"Preoccupied with a single leaf, you won't see the tree, Preoccupied with a single tree, you'll miss the entire forest." -Takuan Soho

In just 327 Chapters, a story following 2 men that live by the sword birthed and brought up in different social circumstances learning their way to pursue the craft of swordsmanship, Vagabond is a masterpiece of a manga about the retelling of the journey between Sasaki Kojiro and Musashi Miyamoto.

Story: 10/10
Musashi Miyamoto (formerly Shinmen Takezo) from Miyamoto Village was determined to be strong and in order to convince himself he had reached his goal, he set out to fight distinguished swordsmen to become invincible under the heavens. However, due to his vulgar anger and violent tendencies towards others he wasn't in the best shape to set out on his journey. With the aid of Monk Takuan Soho, Musashi Miyamoto was able to refine himself sufficiently and reposition his mindset on the correct path of the sword. ~ Throughout his journey, Miyamoto encountered formidable opponents with killing aura powerful enough to fight without the need of a sword. Once Miyamoto learned that he'd need to cultivate his mentality as well as his physique he had spent an entire year training the path of the sword. After defeating the head of a renowned swordsman school and his brother in a duel, he had to face the wrath of seventy disciples. All this occurred while his best friend, Matachi Honiden was enjoying fine sake and women with his short term success with Oko (Chapter 10ish*) and eventually living a life of solitude as his Uncle Gon and Mother deteriorate from keeping up with him. Musashi Miyamoto's first love Otsu and his first disciple Jotaro follow their own path as they await the arrival of their Master...

On the other side of the spectrum, a child born during the great war that consumed his Father and Mother, Kojirou Sasaki a deaf-mute Swordsman who'd lived by the sword since he was taken in by his grandfather by the beach side. Kojiro Sasaki was a natural swordsman who'd gotten his first taste of combat when pursuing an old Ronin that demands 14 Year Old girls and Food & Sake after saving the village from stragglers. Kojiro Sasaki lived a life of swords, women and Sake as he journeyed around Japan to hone his swordsmanship.

The retelling of Musashi Miyamoto and Sasaki Kojiro was amazing, the attention to the story line which doesn't flow forward for 300 chapters but instead flows forward and takes a step back 4 years to introduce our 2nd Main character and his rise to fame. The story isn't just killing, the premise of Musashi Miyamoto refining his disposition by learning how to farm and following famous masters maintained the quality and detail of his life style. Although many characters are short lived in the story, their backgrounds and tendencies are high lighted; the sheer detail in the story line is difficult to comprehend. All while Takuan Soho helps the morale of the characters with his unique style of managing their convictions. Only through Takuan Soho was Musashi Miyamoto able to refine his disposition and maintain a pure mindset while following the sword.

Art: 9/10
The art is very detailed yet not overwhelmingly detailed, the balance between both is recognizable. The amount of panels can be overwhelming sometimes but luckily few chapters are dense with panels which make it hard to read. Dialogue is kept minimal and even when something is described, it is done within at least 50 words per speech box making information consumption and interpretation effortless. It is a pity that it wasn't fully dedicated to color and drawn digitally but with the compromise of shading and crosshatching, there wasn't much missing with the art of Vagabond.

Character: 10/10
Development in character is Vagabond's strongest point, managing 20+ characters and their backgrounds, living environment and relation to the main characters can be wild. Each arc is completely unique and refreshes the style of character development we see meaning there aren't as much filler content or unnecessary filler information. The strict flow of information during each arc of Vagabond (i.e Keeping the introduction and background of Sasaki Kojiro within 30 Chapters spanning over 5-9 years is difficult to manage) (i.e 2 Managing the farming arc within 32 Chapters est. over a span of 1.2 years would have also been difficult to manage) By containing this information and delivering a consistent flow of character development, Vagabond easily passes with flying colors.

One thing that also worked flawlessly, The character design of Honiden Matachi who lived a life of lies. He was desperate to leave Miyamoto Village to experience life in the Capital of Kyoto and on his journey he slept with many women, even ditching the bro Takezo to sleep with Oko. What also disturbed me was when it was revealed that the travelling samurai who had Sasaki Kojiro's swordsmanship certificate was Kojiro's childhood friend ~ The fact that Matachi got him killed and looted his corpse was amazing development in his convictions as a character but also terrible to know. Eventually, as Musashi had progressed and become famous throughout Japan, Matachi had fooled around with women, Stolen, Extorted many businesses under a fabricated name etc. However, in the end Matachi was reliable to his friend, saving him more than three times when Musashi was near death, Matachi never hesitated to save him despite being conflicted and feeling guilt toward him.

Enjoyment: 10/10
Loved it. Emotional. Dramatic. Comedic.
It is a different style of a story representing a lone swordsman in his conquest to becoming invincible under the heavens.