Bradherley no Basha

Feb 16, 2015

Polyphemus

Not Recommended

I don't get it. Bradherley no Basha is basically 8 chapters of abject filth, and it offers its audience no consolation. It's about pre-teen orphan girls getting gang-raped by violent prisoners. The common interpretation of Bradherley no Basha is that it's either a condemnation of the depicted acts or is a mere depiction and should not be taken as anything more. This strikes me as false, seeing as the mangaka contrived the premise of the story illogically, just to force the circumstances where these girls are subjected to the abuse of the prisoners. What I mean is that the reasoning behind giving the girls to ...

Open

Gift

Jul 17, 2008

psygremlin

Recommended

Some readers might recognise Hiroaki Samura's name from the "swords and sandals" epic, "Blade of the Immortal", possibly the romantic comedy "Ohikkoshi". If you do, and you're keen to try "Bradherley's Coach", first forget everything you might have read from this managka before. This is, simply put, very dark, chilling and very disturbing (yes, my read-at-random method has dished up another offering from the Dark Side). In a way, I'd describe it as "horror done right."

I'm going to start off with a warning - this manga will shock you. Nothing can prepare you for the premise underlying this tale. Yet he doesn't do ... it purely for the shock value. As with so many good story-tellers, it is merely the axle around which the story revolves... and it is an immensely compelling story that unfolds as you turn the pages.

Again, as with all good story-tellers, it's the characters that make this story fizz. Despite some scenes of graphic violence (I thought I was pretty thick-skinned, but this made me cringe more than once) - which, to his credit, he doesn't dwell on; they happen, the story moves on - it is the characters that draw us into the tale, thanks to some skilful writing and wonderful characterisation.

Although the story initially focusses on the girls themselves, showing us their hopes, dreams and aspirations, as well as adding in the subtle dynamics within the orphanage itself (what would you do to make sure you were the next girl to be "adopted" into a life of bliss?), we are eventually introduced to characters from both sides of the... er... fence. Even here, everybody is portrayed as being human, with feelings and emotions and reactions to what is happening. One chapter in particular hammers home the wrongness of what is happening, in a karmic what-goes-around-comes-around way.

In essence, this is where the power (and dare I say brilliance) of this manga lies - the sheer raw emotion it evokes within you. The fact that we know who those girls are, what they think and what they dream about and long for is, makes the fact that you know the terrible fate awaiting them all the more devastating.

The violence aside, this is not an easy manga to read - purely because of the emotional strain it puts you under. And because of that - the fact that in a few short chapters of the story, the mangaka has already awoken such strong emotions inside me, that I have to say this is easily one of the best manga I have read in a long time. Certainly, not since Battle Royale have I read one that's hit me so emotionally between the eyes.

However, once again I have to say that it's not an easy read and certainly not for the squeamish. By the end of Chapter 1 you'll either be hooked, or repulsed - I don't think there is a middle ground with this. I, however, eagerly awaited the final chapters... not too sure what that says about me...

Open

Gift

Jun 15, 2009

AironicallyHuman

Recommended

Mod Edit: review may contain spoilers.
----------

With the limited amount of 10/10s in existence, I am forever on the lookout for anything of the more serious and twisted variety, for if there is anything that can get a reaction out if me, it is not blushing wuv shoujo, or the usual braindead school anime.

Bradherley's Coach certainly fits the bill: set in Europe in the early 1900's (the setting matching best with England), is is about girls from orphanages getting picked based on their appearance to join the opera troupe of one of the most powerful nobles (the fourth, to be precise!) in existence - Bradherley. The ... girls view this like we would see winning the lottery in modern times; jumping from rags to riches.

What the girls do not know about is a plan Bradherley put forward to parliament after something serious occurred at a prison. (There was a riot, the result being a lot of death and injuries.) Seeing his chance in the aftermath, Bradherley suggested taming the wild urges of the inmates serving life at prisons by offering a 'lamb' to counter their violent and lustful needs after a certain amount of months, preventing any further riots by allowing the inmates to give into their urges by offering them one innocent victim who would be sacrificed for the greater good.

