“Orient, Vol. 1” by Shinobu Ohtaka

4/5 stars

I received an ARC of this manga in exchange for an honest review.

Musashi and Kojiro are childhood best friends. They grew up together, practicing swordplay and learning about the Bushi. The Bushi fought against the demons even when the rest of the world gave up. The two best friends swore to become Bushi one day. However, as they grew older, Musashi hid his goal of being a Bushi and Kojiro started to believe in the lies of the world. When Musashi suddenly is presented with the opportunity to achieve his dream, he can’t help but take it–and he’s determined to take Kojiro along for the ride.

First of all, the art was absolutely spectacular! I’ve sadly never read or watched Magi, but the mangaka lives up to her reputation! I think Musashi has the potential to be a really awesome character, and his sword-fighting techniques were definitely interesting! This volume was mostly intended to set up the story, so it mostly revolved around one major fight scene. I’m hoping for more content in the next few volumes! This series has a lot of potential and I’m excited to see where it goes from here!