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PREFACE

Traveling medicine man Kinzuo is the kind of guy who just wants to stay out of trouble.  

Unfortunately for him, war-torn feudal Japan is not a very safe place to be. 

 Kinzuo finds himself caught between warring samurai clans.  When one clan uses supernatural means to bring a long-dead warrior back to life, Kinzuo has more trouble than he could ever have imagined.  Can a mild-mannered pharmacist ever hope to tame an undead, amoral, killing machine?

MANGA VISION TEST

ARTWORK:  Missile Kakurai’s artwork is distinctive and very detailed.  He does an excellent job recreating all the period detail in the character’s clothing, and each character has a unique and individual look.  The action is bloody and fast-paced, but sometimes hard to follow.  On a few occasions, I had to re-read a battle sequence several times to figure out what was happening.

SOUND EFFECTS:  The original Japanese sound effects have been left in, with translated versions squeezed in next to them.  This is carefully done, and does not disrupt the artwork.

EDITS:  There are no obvious edits made in this volume.

EXTRAS:  The extras in this volume are a few brief character descriptions and two notes on translation.

BOOK REPORT  

STORY:  Sword of Shibito has an interesting mix of historical samurai action and supernatural horror.  These elements work together well and provide a good foundation for all the action in this story.  Kikuchi also works in a few humorous moments to keep things from getting too dark.

TRANSLATION:  The translation seems very accurate, and the English dialogue is smoothly written.  None of the dialogue seems out of place or inappropriate.

CHARACTERS:  Quite a few characters come and go in this first volume without a whole lot of depth.  The most important character is Kinzuo, a wandering pharmacist.  Kinzuo serves as the reader’s point of view character.  He is a regular, everyday guy who ends up trapped in a crazy and dangerous situation.

Shibito, the title character, is really only seen as a mindless, undead killer in the first volume.  Most other characters are either enigmatic, or quickly killed.  Hopefully, there will be a little more character development as the series continues.

FAN SERVICE:  There is really nothing in Sword of Shibito that could be seen as fan service.

FOOTNOTES:

What if Frankenstein-like mad science had flourished in feudal Japan ?  Maybe you have never pondered that question, but Hideyuki Kikuchi surely has given it some thought.  The Sword of Shibito, Kikuchi’s answer to that question, is much like Victor Frankenstein’s famous monster.  It is composed of many stitched together parts that, despite a few rough edges, somehow seem to work together. 

The story starts out like a traditional tale of life in feudal Japan .  Kinzuo the pharmacist is traveling the land by foot, trying to avoid the dangerous and bloody combat between rival clans vying for power.  His traveling companions are an effeminate actor named Umenosuke and a displaced samurai called Sawa.  It is as they enter the cursed Adachi Fields, and begin to ponder the possibility of demons lurking there, that things start to get really weird.

First, Kinzuo and company are warned away by a strange ninja and his life-sized fighting dolls.  This encounter is followed up with a much more deadly attack by a super-naturally fast and deadly woman, who makes short work of Kinzuo’s companions.  Apparently, their body parts are needed for a little mad-science.  Luckily for the pharmacist, his parts don’t really measure up so he gets to keep them all together.  Unless, of course, they need some spares.

The mad scientist in question is the, technically long-deceased, 10^th master of the Saezuki Clan.  He needs the parts to stitch together an appropriate new body for his son, Shibito.  Shibito, by the way, has also been dead for quite some time.  When will the mad scientists of the world learn?  Bringing back the dead rarely (OK, never) works out well for anyone.  The mad-science newsletter really should do more to warn people to just stay away from the whole resurrection thing.

As you can probably tell by the title, despite the best efforts of some powerful rival clans to stop him, Shibito is returned to life.  Predictably, things don’t quite go as planned for Master Saezuki, and Kinzuo ends up in a bigger mess than he could have ever imagined.  He is forced, by a talking raven no less, into being the companion and tutor for the undead killing machine that the reawakened Shibito has become.

The best thing about The Sword of Shibito is that this series is not afraid to go way over the top with flat-out crazy weirdness.  It is not every series that features battles between mechanical ninjas and undead samurai.  The reactions of Kinzuo, a fairly normal guy, to the weird and violent world he suddenly finds himself a part of, add a touch of humor to lighten the darkness of this story.  The period setting also makes a nice change of pace from more contemporary horror titles.  Anyone who loves action-packed and violent swordplay will get a thrill from The Sword of Shibito.   Stitched together from various other genres, this monster may look freaky but if you appreciate it for what it is, its weirdness will win you over.

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