I’ve recently been fortunate enough to be introduced to the world of manga. Over the past year or so I’ve taken the liberty to indulge in some of the finest works of manga made in the past 20 or so years, including One Piece, Naruto, Full Metal Alchemist, My Hero Academia, and many, many more. Manga is honestly one of the most compelling forms of storytelling, in my opinion, and admittedly I’ve fallen in love with reading my favorite series instead of watching them. To me, there’s something magical and beautiful about combining the creativity of a manga creator’s artwork and dialogue with the reader’s imagination, which gives opportunity to tell an incredible tale that can be unique to each person picking up the pages. It’s a form of art that was always hidden to me behind what I thought was a ‘boring comic book’ style, until a wise friend suggested I read a manga series instead of watching the anime. Since then, I’ve been addicted to consuming as much manga as I can to catch up on all that I’ve missed.
Now that I’ve read a few of the most popular manga, I’ve decided to check out the yet to be finished Vagabond series since I’d seen it rated highly. This came in right after reading Baki (which I plan on reviewing next) specifically after reading a certain arc that shares a main character in this series. In any case, I went in into this only knowing that the main character of this series, Miyamoto Musashi, is considered one of the strongest swordsman in Japanese history and is widely renowned through tales of his life. Knowing this, I prepared myself for an epic adventure involving an incredible swordsman and dove in.
I can assure you that this manga completely swept me off my feet, in both artwork and storytelling. Here’s why. *Some spoilers included, spoiler warning has been issued*
Vagabond is tale of growth, coming of age, and finding truth for a man with ambitions larger than he can handle. We start with our protagonist, Miyamoto Musashi, who at the time is known as Shinmen Takezō, who is seemingly just another young guy with an anger problem, lady troubles, and some basic sword skills. He’s unruly, refuses to bow to authority and only wishes for growth in the form of strength with his swords. We’re given an image of a young man willing to put everything on the line for growth, and during his first few duels we see just how wild and ambitious this man truly can be. As we get to know him more though the series, we begin to see a duality unfolding that is plaguing his life – the desire for strength hindered by the pain of taking life. As his desire for strength takes him deeper and deeper down a dark road, Miyamoto has to come to terms with the lives he’s taken while also looking at his legacy and challenging his own definition of strength as a whole. By the end of what has been completed to date, we see an entirely different swordsman than what we started with, largely due to the hardships he’s either created himself or faced during his ascent to greatness.
I won’t be able to write about every positive thought I have about this series, there’s just too many, but there are a select few major points that I want to address. First is the concept of strength, which is a central theme to this series. Musashi, or Takezo at the time, started off considering strength to be one thing- unparalleled skill to defeat anyone. We see this fairly well laid out in the first several fights, where Takezo is noted to be swinging with his full force like his life depended on it. Takezo isn’t technically that strong yet, but he’s giving everything at all times in order to make up for his lack of skill and technique, which in these first few fights is more than enough to catch some attention. Unfortunately, Takezo can’t properly challenge anyone without putting lives on the line, which causes him to take the lives of several lower ranking swordsmen. In doing so, he begins his lifelong struggle of balancing the strength he desires over the will and desire of others.
As he progresses and wins more battles, the concept of strength seems to embody our main character. Now going by Musashi, he has taken the lives of many high ranking swordsmen and at one point takes on 70 men in one night. As the numbers pile up, the toll of the burden he’s carrying seems to grow as well. There’s no denying his strength and ability to slaughter at any time. He’s become a perfect killing machine. But has he completed his goal to become the strongest? As he continues to run from pursuers, he begins to question the nature of his desire for growth. Has he earned it by winning all of these fights? What does it mean to be strong? Can he call himself the strongest when others out there are also claiming to be the strongest? All of this continues to torment him daily, to the point where he’s completely conflicted in his own identity. Is he meant to be this killing machine, or is there more to this life? As he ponders this, life continues to torment him with hardships, including challengers that all seem to make his life more difficult just because he’s a killer. This awakens Musashi to the possibility that there may never be a way for him to be the strongest, as there will always be another challenger and another fight to face.
Upon this realization, we finally see the transition in our main character that we’ve been hoping to see from the beginning – an angry and disturbed youth turned into a prideful and wise sage of the sword. Of course much of this comes to him unwillingly, as he’s forced to take a hiatus from fighting due to a calf injury. Still, during this time he’s allowed to rest and reflect on his decisions thus far into his journey. He’s continuously haunted by the ghosts of the ones he’s killed, which leads him to consider why they would be haunting him at all. This haunting seems to lead to no answers until he remembers the sage words of men he considered to be strong before him. Specifically, that strength doesn’t always come down to how you swing your sword, but how you keep it sheathed. This is a very butchered version of the quote but hang in with me. The way I take it, he’s realizing that the sword is a tool, just like anything else, that can get a bad reputation because it is used to kill. However, now that he’s coming to terms with the value of life and settled some of his own internal rage, he’s learning to appreciate the value of having strength by re-evaluating how he uses his strength. For example, before his injury, Musashi had no issue slaughtering any challenger who attempts to fight him, regardless of skill level. After the injury, Musashi instead defeats attackers by keeping his sword sheathed, using just his palms to knock them out so they can live to another day, especially when the attackers are unskilled. It’s the understanding of his power and realizing how to use if for the betterment of others instead of himself that really changes Musashi into a man that he truly wants to be.
