Shigurui

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This manga was a huge surprise for me. after reading dozens of manga I was looking for something more mature in nature , a manga that doesn't cover the blood, and really show just how brutal a sword fight could actually is.

Shigurui put's on a time machine to were honor tradition is all that's matter, nothing is spared from the reader as the characters fight, laugh and f***.

it's not long and very addicting, please stay with it longer that the first 2 chapters, after that you would find yourself submerged deep in the plot.

I'm not gonna make a really big and specific review, once english is not my first language (and i'm not able to express my opinions clearly), I didn't finish it yet and i'm not really good with reviews.
The story follows the trama of Irako Seigen and Fujiki Gennosuke, two swordmen (samurai) that learn their fight style at the Kogan dojo(??? don't know if that's a dojo or another thing); the two had a rivalry and one (Irako) was banned from the dojo and was turned blind the same day. After this, we're show how the rivalry between the two gets resoluted (not gonna talk more ... about the story itself so I don't give spoilers)

===Art: 9=====
The art is ASTONISHING when it comes to anatomy. The mangaka is able to draw perfectly the muscles (it is noticeable the illustrator's anatomy knowledge) and the gore, which is very present in the manga. The bodies dynamics are very good too, and for me, it only fails (sometimes) when it comes to faces. Sometimes, the faces of some characters look kinda strange and deformed.
The manga's semi-realistic drawing style is incredible in my opinion.

===Story: 8===
Well, me, for being a laic person when it comes to japan history, wasn't able to really keep up with some of the events. Sometimes it shown "X year of Kan'ei" or something like that, but I didn't really know it. Besides that, the story is very cool, the events that happen with the characters are remarkable and it does not have bigger flaws (in my opinion)

===Characters: 7===
I think this is where it has the most flaws. I wasn't able to "grip" to the characters (I mean like: feeling empathy for the characters and/or sharing feelings with them) because i don't think they were developed really good until now. And also, it is kinda strange for the writer to present us to many characters and just kill them some pages later, but that is also interesting, for adding that "the things come when we never expect it" feeling. The only character I've "gripped" to is Kitsuki Gannosuke, because we are presented to all of his sufferings and why he became that way (even tho he is still strange, but I feel pity for him).

====Overall: 8====
The manga is pretty good. Presents us with a samurai atmosphere and we're drawn into that world successfully. The art is astonishing and the artist's skill is noticeable, with it's gore being the thing that is the more outstanding, for being really detailed and "anatomically surprising". The fights are actually pleasant to see, because the manga is, in no way, predictable, so we, the readers, have the curiosity to know how it will end, after following what happened to the characters that are in the fight. Another interesting thing about it is the fact that we are able to understand how much something is important, lemme explain: Sometimes in some stories, we're presented to a threat that we don't really understand it's importance and effects on the world, being one example the final villain in Wednesday. Once he appears we feel like "ok, but what he can do? what does he threaten? how much is he powerful", and he still is defeated in some minutes of fight. That doesn't happen here. Every time a character is fighting, we fully understand it's threaten and how much he is dangerous, like when (spoiler??) ||Ushimata-dono appears in the middle of Fujiki's revenge and starts killing everyone. Since he did that we were certain of the problem he could cause||. But I really think it could give us completely three-dimensional characters, to make we share feelings with them and get drawn into the story more than ever. But it is still a interesting reading. That's it.

I was captivated by its absurdity in the same way a clown car pile up is captivating rather than a good book. Many other reviews can attest to some of the manga's strengths, but many of those strengths felt were overshadowed by the stories' weaknesses.

Much of Shigurui's art is meticulous with a strong sense of flow, a strong amount of detail, and horrific depictions of violence. The violence while understandably brutal quickly became oversaturated, what at points felt like the turning of a page in a horror manga soon was coming across more as hyper violence for hyper violence's sake. While there are moments ... where the art style of characters flourishes, for the most part far too many panels have characters looking more akin to grey aliens than people, their upside pear shaped heads with eyeballs as big as fists creates more of an ugly uncanny effect than an amusing absurdity of something akin to Baki.

The story and pacing did not manage to hold strong, peaking in the middle in an admittedly very memorably intense and well paced fight, only for the latter half of the story to become a slog. What proved the most tiresome was how the story made use of women, reliably it felt like the story could not go more than a few pages without flashing a boob here and there, often mid-fight scene as well as if the reader would lose interest if something sexual wasn't shown often enough. The story is littered with sexual assault in a manner that felt all too frequently revelling in it rather than simply trying to depict the sleaziness and cruelty of the era, if a woman is shown it's pretty much a countdown clock appearing until they appear in a scene with sex, violence, and all too often both.

Shigurui came across to me as a manga that had potential if it had been more reserved, using those moments to heighten a situation or make a point with violence rather than having every page dripping with it. Sadly, I doubt that Shigurui would have managed as large an audience if it was more reserved, its current fans seem able to excuse a lot of problems for an extra blood splatter across the page.