Customer Reviews

The Sword of Shibito, Vol. 1

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The Sword of Shibito is a dark fantasy/horror manga written by Hideyuki Kikuchi with art by Missile Kakurai. As with many new Manga series it starts out a little slow as we are introduced to the main characters. In this case we meet Kinzou, a medicine man/pharmacist who is traveling the dangerous Adachi fields with a Samurai named Sawa and another companion, Umenosuke. Sawa is spinning tales of these dark lands when they find themselves attacked by a demonic woman who kills Sawa and Umenosuke and forces Kinzou to carry their remains to a mysterious castle. Kinzou meets the lord of the castle who plans to use Sawa's body and Umenosuke's head to restore his son, Shibito, to life.

Shibito is nothing but a walking, rotting mummy and his soul must be put into this new, young body so he can fulfill his father's dream of returning the Saezuki clan to power to rule all of Japan. The father casts the spells of the dark arts and at first it seems as if he has failed but slowly the new pieced together body begins to stir and eventually sits up. Yet Shibito is not yet fully restored. His body moves but he as yet hasn't regained his memories or his mind in general. Kinzou is charged with being Shibito's teacher and guide in the world as he ventures to find his destiny. But not everyone wants Shibito restored to life...Popping up to seemingly aid Kinzou and opposed the Saezuki clan is the mysterious Ranken, a toy maker who makes lifelike and life-size automated constructs. One of his constructs battles Shibito but loses and Ranken disappears through a mysterious portal in the castle. Soon Kinzou finds himself falling through another portal into a strange village where an outlaw Samurai fugitive is on the run from vengeful villagers and ends up taking the daughter of one of the villagers hostage. Kinzou tries to broker a peace and even helps the injured fugitive but now must deal with the villagers who want the man dead.

Sword of Shibito action, horror with Kinzou providing some comic relief as he continues to find himself in one bad situation after another through no fault of his own. The first issues sets up a number of questions such as just who is Ranken and why does he oppose Shibito? What will happen when Shibito regains his memories? What part will this village play in the story? There are enough good elements going on here that I want to find out what happens next. The final part where Kinzou falls through the portal into the village does seem to distract from the central plot but we will see where the story goes from here. The Ranken character is very intriguing and I want to see what part he will play in the succeeding chapters as well as the development of Shibito. The art is very strong throughout also at times the battle scenes can be somewhat difficult to follow. A good start to the series.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Length:: 1:03 Mins

It's almost impossible to judge this manga series from just the first volume alone. The artwork by Missile Kakurai is decent, even though I found some of the action scenes hard to follow and confusing. There isn't a whole lot of story in these 200 pages. In fact, the complete first volume feels like merely an introduction to a much larger tale. The stage is set, characters are introduced and then, after an act of resurrection, it's already over. I think this series has potential and may develop into something great but this first volume didn't do a whole lot for me.