This takes Musashi into the final arc of the series that’s been completed to date, where he’s taken refuge in a small village. He meets a young boy who’s living on his own, and we learn his father had recently passed away and had no other family. Musashi begins to grow attached to the boy and takes it upon himself to help this kid out. He ends up staying with the kid and helps him grow up through several months of stay. During this stay, we see a continued development of Musashi, who for the first time in the whole series is refusing to draw his katana. Instead, Musashi opts for a hoe to work on the farm lands. This was confusing to me at first, because with his reputation and skills he could easily find someone to care for the boy if that’s his only goal. But we start to learn more about the village as he stays longer, and it begins to paint an extremely unfortunate picture of the reality that this town lives in. The ground is awful for crops due to the intense flooding in the area and poor soil quality, so the people rely on a small patch of good land that only one person can use and refuses to let other people help. It’s truly heartbreaking reading through how this village has been able to stay afloat like this, with almost all the village having given up trying to make it better and were just doing enough to get by. Of course, as if it couldn’t get any worse, this year’s harvest was ruined and the supply of food is running low. It’s now getting to look desperate for the villagers that have nowhere to turn to for help.
This is where Muashi comes in. He starts by putting his body on the line to start a new field, but due to the poor soil quality this fails. He then tries again, and fails once the heavy rains come in. So he gets back up and starts to try to contain the water, and the fight continues. He fails several more times, all the while still taking care of the boy and doing all of this work on his own. Finally, he gets to a point where he nearly gives up after so many failures, and the people seem to urge him to leave town to save himself, but he refuses to quit. And this is where his strength truly shows. Upon seeing his determination and selflessness, the village comes to his aid and starts to build a canal for the water to drain. Then they help him clear out and till a new field, and things all start to look like it’s working their way. Unfortunately, when the time comes to see if the fields will work, they fail once again. This leads into one of the darkest times for Musashi and the villagers, who are now forced to endure mostly on willpower alone and whatever scraps of food they have left until spring comes.
Before I get to the next part, it’s important to focus on why Musashi is doing all of this. I think Musashi feels a sense of emptiness and disconnection from others; so much so that he has difficulty understanding what normal life is for a farmer. He doesn’t know about crops, or fieldwork, or much of anything other than hard work and fighting. He’s been running his whole life and never took the time to build long, lasting relationships anywhere to have people that depend on him and vice versa. Of course he could live a grand life as a swords master with his reputation now, but he’s choosing to avoid this path because he feels he hasn’t truly earned it. He wants to experience the hardships that these people face, and will not leave until he knows they are safe and taken care of. This arc truly epitomizes the transformation Musashi has undergone over the past few years, and highlights his new mentality going through some of the most difficult trials imaginable.
Back at the village the food storage didn’t last as long as they’d hoped, and with several weeks left in winter, things were looking grim. People are dying of starvation all over town and even the boy he’s looking after had finally come close to starvation. Left with no alternatives, Musashi makes a final judgement call and leaves town to beg for supplies. He finds a wealthy gentleman nearby who is able to offer help, but only under the condition Musashi accompany him to a local lord to become a swords teacher. Musashi reluctantly agrees, knowing he’ll have to wield the sword again, but ultimately has to do this to save the village. He then returns with food and the town is saved. Musashi is allowed to stay a bit longer to watch over the new crop growth, but eventually he is forced to leave and continue his journey.
I don’t mean to make light of these last chapters, there’s a ton of detail I left out, but the main point to me is the selflessness finally exhibited here. Musashi knew all along that his name and reputation go a long way, but wanted with all of his being to be able to do this on his own without it. I believe that he was searching for new strength in himself that could be separate from the life he’s lead so far, but as life always reminds us it’s almost impossible to completely change who you are. So instead of running, Musashi found a way to use his name for good, even if it takes him away from this new life he’s found. In some ways its tragic. We want Musashi to find his answers and come to peace with himself, but fate will not allow him to do so. He’s caught in the current of life, riding the waves of storms he’s been building his whole life, just trying to find shelter.
Unfortunately, this is where the story as we know it comes to an end, as the remainder of the arc was never finished by the author. It’s disappointing after reading all of this fantastic story to not have a final conclusion for all of these characters, but hopefully one day we’ll get some answers. In the meantime, it’s worth appreciating the incredible tale told so far along with the beautiful artwork and lasting themes left in this work. One of the most underrated features of this series is the art style. Everything is so incredibly realistic and surreal, like it was taken directly from a picture. The scenery is immaculate, the character designs are intricately detailed and each character has unique features, stories and ways of life. Artwork like this, on top of the already iconic story, to me puts this easily in a top 10 all time class. If completed, this could even break my top 3.
With all this said, I will likely never forget the journey I took with Musashi while reading Vagabond. There’s so many hidden messages and side stories that are easy to forget or miss that I’m sure I’d discover new things on a re-read. Being only a few hundred chapters, it makes for a fairly quick read too. I highly recommend this to anyone looking for an action packed story that leaves out the super power abilities but adds more analytical thought towards life. It makes you think, feel and maybe even reflect on yourself at times. I know it did for me. Maybe you’ll get something good from it too.