The story of a sane boy in a wicked world.
This manga has a very strange sense of humor and storytelling, it's just different from almost any other I've read and is thus not for everyone, for me who likes coherence I'm having trouble with it and yet I find it interesting and alluring. Not to mention that shino is such a simple, touching and beautiful character

First of all, like any multi-chapter manga, the art gets waaaaay better in later chapters.

I'm a fan of this type of shounen. Where the main male lead isn't an assh*le, but he isn't perfect either. He isn't tactless and doesn't just bumble through and basically make a mess out of everything.

He isn't perfect, but he is sincere and big-hearted.

He's a great hero to read, and it was refreshing to say the least. (I needed to step away from shoujo for a bit, and this kept me happy the entire time).

I loooooved the romance, or, basically, the subtlety of it. It wasn't in your face, and there was a nice fluffy relationship development going on.

There are strong themes of friendship and kindness, and what I felt was the true meaning of honour. It's not as dragging as other more popular shounen (Nurarihyon, etc.) and there were character arcs of course.

It's a nice light read with many heartwarming scenes. Recommended for those looking for a not-so-serious Samurai story with hidden depths. Overall, a little crack-y and lots of fun.

SPOILER!:


... Last updated on June 28th, 2015, 3:10am

Seriously, the recent sudden swordsmith aka obligatory training arc was awful. I never truly got why training arcs are so bad until I read it. Because they were neither competing for their lives nor in a battle, there was very little tension and reason to care. The actual training methods were stupid, simplistic, and unoriginal. Their motivation were contrived and cliched. The walking plot device swordsmith had no personality...

As a whole, aside from a few moving moments and an interesting if very poorly developed and executed premise (not the married couple one though that too started out initially interesting only to never deliver, but the samurai values are mean and outdated one), the manga had nothing else going for it. Even then, I doubt Shino will ever have a meaningful moment again, and judging from the easy acceptance of a female samurai this chapter, I also doubt the outdated values theme will ever ring true again.

I dunno, I always had low expectations for this manga because it's just mediocre sprinkled with a few good moments, so I feel like I should've expected this. The most recent chapters were just too relentlessly, unthinkingly bad and indulgent.

... Last updated on September 10th, 2013, 1:37pm

Damn, I wasn't expecting this kind of story from your usual lulssorandom Jumps (this one has those moments too but with reasons.

It's simple and straightforward, and tickles your mind. I like it.

I never expected this series to be so good. The story is told in a comical way, but behind the simplistic cover there is a lot of substance. It deals with a lot of ugly subjects but somehow isn't bogged down with melodrama, and yet still really touching when it counts. On one hand, it's incredibly cynical and depressing. I mean, how many manga series make jokes about the unjust deaths of one's family? On the other hand, despite living in such an ugly world, the main characters possess many very admirable qualities and all much more than what they seem, kind of like the manga itself. Their earnest feelings really reached me.

I'm pretty sure others will think there are flaws. But the beautiful simplicity and quirkiness of this series are a cut above the rest and it should appeal to many older readers who can understand the underlying themes. Give it a chance.

throughout my reading i squealed every other page because they are just too cute. the characters are standard, the plot is run of the mill, but the art and the execution is so perfectly synchronised with each other this manga become perfect indeed

edit
i finished this manga in two days. i am glad i found this manga, because i just love these cute characters and their cute interactions. even with all these cuteness, one thing i love about this manga is the violence stems from something so real - the samurai way of doing things all based on honour. often times in other mangas samurai were always praised as the epitome of honourableness, but here we can see all those things called 'honour' are not worth anything, and i think, that what make this manga set apart from others.

i believe this manga can go one or two volume more, the ending is quite a let down. but i guess this manga is truly about love, and the mangaka dont really know how to stretch it anymore since we can really see their love to each other. (or the mangaka really dont know how to draw awesome fight scene since we can see the fight with the bad guys are pretty wierd).

but still, if you love happy stories with cute characters, this should be your go-to manga.

... Last updated on April 4th, 2014, 7:25am

This manga instantly caught my interests and it didn't disappoint. I found it to be a perfect balance of humor as well as romance. Also, the story is just serious enough for me to not find it as some random "Shounen" manga that has shallow plot. The only downside is that there is 10 chapters available...

it has potential, specially the
relationship between of the two.

the boy starting to understand the girl,
though the girl is hiding her sadness
behind the scenes.

by now the boy has 2 objectives
related to the girl and his ambition.

can't spoil the readers since it has
what we call this a pleasant and unique taste.

I enjoyed it, but there are no recent updates of it being scanned of some reason, which has left me to feel a bit dissapointed because it had kept me intrigued. Yet, there is no recent scans of it.

Totally different from most shounen mangas - awesome read.
The translation is not perfect, but what the heck, I can't wait for the next chapter to be released!