The 'lamb' would be tricked into thinking she's being taken to Bradherley's estate in a coach, get taken to a prison instead, then get lead into a room full of 30-60+ inmates and, finally, the prison guards would then watch on as the inmates beat and rape the girl over and over. This would be allowed to continue for as many days as it took for the girls to die.

For handling the payments given to the orphanages for the 'lambs', supplying the girls and basically taking all the risks, Bradherley gained more power within the government and maybe even was allowed to evade paying taxes. There were a lot of benefits balanced against the risks. But, really, what risks were there in allowing inmates who wouldn't ever leave prison to have their way with girls with no family; girls who wouldn't be remembered?

Following the short introduction of a girl leaving her orphanage, blissfully unaware of her fate, the manga started off by showing a fairly graphic rape sequence. It didn't disturb me - I've seen one too many doujins on the internet to be easily disturbed, as well as a fair few other things - but I have read that some of the early parts of the story made some people stop. But, after the opening two chapters, the chapters that followed didn't show that kind of thing quite so graphically, instead mainly focusing on short stories involving different girls outside of the prisons...or, in other words, the events leading up to them becoming 'lambs'. The mangaka showed what happened to the girls in detail at the start in order to get the readers to fully understand what the girls had to endure and then stopped so as to not make the series pornographic. There was even a chapter telling the story from the perspective of a few prisoners; a chapter that was good because it helped me understand how the prisoners handled the situation they found themselves in.

What I loved when reading this series was the art. It was drawn with the intention of being realistic in an attempt to make the events more believable and disturbing, and it worked a treat. I couldn't spot any flaws in the art, either. The mangaka is meant to be pretty famous and, if this effort is anything to go by, I can see why.

To sum it up, Bradherley's Coach is an excellent series to read... if you can handle something realistic to the point of being disturbing. Rape is only shown in graphic detail at the beginning and it does veer away from being pornographic, though. It's short enough to read in one go, it only lasting for eight chapters, and the fact that each chapter tells the story of a different girl (or two) keeps it fresh. I highly recommend it to lovers of short 'n grim stories.

Open

Gift

May 20, 2013

onionsoup

Not Recommended

If you are looking for a story that is going to leave you with a bad taste than Bradherley's Coach is for you. It's one of the most appalling, pathetic stories I have ever read. I feel disgusted, just can't get it off my head.

The story revolves around little girls getting brutally raped and tortured to death in the most goriest fashion imaginable. With each chapter the story moves on to the next girl. Some chapters focus on the background stories of the girls; but there is no real character development.

The only silver lining of this manga is its art. The art style ...

Open

Gift

Mar 16, 2009

arff98

Mixed Feelings

Samura art is quite impresive , I have been a fan of BOTI for years, that is why I tried Bradherley´s coach, but I regret ever reading this manga it si just gore for the benefit of gore, there is no characters development, there is just the innocent girls, the corrupt guards and the insane prisioners. The characters are linear and flat There was no justification for all the violence. It reminded me of a porn miovie...a bad one.

This manga is just good to test yourself how much beatifully depicted gore you can hande, don´t expect anything else.

Open

Gift

Jan 3, 2016

czxcjx

Recommended

I decided to read this after reading Sarah Horrock's review of Der Wergelder, where she writes:

"I think one of the disjunctions in Samura’s work, is that at times Blade of the Immortal was a thin veneer over the monstrous abyss lurking in the back of Samura’s predilictions as an artist–and the extent to which he is removed from that darkness is the degree to which his work loses its beauty. My hope going forward with Der Wergelder is that it moves closer to Brute Love and Bradherley’s Coach..."

Of course, going by some of the reviews here, it seems apparently no one realized that Samura was, ... firstly, a pre-dominantly erotic artist, and, secondly, a pre-dominantly erotic artist of Sadism. Anyway this serves as a reminder that, before you even read anything, go research what the Mangaka normally does first. You don't want to be wandering into any of Shintaro Kago's other works, by accident, after reading Paranoia Street, for example.

Anyway I'm inclined to agree with Sarah Horrock's here, in that Samura's style is a beautiful style, and half of the Beauty comes from the disjunct between cruelty and the lingering quality of the Art. The result you get is this strange mix of Anne of the Green Gables (which, Samura himself writes in the post-notes, that he was inspired by, the fucker), a Prisoner of War rape-drama, a series of brutally depressing vignettes, Germanic culture, and figments of transient beauty and humanity among scores and scores of suffering.

