Customer Reviews

Vagabond, Vol. 1

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Super-excellent!!
I, as a Japanese, have been engaged myself in reading manga for more than 20 years.
I know a lot of manga I can truly recommend, but this is the very masterpiece!
Although this manga has many violent scenes, they are expresssing the "lives" we live.
I also recommend this manga to those who are insterested in Zen Buddhism and enlightment.

This is a very good historically based Manga. anyone interested in Japanese culture , swordsmanship , or likes a serious comic should pick this one up. The artwork is great and gives a fleeting and suspenseful sense of whats going on.I warn that this has some very violent and adult situations but the overall story is excellent.If you liked the book "Musashi" or "the Book of Five Rings" this is a definate pick!

Vagabond is about the journey of Takezo, a young man, future master swordsman, who is in search of purpose and meaning to his life. In the first book he thinks its to become the best swordsman by challenging and defeating the best in the world. This is bravado for an untrained youth, even just fresh from his first battle on the losing side.

If you like Manga that does not romanticizes war or swordsman, Vagabond should peak your interest. The storytelling is excellent in the drawings, more so than the text. I would rank such adept skill in the same arena as Lone Wolf and Cub. LWC is the standard for balancing poetic story telling and showing the hardcore grit of life as a swordsman. Vagabond starts with a youth, a teen, not a man with a child. So Takezo maturity is not yet there. What drives him to succeed and overcome his past makes this series promising. The characters show a range of emotions in this manga, and the situations they deal with does an excellent job of targeting a mature audience. Takezo struggle for "his" truth becomes ours to learn from his journey about becoming complete.

Read each book like a wine, one delicious sip at a time, enjoy the flavors.

Filled with true suspense and engaging swordfights. The storyline is perfect and it keeps you involved with the characters throughout the book. I would recommend the entire collection. The Vagabond series are one of my favorites.

I bought this manga without ever having heard of it and it quickly became my favorite. I usually don't read manga (though i do watch anime) but this one I fell in love with. I would suggest it to anyone. Beautiful artwork, neat story and the fact that it's historically based is the icing on the cake. I can't wait to read the rest.

I've been reading various Manga for more than 15 years. I read Japanese manga in various genre not only ones in English but also the old ones that never made it to English translation. The first two volumes of Vagabond so far are fantastic. Definitely a tall cut above the average. I can even compare it across genre and say it's a lot better than Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball (one of my top choices before I read Vagabond).

Vagabond is very poetic and alive. It fully exploits the advantage of the manga as a media and I feel the scenes from the comic are actually more alive than movie or novel. Look carefully at the expression of the characters. My favorite is Takuan Soho - it feels almost like you can get a glimpse of "Satori enlightenment" just by looking at his features as drawn in the manga. Beware that you may end-up being converted into a big Musashi / Japanese swordsmanship fan after reading this manga! This graphic novel is very absorbing!

I had heard some positive buzz about this series and decided to give it a try. I am glad that I did. Although many of the story's elements may seem familiar (boy is mistreated by father, boy grows up to become world's strongest fighter, boy seems to be a demon, but deep down is a good guy who is misunderstood, except by boy's loving girlfriend and father-figure)Inoue manages to present the story in a fresh and engaging manner. The artwork is fluid and Inoue has his own unique style, which I enjoyed. An added bonus to the comic is that some of it is illustrated in striking color. I have to admit that I am interested in where this story will go from here. I enjoyed the second book as well and look forward to reading the third. Even though certain elements in the story may not seem fresh, this is a solid story that moves at a quick pace and its characters are both believable and engaging. I would recommend this series to someone who enjoys stories with strong character development, wicked fight scenes, and themes of redemption and good versus evil. (Sort of like Blade of the Immortal.)

For those of you who don't mind a fair amount of explicit violence, and enjoy fast paced things with good action and decent characters, I suggest Vagabond. Okay, so thus far I'm, on the 2nd vol. (revision October 10, 2010) At this point, I have read about 7 volumes and have not picked it back up for a while, but this was due to my no longer reading manga and not the quality of the series, I plan on picking it back up as soon as I can get ahold of the series again.

You see Vagabond moves very fast, its not a short manga, page wise, but you get through it quite fast. Vagabond is based off of a novel based on the geatest Samurai whom ever lived. Forgive me, but I don't remember his name(blocks some punches). ;P

All you need to know is this, its fast-paced and action packed and if this is your reading preference then make sure to pick up not only the first volume, but also the 2nd, and hell, if you can, get all the volumes!!! ;P

God Bless & *enjoy ~Amy