History Manga / KamuiDen

* BadAss: Take your pick.

* AnyoneCanDie: The majority of named characters introduced in the first series don't live to see the end of it. Seriously, we're talking about a body count on par with ASongOfIceAndFire or BloodMeridian.

* WhatTheHellHero: A particularly painful one occurs toward the end of the first series: [[spoiler: Shosuke, Gen, and the other peasant leaders have surrendered themselves to the local authorities and are being conveyed to a stronghold to be tortured. Along the way, Matsubayashi Kenpu and Minazuki Ukon attack the caravan and engage in a desperate battle with the troops escorting the prisoners. Against all odds, Matsubayashi manages to slash his way through scores of guards and free the captives from their cages. He urges them to run for their lives only to have them remain stoically on the spot, with Shosuke exclaiming "even if th revolt is over, our fight begins here." Clearly they have decided to martyr themselves. [[PoorCommunicationKills Too bad noone told Matsubayashi who winds up dying in vain]]. And he is NOT pleased about it.]]

* WouldntHurtAChild: This trope is not so much subverted as hanged, drawn and quartered. In the wake of the peasant uprisings, small children are executed alongside their families.

* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: Very much so, though in the second series, you have to wait for hundreds of pages before a ninja even makes an appearance.

* SelectivelyLethalWeapon: Many characters use a technique called "mine-uchi" (striking an oponent with the blunt side of the blade) to knock out their foes: [[spoiler: Nishiki Tanba does it to Ryunoshin; Ryunoshin in turn uses it on a whole mob of wayward samurai. Conversely, Atena's failure to perform a non-lethal mine-uchi on an unruly peasant gets her killed by an angry mob.]]

* The Original Manga/KamuiDen, hereafter referred to as "the first series" was serialized in Garo from 1964 to 1971.
* From the original Manga/KamuiDen came the more youth-friendly spinoff, KamuiGaiden, which ran in Shonen Sunday from 1965 to 1967 and was thus concurrent with the main series. It set aside the huge cast and increasingly Byzantine plotlines of the original series to focus on the adventures of the protagonist, Kamui. This series was also the basis for the 1969 animated TV series.

* Finally, the second series of Manga/KamuiDen ran from 1988 to 2000 in Big Comics. It picks up more or less where the original series had left off back in 1971.

!! [Manga/KamuiDen] contains examples of:

* MissFanservice: Noone in particular, though female characters have a way of winding up topless.

* AmbiguouslyGay: Nowhere more ambiguously that with Ryunoshin and his young charge Miyagi Onya. Initially, the latter approaches Ryunoshin requesting that he become his "nenja" (a kind of mentor figure, but like the erastes of ancient Greece, with strong gay overtones). Ryunoshin says he has no interest in "shudo" (male pederasty), but recognizing the young man's purity of heart, accepts his request to form a special bond (chigiri) together. Of course, Shirato had to go and muddy the waters further by saying in a recap, that the two characters shared a bond of "shudo," which all but explictly labels them as gay lovers. Certain characters within the manga also seem to think their relationship swings this way. As they are never shown engaing in anything beyond mildly affectionate behaviour, it would seem they are in a platonic gay relationship...maybe.

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler: The despised feudal lord who raped Mine and hacked up her body out of spite is ambushed by Sasa Ikkaku while his retainers are carrying his litter across a stream. Long story short: he takes a katana up the rectum.]]

* PetTheDog: Nishiki Tanba has one in the second series. Once his son has kidnapped a young woman (Miyagi Onya's older sister) and sold her into sex slavery, Nishiki stes things right by intimidating the brothel owners into freeing her.

* SmugSnake: The Hioki Clan overseer, Tachibana Gundayu takes a little too much satistfaction on his own machinations, which often involve using the peasant ninja operative Yokome to create unrest among the various castes of peasants in a series of divide and conquer schemes.

* PaperThinDisguise: In the second series, Ryunoshin's face-shading hat prevents other characters from identifying him long after the reader has.

* AnachronismStew: Largely averted, though for such a rigorously researched historical piece, it's surprisingly not above having Akame wield a revolver in 17th century Japan.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Nowhere more ambiguously that with Ryunoshin and his young charge Miyagi Onya. Initially, the latter approaches Ryunoshin requesting that he become his "nenja" (a kind of mentor figure, but like the erastes of ancient Greece, with strong gay overtones). Ryunoshin says he has no interest in "shudo" (male pederasty), but recognizing the young man's purity of heart, accepts his request to form a special bond (chigiri) together. Of course, Shirato had to go and muddy the waters further by saying in a recap, that the two characters shared a bond of "shudo," which all but explictly labels them as gay lovers. Certain characters within the manga also seem to think their relationship swings this way. As they are never shown engaing in anything beyond mildly affectionate behaviour, it would seem they are in a platonic gay relationship...maybe.

* SignatureMove: Kamui's most iconic technique is the "kasumi-kiri," in which he draws a short sword from a hidden position in the back of his obi and cuts his oponent horizontally. A close second is the "izunatoshi" used during tree top battles with other ninja.

** Shirato also has an obvious interest in fishing villages. Important plot points involve these communities in Series 1 and 2, and in both case exhaustive accounts of pilchard fishing are given. KamuiGaiden also has an entire story arc, the same "Sugaru no Shima" story featured in the film, set in a fishing village.

* AnyoneCanDie: The majority of named characters introduced in the first series don't live to see the end of it. Seriously, even the likes of ASongOfIceAndFire and BloodMeridian can barely compete.

* WhatTheHellHero: A particularly painful one occurs toward the end of the first series: [[spoiler: Shosuke, Gen, and the other peasant leaders have surrendered themselves to the local authorities and are being conveyed to a stronghold to be tortured. Along the way, Matsubayashi Kenpu and Minazuki Ukon attack the caravan and engage in a desperate battle with the troops escorting the prisoners. Against all odds, Matsubayashi manages to slash his way through scores of guards and free the captives from their cages. He urges them to run for their lives only to have them remain stoically on the spot, with Shosuke exclaiming "even if th revolt is over, our fight begins here." Clearly they have decided to martyr themselves. Too bad noone told Matsubayashi who winds up dying in vain. And he is NOT pleased about it.]]

* WorkingClassHero: Given the author's background as a proletarian activist, it's no surptise to find salt of the earth types like Shosuke, Gon, and Kokemaru being given a very sympathetic treatment.

* SignatureMove: Kamui's most iconic technique is the "kasumi-kiri," in which he draws a short sword from a hidden position in the back of his obi and cuts his oponent horizontally. A close seoond is the "izunatoshi" used during tree top battles with other ninja.

* From the original Manga/KamuiDen came the more youth-friendly spinoff, KamuiGaiden, which ran in Shonen Sunday from 1965 to 1967 and was thus concurrent with the main series. It set aside the huge cast and increasingly Byzantine plotlines of the original series to focus on the adventures of the protagonist, Kamui. This series was also the basis for the 1970s animated TV series.

Anyone coming to the series for the first time will want to distinguish between the various iterations of the Kamui property and their place in the series's complex chronolgy: