Basilisk 22-24
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She lives! That’s right folks, I’m not dead yet, though I’m not really around much these days.
I finally was able to see the end of Basilisk, but I don’t have the time or energy to do individual entries so I’m batching it up.
I don’t think I’ve ever hated a character in a series as much as I have loathed Tenzen. His cruelty knows no bounds. That being said, it certainly made him interesting. You never knew what he was going to do next.
Wow. What an end. I’m glad I waited to watch these three episodes back to back so that they lost none of their momentum.
All I can really say is…….. Beautiful. Disgusting. Intense. Tragic. Sigh.
February 20th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Yes, Tenzen broke every taboo in the book (and out of it for that matter!!) I couldn’t believe that he finally died. What a fitting end that he died at the hands of both Gennosuke and Oboro, both of which suffered greatly because of him.
We knew the ending was going to be this way from the start but the way it was done left me speechless. I’ll remember this show for a long time. The way the played the ending song at the end made it even more tragic. A true masterpiece!
February 21st, 2006 at 7:03 pm
“We knew the ending was going to be this way from the start but the way it was done left me speechless.” Agreed. Thanks for all your comments Mohammad, they are very thought provoking and appreciated.
February 22nd, 2006 at 7:56 am
Alway glad to be of service (^_^)
March 5th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
Be sure to catch the movie! http://www.shinobi-movie.com =)
July 21st, 2006 at 12:43 am
I am of two minds when it comes to the baby flashback and can’t work out which one it is.
1. Tenzen is the baby.
My thoughts on this are that Tenzen’s mother was from Iga while his father was Koga. The young couple where going to elope and on one of their secret meetings she was set up (for whatever reason) and the Koga murdered her. The baby was born and taken by the father to be raised as Koga. That is why Tenzen talks with a deep knowledge of Koga’s past and Gennosuke sees / refers to him as a traitor. Somewhere when he was young he found out the truth about his past and left the Koga. This could have happened when his reached his current age / appearance with the new knowledge unleashing his “rebirth” power and why he hasn’t aged beyond that point visually. Tenzen was born from hate. A hatred which was the first thing the young eyes saw and the eyes or “twin” he has in him is the consciousness from when he was born. This also makes sense as to why Tenzen is so against Oboro and Gennosuke getting married and why he hates Koga’s men (think about the disturbing scene on the boat and what he says to Oboro about having an Iga man instead etc).
2. Oboro is the baby.
I am kind of surprised that more people haven’t mentioned this, and it seems to be the most popular between my friends.
We really know nothing about Oboro’s mother except that she had a “mother-like” figure in Nina who was maybe an aunt or cousin.
Oboro’s mother seemed to follow a trait in her family and fell in love with a Koga man (Ogen and Oboro did as well).
This young Koga man was… Tenzen. The dude never ages and we know he was once a Koga, plus he must be the only man evil enough to betray his love like that.
This makes me believe that from this violent act Oboro was born with eyes that cancel out evil (attacks) and her natural “technique” which is really like a state of mu was always destined to destroy Tenzen for his crimes. This explains when Oboro sees Tenzen’s true evil reattaching his head it sparks a flashback deep in her mind to her birth and leads her to scream “WHY?” I also explains why the eyes in Tenzen’s neck freak out when it looks into Oboro’s eyes, it is remembering the crime.
For some reason Tenzen left Koga (maybe he heard the baby survived) and went to Iga.
The scene that has me more confused is when Tenzen kills Saemon and mentions that there was once a ninja in Iga with an ability similar to Saemon’s shape-shifting and he attacked the Iga, making them believe the Koga had taken advantage of the situation and attacked them. I think this is Tenzen and his way of fueling Koga / Iga hatred during the peaceful time but does it mean Tenzen is a shapeshifter as well?
As Saemon says (get it) “It was you, you bastard!”
I would like to hear people’s thoughts on this or maybe to help me fill in some of the holes.
April 16th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
i loved theeze series. isnt it anything new coming out thats similar to Basilisk?
May 15th, 2007 at 9:32 am
popaganda,
Thanks for realy interesting thoughts about that flashback which was bothering me as well. Here ar some of my thoughts.
The man in the flashback reminds me of Hyouma (when he was younger, teaching Gennosuke), and the woman looks like Oboro’s caretaker.
If Tenzen realy was a shapeshifter, he could have been pretending Hyouma, since when he finishes the woman his face takes after Tenzen or Saemon.
However, in my theory there is no motivation or explanation who was the baby.
It is imposible that child is Oboro and woman is her caretaker in the same time, since Oboro’s caretaker is still alive when Oboro is older. So if the child is Oboro, it must have been her mother.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:29 am
Hi there! It’s been a thrill to read (even all these years after the fact…
) your anime blog entries about Basilisk. Basilisk is my favorite anime series and it’s the manga that got me into reading manga in the first place. It’s always great to read about what other people felt about the series!
Also, is it alright that I used some of your screenshots in an Oboro tribute slideshow I made? (It’s not very good…) Some of the screenshots in your blog were exactly what I needed for my slideshow. Of course I would credit you if I ever posted the video up on the internet. If you’d prefer I didn’t use them then of course I won’t post it.
Thanks lots for writing these great blog entries for Basilisk!
-Naomi