If you go into this expecting from the get go: spectacular, diverse faces and art, breathtaking actions scenes, a complicated and deep story line, and a very flawed protagonist, you might want to skip this.
However, if you give it a shot, it's incredibly interesting. This was started in 1998. The art is very stilted at first, the male faces start to resemble one another. The protagonist is a very skilled assassin who you meet as a kid, and follow her as she grows up, meets new enemies /friends /potential love interests.
Now, from the start, everyone comments on how strong Azumi is. And the story shows diligently that she's strong. Okay? Okay.
Azumi starts as a prodigy. Adept with speed, strength, and skill. She's raised along 9 other boys, so lacks the seductive wiles of a typical kunoichi, and wants to just be another of the boys. When you first meet her, she is a kid, frighteningly obedient and doesn't question her orders a bit.
You KNOW she is strong. Killing people? It's not hard for her.
So, what is the point of the story? What happens leading up to her kills, with regards to her friends and allies and sympathetic enemies. What happens afterwards, her philosophy, her point of living... eventually, all of these problems pop up. She starts to question what she does, who she does it for, why...
She's like Musashi Miyamoto. She is strong, she kills, her reputation grows and so does the list of people looking to kill her because of this. It starts getting darker and bleaker for her the more the manga goes on.
The art and action all get incredibly good later, but it's a gradual change, really. It's not hard to get into, and when it gets too "political" with the narrative boxes (every now and then there is a recap to summarize who has died, and what that means for certain other leaders etc) you can just glaze over them without stressing that it's going to matter too much.
A lot of readers seem to hate Azumi because she's somehow kept her naiivete and innocence knee deep in blood. They hate that this young teenager isn't drowning in angst like she's SUPPOSED to, and rush over the spots in the manga that have her softly hurting, vulnerable. I like that this manga shows her strong, but keeps her integrity. If you're looking for her to "finally" get her torture, or her physically harmed, you'll get there when she's older and I was dreading reading it the entire time, hoping for a way to get her free.
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