Basara

Description

From Viz:
Basara is a post-apocalyptic fantasy adventure series and one of the most popular shôjo manga of the 90s in Japan. It is the story of how a young girl becomes "the child of destiny" and finds the strength to free her people and seek revenge for the death of her brother.

Note: Won the Shogakukan Manga Award for Shoujo in 1992.

Type

Manga

Related Series

N/A

Associated Names

Legend of Basara

Басара

บาซาร่า ศัตรูที่รัก

バサラ

바사라

Groups Scanlating

Lavendar Tinted

MangaONE

MangaProject

Latest Release(s)

v.21 c.78 by MangaONE 16 years ago

v.20 c.Extra by MangaOne 18 years ago

v.20 c.76-77 by MangaONE 18 years ago

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Status in Country of Origin

27 Volumes (Tankoubon - Complete)
16 Volumes (Bunkoban - Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

Starts at Vol 1, Chap 1

Ends at Vol 5, Chap 19

User Reviews

Basara by PrincessVera

Forum

9 topics, 62 posts

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User Rating

Average: 8.8 / 10.0 (1432 votes)

Bayesian Average: 8.75 / 10.0

48%

20%

15%

Last Updated

March 30th, 2025 8:45pm PDT - 1 month ago

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Genre

Action Adventure Comedy Drama Fantasy Gender Bender Mature Romance Shoujo
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Categories

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Category Recommendations

Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang (Novel)

Recommendations

Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori

Author(s)

Artist(s)

Year

Original Publisher

Shogakukan

Serialized In (magazine)

Betsucomi (Shogakukan)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

Viz (27 Vols - Complete)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #375

(-228)

Monthly Pos #1030

(-247)

3 Month Pos #1119

(-113)

6 Month Pos #1445

(-116)

Year Pos #1414

(+121)

List Stats

On 1322 reading lists

On 2051 wish lists

On 2716 completed lists

On 195 unfinished lists

On 833 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

Basara's ending

10 years ago

what is the meaning of BASARA btw??

13 years ago

is it worth reading?

14 years ago

ending and spoilers

15 years ago

Sasara's Mother

16 years ago

User Comments [ Order by time added ]

Engaging Adventure

by CCheshire
6 years ago

Rating: N/A

I recall looking at the series for a while but I was initially put off by the retro art but the manga-ka improved a lot and it ends up being very unique.

Sarasa is a great MC as she starts out as an avg girl who witnessed tragedy into wise and capable leader of the rebels. I liked how she wasn't the strongest fighter and relied on other strategies to win her battles. Also, she still is a believable teen hero vs someone who would end up super jaded from her exp. She remains true to her goals even if it meant separating from loved ones.

I do have to say that their romance does felt a bit rushed since I swear they met like 4x. Also, I'm glad they didn't have any strange love triangle problems.

Aegha... leaving her alone on that mountainside during her breakdown is a terrible idea like why. A lot of the times I kept wondering like what's his deal then he died w/o giving us much of a clue.

I'm still on the fence if I liked the ending or not. Since Shuri lost his arm and now Sarasa are both traveling together vs running the country. I get it as works as a conclusion but I kinda wanted them to actually govern Japan together instead of just leaving it to everyone else.

... Last updated 6 years ago

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Incredible

by mispelling
11 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

I love Yumi Tamura's works. 7 seeds and Basara are both my favorite shoujo and josei. It's not really right to compare the two because they're so different; the only thing they have in common is the post apocalyptic theme, although they're both done differently. Basara was much more focused on individual character growth of Shuri and Sarasa, as well as relying heavily on romance as a key point in the plot. The only thing that keeps me from giving this is a 10 is because it does get melodramatic and drawn out too long at time. Also it's kinda unbelievable how long they didn't know about each other (but it's entirely plausible, I suppose.) The art is a bit iffy, especially in the first few volumes, but it does progressively get better. It's very 90s style, which will take getting use to

The actually storyline ends in vol. 25 but I highly suggest reading the side stories as they contain other untouched plots not dealt with in the main story.

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One of the best ones out there

by micxj
12 years ago

Rating: N/A

I highly recommend this series. I have read lots of romance mangas but I can only count with my fingers the titles I really like, and this is one of them. The manga has 27 volumes but I just couldn't get enough of them. Despite its length, I wouldn't mind rereading all of them in one day (if life permits, lol)

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Beautiful story!

by follybaby
12 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

I read this manga in a little under a week... 27 volumes! I was hooked solid for the first three days, and then my interest was still piqued enough to continue but I wasn't AS hooked on it. I'm a big romance genre person, and the fact that my expectations weren't met romance-wise after three days kind of put me off. But, it's still a very good read! DEFINITELY worth the award that it was given.

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Good story but....

by Kinky-Chan
13 years ago

Rating: N/A

I gave this manga a 10 because of the storyline. I wouldn't say that it's the best and even though the story is great, with many well developed characters I still find that the main character is a bit...undeveloped. yes, she might be carry a huge burden but she always acts recklessly without learning from her mistakes and I find that very disturbing. I wanted to see her grow and think before she acts but I don't see that in her. She might be brave and all but sometimes it makes me wanna smack her. Especially in the beginning of the story. For the rest, they're pretty awesome and all. For some reason, I feel sorry for Shidou. But anyway, this is quite a good manga, although I don't know if you're gonna be like me who kept on wanting to smack Sarasa in every chapter.

