At the beginning of the Edo period (1629), when people enjoyed a time of peace, Lord Tokugawa Tadanaga decides to hold a tournament. In the past, matches were fought with wooden swords, but this time real swords will be used. The one-armed Fujiki Gennosuke and the blind Irako Seigen will fight each other in this tournament, even though both were disciples of Iwamoto Kogan — known as Japan’s greatest swordsman. So begins the story of intertwining fates, conflict, and colliding destinies.
This one’s relatively new in scanlation terms – written and illustrated by Nanjo Norio and Yamaguchi Takayuki respectively, Shigurui is very heavy on the gore, guts, and graphic violence in general. Interestingly, the goring of the human body is a major narrative and artistic theme, it’s also depicted as a perversion of Tadanaga to the strong but futile objection of his vassals. The story is told entirely in flashback, and it ends, in its present, as abruptly as it begins. The rich storytelling will leave you resigned to the inevitability of its finale.
Kotonoha got the ball rolling with a volume and half, after that Anonymous Spore picked up the slack for a whopping nine and half volumes, and Anonymous Stem rounded out the effort with the final four.
(Kotonoha, Anonymous Spore)
Shigurui v05-07
(Anonymous Spore)
Shigurui v08-10
(Anonymous Spore)
Shigurui v11-13
(Anonymous Spore, Anonymous Stem)
Shigurui v14-15
(Anonymous Stem)
◆ The 1st Ten ◆
◆ AKIRA ◆
◆ Shigurui ◆
December 15th, 2011 at 9:43 PM
Blade of the Immortal is coming.
Too much samurai meat grinder and flying body parts one after another? It’s very possible I’ll change it up for the next one and do BOTI after.
December 15th, 2011 at 10:43 PM
oh hoho YES
shigurui is fricking epic, another one of my favorites. i remember how excited i was when the final volume came out…
well done XYZ (as usual)
December 17th, 2011 at 4:32 PM
Nice! I am currently reading this one, I started it a few days ago, it’s pretty good so far.
Will postpone my next post for a while then.
December 18th, 2011 at 9:53 PM
Marvelous post!
I read this whole thing in one go. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and you can’t stop reading.
Truly a tale of epic proportions and I’m not even exaggerating here.
I can recommend the anime too, follows the manga closely, but sadly stops halfway through it. Another 12 episodes would have been\would be appreciated.
December 19th, 2011 at 6:50 AM
For those who watched anime what volume should we start the manga at?
Z0D mentioned halfway so is vol7 or 8 correct place to start?
Much appreciated, thanks!
December 19th, 2011 at 9:26 PM
@Anon
IIRC it was somewhat around the end of volume 07, so the best way to keep yourself from spoiling would be to start skimming through volume 7.
December 28th, 2011 at 8:43 AM
Archer you’re not gonna post anything? 1 week oughta do it :D
Wanna do a new years post definitely.