Vagabond is a story that really wants to be deep and interesting, but doesn't do nearly enough to earn it.

The plot follows some wandering samurai trying to be the strongest in the land, fighting harder and harder opponents, winning, losing, learning what the way of the sword means... until it isn't. Then it switches to another guy who does the same things, and then over to another guy who is a failure at everything that he does... and like all of this happens without any real indication so you don't have a good idea of when things are going on since it'll go from past to present in an instant. What I'm trying to say is that the plot is, while very simple at it's core, made very messy by time and perspective skips that can be easy to miss if you don't pay attention. You'll end up getting it all by the time everything connects though, if you're willing to get that far.

The characters in this manga are one of the biggest things I don't understand/don't like about it. Our main MC is a hothead that only wants to be the strongest, but as he goes on his journey he learns time and time again how much he has to learn. So you would expect him to grow from that right? Well 200 chapters later he's pretty much the same person, only stronger. It's always frustrating to see characters who need to change and grow stay stagnant for so long, especially when the story calls for them to grow too. All the other characters are also just as flat, with no one making any real appreciable changes in a whole 200 chapters. The worst part about all of it is that no character has made me want to root for them. Nothing about them really draws you in or has some great ideal you can sympathize with. Because of that, it's really hard to get engaged in the story to listen to what it has to say.
In terms of character design, a lot of them blend together, which I guess is intended because the author was going for a realistic feel, but it makes things confusing. Character motivations are pretty much always the same for like every single character, which is pretty annoying also.

Even in terms of theme the story feels very inconsistent. I'm not sure whether I'm supposed to believe about the whole 'way of the sword' since no one ever practices any of the ideals that are brought up. I suppose the author could be saying that it's up to each individual reader to make that choice, but when you take no stance for something this long, I don't think you deserve to be considered deep or meaningful. Like, a father doesn't want his son to be a swordsman because it brings nothing but death and sadness at the end, which is what the first arc seems to be telling us, but then after he finds out his son likes fighting, he says that he loves the way of the sword because it made his son strong? What is the audience supposed to take away from that?

I guess the only thing that I can really give Vagabond praise for is its art, which is pretty nice most of the time. You can tell a lot of time was spent making it look really nice with all the detail there is, but that's the only real thing I like about this manga.

Overall, Vagabond is a lackluster story hiding behind its art. Characters are flat, the plot is all over the place and it's thematically unsure of where it wants to go. No characters really pull you in, nor anything in the plot, so it's kinda just feels like you're casually watching a movie on the side when you're focusing on something else. It still has it's amazing art, so if you're into that I might recommend this manga, but other than that, it's not too worth it to read.