Written by: Shubham Regmi - 22014, Grade XII
Posted on: 03 February, 2022
Vagabond is the best samurai manga in the industry . It is written by Inoue Takehiko who might as well be regarded as the godfather of realistic art filled manga . He is a pioneer of his style of manga and no matter how much time and effort other mangakas put in their work it is ludicrous to even think it will match this level of brilliance . Inoue Takehiko is not just a lucky man who happened to make this manga as a one off with no backing of other works as great as this.
Vagabond began it's serialization in late 90s directly after the completion of Slam dunk the manga. It is inspired from Eiji Yoshikawa's world famous Novel "Musashi '' . Now as the title suggests the manga has its lead character by the name of Shinmen Takezo who later changed his name to Miyamoto Musashi to later go on and became the strongest and the most renowned swordsman in the history of japan . Although not yet mentioned in the manga it is believed that he has a total of 61 undefeated 61 duels . He is also considered a sword saint in Japan . Already got you hooked, didn't I ? Now this is just a brief history of the man in the actual manga there is so much more than that .Regardless, even if this manga is never finished, it is still a seminal masterpiece in the industry that everyone should read. the amount of artistry, research, and raw passion that went into it are undeniable . Put simply, there is not a manga that I could recommend more .
Slam dunk is another one of Inoue Takehiko's basketball based manga in a school setting . It is another out of body reading experience which will just engross you into the beautiful world of basketball . The art is unquestionably one of the best we have ever seen in the manga industry for the longest time . The characters are so amazingly drawn but not only that they are so amazingly written . They have purpose , goals , passion , ambition . It is clearly reflected in the story arcs of the manga . Apart from the matches looking exactly real, the setting of the match is also real . I mean that some matches go on for multiple volumes while some may end in half a volume . With no idea of the timeframe of the match you will be enticed and hooked to know what happens next and when it ends exactly the next moment , you will be like " I didn't know there could be mangas that end without the Mcs winning ". Not that I'm saying they will lose for sure . But there are mystery elements that you are not sure if it's ending early or late . Long story short, read slam dunk.
