Samurai 8: Masashi Kishimoto's next Serialized Manga

Forgot to comment on this week's chap. The infiltration itself was predictably easy but Sanda must make a choice now. Which one he'll make is quite obvious, but I'm curious as to how it'll be handled. I must say I really like Sanda's character, much more than I expected when he was introduced.

Otherwise, volume 1 and 2 are already out in France. I'll take my time to reread all that, but here are the author comments:

Kishimoto: Ever since I started this manga I've been eating dried squid often. Exactly what I need, because I get sleepy if I eat too many other things. I also would like to make this a "dried-squid manga": the more you chew on it, the tastier it gets. If you're gonna say "but it's chewing-gum", I invite you to chew on another one right after (volume 2) before the first one loses its taste.

Ookubo: Greetings, dear readers! I'm but a humble beginner, but I'm trying hard day after day. I hope you will stick with me until the end.

Kishimoto: Master Daruma is based on an existing model. The name's Latte. The one on the top right. (there's a photo of two cats)

Ookubo: I'm excited like a kid every week reading Kishimoto-sensei's story. I'd be happy if you were too.

New chapter:

Just once, I'd like to see it revealed the countdown was fake and the laser either already fired, or was set a few seconds ahead to give the other side a false sense of security.

That would be funny.

I liked the callbacks between Ryu and Sanda in this chap. In fact, I really like the relationship between these two. They're more interesting than Hachimaru at the moment, for better or worse.

Chap 33. Where smileys are drawn.

…Can we just make this manga about Sanda? Chapters and scenes focused on him have consistently been my favorite.

Maybe they'll switch?

....eh, we can hope.

Sooooooo, advanced computer programs judge crimes in Samurai 8? Interesting.......

Hoping the recently released volume 3 sells well enough for this to continue.

Edited by Nymeros on Jan 6th 2020 at 7:32:57 AM

Yep, I can't see any flaw in that system that could make it backfire. >.>

That was an...interesting scene transition? Most of the Hachimaru stuff was fine but then you get to that soon to not be a planet and most I got from it were Bleach and DBZ shout outs.

It's very cool that they made a 40 page chapter for the new year. I just wish they didn't cram it into 20 pages. =[

Seriously, that whole part with the girl and the destroyed planet would have needed its own chapter.

Why exactly did they nuke that planet by the way? Do we get that? Seems kidnapping the girl was the only thing necessary. Plus showing all the happy people (like the couple getting married) was a little on the nose.

Breakneck pacing this chapter. I wonder if Kishi is okay with the pacing or if he is noticing the lack excitement and rushing to get to big events more quickly.

I would have liked more time with both the AI jurors and why they made the decision they made and more time with Ichigo before she lost.......everything.

@Handsome Rob: Ata destroyed the planet because he wants to harvest the samurai souls on the planet for.....reasons. Apparently, picking up the scattered souls is easier than finding and killing all of the individual samurai on the planet. Hanaichi and Goku have unclear motives and are not affiliated with Ata.

@alekos23 I thought Sen talking about capturing Hanaichi then cutting to Hanaichi on a rescue mission was pretty effective. Like, why is he wanted if hes a some kind of hero?

New theory: Acala is a player character or avatar for some joe schmoe who discovered how to manipulate H particles....calling it now. Acala reminds me too much of Hachi's buff game character and it be fitting if the Gods of this verse are the result of people hacking the universe and creating OP versions of themselves.

Edited by Nymeros on Jan 19th 2020 at 5:25:22 AM

New chapter:

Schrödinger's Cat references abound in this one. Seems Daruma got educated as well.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Jan 26th 2020 at 9:03:21 AM

Oof, that was a pretty… abstract chapter. So basically, Kala wants to destroy the galaxy because he disagrees with his masters' conception of True Art? I… like this concept, not gonna lie. Truly feels like divine beings playing with the universe like it's their toy. Living things are simply not on their radar.

Now I remember that early in the series, Hachimaru claimed he wanted to be like Fudô Myôô… either he was aiming a tad too high, or we're in for a Madoka ending.

…If the series ends at all, that is.

Edited by Lyendith on Jan 26th 2020 at 6:14:23 PM

Yeah I'm super worried about this series getting canceled.

What on earth did I just read. Gonna have to go over that a couple of times. I do love that the story's themes (dont judge a book by its cover, nothing is perfect) have been woven into the the cosmology of the verse as well as into the feud between the main villain and.....God.

…Okay, I'm now convinced that this series started its life as a video game concept. Hell, make it into a video game, it could be awesome.

And then… stuff happens. Very quickly. Where we learn that the two newbies are of the Ususama school, which makes them fishy… unless they betrayed Ata and Kala. I hope the Key girl will have the time to be developed properly. I quite like her.

Yeah. Things are moving lightning fast.

I don't expect Kishi to let up on the pacing until or unless the sales increase dramatically. He may need to ensure each volume is as dense with content as possible....or maybe he wants the material to be as trim as possible to fit his outline. Who knows.

I enjoyed the chapter. I was wondering how "downloaded superpowers" would work and this was actually really satisfying. The ability constellations are a really cool concept. Now how do you train your stats?

Ichigo is intriguing. Interested to see how we will proceed from here

Edited by Nymeros on Feb 2nd 2020 at 12:26:28 PM

Chapter out. Huh, so we meet the guy that transformed Daruma already? And he's Hidan, lol. And we have Hachimaru getting jealous of Goku. And Ata's doing stuff as usual. The Shout-Out is a bit striking still.

Lets be wary of dudes named Goku. They're never weak characters.

…Why was I sure that Goku was a gal?

Now....what bullshit will keep Ata from wrecking the entire crew?

New chapter:

Ann and Hachimaru seem to be running into problems now.

Hmm… It's nice that the story settles down to focus on these two's relationship, since it hadn't been explored much (at least not deeply) up to that point. And we're starting to address Hachimaru's main character flaw: acting like an entitled little shit just because he luckily became a cyborg one day.

Also calling it, Goku is actually Key girl's "Princess". Okay, that's unlikely considering he clearly has Samurai powers, but I'd kinda dig it.

Outside from that, I feel like Ohkubo is really starting to develop his own artstyle lately. Hachimaru and Ann look somewhat different than they did early on.

Finally! A chapter where I'm not bombarded with plot. Instead, the characters get to breathe and interact normally. Much needed.

@Lyendith I think he's just plain getting better at drawing. Compare Daruma and Hanaichi last chapter to chapter one....same designs but a world of difference.