Imagine working on your manga idea for four years and this is what you come up with.
Android samurai hackers in space with epic gamer shut-in as a protagonist. No, this isn't a B movie idea, this is the basic plot of Samurai 8.
From start, this manga feels like the reader is missing a chunk of information, like it's a sequel or a spin-off set in a world we should already be familiar with. The story is chaotic, confusing, all over the place and doesn't really bother explaining itself much. Which is quite ironic, considering 75% of the manga is infodumping. This isn't an overstatement.
Awful
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 Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Samurai Eight Japanese: サムライ8 八丸伝 More titlesInformationType: Manga
Volumes: 5
Chapters: 43
Status: Finished
Published: May 13, 2019 to Mar 23, 2020
Theme:
Samurai
Demographic:
Shounen
Serialization:
Shounen Jump (Weekly) Statistics Ranked: #188992 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #1238
Members: 15,430
Favorites: 156 Available AtResources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 21 / 21
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Aug 21, 2019
Review from chapter 1 to 14:
Kishimoto strikes back! And this time he want to outclass even his previous success, Naruto. Can Kishi-sensei succeed? Right now he has all the cards to do it! Story --- (10) At the beginning the lore is simple: saving the whole Galaxy from a mysterious threat that will destroy everything. The key to save the Galaxy is finding out the Pandora's Box, who needs 7 Special Keys in order to open it. As you can notice by reading it the story it takes many elements from the Japanese and Buddhist folklore and mythology (something that Kishimoto loves to do since), mixing them ... 
Jun 7, 2019
Sci-Fi Samurai
Before “Samurai 8” was even published, it was pretty hyped up. Not only the new series is presented as the Kishimoto san’s new work, but also being dedicated with a trailer of its own. Thus, this brings to the most important question, is or will “Samurai 8” be as good if not better than “Naruto”? For now, only until chapter 5, this question “does not have an answer” for a single important reason. If one manga tries to build or pull off a universe of its own, it “requires time” for it to develop. “Samurai 8” might seem confusing and fast-paced at the moment; however, it is ... 
Aug 21, 2019
REVIEW: from chapter 1 up to chapter 14 (NO SPOILERS)
Story: 10 Interesting, amazing, heartbreaking, many elements are from the Japanese and Buddhist story and legends. Art: 8 A bit confusing background at the beginning, but it has hugely improved after the first 4-5 chapters and this problem is gone. You will notice the same Kishi art style...but in the last 5 chapters it has become even better! In the close future it will be even better, I'm sure about that. ... 
Aug 7, 2019
I see a lot of people eagerly wrote off the series by the first few chapters.
But now that we are 13 chapters in, I can confidently say that the series has grown a lot. Story - The story was great from the beginning. Especially the lore and workings of this series, the world building, etc has been good and it has only become better since then. Art - The art in the beginning was rough and was hard to understand. But it has immensely improved since then and the art has become a lot better. The colour panels especially looks hella impressive. Characters - The characters ... 
Jun 9, 2019
Sometimes I wonder to myself why I haven't already dropped Samurai 8. So far, it fails to grab my attention. There are two reasons for this, its uninteresting narrative and confusing aesthetics. These two sometimes go hand in hand together making every read a Herculean task.
The first problem lies in the fact that Samurai 8 is essentially another bland battle shonen in terms of narrative. It lacks early Naruto's heart and ambition. Normally, I have great patience when it comes to such kinds of manga. Even with Black Clover's clumsy start, it managed to carve a niche and refined its narrative. For Samurai 8, ... 
Aug 27, 2019
Samurai 8 is one of those series that keeps growing in you chapter after chapter...thanks to the legendary skills of Kishimoto Masashi and the very detailed art-style of Akira Okubo.
Story - until Chapter 15 The story of Samurai 8 could be simple from a fast point of view, however...chapter after chapter, it becomes deeper and way more interesting than the previous chapter. This also thanks to the addition of famous things and characters from several myths and legends of out world. This manga will stimulate your curiosity about the myths behind certain characters, Samurai Schools, objects and so on... I won't spoil you anything ;) Overall ...
Dec 7, 2019
This manga was the greatest disappointment in recent memory. The hype and push it got pre-release was more then possibly any manga ever, only for it to drop with not even a whimper.
Story: 4/10 You may be confused to see two common complaints about the setting. It has too much exposition, and that it doesn't have enough exposition and is confusing. The reason both of these complaints can coexist is simple, the setting was explained horribly. When we needed exposition we got none, leaving the reader not knowing what was happening, and when we got exposition it was given in the most convoluted and uninteresting way. The ... 
Sep 17, 2019
REVIEW: chapter 1 to 18 ---
STORY: The first 4-5 chapters of Samurai 8 starts a bit slow, the hype and the outstanding situations got better and better after every chapter. Kishimoto did a great move by giving us many infos during the first 5 chapters, and then giving us important answers during later chapters. Now the story is definitely interesting. VOTE - 8 ...
Aug 3, 2019
Samurai 8 is the new manga by the author of Naruto. It has some similar feelings and writing style, but also manages to be unique.
Story (8) We are already getting a ton of worldbuilding and lore. The story needs some time to set up, which it seems to be doing now. Art (8) A unique artstyle that is good to look at, although the characters sometimes blend into the backgrounds, and sometimes the action scenes can be hard to decipher. Character (8) Some characters are great, others are just OK. ... 
