Alternative TitlesSynonyms: 浪客行, 베가본드, Lãng Khách Japanese: バガボンド
Information
Type: Manga
Volumes: Unknown
Chapters: Unknown
Status: Publishing
Published: Mar 23, 1999 to ?
StatisticsScore: 8.791 (scored by 2248 users)
Ranked: #172
Popularity: #82
Members: 4,513
Favorites: 546 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
action historical samurai seinen |
SynopsisGrowing up in 17th century Sengoku era Japan, Shinmen Takezou is shunned by the local villagers as a devil child due to his wild and violent nature. Running away from home with a fellow boy at age 17, Takezou joins the Toyotomi army to fight the Tokugawa clan at the battle of Sekigahara. However, the Tokugawa win a crushing victory, leading to nearly three hundred years of Shogunate rule. Takezou and his friend manage to survive the battle, and afterwards swear to do great things with their lives. But after their paths seperate, Takezou becomes a wanted criminal, and must change his name and his nature in order to escape an ignoble death. Based on the book "Musashi" by Eiji Yoshikawa, Vagabond is a fictional retelling of the life of Miyamoto Mushashi, often referred to as the "Sword Saint" - perhaps the most famous and successful of Japan's sword fighters.
Source: Animenetwork |
Reviews
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Tanequil
16 of 20 people found this review helpful
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269 of ? chapters read
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| Overall |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Art |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Some seinen manga, I believe, take the meaning too far. The gore and nudity found in them is simply disturbing, no longer artistic, just omnipresent and absolutely in-your-face.
Vagabond is not like those seinen manga.
From the beginning, Vagabond has this strange allure to it. Drawn to this manga by the promise of awesome fight scenes, [oh yes, I assure you, you will not be disappointed by the fight scenes], you find yourself hooked to this manga.
Absolutely, completely, utterly, hooked.
It starts off with a rather rude and yet beautiful jerk, depicting the scene of a battlefield in splendid watercolor. The manga just rides on from there, rising from peak to peak. The fights get better, and the character himself grows. He grows realistically, he stumbles, he falls, he falls so hard that he finds it difficult to get back onto his feet, he takes the wrong path, goes the wrong way, makes the wrong enemies, and kills the wrong people, but he gets back up, and the story continues.
It is just so completely believable, so persuasive and so artistic all at the same time that with this manga just feels so raw and yet so real.
The main character, who one will find it hard to identify with on the surface, has something deep within him that every single one of us can possibly understand and aspire towards.
His growth and development, in more ways than just of the sword, but yet at the same time never truly leaving the sword, are so simple and yet so spectacular at the same time. He manages to bring out the best in some people and the worst in others, brushing past some like a whirlwind and crashing headlong into others, leaving behind a trail of death, destruction, and new life. All this happens while he himself is still growing, and while he is nowhere near perfect, there is just something so addictive about getting to know more about him.
And getting to know more about the main character is exactly what this entire manga is about. It is about seeing Miyamoto Musashi through the eyes of the world, through the eyes of others, and through his own eyes.
With a brilliant blend of flashbacks, flashforwards and glimpses into the lives of others besides those who surround the main character, Vagabond paints a rich picture of the samurai scene in the time of Miyamoto Musashi, the main character.
If you have been hesitating about reading a seinen manga, hesitate no more.
Vagabond will open your eyes to a brilliant new genre. read more
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bigjig
83 of 108 people found this review helpful
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? chapters
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| Overall |
10 |
| Story |
9 |
| Art |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
Vagabond is perhaps the very epitome of a great manga. It has everything: action, suspense, excitment, drama and even a little romance - everything that is packed into Eiji Yoshikawa's amazing original story.
That's not to say it is to everyone's tastes. While I personally love Takehiko Inoue's drawings, the imagery at times is very graphic, bordering on grotesque at times. Limbs, guts, heads fly off in the heat of battle, the drawings are literally so good it's sickening. If blood is not really your thing, you might be better leaving this on the shelf.
For those who don't mind a bit of blood however, read on, because while Vagabond at first glance just seems to be yet another manga based on the era of the samurai, this manga has a great deal of depth that literally sucks the reader in.
