Review by Karl Verhoven

For the second consecutive volume the notional star of Vagabond is nowhere to be seen. Miyamoto Musashi has been sidelined by Takehiko Inoue before, but never for longer than a few chapters, yet as in Vol. 14 this entire book concentrates on former swordsman Kanemaki Jisai and the baby he rescued from the sea. It’s been simmering nicely. Kojirō is now nine, and his combat prowess has earned the respect of his peers despite his being deaf.

After years of scorn the locals are suddenly cosying up to Kanemaki as they want him to fight local thug called Fudō. None of them can stand up to him, and every year he takes away another young girl.

Inoue’s art continues to be beautiful throughout. He draws scenery that just calls out for exploration, people whose faces tell their story and his storytelling is impeccable. Seriously, every page here is masterful, and stop to admire the distinctive character designs.

There’s a sense of inevitability to the story being told, but the subtleties resonate and there’s a great contrast between Kanemaki and Kojirō, the opposites being the caution age brings and the absolute confidence of youth. In a great scene Kanemaki gathers the locals, concedes an uncertainty he’ll be able to finish Fudō and asks the locals to step in and complete the job. They agree, but the way Inoue draws the scene it’s clear they’ll back off. Such is Inoue’s craft, though, that he leads readers into believing one thing while intending to take a different direction.

A reckoning is implicitly promised, and a reckoning occurs, just not in the way anyone other than Inoue would have imagined. There’s a terrible cost, and it’s more than physical, although this is also a redemptive arc. If one dissects the story, what’s revealed is a relatively simple story impeccably staged with high emotional content. “There’s a beast within you” Kojirō is told toward the end, and as so much time has been spent with his past, there’s a certainty that Kojirō’s going to cross paths with Musashi in the future.

This volume is collected with the previous two in the fifth VizBig edition of Vagabond, and for Vol. 16 Inoue jumps a few years forward.