BASARA

DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

ANIME AdventureLegend of Basara

REVIEWS

• 

  rabidfairy

  95/100
  A feminist classic shoujo manga that is more than meets the eye. Basara deconstructs different social issues.

  "Some readers have lamented: ❝Why does she have to go through all this, she's a girl!❞ ... but I think she rises to the challenge [precisely] because she is a girl! ➥ Yumi Tamura (about Basara's amazing heroine, Sarasa)

  WARNING & DISCLAIMER: This review may contain spoilers. Review is based purely on my opinion and feelings and should not be taken seriously. Any views or opinions are not intended to malign any specific individual or group of people.

  

  Basara is truly a masterpiece of a series and I hope people will come to rediscover it someday. It has one of the best character ensemble I've read, well written characters—especially the protagonist Sarasa, one of the best well written female mc in fiction I've ever had the pleasure of reading—a strong plot, and a unique art style.

  Basara greatly explores the female psyche and how it feels to stand up as a leader in a world dominated by men. After her brother⁠, Tatara (the supposed boy of the prophecy), was killed by the Red King, Sarasa took it upon herself to take his brother's name and pretend to be the "child of destiny". She masqueraded herself as a boy and tries to stand up as a leader of a revolution so that people will accept her without question. The pyschological strain and hardships she went through and how she overcame them all was such an experience to read. It's as if I was suffering with her and experiencing her pain. Not just Sarasa, but there were also other female characters in this series whom felt helpless and were constantly subjected to shame and ridicule by authoritative men for simply being a woman.

  I love that the author made the female characters strong and didn't tone down the traits that are inherently feminine (eg. being sensitive and emotional, crying, and being empathic to a fault). It was such a powerful message especially reading it as a woman myself. Rarely do I read fiction where female leadership, and just the overall experience of being a woman gets a really nice representation and I sincerely want to give my thanks to the author for that.

  More than that, I loved the politics in this series. The political schemes were intricately done. And seeing all the people in this series, not just the main and supporting characters, but how everyone in the background was essential in Sarasa's revolution against the monarchy and their tyrannic leaders, it was a thrilling experience to read.

  There were times wherein the story gets brutal and honest in its depiction of political violence which made it hard for me to read because of how realistic it felt. There were scenes that are very reminiscent of the current government state where I live and of what happens to the people that opposes them and it chilled me right to the bone because the similarity is impeccable.

  In the end, everything was resolved by the oppressed working together and it was thoroughly moving! It was hard not to root for their cause and I felt like I was with them cheering them on. And for a girl like Sarasa to lead such a big group of people, it was very inspiring indeed.

  I loved how the author made the politics central to the plot and not just focused on the romance. But the romance is deserving of praise as well. Shuri/Red King and Sarasa/Tatara are two vastly different individuals when it comes to the way they lead their people but the two things they have in common are: 1. they both want prosperity for their country and its people and 2. they both love each other but they had no idea that the other is harboring a secret personality, which was one of the major conflict in the story.

  How Shuri and Sarasa went from enemies to lovers, the battles they fought and how they went from hating to loving each other was such a difficult trial which both of them overcame nonetheless. In the appendices, we get a glimpse of how Shuri and Sarasa struggled to rekindle their trust and connection with each other. It was good that the author made Shuri suffer first for the atrocities he committed so he can redeem himself.

  

  In war there will certainly be many deaths, betrayals and chaos but Basara showed us that communication, forgiveness, loyalty, friendship, and love will always prevail.

  I wanted to talk about the supporting characters in depth but there is a great number of them present in this series that if I talk about them this review will probably go on forever. So I'm just going to list down my top favorite characters:

  1. Sarasa - definitely one of my all time favorite female protagonist. I love how she can both be strong and rational but also sensitive and emotional.
  2. Ageha - a former slave that grew up to be a nomad and one of Tatara/Sarasa's loyal follower. I love his character because he can be so unpredictable. It's hard not to love him because of all the things he went through you can't help but sympathize with him. I also adore how he protects Sarasa in times of danger.
  3. Hozumi - even though his presence in the series was very brief, he was the character I can 100% say that I relate to. Hozumi is a painter and a true artist at heart. One of my favorite quotes from Basara is from him.

