Customer Reviews

Samurai Deeper Kyo, Volume 4

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I have to give Akimine Kamijyo credit -- while many action manga have fighting tournaments of one type or another, they usually focus on a series of one-on-one fights. But "Samurai Deeper Kyo, Book 4" keeps everything short and sweet, instead focusing on the old enemies (some closer than you'd think) that our little band of anti-heroes must deal with as they home in on Ieyasu's head. And we see just how scary Yukimura can be when someone pushes him too far.

Kyo is cooling off outside when Yuya unexpectedly follows him... and tries to seduce him. Unsurprisingly, it isn't actually Yuya -- it's actually a ninja named Mahiro, who has a four-year-old grudge against Kyo, an army of black widow spiders, and gravity-defying hair. After his encounter with Mahiro, Kyo changes his mind about Yukimura's offer -- he will take part in Ieyasu's tournament, and exchange the shogun's head for his old body.

Unfortunately, the tournament isn't gonna be that easy. Benitora, Yukimura (disguised as a girl) and Kyo effortlessly carve their way through the others in the tournament, but they've already been detected by Ieyasu and his forces. Plus, Mahiro is still skulking around. And things take an unexpected turn when a masked combatant reveals that he recognizes Yukimura -- and turns out to be someone very close to him, both personally and in skill.

Like the last couple volumes of "Samurai Deeper Kyo," the fourth volume blasts through its story at a rapid clip -- basically the entire tournament is covered in this one volume, with the focus being less on the actual fighting and more on what is going on behind the scenes. And Akamine Kamijyo manages to inject more mystery into Kyo's background with the story of Mahiro and her sister, as well as a twist ending that you definitely won't see coming.

Along the way, we get plenty of elaborate sword fights, thuggish and/or creepy combatants (including a cannibal and a serial killer), and plenty of spurting blood and crazy-eyed expressions. It gets grimmer as the tournament winds on, and it becomes obvious that our heroes are in a massive trap -- and Yukimura is forced to fight one of the big battles of his life. But Kamijyo manages to weave in some comic relief as well, such as Yuya shrieking and climbing onto Benitora's head when she sees her doppelganger.

And this volume sees more development of Yukimura -- he's still the seemingly lighthearted, fun-loving guy ("Are you ready to see it roll?") who apparently has no qualms about putting on a dress. But it turns out that one of Ieyasu's fighters is someone he knows very well, and we see that he's a very kind guy who cares about and respects his ninja servants -- in fact, he becomes terrifying (spooky insane eyes and a lighthearted grin) when one of them is injured defending him, and called a "fool."

"Samurai Deeper Kyo Book 4" manages to take us all the way through a fighting tournament with a minimum of one-on-one team fights, and Akimine Kamijyo manages to throw in some surprising twists. Can't wait to see how this pans out.

This is a great book that has a great story, good characters and beautiful artwork. If you like action or samurai culture like me then you will enjoy this book.

This is the best samurai manga I have ever read, really.