Sengoku Youko

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Warring States Youko

Japanese: 戦国妖狐

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 17

Chapters: 100

Status: Finished

Published: Dec 28, 2007 to May 20, 2016

Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Themes: Historical, Mythology

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Blade Online

Authors: Mizukami, Satoshi (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.21¹ (scored by 5,225 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #452²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1001

Members: 18,487

Favorites: 366

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8.21

Ranked #452Popularity #1001Members 18,487

MangaBlade OnlineMizukami, Satoshi (Story & Art)

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Volumes: /17

Chapters: /100

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Synopsis

The world is divided into two factions: humans and monsters called katawara. Despite being a katawara, Tama loves humans and vows to protect them from evil, even if it means fighting her own kind. Her brother Jinka, however, hates humans, despite mostly being one. The siblings are joined by a cowardly swordsman named Shinsuke, who wants to learn how to become strong.

When the group uncovers a plot to experiment on humans and transform them into monsters, they vow to defeat whoever is behind it... Even if it means battling an entire army of warriors.

The people they meet, places they see, and creatures they battle will be legendary!

(Source: Tokyopop)

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Background

Sengoku Youko has been published digitally in English by Tokyopop since December 23, 2022, and in print since April 11, 2023.

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Related Manga

Adaptation:

Sengoku Youko: Yonaoshi Kyoudai-hen, Sengoku Youko: Senma Konton-hen

More characters
Characters

Hyoudou, Shinsuke

Main

Senya

Main

Youko, Tama

Main

Yamato, Jinka

Main

Tsukiko

Main

Douren

Supporting

Shakuyaku

Supporting

Ashikaga, Yoshiteru

Supporting

Nau

Supporting

Mountain God

Supporting

Reviews

Oct 13, 2023

RobinLopez

Recommended

To start this review, I will state that I am still EXTREMELY mad about the Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer adaptation. I will also preface that this is not my favorite of Mizukami's works, with Biscuit Hammer and Spirit Circle being superior in my eyes. However, this is still a top 10 manga of mine for excellent reason. It is ambitious and has a storytelling prowess not seen in his other works. While Spirit Circle is a layered story, and Biscuit Hammer is a spoof on the Sentai genre, Sengoku Youko is just Mizukami showing he can do a traditional Shonen while still maintaining his ... trademark untraditional style of fluid plot progression, nuanced character writing, and the beautiful emotional core at the heart of all his works.

The plot starts rather simply for a Mizukami story, following a pair of brother and sister (at least they call each other that) "Youko", or demons, named Jinka and Tama. They traverse the lands, with the younger sister being a proclaimer of absolute peace to misdoers, pleading with them to reconsider their actions. When this proclamation fails, Jinka goes beast mode and beats the meanies up easily. There is also a random guy that joins along with them named Shinsuke, and they kind of just let him. The start of the story isn't perfect, but it makes sense as it emulates many of its other shonen counterparts, then tears apart these traditional storytelling values in a unique way. I like to see the first 1/3 of Sengoku Youko similar to Hunter X Hunter, with our main characters all rather simple at the beginning, but showing both explicit and implicit growth with every scene that comes, making their growth immensely satisfying. I won't go any further into the plot, as the next 2/3 of the story is spoiler-heavy, but I will say that Sengoku Youko never stays stagnant, always growing as a narrative and making daring choices. Some work, some fail, but none of them are meaningless.

Now it's time to talk about the cast. A strength that all of Mizukami's manga have is that every plot point grows every member of the cast in some way, and that is no different for Sengoku Youko. My personal favorite character is Shinsuke, a character who starts out as your stereotypical shonen "I'm a normal guy stuck in a crazy world!" MC, but slowly grows into something far grander. He experiences the greatest character writing out of any manga I've ever read, consistently adapting in every scene, so much so that the Shinsuke from the beginning, middle, and end are all completely different characters. If nothing else, read Sengoku Youko for the absolute writing masterclass that is Shinsuke's character. The rest of the class ranges from great to serviceable, with characters like Senya, Jinka, and Douren being the other highlights. Senya has a really unique power and how it relates to his psyche creates polarizing dynamics, Jinka is a great foil to Shinsuke and would be higher if not for a questionable plot decision, and Douren is just so fucking cool. The only flaw with the characters is Tsukiko, who in my opinion does not receive a sufficient amount of development to justify her screentime. I felt that she was honestly quite expendable as a character in most of her scenes, and brings little impact to the overall narrative. She isn't actively bad, just a rather dull point in a non dull series.