For example, in countless manga involving fights (and in particular, American comic books as well) the reader is presented with a rather generic range of characters - the good guys... and the bad guys. This isn't the case with the characters that appear in Vagabond however. The characteristics of people inhabiting the world of Vagabond, their emotions, desires, despairs, fears etc. are all painstakingly realised that Vagabond on a whole seems to be a lavishly painted picture. All characters have their reasons for what they do, they all have both good and bad elements to their character which only further adds to the realism that the drawings provide.
In your stock-standard fighting story the death of the "bad guys" is inevitable, and one does not stop to ponder this into too much detail. However, in Vagabond when Musashi cuts someone down both Musashi and the reader are left to think and question the "correctness" of his actions. You really feel for the deaths of those that fall. As Takuan, the monk appearing in the story, says, all people killed by Musashi were just that, people. They are people with families, wives, children, pets, they are people who had hopes and dreams, or people who just somehow lived day to day.
However the real reason Vagabond is a favourite manga of mine is because of the main story thread, the growth of Musashi himself from a reckless 17 year old youth who plunges directly into the battle of Sekigahara seeking unparalled strength, to a well rounded young adult who learns how to pick his battles.
The contrast between Matahachi and Musashi is beautifully done. Matahachi and Musashi, two friends, start the manga off on the same footing and set off to be one thing -"Tenka Musou" 天下無双 ('the best in the land'). However Matahachi and Musashi soon walk down separate paths to acheive this goal. Matahachi chooses to pursue frivolous momentary pleasures, while Musashi instead chooses to devote himself to bettering himself.
Both make mistakes and suffer setbacks along the way, and both have their own ways of dealing with this - Matahachi digs himself into further into trouble while Musashi rises above the setbacks he faces and strengthens himself to unbelivable proportions.
After surviving numerous duels to the bitter end and overcoming many internal conflicts (the decision to leave his one true love, Otsu to pursue the life of the sword), only one swordsman still stands in Musashi's way...
Sasaki Kojiro - a deaf and dumb swordsman who literally lives for the sword...
While the story does drag at times (the Yoshioka arc), on a whole Vagabond is packed full of both emotion and gut-wrenching sword battles. It's relatively short on dialogue, but the images Inoue presents speak volumes. A picture is really worth a thousand words and this manga is a manga that attests to this. If only other manga could be this deep as well. Every single volume of the manga really leaves the reader pondering about what they've read for a long time after the manga has been put down.
Put simply, there is not a manga that I could recommend more.
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Both feature a story about a swordsman in Feudal Japan. these titles boast spectacular art, a riveting story and epic samurai action. Arguably the 2 of the best seinen manga today.
Both are adult samurai stories, with a realistic art style. They also share a lot of violence and moral conflicts, reflecting japanese feudal times.
Similar seinen manga during a brutal and violent time but less believable in terms of power and skills.
These two seinen manags both star amoral roguish ronins, complex, mature and historic storylines, and some of the most stunning artwork I've ever come across.
If you like Blade of the Immortal, it's not a question of whether or not you'll also like vagabond (or vice versa), it's which one you'll like more.
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The main character in Shin Angyo Onshi is somehow very similar to the main character in Vagabond. Also both mangas are very detailed and realistic drawn. Another resemblance is that in Vagabond is described the path of the samurai - the elite and the most powerful warriors of their time, and in Shin Angyo Onshi there are secret warriors, that are respected for their skills.
Both mangas are in the perspective of incredibly skilled fighters. Additionally, the protagonists in both are actually 'people' that learn, grow, and don't become strong in the blink of a page. Yet, quite possibly, they are some of the strongest characters ever created. Both contain an art style that is basically a traditional realistic style. Vagabond is more of the journey of a growing samurai, while Shin Angyo Onshi has a definite antagonist which the protagonist is striving to overcome. Both are very incredible reads that have characters, in the bunch loads, that give very strong impressions. While reading, you can tell that both of the mangas give off similar feelings that make you feel like you're watching a definite point in history (even if, for most of the part, it is fiction)
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Related ClubsClaim A Killer Club, Guns & Gore club, Long Black/Dark Haired Guys, Manga Masterpieces Club, Ponytail Characters Club, Rain Down Paradise, Samurai & Ninja Club, Samurai Kings, SKETCHY LINES EVERYWHERE Appreciation Club, The Korean Guild, The Real Man Club, Vagabond Club, We wanna watch these series as an ANIME!!!, Zatoichi Fan Club
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External LinksOfficial Site, MangaUpdates, Wikipedia
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