Within these vignettes, you get several points of view, each fleshing out the whole scope of the setting even further. You have the view of the orphans, the view of the guards, the view of the prisoners, the view of the members of Bradherley's Troupe etc... Very missing though is the POV of the aristocrats themselves, whose motives create an inhuman void that pushes much of the cruelty forward, although some moments do underline what they could have been feeling at the time.

It has always been my predilection to view the best type of artist as one who can come down from an observer's point of view, weaving together events in an anti-judgmental way. There's an interesting quote about Macbeth from the TV comedy Stings and Arrows, where a character mentions that what is terrifying and cursed about Macbeth is that Macbeth, as a play, is not a work that commentates on Evil, but a work that portrays Evil, and in that regard, Samura himself sits coldly away from the events of the narrative. The scenes he draws are eroticized, but unfeeling beyond any measure, and this is a plus, because he doesn't shy away. In opposition, an artist like Shintaro Kago blatantly makes fun of all the Sadistic impulses he has to create zany brutally slapstick comedy.

And, the result, is that Art like this is frequently misconstrued to serve moralistic purposes. People forget that the depiction and narrative is separate from the plot. The plot itself is cruel and unsavory, but the depiction, and the structure of the events and how the story is told, weaves itself around in a completely different way. Human Brutality is supplanted with Human Nature, and that, is the core difference between an Act of Evil, and a Portrayal of Evil.

Open

Gift

Jan 12, 2018

-HippySnob-

Mixed Feelings

Under beneath the sheep man's clothing there's a despair awaits inside the wall..

Conclusion started in a small mild orphanage were less tons of girls living a dire unanimous crisis between poverty. Such preposterous sickening tales takes place in a different turn after getting a suicidal note set away towards between the depths of theatrical opera play. Where every adopted girls been taken to least greedy desire to grew money. In a plethora sense of art, as usual there are few spark which oppose an aspects along it's charm. Tales are bit bizarre and pale which leads to vile gruesome concepts by droving a nonsense ...

Open

Gift

Aug 4, 2016

sadclown

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (8/8 chp)

I'm re-reading this (years later) and revising my review/rating.

I got into this because I liked Samura's work on BOTI. A bit of gratuitous sex and violence is also within my tastes. However I got a hell lot more than I bargained for. Most people have a line they draw somewhere right? Mine are: eye injuries and underaged rape. This manga has both. I was close to puking at one point. Anyway let's break it down for the rating.

The story: 6/10
There isn't really a plot. This is just a collection of short stories that revolve around a central premise, a premise that I find...a bit ... hard to believe, at first. To prevent prisoners from uprising, a heinous plan is put into operation involving female orphans. If this was a hentai manga, I'd be like okaaay whatever, moving on! But this story--although technically hentai (which in Japanese literally just means, "perverse")--is not meant to be taken in the same grain. Because of how detailed it is and the lack of gratuitous sex scenes (the sex is an integral part of the story, so it's not really gratuitous), it's probably meant to be taken a bit more seriously...and it's hard to do that because the logic of it is just kind of ridiculous. Could such depravity exist, and on such a scale?

Then...I remembered. I come from a country where we receive some education on the atrocities committed by the Japanese during WW2. I later on read more about it myself as an adult, and I knew...the kind of evil men are capable of. The things the Japanese military did during that time, mainly to the Chinese, were far worse than what the Germans did to the Jews during the Holocaust. Being gassed to death is merciful in comparison. You may have heard of "comfort women" -- the concept is similar to what this manga is depicting. But the Japanese did a lot more stuff than just rape; I don't even want to go into detail. So yes, such depravity--even worse than that depicted in this manga--can exist and have existed, and on an even larger scale, in real life. When I think of that, then the premise becomes more believable. BUT--to any decent person--it's still distasteful. Samura says in the afterword that he did some research, suggesting that there's a chance this story might be based on reality and that it took place somewhere in Europe...actually he can just research the Japanese themselves (although admittedly that might prove difficult to do in his country as it's a known fact that their government has censored and revised their history books on that period.)