     "Why do they think killing is the only way to make change? Can't the world be made better through creation instead? I want to be someone who created. Is that naive?"

  4. Shuri - aka the Red King. He's a great warrior and though he can be quite merciless, he's still a boy at heart. He is free spirited and soft hearted especially when it comes to Sarasa. His character development was one of the best. From being a tyrant ruler he ultimately learned the hard way and banished his old ways in order to be a good King.
  5. Asagi - I love how at first he was this misunderstood villain that everyone seems to hate and the fact that he also exudes mischievousness and evilness didn't help but when he met Sarasa/Tatara he gradually softened. He's kinda like the Zuko of the series.
  6. White King - don't be fooled by the title, White King is actually a female. See the irony there? Her identity as a woman was erased by the royal family because the king cannot accept that his eldest child is a girl. I feel really sorry for her for what all the men in her life put her through. Her desire for power in a world that constantly denies her the right to make her own choices is something one doesn't have to go through. Her tragic life made her cunning and manipulative and as a result she twists people the same way she was left twisted and broken.
  7. Kikune - she's a member of the White King's four elite assassin unit and the only female among them, she gets ridiculed by the other two for being a woman. Even though she's not a very skilled fighter she has quite a scientific mind and likes to invent things, I love how quirky she is.
  8. Taro - a journalist for a secret newspaper organization. He writes about Tatara's adventures and is intent in spilling out the monarchy's evil secrets to the public in order to help Tatara and urge the people to revolt against their evil leaders.
  9. Chacha - a badass female captain of pirates. I love how she unapologetically embraces her strength as a woman.

  

  Basara is truly a remarkable manga series in the shoujo category that I hope people will never forget. It has a strong female lead and female supporting characters, morally grey characters, characters with depth and complex relationships, well-written enemies to lovers trope, explores and deconstructs gender, politics, slavery, and trauma, and most of all...it has beautiful androgynous men... (͡ ͡° ͜ つ ͡͡°)

  

  In short, it has a conglomeration of everything I want in a story and more. Elaborate worldbuilding, a massive and intricate political wars, suspenseful action, remarkable character development, and the best of all are the complex character relationships including but not limited to deep childhood friendships, a forbidden romance, found family, vengeful enemies, and faithful servants. Basara has it all. I know for certain that this is one of the stories that will linger with me forever and one that I will surely come back to again and again. I know it's completely impossible but I sincerely hope that a studio will pick up this series again for an anime reboot.

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• 

  RoseFaerie

  100/100
  If we weren't fighting on opposite sides we could have been friends or neighbors. We could have fallen in love.

  Yumi Tamura has done it again and written another manga that I'm obsessed with. I'd go so far as to say that this ties with 7SEEDS (one of her other major series) as my fourth favorite manga of all time. It's not like I wasn't expecting to love this and add it to my favorites because I totally was. I had to restrain myself from adding it from chapter 1.

  This is a war story that doesn't focus on the fighting but the people in it. The people whose lives will be impacted by war. The common people, the soldiers, the government, and the revolutionaries. This isn't just a story about soldiers fighting on the battlefield, but the story of ordinary people, noble or not, who change and evolve to create a time of peace.

  At the end of the 21st century, disaster hit, changing the world as we knew it. Japan is now a desert, ruled by a tyrant king for generations. However, there was a prophecy about the "child of destiny", who will one day restore Japan and free it from the cruel monarchs. The prophecy was about Sarasa's twin brother, Tatara, but, when he is killed by the Red King, Sarasa takes her brother's name and mantle as "child of destiny" to lead the people of Japan to a brighter future while getting revenge on the man who killed her brother.

  Basara is all about war and its implications. Right from the first handful of volumes, the characters must grapple with the loss of loved ones and the idea that your enemy has loved ones as well. Senseless killing only leads to more hatred and desire for revenge. Killing others leaves innocent people without the people they hold dear. The people you fight in wars are just as human as you are. They have their own ambitions, families, and ways of showing kindness.

