Hyouge Mono

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Hyouge Mono is the kind of work that’s just so unique for it to be no real equal. It’s a combination of a niche topic and a quality writing you just won’t see elsewhere. It is pieces like this that make me glad I started reading manga, as otherwise I’d completely miss out on this.

The protagonist s delightfully relatable. He’s simultaneously self-centered and human-like greedy, and looking for a bigger purpose in his life. He lives, learns and adjusts accordingly.

Furuta molds the story and the story is molded by him, the complete opposite of a one-dimensional character. The stormy youth, the midlife crisis, the ... elderly wisdom, Furuta keeps changing while remaining a consistent character. At some point you are guaranteed to relate to him.

While being set in Sengoku Era, unlike most such works Hyouge Mono uses war as more of a backdrop to the characters lives rather than the central focus, in a way that feels quite more realistic. Rather than war, the central theme is one that is sure to be relatable to many anime watchers – the question “What is a masterpiece?”

Beyond philosophies that are still applicable to this day, this manga also offers intriguing look into the art of the time period, in a way that shows the reader just why exactly the potteries not unlike one that you can get in best buy nowadays used to be treasured so much, and just how the techniques of craft have developed thanks to technological advances. And the art featured in this manga is either inspired by real historical pieces or literally is real historical pieces.

If I had to pick up one flaw, it’s that if you make big pauses between reading the volumes, are might get lost in the smaller subplots and who are all the minor characters and their significance. Especially since as mentioned, the characters do change gradually.

The arstyle is captivating with its mixture of rough and detailed. While most of the time the art depicts simply characters talking, once in a while there is a dynamic page that tears through the page to reach the reader, one that would make an action manga jealous. And it’s not just battle scenes where this technique is used, sometimes a character walking or such are depicted this way and it’s the perfect fit with the charismatic eccentrics. Talking about eccentrics, the character design is also really good here, with many varying designs that completely dodge the same face issue while still staying within the realm or normal non-supernatural humans. And not only do the facial features and expressions serve greatly the personalities, there is additional thing that is quite rare to see. It’s the realization that you can see character’s lineages. Not to the silly extent of a child being 1:1 of a parent or exactly half of each of the parents, but that you can see similar (yet still distinct as a standalone character) features within the blood related families. As Hyouge Mono story dips into lineage-related politics, this helps greatly with keeping the world feel reals.

So yeah, if you’re even slightly interested in either history or just manga for mature audience in general, absolutely do pick up this one. Now that it’s finally completely translated.

For a long time I have been disenchanted with Sengoku Jidai media for having the same old formula of "we must unify Japan" and the usual sentimental gallantry of a bushido code that wasn't even coined until much later. My fascination with the period ended but then I came across Hyouge Mono which caused me to reverse my decision. How unique this storytelling is! And despite its playing with the facts of history, it seems to me more true to history than other Sengoku Jidai media, and furthermore, more true to human nature. I was even surprised that the manga bothered to mention the Imjin ... War (a war that has some connection to me due to me being Korean) and even showed Yi Soon-shin. Perhaps the most refreshing part however, is that the focus of the story is less on the warrior attitude and more on the subtle things such as aesthetics and tea culture.

Overall, this manga is very enthralling, rather unique for its genre that features a different spin on the Sengoku Jidai.