Mori Hideki doesn’t usually create the story, he often takes a book and transforms it to manga. And he has done it again. Kaina is adaptation of various samurai stories set in 20s of 16th century authored by Nanjou Norio. Stories are bound together in one way or another but mainly by samurai tournament held at Suruga Castle.

As you probably guessed by now, Kaina is set of “one-shot” stories. You may know the first one of them if you have read Shigurui by Yamaguchi Takayuki. Fujiki Gennosuke and Irako Seigen, revenge, one-armed samurai and blind samurai. It’s very similar but Yamaguchi grandly expanded original story while Mori kept it short and fast. (Do not misunderstand me; both of these versions are excellent.) One of the stories is actually written by Mori himself.

The stories are generally about crippled and deformed people (be it on body or in mind). Many of them are outcast. Some looks hideous, some are sick in their minds; others are brutal barbarians or simply madmen. But their stories are excellently depicted. You can feel their tragedy and maybe you come to a conclusion that they’re just weak humans who seek warm open arms of a woman or a good friend. Even these sick men are afraid of betrayal and society. Some of them are willing to hide their weaknesses in loneliness, while other can’t bear it and commit dreadful deeds in midst of inner suffering.

Mori Hideki’s drawings are terrific as always and maybe even better. I’m terrible at Japanese but I was willing to spent whole days translating chapters with a plump dictionary in my hand. It’s simply that good.

....I guess beyond that...has any english publisher decided to translate Suruga-jou Gozen Jiai yet? I loved Shigurui, and I'm guessing i would dig the hell out of the real book behind it all. If anything can't wait to get a copy of this one too.