Drifters

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"Oda Nobunaga, give me back my legions!"

Drifters is the definition of a cult classic. It isn't popular, it doesn't win awards, but if you are the type that loves it, you freaking love it!

The art is beautiful, gory, and glorious. If you love gore, you will love this.

The characters are both funny and serious at the same time, and somehow the author makes it work. The jokes are even more funny if you know about the historical figures. History buffs, you will love it.

The story is all about warfare and arts of war. This is the best depiction of a fictional war I have ... seen, the moment Oda Nobunaga starts producing gunpowder (which is ... at the very start), it is clear the author knows how to win wars. It has everything needed for an arts of war enthusiast. Guerilla warfare? Checked. Arquebus and gunpowder? Checked. Ditches in defensive positions? Checked. Generals employing actual strategy? Checked. Credible tactics? Checked. Infantry air assault using dragons? Checked. Wait what? Yes, you heard that right. Have you also heard of IJN Hiryū the Dragon Carrier? The manga has done an excellent job of blending fantasy elements with our world's arts of war to make a warfare that is very special but still credible.

The only catch is that the author seems to get bored and the manga has been on hiatus for years. Please Hirano-sensei, I wanna see my idol Scipio Africanus commanding a Legion of Arquebusiers!

---MINOR SPOILERS---

Drifters! Apparently it's by the guy who did Hellsing, but I haven't read that yet, so I cannot comment on any similarities.

Drifters is really good. It's the best isekai that I've read, hands down. The characters are well-picked, and form a good mix between famous commanders and heroes (Nobunaga, Hannibal, Hijikata, Jeanne d'Arc), to lesser known historical figures (Toyohisa, Kanno, Anastasia). I read this with a friend who's a history buff, and had a pretty fun time learning about/researching each new character as they entered the story.

Storywise, Drifters *has* a story, albeit one that can be a bit hard to follow at times. ... There are several mysteries ongoing throughout the story that tempt the reader, and the way that the battles, science, and tactics are explained is really well done and accurate to the untrained eye.

Art: it is generally very high quality. Kouta's art is at-times a bit oddly proportioned, but that's outweighed by the very well-done character designs (Nobunaga and Hijikata stand head and shoulders above the rest), and the battle scenes. There is a very specific style to the art, which may be offputting to some, but I think it looks excellent almost all the time.

Character: they're great. Hilarious, serious, accurate to history, and somehow they combine all those aspects to make legitimately entertaining characters.

I enjoyed reading it quite a lot, and the chapters were short enough to binge a few dozen in an evening.

Overall I'd recommend this to just about anyone into darker stories, or good isekai. Or good manga in general. Really I'd just recommend it to anyone.

Story: 7
Art: 8
Character: 8
Enjoyment: 8
(31/40)
Overall: 8/10

If you are a fan of history, war and fantasy you will most definitely like this series. The idea is that when war hero's from all around the world and threw out time die, instead of going to a after life they instead get transported to a fantasy Tolkien like world where they duke it out against each other.
As you can guess war plays a huge part in this series, and the historical figures are pretty fun as well. Although they may not look exactly historically accurate, they do still look cool and hold that warrior look to ... them. So you don't have to worry about a history figures being turned into cute anime girls. (Looking at you Fate series.) You can tell that Kouta did his research and on these characters as well how each one has their own way of waging war. Its always fun to see how each one reacts to that of the other warriors as well. Such as Hannibal and Odas amazement when they see a Gatling gun for the first time, or seeing a Japanese Zero from WWII shooting down dragons.
The art work great, and the store is pretty fun if you enjoy things like conquest and military campaigns. It is not super fantasy like, however I quite like that. It really plays one how magic is this strange thing that not to many people can understand, however it also puts you into a military mind set as well. Such as when Oda uses a magical orb like object as a walk-talkie and first thoughts of it is how he can commands troops with it.
Overall its a very fun read if you are into history, fantasy and war. If you like things such as the large battle scenes from the Lord of the Rings movies, war movies, or even the Total War video game series, you will probably like this.