I would not say this manga is so much about moral ambiguity as it is the ability of people to "justify" much of their acts as necessary or good. Whether you buy into some of them or not is dependent on your moral code. Im not into subjective morality personally but idk how some people can listen to a specific describe himself as evil and unjustifiable in action and be like "i am NOT supposed to hate this man." It is an example of how media today has gotten stuck on making villains VERY obvious that when a manga is presented with little bias that people assume they are not supposed to think some people are in the wrong.
that aside, the lengths each character goes to view themselves as either heroes or at the very least BETTER than a villain makes for a great story. The main character, Manji, himself is on a quest of absolution he just makes up on the spot and the elder wiser character is simply like "huh, i guess you could do that" without much fanfare. His employer, Rin, tries to justify her actions but constantly falls into doubt and fear. There are people who justify themselves through code, through family, through fairness, through love, through statesman's duty, and some through simple power. Hence, why I believe this is better read as an exploration to how humanity tends to convince itself that it is just and not the bad guy.
The story is quite compelling, first following our two protagonists and later branching off into various storylines from different perspectives. Some through only 1 arc, others through multitudes. The pace never feels too slow, there is always some development occurring either in the world or in a character. Trigger warning for r*pe scenes though, quite a few. Never comfortable and not insanely graphic, but still disturbing.
The art starts off quite rough, very pencil sketchy, but eventually adopts a cleaner look. Fights are well illustrated and the sense of direction is kept well. Some page spreads are amazing looking, Manji himself is quite a portrait. Like every gruff samurai put into one, and the energy is captured well. Fights are given a sort of artsy feel to be a counterweight to the brutality.
On that note, the characters and their designs are probably the strongest point in the series. No one feels super one note, even the psychopaths get to enjoy some shrewdness behind their animal behavior. The characters easily shift from heroic to villainous roles seamlessly in a believable manners, as their justifications go further and further into selfishness disguised as something more important to the world.
I loved this manga, there is a decent amount of period history that makes it fun and the action is a great display as well. Even moments of quiet with little action are enjoyable as the characters carry their own weight of the story.
Also there IS a good guy and his name is Giichi.
