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aspiring-holistic-otaku · 2 months ago

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Season 3 Ramble#9 - Way of the Sword ver.2

Greetings and welcome to another episode of MM..MANGA, the podcast about getting more people into more manga.

As usual I assume everyone listening in are smart folks who could tell from the title, but i’m gonna go ahead and say it. This month’s ramble is all about swords... Actually it kinda does make sense to actually say it because last time I did this in Way of the sword ver.1 (which I urge you to go listen to if you haven’t), I only focused on samurai manga, but this time i’ve put my bias for the sheer awesomeness of samurai, bushido and all that aside and broadened my scope to swords in general.

This ramble is gonna have the typical format, top 5 sword manga read this month then top 5 older sword manga reads, both in ascending order, but I’ll only be going into detail about this month’s reads as i would have gone into detail about older reads in ver.1. After the main ramble is over I'll have a little post ramble ramble, where i rank my top 5 swordsmen and because i was watching some martial arts/sword/samurai movies along with my reads I'll give a top 5 of those as well.

Before I get into it I want to start with a quote from Miyamoto Musashi, I read his book 5 rings as well this month and it was a pretty solid read imo, especially if you can see the broad things specifically and specific things broadly…

“A thousand days of training to develop, ten thousand days of training to polish. You must examine all this well.” - Miyamoto Musashi

TOP 5 SWORD READS THIS MONTH

#5) Reiri (Story by Hitoshi Iwaaki and art by Daisuke Muroi, ran from 2015-2018, complete w 35 chapters)

Getting this out the way, Reiri is a samurai manga. I know I said I broadened my scope but I didn’t say I’d exclude anything. Samurai manga just tend to be the cream of the crop, what can I say?

In any case, The story here follows a young girl named Reiri, a peasant girl who lives in peace with her family, until one day in the aftermath of war, soldiers ruthlessly murder and behead her mother, brother and father. Lucky for her, a general from the opposing forces saves her and so she grows up and grows stronger serving him, but has always eagerly sought death so she could be together with her now lost family.

Short and sweet read. solid art. and though the cast wasn’t as expansive or dynamic as I’d usually like, there was a tendency towards depth even in the shorter interactions. I think the creators had a message or discussion around a topic they wanted to get across/have, and they did a pretty good job, especially with so few chapters. You could probably tell from the summary but the main subject was death, or more specifically in my mind, the question of, what kind of life should one lead to have a satisfying death?

That’s pretty common in samurai manga and samurai media in general, but there were two major differences from the usual that made this read more interesting and added a bit more nuance than usual. One was the fact that the main character was a woman, which I honestly always dig.. love a woman that can kick my ass.mp4... but seriously, if you know anything about samurai society there’s no way she could be considered a samurai and die in battle like she hoped. The second point kinda springs from the first in that because she was a woman, even though she was pretty strong, the people around her tended to try and discourage her from her pursuit of an honourable death. Which when said out loud sounds like the obvious normal reaction, but again, this is samurai society. If she were a man, everyone would either be pushing her towards death in battle or asking her why she hasn’t already killed herself out of shame for being unable to protect her family. I think these two things really added to what could have been just another samurai manga.

In any case this is just #5 on the list, short as hell and not THAT much packed in so not much more to say, maybe a bit too much yapping there but definitely recommend.

#4) Ragna Crimson (Story&Art by Daiki Kobayashi, 2017-present, ongoing w 77 chapters)

This right here is some major meathead shit. Which usually wouldn’t do anything for me but 1) swords and 2) the levels of rawness, aura and whatever else the kids are saying nowadays just tipped the scales. It’s almost too crazy I'm telling you.

Anywho, the story here takes place in a world constantly under threat from dragons, and we follow the main character Ragna, a pretty shitty dragon hunter, that follows around and takes care of one of the strongest dragon hunters around. One day a larger than normal dragon horde threatens everything he loves when suddenly he has a flashback, to the future... His future self explains that this dragon attack changed his life and destroyed everything he held dear, leading him to be the strongest dragon hunter ever. Sadly even that wasn’t enough to kill every last dragon, so now he’s sending all his power back to present day Ragna so he can grow even more and hopefully protect the ones he loves, and maybe more importantly, kill every last dragon.

