Manga Review: Samurai 8: Hachimaru Den Chapter 19

Samurai 8: Hachimaru Den Chapter 19

VIZ

Mangaka: Masashi Kishimoto (Writer), Akira Ōkubo (Artist)

In the newest chapter of Kishimoto’s post-Naruto series Samurai 8, Hachimaru and the gang are finally off-world and heading to the next planet in their spaceship. After some banter, the over-forgetful Ryu becomes Hachimaru’s training partner. Oh, and before I forget, a new threat was very briefly teased at the beginning of the chapter.

In my opinion, Samurai 8 has been a slow burn since its first chapter. The story has just enough intrigue in its premise to keep me wanting to read more, and Samurai 8’s unique combat system blending science-fiction and fantasy makes for some interesting fight scenes and grandiose panels. However, none of the characters are anything special; every character shown so far doesn’t have too much more going on with their characterizations besides the typical tropes you’d expect. Admittedly, Hachimaru does have a cool moment towards the end of the chapter that makes use of his cyborg body, but beyond that, the chapter isn’t very memorable.

Hachimaru is the “initially weak protagonist who more than anything wishes to be one of the best” type who is very reminiscent to Naruto in his underdog status (although to Kishimoto’s credit, besides that Naruto and Hachimaru are rather different characters). Daruma is the mysterious master who is much stronger than he initially appears. Ann is the soft-spoken but energetic female who believes in the protagonist despite the odds. It’s still early so I’m willing to give them some slack, but as it stands the characters feel extremely by-the-book and while Ann’s enduring cheerfulness does end up being endearing, I can’t say I care about any of the characters at all. For someone like me who cares about characters most of all, this series hasn’t done too much to endear itself to me yet but it has nonetheless kept me entertained. Despite Kishimoto’s lackluster writing so far, I will give props to Ōkubo’s artwork, which feels reminiscent of Kishimoto’s own work. The characters are drawn unique and interesting, and you can tell he has a lot of fun with the blending sci-fi and feudalistic Japanese themes.

Samurai 8 needs the next big arc to provide more characterization and character development to get readers like me involved in it. Otherwise, it’s going to get dropped sooner rather than later.

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