バガボンド

VAGABOND

MANGA

STATUS
RELEASING
VOLUMES
Not Available
RELEASE
Invalid Date
CHAPTERS
Not Available

DESCRIPTION

At seventeen years of age, Miyamoto Musashi--still known by his childhood name, Shinmen Takezo--was a wild young brute just setting out along the way of the sword.

In the aftermath of the epic Battle of Sekigahara, Takezo finds himself a fugitive survivor on the losing side of the war. Takezo's vicious nature has made him an outcast even in his own village, and he is hunted down like an animal. At this crucial crossroads in Takezo's life, an eccentric monk and a childhood friend are the only ones who can help him find his way.

(Source: Viz Media)

CAST

Musashi Miyamoto
Kojirou Sasaki
Matahachi Honiden
Soho Takuan
Otsu
Inshun Hozoin
Baiken Shishido
Jisai Kanemaki
Ittousai Itou
Inei Houzouin
Seijuro Yoshioka
Denshichirou Yoshioka
Sekishusai Yagyu
Rindou
Ryouhei Ueda
Touji Gion
Akemi
Gonnosuke Musou
Tenma Tsujikaze
Orin
Kusanagi Tenki

CHAPTERS

RELATED TO VAGABOND

Cover Art for Vagabond: Saigo no Manga-ten

MANGA ActionVagabond: Saigo no Manga-ten

REVIEWS

shacklesburst
98/100
Unrivaled under the Heavens

The whole world's gone crazy. A man might as well be a dead leaf, floating in the autumn breeze.

Yoshikawa Eiji, in: Miyamoto Musashi

The artwork of Vagabond is simply outstanding. Inoue Takehiko understands exactly how to fully capture the reader in his brush strokes that change to an insane degree depending on in-story situation. I have never seen anything that comes even close in leading the eye along the gorgeous artwork. Even if you don't care at all about the characters or the story, the art alone would make it worthwhile to read this work. The in-story calligraphy is nothing to sneeze at either.

The story roughly follows Yoshikawa Eiji's take on the life of Miyamoto Musashi, undoubtedly one of the the greatest swordsmen to have ever lived. The depth of his understanding of fighting and the art of the sword still eludes droves of sword students today. Starting this manga, I had read Musashi's Go Rin No Sho and the original Yoshikawa Eiji book and I think this made the experience all that more enjoyable. Some of the decisions Musashi makes along the way are much easier to understand with the background knowledge gained from Yoshikawa's book and there's various throwbacks to philosophical understandings Musashi expounds upon in the Go Rin No Sho.

Musashi's story roughly follows the style of a classic road movie, as told by his frenemy Matahachi years later. Just having survived the Battle of Sekigahara, Musashi sets out to become a better swordsman, takes on a student, continuously misses on meeting his childhood friend and primary love interest Otsu, gets taken advantage of by his other childhood friend Matahachi, and walks a spiritual path alone or under the guidance of unorthodox Buddhist monk Takuan Sōhō. Well, only when Sōhō isn't currently in the business of torturing or trying to outright kill him.

Meanwhile, Sasakibe Kojirō is an equally renowned swordsman itching for the thrill of battle against a worthy foe. He meets Musashi on several occasions, never realizing how close he came to either make an actual friend or at least have the battle of a lifetime. Sadly, we haven't reached the time of that battle yet – not for a long time. And seeing how this manga has gone on indefinite hiatus a few years ago, it's currently unknown if we ever will.

The story is usually split apart between these two leads and the various more important side characters and follows one character for several chapters at a time, with Musashi's main story line obviously given the most development.

Like Yoshikawa before him, Inoue takes various freedoms in timeline composition from what were the current best guesses about the life of the real, historical Musashi at the time of writing, but it's an action manga after all. Especially the bigger battles between Musashi and large groups of foes at once likely never happened like depicted.

If you see the characters as adapted from the Yoshikawa novel (rather than from their historical originators), then the level of adaptation is outstanding as well. They come across exactly like in the book, especially the three leads Musashi, Kojirō and Matahachi. Takuan, too, takes very well after the book character. If you haven't read the book, then the characters are still extremely well defined original characters, with clear goals, inhibited by human error and understanding, certainly utterly comprehensible in their life choices, whether your agree with them or not.

If any manga deserves the designation "unrivaled under the heavens", it's certainly Vagabond.
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GGShang
50/100
It's not bad, but also just not really that good besides its art
I really want to like Vagabond, but there's something about it that just feels so off to the point where I can't justify it being that good. It's pretty well received overall, seeing as it is one of the most popular and highly rated manga series out there, but I really wonder what people think is so good about it. If you look at it form a story telling standpoint, there are about 5 different major topics you can hit: plot, characters, themes, art, pacing and overall enjoyment. And out of those, Vagabond only really does one aspect well, to me at least. Now, I will admit that I have not fully finished Vagabond up till the latest chapter, but after reading 200, I think I have a good idea of what the rest will be like.

If we look at just the plot of Vagabond, we can see that it really isn't anything special. Set in the early days of Japan where the the art of the sword is slowly being seen as less and less virtuous as long range weapons are becoming more prevalent, we follow our MC as he tries to be the strongest swordsman in the land. He goes from dojo to dojo, challenging their strongest fighters to defeat them, hoping to earn the title of "invincible under the heavens". Along the way he fails, runs away, fights some more, learns a bit about the way of the sword, overcomes hurdles and moves on to the next place. However, somewhere in between the focus shifts to another main character that is born deaf but loves to fight. The plot for him centers around his father being unwilling to teach him to fight, but he does so anyway because he loves it so much. As if the author wanted to see how many different perspectives he could have in one story, there is a third 'main' character that shows the other side of the story: he doesn't have many skills but goes around claiming to be someone he is not. He gets in trouble, runs away, and searches for his childhood friend, the original MC. Time skips around a lot in Vagabond, so you need to pay attention to it or else you'll end up confused. All this is to say that the plot, which is already fairly basic, has a lot of added complexities that make it hard to follow, which is mainly a stylistic choice, but I feel could have been handled much better.

