Back in the day I had hoped Rurouni Kenshin (TV) would’ve been done this way instead of the overall silliness I’ve seen, but I did get my wish when I saw the OVA prequel which was quite sublime. The execution of the swordplay is quite fantastic and unrealistic, but the portrayal is dedicated to plausibility and works very well. Some techniques are well-kept secrets by their originators, legends in their own right.

As a contrast, Shigurui is a tour-de-force of arcane swordsmanship. The swordsmanship seems more pure and spiritual (even when savage and beastly) bereft of technique/attack fetishization. The moment wherein he felt the necessity to pull the other sword (to fight a chain-and-sickle expert) is largely portrayed without adornment or added significance. The protagonist, a fictional version of Miyamoto Musashi is known for his Ni Ten Ichi Ryu technique which involves the wielding of two swords. In Vagabond there isn’t much fetishization of specific techniques. The lines, the detail, the construction of each panel is well thought out and rendered diligently and industriously (and in Shigurui’s case, gratuitously). In my opinion these are some of the best-illustrated panels in manga. While these are all interesting (they are very interesting) I’m going to present here a small (and subdued) sample of the drawings. I’m not going to get into the stories, characters, and other elements of these books. Here in this post I present two of my favorite samurai manga: Shigurui and Vagabond.

While I don’t think any of these are bad (After all I like Sengoku Basara), I have a greater appreciation for samurai anime and manga that indulges perhaps the same things, though very differently. What I mean by ‘real samurai’ is that the swordsmen and swordplay in the subject works are for the most part portrayed with a realistic aesthetic the same way FLAG is real robot to Shin Mazinger Z‘s super robot, as is Sword of the Stranger is ‘real samurai’ to Rurouni Kenshin (TV)’s ‘super samurai.’ ‘Super samurai’ shows are distinguished by their extensive use of shounen tropes, particularly called out attacks that result in colorful energy explosions, among other special powers. If there’s anything I like almost as much as ‘real robot’ anime, it’s ‘real samurai’ anime and manga.

Shigurui manga plot