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Highly recommended!

by heynadz
14 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

Can't believe it's done... This was one of those stories that get you so immersed into it, that you feel sad when it's finished. I wanted more, but at the same time the mangaka gave just enough. The ending was great. She made sure each character has a "closure".

I loved the fact that each character was relevant to the plot, and that they developed with the story. The main characters' internal struggles felt real.
I'm so glad I ended up reading this manga.

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Regret

by CiellavonNightmare
14 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

No. I dont regret reading this. I regret putting this manga off for like three years and spent my time wasted on cliche boring shoujo mangas. I mean, I'm just on chapter 35 as of now and I cant wait to finish it, or rather, I dont want to finish it at all! I regret putting this on my wish list for ages because I was put off with the odd art (back then it was odd for me) and i thought the story was a bit dull and people just kept talking about it and I realized, for the first time, I found a shoujo manga actually worrth reading.it's just so awesome, the character's are great, the plot is good and ahh..the 'thing' about

Sarasa and Shuri being lovers when they hate each other as Tatara and Red King. Gah, I just cant wait for the time when they both find out who each other are or, sometimes, I dont eevn want them to know.lol so anyways, one of the best. It was ages since I'm doing a one long series marathon and i'm actually enjoying it. I love the realism, tragedy and the way fate plays with their lives. I've never been this excited over a classic manga for a long time, the last one being Versailles no Bara. I reccomend it to anyone who is tired of modern stupid heroines.
Edit: I just finished this (finally) and all I can say is, the ending was great! Yeah, ! Shuri and Sarasa didnt die and everything was peaceful but it could've been better if ! they died together, well, you know like kind of romeoxjuliet. but anw, each character had something going on and they resolve it at the end. Especially the prophecy for Ageha the 'One day you'll meet a woman worth dying for' and those were the words I couldn't forget, ever. Asagi's self discovery and Sarasa's growth. You just cant hate anyone, not even Ginko.

... Last updated 14 years ago

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One of the best shoujos ive ever read

by AliceinAmestris
14 years ago

Rating: N/A

I had this on my wish list for a while now and i kept hearing people talk about it so i though id give it a chance. IT WAS AMAZING!!! The art wasn't the best but it got better, and the plot was epic. It wasn't predictable like alot of other mangas i've read. The plot kept moving and wasn't entirely focused on the romance, but about the revolution.

I loved all the character but there were some i learned to love such as Asagi. What i liked best was the follow up stories about the other characters and even though there were about a million and two characters, Tamura sensei didn't forget about any of them. (I wished there was a follow up story about Chacha though....) In most shoujos the characters forget about the bad things that happened but the characters in Basara embraced what happened in the past and learned from it, I could see all the characters grow from begining to end. Sarasa is a crybaby but I think she deserves to be one because of all she did for her country and the people. She never give up. Even when crying she moved forward. This is my favourite shoujo manga. I strongly recommend everyone to read this.

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Well...

by Starkick
15 years ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

Meh.

I, personally, didn't really like this. The characters were well-developed, of course, and it was nice that no one was all evil, or all good, and the plot was original and obviously well thought out.

But I didn't like it. There was too much angst, for one thing-- plus, everything always seemed to go horribly wrong. Loads of people die, it's very bloody, and it can get very confusing as to who's who, and what the heck is going on.

(And there's the fact that the art is horribly old and awful, everyone's shoulders are insanely broad, and you can't tell the girls from the boys at all. ...It does get better as it goes on - much better - but I really can't call it 'good'.)

And I really felt what romance there was developed entirely too quickly and randomly. Admittedly, this is marked as a shoujo, so I probably should have expected that, but it just seemed strange, when all friendly, enemy, and other relations were so gradually developed, that...

Shuuri and Sarasa should fall completely and utterly in love after, like, three hour-long meetings in the hot springs. It just feels off.

I'll finish it, just because I hate to leave something undone, but I certainly won't re-read. But maybe it's just me - loads of other people seem to really enjoy this series, so perhaps you shouldn't take my word for it.

[color=red]EDIT:[/color] Okay, so I just finished it. ...And I'm still confused. Not to mention that it felt like this dragged on forever; I kept waiting for it to end, and it never did.

The characters were very good, though, I'll have to give it that. And it was certainly a very creative and unique plot.

...But I still most definitely won't read this again. Once was enough.

... Last updated 15 years ago

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What a GREAT story!!!!

by zero-chan
16 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

I normaly don't read manga with older art but I think after reading Basara I should consider reading other works with old art, because its just soooo GREAT!! The story is very unique and the characters are all developing in this storry. In the end I was really moved by some characters and even cryed, what I usually don't do by reading a Manga. I raed a lot other gender bender mangas but this is verry difrent, It's better^^!! If you think it's not worth giving a try then you are absolutly 100% WRONG!!! It's absolutly awesom and I was really absorbed in it while reading it and felt the emotions of each character^^!!

... Last updated 14 years ago

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