Customer Reviews

Vagabond, Vol. 2

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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. Having experienced disillusionment about people, he meets a monk (You'll love this guy) who strives to teach Takezo the value of a person, beginning with the youth. Book 2 gives us more of Takezo's background as he desends into a bestial killing machine. Can the monk help Takezo save himself? No alone.

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. The Vagabond sereis 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.

I just found out about these titles, bought and read them before I could throw out the box they came in. Being a martial artist and student of Iaido (Japanese sword drawing), I am very Familiar with the Musashi story. Yet these books (vol I & II ) are told from a fresh perspective that keeps you tuned in. I can't wait for the rest of the series to follow.
The artwork alone makes these books worth buying.

Also worth a look are the Lone Wolf and Cub Series...

The second volume Takezo returns to his hometown once he loses Matahachi to his miss deeds. Takezo is confronted by the towns corrupt samurai protector and his men. They try to hunt and kill him. We me Matahatchi's fiance and she is a childhood friend of Takezo as well. The samurai that hunts Takeso is a failure and a local monk named Takuan starts helping everyone and moving the story along. He is the most lovable manga character I've witnessed in a while. I have a itching suspicion he will end up to be a bad guy though, that's usually how manga works. Anyway, Takuan catches Takezo in his own way and Takezo is reformed in a grueling way. The volume ends with Takezo's release.

The second volume is vastly improved on in the art department. This manga is like reading a fine art book. Most of the frames almost look like portraits or paintings. It's really realistic looking. This is probably the most mature manga I've ever read.

To quote Wikipedia:

"Vagabond is a fictional retelling of the life of Miyamoto Musashi, often referred to as the "Sword Saint" - perhaps the most famous and successful of Japan's sword fighters."

This is a good read for people that like action manga, people that like samurai manga/sword fighting manga, or people that are Japanese history