Objectively, each story is well-written enough; there's proper setup and denouement. The last story connects to the first by sharing a character, and this provides a sort of resolution. In my original review, I remarked that this manga didn't have a proper resolution -- this is not strictly true; I just didn't get the resolution I expected or hoped for, at the time.

Subjectively, I cannot rightfully say I enjoyed myself reading this manga, and so I will dock a point for that.

The Characters: 6/10
Since these are short stories, the focus isn't on the characters. That said, each of the main characters do their part in shedding more perspective on the overall story. They are not deep characters, but that is due to the inherent constraints of the story structure and length. Can the author make a character more endearing and strong? Possibly, but that would fundamentally change the type of story he was intending to portray. This is not a Good triumphing over Evil story, this is a story about an Evil...that came to an end on its own (thankfully.) It's not "dark" either; a dark ending would be if the bad things depicted in it continued and there's not even a hint of a chance of them ever ending. I would have liked to have seen a chapter devoted mainly to Bradherley himself, to see his perpective, but he--somewhat disappointingly--remains a peripheral figure throughout, and his perspective is only suggested at through one of his "daughters."

The Art: 8/10
You can tell that Samura put effort into his drawing. There are times in BOTI where he would get lazy on certain panels, but here, every panel seems drawn with equal attention to detail. He still has this flaw where the faces sometimes look really similar (especially young girls) but that's pretty common in manga and anime and perhaps unavoidable if you're not drawing photorealistic faces.

Overall: 6.67/10
Even if you liked Samura's art or other works (e.g. Blade of the Immortal)--which I personally do--be warned that this is an entirely different kettle of fish and might not suit you if you have delicate tastes.

Open

Gift

Feb 2, 2016

DawnYamada

Recommended

Most of the mangas I've read are horror or psychological, this one is around below the top 10,
now, I understand why readers hated it, most of them saying it haunts them,
I just think that readers shouldn't read this if they're not frequent to dark-themed mangas.
Everyone who've read it warned that it was cruel, but I just don't understand why this is rated lowly, It's just annoying that this happens in real life, and some comments sounded like they still reject the idea that human trafficking exists.

-Slight spoilers ahead-
Bradherley no Basha shows the dark side of human morality, which was subtly hinted on the summary, ...

Open

Gift

Oct 10, 2020

whi

Recommended

This is not a review, since most of the points I could talk about concerning this manga has already been said by others. The score I'm giving it does represent my opinion, but this "review" is more about the background information surrounding it.

Right of the bat, this kind of situation did happen in history. In fact, there are so many similarities that I'm convinced that Samura, the mangaka, was directly influenced by it(more on this later). The event I am referring to is the second Sino-Japanese war. Specifically the comfort women in the war. I am not going to go over any details about ... the war itself since I am not qualified enough for it and you can Google it at your leisure but I will specify what "comfort women" are.

If you are an eastern Asian, then you probably already know what those words mean, but it is very rare that a westerner knows them. During WWII, the Japanese military would trick young Japanese girls, often underage, into joining the military and turning them into sex slaves. They would lie to the girls about how they can become nurses or medics on the front line. Telling them that if they join the army, they are serving their empire and making the emperor proud. After they run out of domestic girls, they start to kidnap girls from China and Korea.

As I said, there are a lot of resemblances between the manga and the real-world event. The manga promises the girls in the orphanage a better future in the theatre. While the military manipulates girls with patriotism and a promising career. The manga states the carnival has been going on for 7 years, while the war lasted for 8 years. The cabinet abolished the carnival after learning they could be exposed, while the military executed most of the comfort women after Japan lost the war to silence them. A very interesting point is that the noble who started the carnival was killed by a plane piloted by two men crashing into his castle, while Japan lost after being hit with two atomic bombs, named fat man and little boy.

What I have provided is just one example, but not the only one. There are tons of instances in history where young, innocent girls are traded as sex workers, either for money or supposedly stability (watch Sandakan No.8 for more details). Orphanage forcing its kids to work under harmful conditions is nothing new.

