Finished reading the Shigurui manga. It’s a very impressive work, both in terms of writing and visuals. Yes, there are some detours just to add brutality to brutality, like the story about the “frog” swordsman.
But despite those detours, I appreciate the fact that it’s a complete story.
At first, I thought it’s a story of revenge. But thinking about it some more, I think Shigurui is all about loyalty. Gennosuke wants to avenge his master. Not because it was just in any way: his master was a demented psychopath. But only because he was his master. That’s it.
Tag: Shigurui
Body horror is something Miura, may his name be forever blessed, established 35 years ago. After all Gatz is introduced as one-armed-swordsman in the very first chapter of Berserk.
Still, Shigurui does take it up a notch or two, with a duel between one-handed-swordsman and a blind and limping swordsman, following up with a six-fingered swordsman.
As base as that sounds, there are a lot of very interesting historical details there. The samurai are concerned with how much “koku” (a measure of rice) they earn, or what how many servants they could afford if they marry daughter of the head of the dojo.
The entire story is a puzzle box in itself. A story within a story within a story. 22 swordsmen are gathered to participate in a tournament with real swords. And as the first battle commences, we are told about the history of those two swordsmen. And as we are told about the history, we are told about numerous legends surrounding those swordsmen.