Review by Karl Verhoven
Having set his life’s path on becoming the greatest swordsman of his era and continually testing himself against others, the ground metaphorically opened beneath Miyamoto Musashi’s feet in Vol. 11. There it was put to him that his aspirations might be irrelevant, and as the sample art shows, he’s having trouble coming to terms with it.
Musashi is in fact only briefly followed here, accomplishing a monumental feat while considering his position. Instead Takehiko Inoue first spotlights Otsū accompanied by the younger Jotaro following Musashi after his abrupt departure. The dangers of that path are highlighted. The other main character is Musashi’s less principled mate from years gone by, Matahachi. He’s been posing as a swordsman with a fair reputation, which works fine for strutting around, but the mistake is that sooner or later he’ll be challenged to a swordfight, which happens here. So far Inoue has used Matahachi almost as comic relief, but his involvement takes a surprise turn into tragedy. Will it change Matahachi? “I want to see how far I can go with a single spear, a single sword”, was once his aim, “I want to see how much of a man I really am”. Has he lived up to that?
In terms of world balloons that’s among the longer examples as Inoue isn’t one for dialogue if illustrations can tell the story, and the art is again breathtaking. From the forests to the mountains the beauty of nature is a priority, yet Inoue is also a master of action, hammered violently home when via a new character and his chosen weapon. As beautiful as some of the pen and ink pages are, Inoue never loses sight of the story, and the pages are carefully constructed to prioritise it.
Just a couple of volumes back there was a feeling of Inoue retreading old ground, yet we’re definitely in new territory here. Masquerade and deception are the order of the day, and everyone finds themselves somewhere surprising, especially Musashi. It’s a great volume, and more easily found as part of the fourth Vizbig edition combined with the previous two volumes. Onward to Vol. 13.