First off, I usually I have a bit of distaste for reborn or future knowledge stories cause the mcs tend to just,, know everything,, nothing’s a challenge, and in my mind, every arc, subplot and etc is a completely uneven playing ground where they have almost every upperhand and everyone else is either in complete awe or fear… but i digress… That wasn’t the case here, they handled it pretty simply and pretty well in that the mc didn’t really get all the memories, it’s all a bit fuzzy, so he has all this power but pretty much zero know how.

In any case the art is fairly solid, gotta say the big impact moments were very big and impactful, really well done. The story so far was kinda just okay and really heavily carried by all the raw fighting content, which I guess is to be expected in a battle manga, but the story aspect has been picking up and I can see that side of things getting much more enjoyable.

Great cast and character interactions, which may sound a bit weird given what I just said about the story but I really really enjoyed watching them and their antics, and that goes for pretty much the entire cast. I actually think that’s what really did it for me and got it on this list. Typically, in world threatening or apocalypse scenario stories, the cast and mood tend to be kinda serious, moody, edgy and whatnot,, which makes sense and isn’t a fault more so than it is me having had enough of that, but here the cast was pretty goofy and they pretty much all had some quirk or the other that made them distinct if not stand out. Small spoiler for the sake of a nice example, but the mc has horrible social anxiety that often makes him throw up in a crowd, so you can see how that would make trying to be a world saving hero difficult. I think any story, especially battle manga where it’s pretty much expected, can have a good fight, and those fights can even have really deep meanings, but no manga can be all fights all the time, not even battle manga. And so the in betweens, transitionary phases, etc are really important. It’s easier to get away with in anime with an sakuga and so forth, but in my opinion, if it’s not there in manga, the whole thing's just gonna feel like a slideshow.

In any case, for the more elitist, nitpicker listeners, it's labeled dark fantasy but it's definitely a mickey mouse series,,, but in a jetix kinda way if that makes sense… I said that in a discord and they said that basically means it’s an early 2000s fest and I agree.. All that being said I still recommend it, really great if you like to turn your brain off, solid enough if that’s not for you and for the anime watchers, there is an anime with 24 episodes, can’t speak on the quality as i have not and do not plan to watch but just putting that out there.

#3) Samurai Executioner (Story by Kazuo Koike and Story by Goseki Kojima, 1970-1976, complete w 54 chapters)

Firstly, this story art duo is responsible for creating my #1 samurai read from way of the sword ver.1, lone wolf and cub,(again i urge you to check that out, the ramble or even just that one manga specifically), so it’s great to see greatness from them again, + i’ve been told and seen from related manga sections that there’s a bunch more where that came from so i’m looking forward to reading more stuff from them in future.

The anilist description of the series is pretty hard so i’m gonna run with that here;

In a prison world, there are few good stories, and this is the world of Kubikiri Asa, the beheader and master samurai under the Shogun. It's a world full of vengeance, greed, and violence. A world of depravity and sin. One man can set things straight if he can keep his wits. This is a story of extreme proportions, of sword study thick in tradition and with grim purpose, of blood rivers, agonizing screams, bondage, torture, and the evil prevalent in human failure. Drafted by the confirmed masters of the international medium of manga, Samurai Executioner is a shocking combination of darkness and fire, fine lines, and a fine man in the face of human decline.

Very episodic, much like lone wolf and cub was at first, and though it had some overarching continuity, it didn’t really have the same culminating payoff. Still great though as each chapter was very poignant, and as a story that very much focused on death, almost every chapter ending being the end of a life, it's very fitting.

Great art if you’re into the old school feel, which I like in general but also goes fabulously with stories set in older time periods. Solid cast, though as I said it’s pretty episodic and outside the main character almost everyone was a passing face, but again those passing faces, especially the ones meant to be executed, had a lot to say. Even the few chapters sprinkled throughout that didn’t have executions and were just conversations tended to be very contemplative. In the same way lone wolf and cub was a great dialogue around the meaning of being a samurai, this was a brilliant dialogue around the meaning of life and death. The main character’s words to live by were literally “All things are impermanent. This is the law of life and extinction. When both life and extinction perish, nirvana will be bliss.”

