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WHY YOU SHOULD READ VAGABOND

1. Main Character - Miyamoto Musashi
The main character of the series, Miyamoto Musashi, was one of the most skilled swordsmen in Japanese history. He won his first duel against a trained samurai when he was only thirteen.

Miyamoto is the man who literally wrote the book on Japanese swordsmanship. He fought in one of the most important battles in Japanese history and was undefeated in single combat. Musashi possesses raw intensity and focus that earned him the honorific title of "sensei," or "sword-saint." He is one of Japan's most interesting historical figures and the manga does an excellent job of showcasing just how emotionally complex and physically awe-inspiring he was.



2. Beautiful Art
Takahiko Inoue is an artistic genius! Vagabond's art is clean ands beautiful, switching between a minimalist style popular in anime and incredibly rich textured details. Inoue can spend pages illustrating the still quiet moments where people are standing around navel-gazing, but he still makes it visually engaging. If he draws a forest, every leaf and tree is vividly brought to life.

For all his beautifully drawn quiet moments, one reason for Vagabond's popularity is the stunning action. The different ways he has found to capture movement in combat scenes make every fight dynamic.



3. Historical Accuracy
Vagabond is a work of historical fiction. This does not necessarily imply the series has anything remotely resembling historical fidelity.

Surprisingly, the manga does a pretty great job of capturing the time period. It begins as Japan is moving out of the chaos of the feudal warring states period of the Sengoku-jidai and into a unified nation ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate. Samurai and bandits struggle to assert themselves while the fate of many powerful families is uncertain at this time. Important historical figures like the monk Takuan Soho are among the cast of characters while the real-life Yagyu-Shinkage swordsmanship school is the focus of the "Kyoto Arc."



4. Emotional Depth
Vagabond can be an emotional roller coaster. There are moments of pure delight and others filled with dread. One thing that Inoue does incredibly well is prolonging a sense of tension that builds and builds, gradually working toward a climactic moment, so that even small turns of fortune seem all the more compelling after the prolonged lead up to them.

Beyond this, the villains are so infuriating that one can't help but feel for Musashi as he struggles to overcome all they put him through, making his journey even more personal and relatable.



5. Realism
General Western audiences have had a negative opinion of fantasy and science fiction for decades, dating back at least to the time of the pulps when sensationalist short stories were disparaged as low art. This fantasy-bashing is finally fading away, but it still is a bias many readers have, which makes them miss out on a lot of the greatest stories in comics.

While it's awesome to watch heroes slay demons with their swords or shoot ki blasts from their hands, it is much harder to communicate the same emotional intensity without relying on supernatural elements. Part of Vagabond's appeal is its realism, giving it a sense of drama that is grounded and relatable, yet still a thrill to read.



PS - I didn't write this, I was browsing through some articles on Vagabond and this one article caught my eye - "Why Is Vagabond A Must-Read".

Link to the original article given below -

Credits - Vagabond: 10 Reasons It's A Must-Read Manga










Explanation Of How I Score:

10/10: Artistic and creative piece of art, A 10/10 is a perfect score given to anime which leaves a mark and is special to your heart.

9/10: Absolutely amazing shows, Great ideas, Brilliant execution. One or two elements stopped it from clicking for it to become a 10.

8/10: Very good or great shows that lack somewhere, Probably didn't connect with me much but still super impressive. Most of these are very memorable.

7/10: Good, solid anime that had a notable amount of flaws or things that I didn't like, but in which the parts I enjoyed vastly outweighed the bad.

6/10: Usually disengaging in some way but I still generally enjoyed it.

5/10: Basically neutral. Not good, not bad.

4/10: Actively bad shows with a lot of elements that I disliked, but with some redeeming qualities.

3/10: Generally terrible. One or two decent elements.

2/10: Poor, If I continued watching, it would just be for completing.

1/10: Nothing shows, with literally no value.