VAGABOND VIZBIG ED GN VOL 02 (MR) (C: 1-0-0): Enlightenment VIZBIG Edition: Volume 2 (Vagabond (VIZBIG Edition))

Product Information

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. 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. 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. That's about it. There's a ton of drawn out fighting, banter about the philosophy of battle, and internal reflection, as well as a small side story with Mushashis friend whose name I forget. This massive tome doesn't even conclude the arc it sets up. It ends on a cliffhanger. 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.

Matahatchi's journey is less noble, it seems no matter how hard he tries he always ends up screwing things up, although he gets points for rescuing Musashi early on. 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.

Customer reviews

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. Matahachi isn't given much time in this omnibus but when he is, he steals the identity of a famous swordsman, that of Sasaki. Overall, I enjoyed the character development in Musashi, he seems to be more of a human and less of a demon, especially since the mountains were his only mentors, and that was a nice touch. He finds a new sensei to train under and now his goal is apparently to defeat Inshun. Miyamoto's heart did grow softer especially after he defeated the Yoshioka clan. I'm not even sure who set it on fire yet.

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.It kept me thinking and rereading to fully encompass what Takehiko Inoue was conveying, it was beautiful I loved every minute of it !

After unsuccessfully defeating the swordmasters of the Yoshioka School – which afterwards went on fire, due to the drunken mishaps of Musashi's former friend Matahachi – Musashi wakes up to be reunited with the "damn monk" Takuan, as well as meeting for the first time Jōtarō, a young orphaned boy who wishes to be Musashi's apprentice after hearing about his battle in the Yoshioka School. It is a delight seeing the return of Takuan whose brutally acute and honest attitude remains humorous, whilst he asks Musashi to give him a long overdue haircut. If I have to be honest, despite the cool action sequences and the fact that Inoue tries to make it historically accurate, it has started to become rather repetitive. Miyamoto Musashi is a marvellous character and reminds me of both Goku from Dragon Ball and Naruto from the Naruto series. In these volumes, the demon within him isn't as evident as in the first omnibus but this is because he is distracted romantically, Otsu can't seem to steer clear of the corridors of his mind. This impacts his fighting and his general awareness of his surroundings, his instinct itself, has, in fact, a different vibe to it. I will admit that it initially took me a while to regain my footing in the ongoing narrative, and remember all the characters sufficiently, but once I got past that, the story seemed an improvement via accumulation in comparison to the previous volume. I would not say that the character of Miyamoto Musashi has yet gained any true depth – he still comes across as rather flat – but the character gallery around him is starting to make up for it. Also, while there is still a lot of violence (one fight seems to be going on for an near endless number of chapters) there is much less carnage in this volume. And perhaps it allows hints of character growth for Musashi as well. 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. Musashi decides he must face Inshun of the great Hozoin warrior monks, even though he barely survived his last duel it seems he really has his heart set on getting killed as efficiently as possible.

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.