Brilliant short read. something to savour. highly recommend.

#2) The legend of the northern blade (Story and Art by Hue Min, Original story by U Gak, 2019-present, ongoing w 192 chapters)

I won’t call this meathead. It’s meathead adjacent,, so we’ll call it action packed,, but meatheads would definitely enjoy this.

The story here is that for pretty much a hundred years and through 4 generations, the northern heavenly sect has protected the country from the evil silent night. Sadly, because of envy for their growing strength, the 4th generation leader is betrayed by those he swore to protect, and in the end is forced to disband his sect and kill himself to protect his son. Years later, his son, our mc, is kept under surveillance by his enemies and is forced to lead a miserable life almost completely alone in the ruins of his former glorious sect. One day a surprise attack by members of the silent night gives him a chance to escape and so he begins a long journey of training in order to master his fighting techniques, and eventually take revenge on those who betrayed him.

Great cast. great story. great art. Great pacing, which sadly, is something I feel like I haven’t said in a while., Admittedly the start is a bit slow but after the first 10 or so chapters are out of the way, which are kind of like a prelude, it picks up and pretty much keeps on picking up. They introduce the cast really well on both the protagonist and antagonist side, nothing really feels predetermined or too obvious like oh this dude is definitely gonna join or be against, it’s just kind of circumstantial and felt very natural. Very solid for a revenge story, i think i’ve said it before but imo manhwa seem to be very revenge focused for some reason and the mcs tend to have a habit of getting lost in the sauce of it all, but our mc, Jin Mu Won, is a goat that keeps his cool. My dude is frosty. My dude is ice cold. Bro is literally too cool for school.. but I digress… Last but definitely not least is the action. The art is pretty solid throughout but when it comes to the action? They’re on some anime sakuga type shit, very strong choreography that only gets better and better, definitely has its fair share of mob cuts but even those go pretty hard, and the big boss fights are 5 star chef’s kiss. The only downside, is that if you know anything about manhwa, korean webtoons and the like, they tend to go with this one page scroll like type layout so most places you read it outside of the official source slice up a lot of otherwise beautiful panels with separating black lines. It’s sad but it still manages to remain solid in that aspect despite being put through the blender. Definitely the most hype thing I read this month, obviously also very solid coming in at number two, and it was a pretty close call tbh but yh, definitely highly recommend. Especially as it seems to be entering the final arc so it’s a really really great time to jump in.

#1) Azumi (Story & Art by Yuu Koyama,1994-2008, complete w 350 chapters)

Now this isn’t really samurai, though it does take place in that period,, and has a lot of samurai… but the main character isn’t a samurai, she’s an assassin, so we’ll say it’s historical. And it definitely is as a lot of real life key Japanese historical figures are littered throughout the story.

In any case, the story here starts with 10 orphans raised and trained in seclusion from a very early age to be assassins. Not just any assassins, but assassins meant to put an end to all wars in japan. The most gifted among them being Azumi, who as you can probably tell by the title, is our mc and who we follow throughout the story.

This story has a very epic feel, not in the adventure time adjective kind of way but in the more iliad type beat extended story kind of way, much like I described lone wolf and cub to be last time… and as you can probably tell by the 300+ chapter count. The chapters are very well used though, as I said the story starts out with them as kids but it follows Azumi into adulthood. The pacing and passing of time feels very natural, like it doesn’t even feel like there were any time skip so much as literally just watching her grow. The cast naturally changes with the times and although not a lot of them stick around physically, as the main character and her world views changes with the people she meets, many characters stick around in Azumi’s psyche and reemerge in her mental state. The art is great, has that old school vibe in an old school context that I love and the action and choreo were great too. Had a real kill bill siren feel cause Azumi was a manslayer fr.

Feel like I haven’t done it justice, I don't think I can either... I realize I often feel that way with my number 1s and that’s probably because the truly meaningful transcends mere words, but it’s my number 1 pick for this month and it’s there for a reason is all i can say.

hm: isekai samurai, return of the blossoming blade