To the laughing idiot above me:
Heh, you're a peculiar one. I don't know why you feel the need to critique other people's reviews, but obviously you've never been taught any courtesy or manners. Dude, everyone reads manga differently. Some read it for a good laugh, others get caught up in the plot. Nothing wrong with either case. I don't give a damn how you read your manga, and neither do I tell you how to state your opinion. So, how about you stop telling others how to write their own review and actually contribute something relevant to the topic. Just a suggestion.
This manga is great. Beautiful art, riveting plot, morally ambiguous characters... all these make for a very interesting read.
But I just have to say, there is so much needless violence. And the brutality of the killings can be quite off-putting, especially when you're continuously bombarded with it throughout the whole manga.
For instance, there's this scene in which Musashi fights 70 samurai. The fight lasted...what? 20, 30 chapters? By the end of it, I was literally exhausted. I wonder if the author did that on purpose to let us experience a bit of how tiring it must have been for Musashi to fight that many people, or if he's really just doing fan-service for his gore-hog readers... but anyway, there's a whole bunch of bloodshed and really awful, just awful, killings.
My point is, it's just kinda hard to like a character when you see him kill a man in cold blood, and then see the man's little kid come running out and crying over his dead body. Pretty hard to clap for the victor there, unless of course, your a bit of a jerk and that stuff amuses you. If that's the case, good for you, you've hit the goldmine with this manga. Anyway, this isn't a criticism, it's just to show you how morally ambiguous and dark the tone of the story is, and what a tough position this can put you in as a reader. This manga is heavy reading, not the rainbows and lollipop stuff you get from most manga.
Anyway, if your a bit of a saddist, and you like gorey stuff, along with a pretty great storyline, this manga is for you. But be warned, things are gonna get ugly, fast.