House of Five Leaves, Vol. 1 (1)

The art and story are equally excellent. This 8 volume series is a complete story about the lives and fortunes of a band of thieves. They gradually pull the ronin into their business. He joins them with his eyes open but with sorrow as he feels his samurai upbringing slipping away with each job. The tension in the story gradually builds and at the end you wonder if they will all survive. I loved reading this series from the library and it is my pleasure to purchase the books. I'll be able to dive into this tiny corner of Edo at any time I please.The mangaka art is a beautiful painting on each page. Some artist fail to make the characters distinctive enough. This artist carefully designed each character from head to toe, inside and out. This series deserves 5 stars for the art alone. The finely crafted plot and characterization makes it worth 10 stars. A drama that is (for the lack of a better word) refined. The drama comes from the tension and off camera violence. You are pulled along with the ronin and come to care about him and his friends. A book series that will stay with you for a long time.

Love the book. Great story, and I love the friendship between both of the main characters. Highly recommend this book to others who are looking for something a little unique.

Perfect condition!

I first saw this anime adaptation on Crunchyroll. I wasn't sure what to expect, but ended up really enjoying this series. The end left things a bit too open, however, and I've heard that the original manga was finished slightly after the airing of the anime. I had to see how the manga version ties up loose ends, so I've finally had the chance to read the first chapter...And I was bored to death.That isn't to say that it's terrible. I just can't tell if it's a poor localization or else the anime was such a superb adaptation. The meat and potatoes of the plot is the same, but something is just not right. This is very hard to follow and the dialogue is poorly penned and broken. The translation appears to be almost too literal. The characters aren't as likable (in spite of being the same) and it lacks the magic of the anime version.I'll probably stick with this 8-part series to see how it all ends, but so far I'm not liking what I see. Maybe it picks up a bit in the following books.

I bought volumes 1 and 2 of the House of Five Leaves in order to get a good idea of the style and the storyline before writing a review, as I had heard good things about Natsume Ono. However I was left scratching my head somewhat with regards to how I felt about the story. It's not that I don't like historical or jidaigekki manga or shojo manga, or that I am a hopeless philistine who is only attracted by the blood, sex and violence of say a Lone Wolf and Cub.Part of the reason is the languid pacing, as though it were a movie shot by an European Auteur, where people talk and talk but not much happens. Part of the "hook" of the story line is meant to revolve around Yaichi, the leader of the group of Five Leaves, who is meant to be a beautiful and mysterious character, and the author wants us to be intrigued by him and want to find out more. I thought he was pretty two dimensional (all mysterious airs and no substance). Without an interest in the main plot device, it was hard to get into the story.The style also did not help as the characters, be they men or women, all seem to be tall and effete, making the main character Akitsu Masanosuke quite unbelievable. He is meant to be shy and reserved but quite good with the sword. The set piece where he shows his "true abilities" and chases off some threating ronin was terrible because he looked too skinny to be wielding a sword properly and did not look threatening at all. There was also no way to distinguish the fact that he is meant to be "tall", everyone looked the same size. The female characters all start to look the same as the manga goes on.There are some good dramatic parts such as when Akitsu Masanosuke bonds with the child that the group is looking to kidnap, but these good parts didn't outweigh the nagging feeling I had that I had better things to do with my time than read this manga. Also a glossary would have helped, as many Japanese terms such as yojimbo, etc are tossed around and unexplained.

My issues with this are almost purely "stylistic", or even almost "logistical" (the characters and story are decent enough,and the whole tone is definitely "different"... nevertheless, I am docking a star):- The stylistic nature of the artwork makes it difficult (for me, at least) to differentiate incidental characters; For instance, I am finding Matsukichi resembles any number of the less regular characters, including Yagi; appearance (face, hairstyle, clothing) and mannerisms all often seem to be indistinguishable- Dialog is often delivered by characters who are "out of frame", appearing in anonymous "bubbles" with no indication of who is speaking; if a given "scene" contains only two characters, there is no difficulty, but often there are several (3 or more) characters in a "scene", all of whom are participating (at least intermittently) in the dialogThese seem like trivial issues, but they are atypical in my experience with manga, and I am having difficulty with them. I find myself having to invest special effort in tracking context, often becoming confused, having to backtrack, etc. In the case of dialog, often I just have to accept not knowing which character originated it.Perhaps my facility with the author's style will improve as I get deeper into the story. For now, I guess I will chalk this up as just another case of style obscuring the narrative (which is a common enough problem in fiction of all kinds).

Maybe it's because I got older but I don't find myself enjoying Naruto, One Piece etc the way I used to. Those series feel endless and feels drawn out for the sake of story length and volume.It's just as well Viz Media have a lot more manga in their back catalogue to draw me back in to the fold.The story follows the young, masterless samurai Masa who having been rejected by his latest employer for lacking any threat or intimidation, comes across the mysterious Yaichi. Yaichi employs Masa as a bodyguard, what follows next shocks Masa's moral core and we find him being slowly enticed into Yaichi's world.There's a lot to offer story wise, the mangaka, Natsume Ono is always good value in bringing drama to the fold and she does well in giving tidbits to the reader about possible motives for characters and the direction the series will head, an enticing ploy again to read volume after the next.The art style is something that struck me too, Ono has a sparse style, with characters drawn exaggeratingly slender complete with the big oval eyes. Her style is unlike many other mainstream artists, and feels unique in the endless sea of manga.I will definitely be reading other volumes, and would recommend this to anyone who wants to revamp their interest in manga.

Una historia sencilla y bonita sobre un samurai sin señor que se une a un grupo de estafadores. Quizá en un primer momento el dibujo pueda chocar, sin embargo la historia te cautiva por su trama sencilla y sus adorables personajes.Si dudas, recomiendo empezar por el anime ;)

El paquete llegó en tiempo y forma, bien empaquetado y en óptimas condiciones. Gracias 😀