And this final section will be spent on me GUSHING about Mizukami's art style and how much he has grown from his early days. Unfortunately, the site is bugging for me and won't let me post any pictures on this review, but I implore you to look up some of his art. At first glance, the art is almost mediocre, with a simple, shonen-like design lacks a lot of difference comapred to older mid-2000s manga with the same style. But Mizukami has absolutely perfected the art of expression, and his shading is some of the best of any mangaka I've seen. Admittedly, Biscuit Hammer is rather shoddy, with some scenes looking out of place and the art a bit wonky, but Sengoku Youko has not a single part that is flawed in any manner. It is excruciatingly beautiful, an example being Shinsuke's art style during the narrative. His change in design and character is so poignant to the points in the story that he's in, from jubilant, to fulfilled, to despaired, to content, every level of his character is only accentuated by the art. This review might seem like a bit of a Shinsuke dickride, but he's not the only one with outstanding artistic design. In fact, every character has such a fun unique design, and Mizukami uses the fighting techniques these characters have with a great scale yet never seems to falter in terms of quality. Overall, this is the peak of Mizukami's art, and seeing his progression throughout his career makes it an even more satisfying read.

Overall, I give Sengoku Youko a 9/10. It's gripping, unique, and nuanced in many regards. The only flaws are a few drawn-out plot points and questionable decisions (specifically with Jinka) that hold it back from Mizukami's other manga. I am so hyped for the anime and I pray to the gods in heaven above that they don't massacre another one of Mizukami's creations, otherwise I will riot.

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Mar 29, 2024

CaptainKenshiro

Mixed Feelings

THE MEH

The premise of Sengoku Youko is both generic for a fighting shounen and familiar coming from its author, who was working on Hoshi no Samidare at the same time. Two siblings (not really in here) defeating both bad humans and demons and telling them to do better, out of love for either one or both species.

The initial plot structure is one of the same for a fighting shounen as well, the main group gets formed while defeating minor enemies, antagonist organization and big bads appear, more and more powerful bads appear later on, the good guys get stronger by getting more and more power ...

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Sep 1, 2022

darkpixelftw

Not Recommended

Funny

TL:DR
Very poor start, flat characters, randomly changes main characters 1/3rd of the way through, lots of Deus ex Machina. The end is somewhat better but not by much.

Story: 3/10
It's bad. Lots of things feel like they just happen randomly, characters come out of nowhere and go out of their way to help the protagonists for seemingly no reason or the protagonist gets completely unearned power-ups. Lots of Dues ex Machina, feels out of place and robs the manga of any tension. The story is split into 2 parts, with two different main characters. This is very jarring and changes the focus onto a character that ... previously had maybe 3 chapters of screen time and barely any lines. It feels like the author got bored or something, it's so unexpected of a shift. It also feels like wasted time as you spend a good third of the manga getting to know three characters and then suddenly time skip and now they barely show up again. What was the point? The first part was very weak with all the aforementioned issues while also being written as if we're supposed to be attached to these characters we barely know. The emotional hits simply fall flat.

The second part actually gets better near the end but has many of the same problems. There is a neat twist on the standard shounen training arc plus some fun interactions between side characters but it's really more of the same.

Art: 5/10
Simple art, what you'd expect from a 4koma normally but the fight scenes can be pretty well done.

Characters: 3/10
Most characters (including the protagonists of the first part of the manga) don't have many traits that distinguish them from archetypal shounen battle manga characters. There is also a sort of forced emotional impact we're supposed to feel during certain parts of the manga that simply fall flat because we barely get to know these characters.

It's not all negative however, the interactions between a certain two antagonists are quite good. In the second part of the manga, the growth of the new main character is more compelling than the first half. Still, it's not very much and it certainly doesn't make up for everything else.

Overall: 3/10
Some enjoyable stuff but it's all at the end, and it doesn't justify the slog to get there. I seriously considered dropping this manga quite a few times before I finished it, but I waited because this had such good reviews. Maybe this manga just isn't for me but I really couldn't get into it. Definitely do not recommend this, there's way better out there.

Good
• Interesting take on a training art
• Fights are pretty cool

Bad
• Fights can be hard to follow
• It really does feel like the author got bored a third of the way through and basically soft rebooted the series.
•The female characters don't have a lot of agency and are basically set pieces for most of the manga

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Recent Forum Discussion

Poll: Sengoku Youko Chapter 50 Discussion dbaranyi - Apr 12, 2013	2 replies	by Sigmar-Unberogen »» Mar 30, 5:37 AM
Poll: Sengoku Youko Chapter 48 Discussion Zeando - Feb 12, 2013	3 replies	by Sigmar-Unberogen »» Mar 30, 5:23 AM
Poll: Sengoku Youko Chapter 46 Discussion Zeando - Jan 28, 2013	3 replies	by Sigmar-Unberogen »» Mar 30, 5:08 AM
Poll: Sengoku Youko Chapter 44 Discussion Zeando - Nov 20, 2012	4 replies	by Sigmar-Unberogen »» Mar 30, 4:38 AM
Poll: Sengoku Youko Chapter 100 Discussion TheFreycook - Jan 27, 2019	3 replies	by CaptainKenshiro »» Mar 27, 10:50 PM

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