he was going, and followed him.




Not much to say here, except...hot much? I've always thought having sex in an onsen was one of the worst ideas ever...




The ryokan is assaulted by a kappa working with our favorite cheesy villain, but is driven away by Kohji. Later, Kohji and Shinobu meet another kappa, Ayuko. She recognized Kohji as a Mitsurugi and implores him to help them out. Their dragon river god disappeared due to the river being dammed a while back, and now a "scary ayakashi" has invaded and is trying to awaken a dormant catfish ayakashi that if awakened would cause an earthquake of devastating proportions. When the kappa tried to stop him a good number were possessed.

At this point Ayato shows up as well, having followed his uncle's trail.




While Kohji and company were having their little gathering, the ryokan was assaulted again and Shinobu's buddies were captured. They were taken to the bottom of the river and watched over by a little old kappa, actually kind of having fun and eating the "great delicacy" that are cucumbers (when they told the old kappa that cucumbers were a dime a dozen outside I think the old kappa got all glaze eyed and drooly for a moment...). You know, good old fashioned bonding with your captors...




Cheesy villain guy tells Shinobu that in order to get his buddies back he had to get the sword from Kohji and the mirror from Ayato (as well as hand over his ikutama). He takes the sword from his sleeping boyfriend. When he sneaks into Ayato's place to steal the mirror, he is met by Ayato who just gives him the mirror. He knows Shinobu needs it "for some very important reason which he won't ask about" and declares that he will do anything to help out the person he cares for. He tells Shinobu that the mirror is "his love." Shinobu takes the mirror but thinks internally that he doesn't need the love part.




There's lot of plotty stuff that happens before this pic, basically Shinobu meets up with cheesy villain guy who's like "there's no one to protect you now!" while Shinobu angsts about betraying Kohji's trust or some shit and ends up jumping into the river to prevent the villain from getting everything. Of course Kohji and Ayato are in fact not far behind since they'd never let Shinobu go off and face danger by himself but they don't manage to rescue him.

In fact, Shinobu has been picked up by the dragon river god who had been under cheesy villain dude's control. But being at his river and the source of his power, he was able to act on his own. He takes Shinobu down to the bottom of the river. He doesn't really know why he did grabbed Shinobu, doesn't remember that this is his river, but he finds Shinobu kind and beautiful and he embraces Shinobu (and they have a "moment" while Shionbu thinks he feels the river god's deep sorrow or something).

In the meantime, Ayato and Kohji have come after Shinobu and river god. Ayato can move freely in water, being a serpent, but Kohji got help from Ayuko to breathe underwater. Kohji and the river god face off, with Kohji using test tubes filled with the smoke of incense and charms to do his thing. But suddenly there's an earthquake brought on by the catfish ayakashi raging and Shinobu is grabbed by cheesy villain dude.




Villain dude demands the sword (he already has the mirror from their previous encounter) or else Shinobu's buddies will be harmed. But of course Kohji comes to his rescue.




Lots of exciting things happen, but the big event is the sealing away of the ayakashi that cheesy villain dude had awoken. While Ayato uses his powers to control the water to keep the dam from bursting, Kohji and Shinobu use their magical objects and powers to temporarily hold the catfish ayakashi from raging. The kappa (who I suppose had broken villain's hold on them at some point) turn into some kind of stone to physically seal the ayakashi away, same as how the catfish ayakashi had been sealed away before. Old kappa, who was leader of the kappa and Ayuko's...grandfather?, asks Shinobu to bring their river god back to sanity and back to the river where he belongs, before joining in with the other kappa in on the turning into stone thing. Of course, cheesy villain guy gets away in the uproar.

Back in Tokyo, Shinobu and Kohji are informed that they will be getting married. Not a real marriage, but something to bring some peace of mind to everyone after the death of the head of the Kagamino and everything. And the two get to affirm their love and commitment to each other once again to end this book.

Comments

[nokiirat.livejournal.com]

aw, it's too bad this isn't a full manga. i'd love to get it purely because i like yukine honami's style of drawing.

thanks for the summaries and scans.

[insaneneko.livejournal.com]

This would probably make a good manga, since it's easy to forgive the bad/stupid parts when it's all so pretty. You're welcome!