Real-life figure Miyamoto Musashi was the most celebrated samurai of all time. The quintessential warrior-philosopher, Musashi authored A Book of Five Rings, a classic treatise in the canon of world philosophy and military strategy. But the path to enlightenment is an endless journey, and to get there through violent means—by way of the sword—makes mere survival an even greater challenge. While fight scenes in film and animation require infinitely more exhaustive time, effort, and manpower to create they have one all-important advantage over comics and literature when it comes to action: motion. At seventeen years of age, Miyamoto Musashi—still known by his childhood name, Shinmen Takezō—was a wild young brute just setting out along the way of the sword.

As the first samurai manga I am currently reading, Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue has become an instant favourite based on reading the first volume, which has already done a lot in establishing the life-changing transition from Takezō Shinmen to Musashi Miyamoto, whose goal in life is to become invincible under the sun. I really liked Inshun, he reminds me of another warrior monk, Aang the Last Airbender. Both smile a lot, have bald heads can be terrifying when it comes to battle.

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The successor to the Hōzōin spear style, Inshun, has his own issues. He’s a natural combat genius who has never known “fear”, or had a truly serious challenge to his skills until now. Thus his growth has stalled; Inshun must learn how to deal with defeat to become stronger. His multi-chapter duel with Musashi is the centerpiece of this volume.

There’s a lot of violence in this volume, some of it quite bloody. There’s also a brief sex scene with female nudity–this is a “mature readers” title. The centerpiece of this second omnibus of Takehiko Inoue's critically acclaimed series is the duel between the young, brutish Miyamoto Musashi and the second generation master of the Hozoin Temple, the perpetually smiling Inshun. Volume 4, the introduction to Musashi's growth was intriguingly lovely, I loved the philosophical growth and seeing the barriers in which he was beginning to overcome. In the wake of his battle with the famed Yoshioka school in Kyoto from volume 1, Takezo (now known as Musashi) finds himself with a host of new enemies (not a new experience for the vagabond, nor one he is likely to shake) and reunited with the monk Takuan and a young boy named Jotaro...more troubling to Musashi’s peace of mind is the presence of Otsu, whose beauty and compassion cause him no little distraction.The art is stellar, but much of the credit for the plot and characterization must go to Eiji Yoshikawa, author of the novel this manga is an adaptation of.

Matahachi’s on the run because of the arson thing, and a chance encounter allows him to also reinvent himself as the respected warrior Sasaki Kojirō. His sections of the story are tragicomedy, as he keeps having good intentions, but the flaws in his character prevent him from following through in a crisis, and we watch him make excuse after excuse for doing less than he ought. I enjoy Miyamoto, and for his age, he is very believable. I just find him to be overwhelmingly dull at times. He is so self absorbed with strength. That isn't enough to bring his character down to dull, but he has a childhood love interest that compels him to be 'distracted.' I'm guessing it was made to make his character more relatable, but I feel as if the cliche love interest doesn't do anything for me. It's just another thing Miyamoto has to go through. I was much more into the abusive relationship with his father but that has again been held absent and shrouded in intrigue. Although this has been marketed as a seinen manga, in which the demographic is young adult men, I feel like Vagabond has in common with shōnen manga as not only Musashi’s arc of being the strongest is not far off from Goku in Dragon Ball, but also the action plays a crucial part in both storytelling and characterisation. The major set-piece of this volume is when we arrive at the Hōzōin-ryū school of spearmanship, where Musashi fights Inshun Hōzōin, the second-generation master of the Hōzōin spear technique. Devoting seven chapters to this one fight, it is a masterclass of action, in that it’s not just a case of hitting one another, but also strategy and what the two fighters are feeling.Miyamoto Musashi is better at learning from his mistakes; while he is not the sharpest katana in the armory, he’s partially grasped the concept of critical thinking and examining his own mindset. Still has a long way to go before being the best swordsman in Japan though. Volume 6, The first half way great, I didn't love the end as much as I did the first half only because I despise Matahachi as a character but I believe that is the authors incentive. So I appreciate what Inoue has done to create conflict and drama in the plot. Nevertheless I loved it ! During their time together, the monk dissects Musashi’s biggest dilemma, which is his desire to be with his childhood friend Otsū, who is now off on her own journey. Considering that Musashi is the main character of this series, Inoue is also interested to give every character their own narrative, including faces who we thought we never see again, such as Matahachi’s horrid mother Osugi. Following Musashi’s numerous battles with other warriors, we even get to see their side in the larger narrative as they are preparing to take down the eponymous vagabond.