  In the words of Chigusa (I'm paraphrasing because I don't remember her exact line), "If you weren't fighting the war, you might have been friends and neighbors." And that line describes the central romance of Basara. The Red King and Tatara, meeting not as their titles but as their true selves, Shuri and Sarasa, fell in love. They had no idea who the other one was, meeting not as enemies, but as ordinary people. Both characters have harmed each other and feel hatred for their alter-ego, but when separated from their alternate identities, they can accept each other. Sarasa doesn't see the Red King, the man who killed her brother, but Shuri, the confident man she fell in love with. Likewise, Shuri only sees Sarasa, an independent woman he cares for instead of Tarata, the one who killed his best friend and is aiming to remove him from power. And when they are revealed to be each other's sworn enemies they don't know what to do. It becomes a battle of feelings. Can they reconcile their romantic feelings with their feelings of rage and their desire to kill?

  Of course, there's also the idea of creating versus destroying. There are those who want to create an ideal world where there is no more violence, and there are some who just want to watch Japan and the monarchy burn. The arc about the Suo rebellion perfectly encapsulates this, showing a warlord father at odds with his rebellious artist son. One who wants to destroy and take, while the other just wants to create and give. A father with so much hate and a son with so much love. I personally loved that arc for a variety of reasons, and I feel like it was one of the most impactful for me.

  I'll mention that my least favorite arc was the prison arc just because I felt like their captors got off too easily. They were torturing people for years and they were just forgiven and didn't have to atone for the atrocities they committed. While what they went through was traumatic and had lasting effects, as seen by Wind Owl, it doesn't excuse any of what they did. I get that Sarasa's whole deal is forgiveness and earning allies through empathy and her general kindness, but these guys deserved some sort of punishment.

  In Basara they make the point of saying that women are the ones who are responsible for building nations, since they are the ones who give birth to children. And I have to say that this manga has strong feminist themes. Even the very core of the story, the prophecy about Tatara relies on everyone assuming that when the twins were born, the chosen one had to be the boy. Basara is set in a patriarchal society, and yet there are women with a variety of strengths who can succeed. We have combatants who lead armies like Sarasa and Chacha, the female pirate captain in a world where only low-ranking women can lead. There are brilliant inventors and spies like Kikune, even though she's shamed for her gender. We have Ginko, the White King, forced to keep her gender a secret and having to rely on people underestimating her as a disabled woman to manipulate others. I was particularly pleased with how in the Suo rebellion arc the rebel leader was a kind and feminine woman who was involved in a newspaper that informed the public of the injustices going on. There's such diversity among the female cast and it provides so much commentary on how women are treated and viewed in societies like this.

  Yumi Tamura's series are filled with dozens of multi-dimensional characters. I could write entire essays on each individual side character and their role in the story. They're that complex. As much as I'd like to go on about Kikune, Ginko, Hayato, Kazan, etc. I have decided to discuss four of the most important characters, Sarasa, Shuri, Ageha, and Asagi.

  Sarasa, our protagonist, does not begin as a strong confident leader. She was not taught leadership skills, how to fight, or how to ride a horse. In the beginning, she's just clinging to the hope that she can continue to pretend to be her brother and act as a symbol of hope. All she has to spur her on is her hatred of the Red King. Her desire for revenge is all she has to keep her fighting. She's emotional and needs to rely on the protection of others, though she keeps those in her army at arm's length. And yet she learns to rely on those who fight alongside her and learns to defend herself. She's still emotional and empathetic, but those are the traits that make her the "child of destiny" and a hero of the people. They do not make her weak, but they are her greatest strengths. It's when she loses sight of her compassion that she becomes dangerous and lost in her own desire for vengeance.