The final question then becomes why? Why did Samura create a manga with such cruelty and depressiveness inspired by real-world historical events? This has to do with how he writes and draws women in general. Samura believes women are superior to men, and in his work, women are always mentally or physically better. Makie is the strongest character in the blade of the immortal with most female characters being either very courageous or strong-willed. This all might sound conflicting considering the ill-fated girls in the manga, but that is kind of the point. Just like how the festival is abolished in the end, the treatment for women is getting better as time goes on. But we must not forget the poor treatment of them in the past. Or he is just a huge hentai who gets a kick out of seeing women suffer.

Open

Gift

Apr 30, 2021

lilghsty

Not Recommended

I personally have a love for shock manga or really any with a dark theme, but this manga was so underwhelming, i feel like the plot itself was lost halfway thru and there was no justice or true explanation about the poor girls. I found myself confused about many of the randomly introduced characters especially at the end with the death of this random woman named marilla? i believe. Deeply disappointed plot wise, only managed to make me feel pity and disgust towards the mistreatment towards the girls, the constant gang rape seemed unrealistic, honestly the whole system seemed ...

Open

Gift

Nov 30, 2020

mistressmadi

Mixed Feelings

I give all the points to the story, as the premise and the setting is the best points, however I sadly have to take it down because of the characters and pacing. This manga is gory and quite traumatic in a sense that you feel bad for the main character, and she just keeps getting worse treatment. However, it is a short read. If you want to read something to think about, and get no positive emotion, I would suggest this. It is a very good storyline, and the psychological aspect makes up for it. I enjoy fucked up manga, as its my favorite, however ...

Open

Gift

Feb 10, 2022

duylinhsss

Recommended

Don't expect much, it's mostly shock value.

I don't think I have much to say about this, but many people have expressed their inability to understand the story. Someone had detailed the story in other review. Those are more helpful than this one.

Now, I would only discuss some intention that the author tried to insert into it. It is really short, but I can't really recommend it. I would recommend Mikai no Hoshi. Women's suffering is one thing, the other major theme is in dream, desire, unchecked power, power structure, human's cruelty and even the spirit of endurance. In it, there's also some spite towards naivete, ... which isn't very feminist friendly, but nevertheless, it is fiction. The story is very simple, I will spoil it since I don't recommend it. The orphans are sent to a prison for reprieve, so they do not have them going out of control, under the guise of adoption by family that rules the land. It mixed in the theme of art and artist, in which art was mentioned multiple time, in this case opera, as the desire of every orphan girls. Those orphan girls who weren't chosen, might be sent to work as servants of different family, never managed to achieve the dream of the girls in the orphanage. Each chapter is a tale surrounding the prison, and then subsequently things get more revealing, as the passage of time marches on. The girls grew wiser and more aware of the deceit, despite many going into their own death unknowingly. Every time the carriage goes to the prison, it really felt like looking at lamb going to the slaughter. The author had mentioned that he intended the story to be an erotic one, but found himself losing interest as he goes on. It really shows as he doesn't really explore the concept, the setting, the theme very much. It really feels like a doujin than a proper short comic. Added to that is the episodic structure. This is why it felt disjointed, despite the entire plot being very coherent, the emotion very clear and understandable. I would say there's nothing subtle about it, but nothing honest either, as everyone is speaking, yet all of them avert their eyes to the truth. The story is neither deep nor memorable, but it is more shocking than anything else. Which is why Mikai no Hoshi, which has everything this does, but executed in even shorter amount of pages and to a crueller ending, had done this much better.

I don't find the theme and story confused at all, particularly knowing that it was supposed to be an erotic doujin. This isn't the best read, there isn't much for everyone in here. Read if you feel curious.
Still, the artist does Elizabethan England pretty well. I wished it didn't have this story attached to it and simply tell the story of "Downton Abbey". The story clearly has similar theme about old nobility, their apathy, vanity and backwardness that rendered them empty at the end of their days. He could have picked that path instead.
I wonder if he and Hal has some sort of connection. This story feels very Hal-ish.

Open

Gift

Bradherley no Basha
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Resources

Write a Review
Reviews

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Bradherley no Basha Edit What would you like to edit? SynopsisBackgroundAlternative TitlesPictureChapters/VolumesPublishing DatesRelationsTypeExternal Links

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Resources

Write a Review Reviews

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Bradherley no Basha
Edit

What would you like to edit?

Write a Review
Reviews