A manga you can ignore if you're not into it for the art.

Neiru2012 pretty much brought up all of my distaste for this manga but I think it's unfair to over-simplify Vagabond using spoiler cases.

That is because Vagabond can simply be said to be Shamo set in a samurai period using a famous character like Mushashi.

***Skip to the last paragraph for summary***

This isn't so much saying one is a clone of the other or that one came before the other or that others came before these two.

It's simply my way of attempting to provide a low review without taking away what the manga is by focusing on the specific spoiler designs.

Yes, Vagabond has a plot. Yes, Vagabond has characters. Yes, Vagabond's art is on one end great and on the other end requiring a certain taste.

Yet beyond all of these, none of these is what makes or breaks Vagabond.

The plot while a modified romanticized version still is stuck with the predictability of who Musashi is as a historical character.

The characters whether you find them generic or not is still not about them but about their way of fighting clashing with another way of fighting. While you can say manga/anime generally does this with fight scenes including such things like Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X where it already borders on heavy handed, Vagabond goes beyond this. Not just subtlety. It only makes the scenes an actual fight scene so that you as a reader will still be excited to read it and it would satisfy those "awesome shiny fight scenes" reader but it is a true and true manga where the art invades everything and if it's not the art, it's the lack of a plot. It is almost Zen-like in that it portrays the conclusion of each plot as there being no plot.

In fact if this wasn't even about a Vagabond, the manga would not be seinen and believe it or not is more like Shojo with swords. If you focus too much on the female connotation of Shojo of course it's not. However if you consider Shojo to be more of a genre where the thousand mile stares and slice of life = tragedy and that all the characters are trapped in a mine of longing, I'm not exaggerating Vagabond is basically this.

This is both Vagabond's strength and weakness. More so than Shamo although Shamo equally has those unrealistic moments.

When Vagabond is dealing with a fight scene, an upcoming one, the combination wields an engaging plot that would make you curious as to what will happen next. In fact the later chapters pretty much spells this out with a major character retelling flashbacks more than the manga trying to be an adventure story anymore.

However when you remove the fight scenes, this is where both the Shojo and Seinen elements fail. Even though one reviewer said they liked that there's not much gratuitous violence compared to other Seinen, the thing is Vagabond's gore and nudity can be more disturbing than traditional gory manga.

Not because there's too much but rather because there's too much stupidity for almost the few times violence and death and nudity is shown. In it's attempt to be philosophic, Vagabond ends up making it's characters mere caricatures. Ones where the art and the panel storyline takes precedence over the overall storyline.

Don't get me wrong. In many ways this is why it's a good read. If you've ever wanted a semi-realistic portrayal of a goody imposter, a mute samurai, a horrible old lady that gets her just deserts, a woman who sees a flying chibi ghost, a monk who doesn't know what in the world he is doing and just tries to torture people he randomly comes again - Vagabond is almost comedy gold in that in a subtle manner.

The problem is: that's pretty much the entire manga. Even the violence and nudity falls under that same pattern where one panel is for an action scene that would please many fans who are into manga for the art or the eye candy and then the next panel, same situation, it would be text heavy and then the next panel there are guys that come off like they get cut down because they think too much. As in literally they get sliced up while they are thinking.

This doesn't mean the manga or the manga's fans just sweep over these flaws. The whole thing is supposed to represent a lightning fast event happening over an introspective event. It's like an event where someone shots a bullet at you and your mind flashes through everything and it's both a blur and yet after the fight, there's lots of rationalizing and events pouring through your brain.

Unfortunately, again, this is why the manga is both a good read but something you can skip. In many ways a philosophical text book has a limited audience and the philosophy has to stand the test of time. Atlas Shrugged for example is famous but unless you buy into this idea that Ayn Rand's themes are worth reading, then instead of being an enlightening read, it's just a classic. The same can be said for the Bible. Unless you're curious or got hooked by the flashy effects, a Biblical movie at the end of the day is just a flashy fantasy movie that tries to be philosophical but just ends up not being deep at all except for those people who they themselves are shallow but pretends to be philosophical in nature. The type of people that would re-interpret a realistic portrayal as a violently shocking one and be glued to the screen as if they watched a train wreck but then go on and complain about how a realistic scene is too gory or made too shocking because they themselves put on rosy tinted glasses that got shattered as opposed to the scenes being actually overtly violent.

Nonetheless I'm not saying Vagabond is a bad manga. Again, it's just a skippable one. If you like the first few chapters, go ahead and continue reading it. But if you start disliking the manga or if you start hoping for more or if you want to read another manga or if you're tired of the artwork, it's skippable. I'm not saying this for the benefit of those who have actually read the manga. Of course the choice is always there for all manga. I'm merely stating this case for those who haven't read the manga. Some mangas have a big pay off in arcs. Not just in terms of entertainment and philosophy and depth. Vagabond is just not one of those. The only reason it's a 7 because it understands what it is and that's a unique take on familiar characters and it tries to string along that characterization. However characterization alone is not enough if most of the additional scenes all ultimately fail for feeling like filler rather than philosophy.

To summarize: Philosophically, this does not even match up to Slam Dunk and Slam Dunk is not that deep of a manga to begin with. It's inspirational but it's not that deep. So imagine Vagabond being this way but trying to shove you more philosophy and less action and ultimately you get a 4 (decent) manga wrapped up in great artwork and historical fiction so it becomes a 7 but the hype for this manga is centered around entirely on the sizzle of Takehiko Inoue improving his artwork to do a samurai manga based on famous characters and not disappointing even though he doesn't break much new ground either.