Bradherley no Basha

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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...

Mod Edit: review may contain spoilers.
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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.

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.

This is a story set in a medieval , featuring lords, prisons, nobles, and orphanages. These seemingly unrelated elements are fatefully intertwined, kicking off the nightmare for the girls in the story. While most people find such manga plots hard to stomach and accept, it's worth remembering that medieval history was like this—war was the norm at that time, and there was no talk of human rights or moral standards.

I give it only a 6 because it gets boring in the latter half. The one chapter that really hit me hard was the one where the father and daughter reunite at the most fucked up ... place. Readers know things could have gone in a much more disgusting and twisted direction, but thankfully the author showed mercy and gave them a "better ending."

And of course...this manga is definitely not for anyone under 16. Stay healthy for your pure soul.

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, ... no justice or "good ending".
I liked this manga, It's different, real and screwed up.
What I didn't like, was that it was almost the same every chapter.
Orphanage, girl gets into the coach and vanishes. Again and again.
The art was really good, story could be better.
Thanks for reading this, what did you think of Bradherley no Basha?

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.