Kind of a waste, it had a lot of potential but among other things it was left unfinished (ended in a cliffhanger!!!) and stopped when it promised to start being interesting, that is to say, the chars had "matured". That's why I'd like to see a sequel to this one even if I didn't find it particularly good and the last volume was pretty good in summing things up but got too compressed. To be honest, I think the anime adaptation is better, one of the few cases where the anime beats the manga.
What stands out of this one are the chars, they are interesting and charming at moments, the rest is decent except the action drawings, it's really hard to follow how the fights flows and often feels like disconnected komas (panels).

... Last updated on August 14th, 2016, 10:47pm

This is a mediocre manga in all aspects. And definitely does not belong in Seinen.

On the good side it's light and actually had a few jokes i really laughed at, which doesn't happen that often. It's about sports and that's always a good subject with a lot of promise.

On the bad side i didn't buy the characters, they had backgrounds, they had personalities, i just didn't care for them, for some reason. This just show that if you have a long manga and time to build a character, you don't necessarily know how to.
Another minus was the kendo. So yeah, LOL, the sport this manga is based on. I'm tempted to say kendo is a boring sport. But i really enjoyed manga about Go, and baseball, and running, and so on, so i'm sure kendo is not a boring sport, but the manga left me with this feeling anyway.

While the fighting scenes were nicely drawn, i couldn't feel and see the moves. There was also close to zero tactics and by the end of the manga we get to a "naruto" zone where people start acting like they can teleport and other ridiculous things like this out of the boundaries of real sports.

But overall this manga just didn't stand as something i would want to read again. It's the kind of manga i won't remember much from in a year. I can't think of any reason why i would recommend this to someone.

This manga is listed as Seinen but I would like to know what part of it is Seinen. If you like light comedy heavily centered around kendo, then you may like this but for someone like me who likes a little drama and romance, this manga is a waste of paper. Basically they train for a kendo match and when it's over, they train again for a stronger school and that's about all their is too it. At 1st I thought their may be a little romantic subplot but no such luck. I gave it up about halfway through and then I read the last volume and I don't think I missed anything. Just remember, if you read this, that's several hours of your life you'll never get back.

I enjoyed the anime and wanted to check out the manga. It starts off a bit rough, the anime is actually tighter and doesn't have any extra fluff. The art in the first volume is a bit weak and I was surprised, but around volume 3 or so it gets an upgrade and becomes much better and by the time it finishes its pretty sharp. I really got sucked in about midway thru the series and I think it ends very strongly and its kinda inspiring. Its more of a slice of slice of life/sports manga, so if you are into powerups and ki-powers this ain't it. There's also no fan service which I know will make some of you cry, but I found it refreshing. Once it gets beyond its shaky beginning, its a pretty nice story. I would love to see a sequel, but maybe with a little romance thrown in. Perfect its not, but its still good stuff.

It's true that the plot isn't original nor epic. But still I enjoy the "slice of life" and comedy of this manga. The girls are cute, and they don't chase after the main char like some ecchi manga. And after all, Tamaki is just too moeeeeeeeeee...

This is pretty enjoyable but I strongly recommend you purchase the official translations of the earlier volumes as the fifaynet scanlations are close to unreadable.

The anime actually followed the series fairly closely until roughly episode nineteen/chapter 56. I don't know much about kendo but though the attacks are artistically exaggerated, the info/background to the techniques seems genuine enough. This particular series could be described as fifty percent school life/slice of life and fifty percent kendo. Amazingly, despite the massive number of girls, there's next to no fan service. Overall, the series doesn't really break new ground but it maintains a consistent level of quality.



Unfortunately, it seems that the majority of the untranslated raws are devoted to a good number of new girls, which reeks of possible filler quality material. Hopefully this isn't the case.

... Last updated on October 18th, 2009, 5:54pm

Bamboo Blade is not really anything unique or special, but it is certainly entertaining. Stemming from the same genre as Hyakko, [m]Azumanga Daioh![/m], and company, it is really more of a strongly themed slice-of-life-comedy type story than it is a sports manga. Still, the characters are all rather endearing, and it is a fun story to read.

Not the best in either genre, but it is worth the time for most.

Like flyingrobots, I came expecting epic kendo action. What I got out of it was wholesome, entertaining, slice-of-life comedy. Well worth the 100 NTD I spent on each book.

Have anyone watch anime of this series? i think it's very funny and enjoyable, the characters is good (tama-chan is so adorable), might be better if the author give a little bit "romance sense" for her..
but overall it's good, worth time watching it..^^