Apr 16, 2020
It's unfortunate that this series was cut short. It had potential. I mean, cyborg samurai riding gigantic robotic beasts with their magical space princesses and wielding soul-powered swords?
It's a very cool concept. And I'm always a big fan of the traditional-futuristic hybrid aesthetic. Undoubtedly, the biggest draw for me was the worldbuilding, which seemed to have had a lot of care put into it, with many setups put in place (that were of course left without a resolution). It felt like we had a whole wild world to explore, akin to some other space opera manga. The few characters that got the time to have ... 
Jun 9, 2020
A stunning example of writing failure (so much more surprising because Naruto nailed the initial emotional turmoil), an unusual case of masterful tech designs being a detriment to enjoyment of reading, Samurai 8 Hachimaru Den is seriously stunted.
Samurai 8, most likely, was supposed to be a lighter, more upbeat story, separating itself from Narutoverse by going into a techy spacefaring future and swapping ninjas for samurai. A space fantasy with magic-like consistently designed technology, with interstellar travel, mysticism and cyber superhuman warriors … A more contemporary hero, initially frail and disabled, gaining powers through his parent’s sacrifice and gaming… What could go wrong? Turns out almost ... 
May 2, 2022
Normally, a review of a manga should discuss elements of a work, but most of that has been said by other reviews already. Samurai 8 is mediocre, with weak character designs, motivations that aren't fully explored, and is artistically disconnected from what the writing is trying to achieve. You can feel that Okubo doesn't understand the story on the level Kishimoto did, and there is something missing from the way Kishimoto envisioned the work. Not all that different from the progression in the later volumes of Naruto where Kishimoto takes a back seat to Okubo. You gotta wonder if all the Zetsu art, Sai, etc
...
Oct 1, 2019
Review from Episode 1 - 17
Story: 8 Why 8? Because, the premise of SCI FI Samurai with a lot of Japanese legends is, itself, very good and very fresh, nevertheless my problem is with the form that the story is being told: too fast. A story as complicated as this one, with an giant new universe , should be told slowly and in lot of episodes BUT this one is rushing into the cool stuff and the mechanics are introduced quickly and is difficult to undersand. Art 9 Is epic and with a lot of details. Way better than Boruto, tho. ... 
Jun 7, 2019
This is a cursory review through chapter 5. The series is very young but there are already some glaring issues.
The positive is that it's a shonen manga written by veteran Masashi Kishimoto with art by Atsushi Ookubo, who does a good job emulating Kishi's art style. The fundamentals are there. The story so far has potential but where exactly it's going is a mystery. Naruto wanted to be Hokage, Hachimaru wants to be a samurai. The difference is Hachimaru becomes a samurai right out the gate in chapter 1, so where to next? That said, I'm rating a 6 because what we are seeing is ...
Sep 30, 2019
This manga is more than excellent I liked it from the first chapter and I see that it will become the best manga in the world soon and I hope everyone who has a negative evaluation on the first chapters of the manga to come back and evaluate it as it deserves
the story 9 the art 8 Designs and characters 10 characters 10 ata 1000000 The world 100000000000000 Total 10 ... 
Jan 4, 2020
Samurai 8 is awful. I am honestly very disappointed with what Masashi Kishimoto has come up with, several years after finishing Naruto. I just finished the manga, I had dropped it last year, about 32 chapters in, but now I decided to come back and finish it, and my impression of it is even worse than what I originally had.
This manga had a lof of potential, it could have been a good adventure with compelling characters. Many of the characters introduced have varied personalities, but unfortunately the story never really did anything with them. I'll start by saying the two things that I enjoyed, and ... 
Jun 25, 2019
I really don't know how people are writing the series off after 7 chapters. That said, I must say, it's not really grabbing my attention and I do kinda have to force myself to finish each chapter. I just started reading it today, and I can see it has potential, but at the same time it feels over the top and a bit crazy.
I think subconsciously I want to give it a chance because it's by Kishi, but ehh, it's difficult at times. The art is good, but at times it can be really confusing and disorientating. The character designs are decent and the pacing is ... 
Jun 29, 2020
It feels almost unfair to compare Samurai 8 to Kishimoto's previous work, but, well, when your previous work is one of the most popular manga of all time, comparison is eventually inevitable. As such, Samurai 8's rushed pacing, abysmal power level balancing and visual clutter really reveals what Naruto's editorial oversight protected us from. Conceptually - NEET samurai kids with talking dog-vehicles - very cool! But the series really suffers from an inability to set a coherent tone early on, and so Samurai 8 ends up feeling like a generic shonen series instead within 10 chapters, which is when I decided to drop. Going to
...
Sep 16, 2020
Samurai 8. Done. 43 Chapters. I could've probably squashed in 2.5 hrs but here I am. I almost a year later. Rushed climax aside, the heart of Kishimoto's second main title isn't one to be dismissed out of hand.
The story really did have the foundation to go far and maybe, clearer and more concise than Naruto got to be. If I presume there were reasons why Samurai 8 didn't succeed and if I had to guess I'd wager it was: - The Aesthetic of the world of Samurai 8. There is a initial density of visual information combined with the amount of clear negative ... |
