[Review] Vagabond: Yagyuu arc

Manga: Vagabond バガボンド
Mangaka: Inoue Takehiko 井上雄彦
Volumes: 8-11
Chapters: 77-104

Musashi continues on his journey to challenge the strongest and his new target is Yagyuu Sekishuusai, known to be an ‘invincible’ warrior. Meanwhile, Yoshioka Denshichirou has been constantly requesting for a duel with Sekishuusai to no avail and ultimately gives up on the wait. On his way back, he encounters Musashi, who has been granted an audience with the senior disciples of the Yagyuu thanks to his unique inquiry into the person who cut the peony he enclosed in his letter.

The meeting with the four senior disciples proceeds without incident at first despite Musashi’s attempts to provoke them into a fight, thinking that this was the only way he could get to Sekishuusai. However, it is Jotarou who inadvertently succeeds where Musashi failed. By Jotarou’s killing the Yagyuu’s pet dog, the members are antagonized into fighting Musashi, who states that he will take the ‘punishment’ for his own disciple.

Somewhat overwhelmed by the four senior disciples, Musashi loses them in a bamboo forest and comes to the cottage where Sekishuusai is resting. There, he has a brief reunion with Otsu before finally seeing Sekishuusai in the flesh. At this point of the story, I find Musashi very endearing. He is naive, is in love, is still haunted by the shadow of his father, all of which make him incredibly vulnerable and sensitive. He has so much more to learn and meeting Sekishuusai teaches him the meaning of being ‘invincible’. It’s interesting to see the parallels between Sekishuusai and Shinmen Munisai from Musashi’s point of view. Both were incredibly skilled fighters but Munisai’s glory was coupled with fear of others, including his own son, while Sekishuusai had a calm that was all-encompassing. Musashi was a little bewildered albeit overwhelmed by Sekishuusai’s presence and amusingly enough, decided that he liked this man.

Musashi also decides to leave Otsu and Jotarou in the care of the Yagyuu, believing he is incapable of giving them a sense of security as his life could end at any minute. Little does he know that Otsu and Jotarou are not willing to part from him and they set out to find him.

Meanwhile, Matahachi encounters Granny and Uncle Gon at a market while fleeing from a swordsman of 35 years who challenged him to a duel. Matahachi admits to his shameful actions for the past four years but still clings to the ‘Sasaki Kojiro’ identity, claiming to have mastered the sword well enough to be awarded a swordsmanship certificate. He is also informed by Granny that Takezou and Otsu have (supposedly) absconded, sparking disbelief and jealousy perhaps. Takezou does have an interesting effect on Matahachi; the former’s accomplishments almost always seem to motivate as well as fuel the feeling of inferiority in Matahachi.

Final rating: 8.7/10

This entry was posted on February 20th, 2009 and is filed under Vagabond. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.