On the character side of things, Vagabond doesn't fare much better. The characters are pretty one dimensional, with very little growth happening from when we are first introduced to them to hundreds of chapters later. In addition, most of the characers are actually very similar in desires and goals, but this can be chalked up to the setting it takes place in. It still doesn't change the fact that it gets stale to read after a while though. Also, I find it difficult to get invested into any of the main characters since they don't really have any appealing factors. Our first MC just wants to be the strongest because of some vague reason with his father and not being accepted as a child, our second MC just likes to fight, and our third one is honestly just unlikable. None of them make me want to root for them or to see them succeed in their endeavors, which is a shame. A similar story is Kingdom, where the MC wants to be the strongest general, but I enjoy him more since it was a dream he had as a child with his friend who ended up being killed for the sake of the country. It's much more appealing and drew me in more than the motivations found in Vagabond.

Thematically this story is all over the place as well. I'm not sure what the main takeaway message is. All of the mentors we see want their disciples to know that the sword isn't for mindless killing to see who is the strongest since that leads to empty lives ended only by death from another swordsman. This is made so clear, yet it also wants to promote the fact that if you really enjoy fighting, then have at it. The main MC seems to learn that you can't just mindlessly fight if you truly want to learn the way of the sword somewhere around chapter 100, only to admit that he hasn't actually learned anything at chapter 200.

The only thing I can say that Vagabond does exceedingly well is it's art. It's honestly really beautiful, and so many of the scenes are heightened by the style. It looks more realistic than traditional manga drawings, and the colored pages at the beginning of a few chapters can truly be considered art.

As for enjoyment, it really depends on who you ask so I won't talk about it much here, but know that I didn't particularly enjoy my time.

Overall I find that Vagabond is a story that gets heavily carried by its art and more realistic feel. It's really lacking in terms of plot cohesiveness, character development and thematic trends. Now, with all that being said, I don't think it's necessarily a bad manga by any means, only that it isn't nearly as good as it would seem to be from its popularity alone. It's average to slightly below average on all fronts except its art, which is top tier. So I'd say that you should read it if you want to be more cultured, but don't expect too much from it
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BluBilly
90/100
Strength through knowledge.
Vagabond is a different type of manga i have read in the seinen demographic. Opposed to telling us a story, Vagabond is a manga that tries to make us question different themes we have about life and philosophy; the illusion of emotions, self-reflection and fear in itself. As such, i think it was a great decision from the author Inoue Takehiko to adapt Eiji Yoshikawa's novel into a manga, so he can focus on making the journey much more endearing to read and truly immerse ourself into the work. So, what is the acclaimed and popular manga actually about? It is about the main character, Takezo Shinmen, which sets out on a journey to become the strongest samurai in the nation, after an incident occurs. This description in itself did not really endear me much when i started reading it, but as i read more, it really started getting much more interesting due to our main character. His journey that started with him being a really scary and strong character, often referred to as a __demon child__, which in itself isn't quite unique but combined with the the realistic approach the story is about and the way the author conveys emotion is something that was really great to see. _The state of anger the manga manages to capture really well._ The author also does a really great job at sending messages about violence and self-reflection, something i dont quite myself care much about in fiction but is something i got myself deep into. Is it really correct to view your opponents as enemies? Is it really that becoming strong with the sword, means becoming a strong samurai? Are emotions generally useless? Many questions are asked and it is up to the reader to answer for themself. I've discussed much about the main character, but what about the others? Most of the time, the characters that are introduced are mostly used for Takezo's character development, but that in itself is not a bad thing, infact quite the opposite. Most, if not all characters are really well done and memorable, and act as a tool for Takezo to grow. They also have their own story to tell, which have all been pretty great to read and makes me love them even more when they get screentime. They may be simple for some people which may be a bad thing, but for me, it makes me appreciate them even more, considering seeing them evolve into a character thats worthy of being remembered. One character that i really enjoyed was Kojiro. Though he might not have THE best development in the manga, he is a simple character which you really get to enjoy from the get-go when he debuts through his backstory. Though he is deaf and mute, he communicates via dueling and his child-like personality makes him out to be innocent, but don't let it fool you; he can be a deadly force to be reckoned with. It really shows how being simple-minded can be the strongest strength. _A rivalry worth remembering._ As i have previously mentioned, the artstyle is quite realistic in its approach due to how well-done it really is, managing to look even lifelike. Inoue Takehiko really manages to capture my attention far too much, as i love to just take in how well he can also convey emotions. The author also clearly is skilled with making the blood and gore for Vagabond a tool for storytelling, but looks great aswell. It has already been said multiple times, but damn; as much as i love Berserk and it being my number 1 manga, i really gotta give it to Inoue, considering his art is just really breathtaking. Ofcourse, nothing against Miura! Here is my favorite piece of art from Vagabond _The power of concentration._ ##__Conclusion__ I really gotta give it to Vagabond. It's a unique manga that manages to question much about life and philosophies that we have all gotten used to, and makes the reader have more insight on what truly matters; the mind, and how we can control it. The people around us can give insight on how to change aswell, and much deep reflection is needed about your place in the world. Although the story is quite slow which can be a nuisance and the combat which might be much to follow with alot of talking, Vagabond cements its place as a manga that gives insight on how to live life. Give this manga a chance if you are looking for something spiritual, long and beautiful.
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