  Shuri, the Red King, begins the series as a hot mess. For starters, he's a mass murderer, and, when he and Sarasa first meet and become attracted to each other, he was kind of a pushy love interest. He's arrogant, violent, and bloodthirsty. And yet he's still human. His father branded him as a slave in the hope his son would not usurp him. He may be arrogant, but he's charismatic, has people he cares about, and can be a charming person. Sarasa fell for the confident, charming Shuri who protected her and aided her in battle, not the bloodthirsty ruler he was raised as. However, it's only when he loses everything and experiences the horrible things, he made the people he fought endure that he can truly change. Sarasa and his Okinawan friends' influences were the seeds, but when he loses his kingdom and is humbled, he can atone for his sins and make people believe that he might be worthy of forgiveness. His growth is very gradual and natural, as changing his ways isn't an overnight process. Even at the very end he still has things he refuses to apologize for no matter how wrong they were.

  Ageha is a member of a nomadic tribe whose people were sold into slavery. He grew up as a slave, enduring horribly traumatic things including being repeatedly raped by his master back when he was a child. He has a complicated relationship with his former master's son, battling with his mixed feelings of love and hate. He's attracted to Shido, but he ultimately knows that they can never be equals and will always be seen as below Shido, as someone to take pity on. While he serves as Sarasa and Princess Senju's protector and confidant, he is far from being a righteous hero. He will take on the mantle of the anti-hero if necessary. He's willing to soil his hands in order to aid the Tatara army. He will make the people he cares about confront what holds them back, and he's far from gentle about it. His destiny is to find a woman worth dying for, and while I won't spoil anything, I will remark that while the main character deaths in Basara are remarkably few to the point where it could be considered unrealistic, every death has a purpose within the narrative. No death is pointless.

  The final character I will discuss is Asagi, the Blue King. I'm not going to mince words. In the beginning he was an obnoxious, disgusting little bitch. I'm sorry, but it's true. He is a character who lives for destruction. He and Shuri are two sides of the same coin, much like the Greek gods Ares and Athena. Both are gods of war, but while Ares represents destruction like Shuri, Athena is the strategist like Asagi. He wants to manipulate anyone and everyone with his own personal spy network to bring about destruction so that he can seize power. He hates Shuri since he felt like the two were compared all throughout his childhood, despite never meeting. He wants everything that Shuri wants so that he can take it from him. And yet, while posing as a guard of the Blue King who wanted to join the Tatara army, he begins to change. While at first, he was sowing seeds of discord, the more time he spent with Sarasa and her crew, the more humanity he gained. He developed feelings for Sarasa on his own, not just because she was Shuri's lover and he wanted to take what Shuri had. He became genuine friends with Sarasa's friends, despite initially coming off as an untrustworthy, useless pretty-boy. He becomes one of Sarasa's most loyal friends, no longer seeing her as an object or someone to manipulate. And he realizes that he's not been living for himself. He's been living the way Ginko wants him to, the way that hurts Shuri the most, or the way his mysterious mother wanted him to. But he's never lived the way that would be most fulfilling for himself. While I love Shuri's character arc to bits and prefer Shuri to Asagi, I actually found Asagi's arc to be some of the most interesting and compelling character development in the series.

  The art improves a lot from the beginning. I remember starting it and thinking that it was much lower in quality than 7SEEDS, which makes sense, since Basara was written earlier. However, as the series continues, the art transforms from the rougher, more awkward and kind of scribbly style into Yumi Tamura's beautiful signature sketchy, flowing pieces. The proportions also get quite a bit better, since I remember them being pretty awkward in the beginning. It was kind of reminding me of the jokes I see about the way the men were drawn in early Skip Beat chapters. However, the art truly becomes magnificent, and I love Yumi Tamura's art with all that I have.

  I can't help but comment on how Yumi Tamura is a genius in character writing, creating huge casts of complicated characters, allowing them to grow at natural, realistic paces. This manga is simply beautiful in how it's written, and I can't help but recommend it, especially to fans of Yona of the Dawn and other action shoujo series. Even people who dislike Yona might appreciate Basara's more serious and cohesive narrative. It's brilliant, and there's a reason it's in my top 5 right now.

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