I apologize in advance for my excessive rambling, and posting graphics in your comments.
The non-linear progression of panels thing, using minor or background panels to refer to inner thoughts, or to do mood-setting, or to draw your eye to important details, is a common technique. You see it way, way more in manga than in Western comics, and more often in "shojo" (girl-oriented) manga than in "shonen" (boy-oriented) manga. Saiyuki is interesting in that Minekura is using shojo-type techniques to tell what would otherwise be a shonen-type story (action-adventure questy stuff). She's a bit of a Roger Zelazny, that way. (The extensive use of screen-tones to convey mood and emotional states is another standard shojo technique.)
Have you read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud? If you found those posts by coffee_and_ink and telophase interesting, I recommend it. He does a really thorough job of dissecting and analyzing all the different aspects of sequential-art storytelling, including what techniques are commonly used by creators from different cultures. It's really good stuff.
Back to the subject matter at hand:
Re: page 1.1.54 and panel-reading order, the visual clue that tells us which order to read them in is the extra-wide margin around the two upper-right panels. The big margin indicates a scene change from the street to the inn, and once that division is made, the order of reading flows naturally:
You're right; that layout with Hakkai, Kougaiji, and Yaone is really neat. Thanks for pointing it out! It's been a long while since I've looked at the earlier volumes (they have been on loan).
no subject
The non-linear progression of panels thing, using minor or background panels to refer to inner thoughts, or to do mood-setting, or to draw your eye to important details, is a common technique. You see it way, way more in manga than in Western comics, and more often in "shojo" (girl-oriented) manga than in "shonen" (boy-oriented) manga. Saiyuki is interesting in that Minekura is using shojo-type techniques to tell what would otherwise be a shonen-type story (action-adventure questy stuff). She's a bit of a Roger Zelazny, that way. (The extensive use of screen-tones to convey mood and emotional states is another standard shojo technique.)
Have you read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud? If you found those posts by
Back to the subject matter at hand:
Re: page 1.1.54 and panel-reading order, the visual clue that tells us which order to read them in is the extra-wide margin around the two upper-right panels. The big margin indicates a scene change from the street to the inn, and once that division is made, the order of reading flows naturally:
You're right; that layout with Hakkai, Kougaiji, and Yaone is really neat. Thanks for pointing it out! It's been a long while since I've looked at the earlier volumes (they have been on loan).