Thread by @aofiji1, ＶＡＧＡＢＯＮＤIn this short -not so short- thread I will be sharing my [...]

ＶＡＧＡＢＯＮＤ

In this short -not so short- thread I will be sharing my thoughts on the story that quickly became not only my favourite in the medium of anime and manga, but in all fictional media I have ever consumed.

I want to preface this by making it clear that I have only read 36 volumes of the series. I have ordered the 37th volume and it should be arriving soon, but I doubt there will be anything in there that sparks a drastic change in my thoughts.

The last chapter I read was 315.

So... where to start.

If you know me, you probably know that I have a massive partiality towards swordsmen, and Vagabond is a story primarily centred around the fictionalized account of Miyamoto Musashi's (greatest samurai to ever live) journey.

That immediately gives Vagabond a huge perk when it comes to satisfying my personal desires in a story.

But that doesn't even scratch the surface of why I love Vagabond so much. From my personal favourite artwork in manga, glorious action scenes, compelling and suspenseful-

plot threads, an incredibly well utilized cast of characters, thematic exploration that requires deep and introspective insight and even one of the most adorable romances I've personally across in a story, Vagabond has it all.

I'll be focusing on each of these aspects of the manga in order to give this thread a lil structure.

𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊

Takehiko Inoue is a freak. Honestly. That's the simplest way to put it. When I first heard this manga was weekly, I genuinely couldn't believe it. Nearly every single panel in every single page of every single chapter is of an incredibly high quality.

The fact that I was reading the physical copies of the manga definitely elevated my experience, but even with the shitty scans online, it's evident that Vagabond's art is of the highest level in manga. Only few manga can compete with its level of illustration.

It is far more than just the purely subjective stance of "oh, the art style is beautiful".

Inoue gives entire pages to simple shots of his characters, making for a reading experience that is a lot more intense and striking. These pages stand out, they stick with you, they leave-

a mark. By utilizing the medium he has to its full potential, Inoue's artwork allows for brilliant storytelling and even characterisation.

Take this sequence from the Baiken arc for example, a story was told without the uttering of a single word.

A great example of Vagabond being able to flourish in the "show don't tell" department with it's phenomenal artwork, is how it serves to characterise Kojiro.

Sasaki Kojiro is, to me, one of the greatest characters in anime/manga. He is also deaf, he can barely speak.

Yet he's still an incredibly well developed character, even with no dialogues and no monologues.

Of course the artwork isn't the only reason this is possible, but it is definitely one of the main ones.

It's also definitely worth mentioning Inoue's generous delivery of double paged spreads. There are A LOT of spreads in Vagabond. Not your average WSJ kind of spread either, the spreads in Vagabond have little to no panels.

As you can see, the spreads are striking. You turn the page to this, and you're immediately drawn in. It isn't too much to take in, it isn't overwhelming, it flows beautifully and it drags the reader in.

Lastly, character design.

This picture pretty much sums it up perfectly. Each character is so uniquely and distinctively designed with a level of intricacy and detail that makes it pretty much impossible for you to mistake one for the other.

𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍

Really not much to say about this aspect of the series, even though it's one of the most important. I've covered why the artwork is my favourite in manga, but I didn't mention the choreography and action panelling. I'm no genius when it comes to manga illustrations-

but I think it's fair to say, these pages speak for themselves. The action in Vagabond is godly. That's all that really needs to be said. If you like dudes swinging swords, you will love the fights in Vagabond.

𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐋𝐎𝐓

Vagabond manages to one up itself continually as it progresses. The story starts off as its name suggests, floating like a Vagabond. Then, our main character finally begins working towards his dream.

"Invincible Under The Sun".

Musashi's character journey is without a doubt my personal favourite in all manga.

He starts off as an immature, brash, violent and aggressive youth but as he continues on his journey, he meets various different people, kills various different people and learns from various -

different people. These experiences help him to gradually realise the value of life and even help him to learn of the importance of solving problems without resorting to violence.

I absolutely love character driven narratives, it is without a doubt my favourite form of story -

telling. Vagabond is completely centred around Musashi discovering what it means to truly be "invincible". I love this, because it takes Musashi on a very bumpy journey. When he finally achieved his perceived understanding of "invincibility", he is left with nothing but empti-

ness. In fact, he's trapped. The life he led, the life of relentless killing had trapped him in an endless spiral of death. He has to start all over. He has to completely reevaluate his entire life and purpose. This level of character focus whilst also delivering all the other -

phenomenal aspects of the series is what makes Vagabond so special to me.

𝐂𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒

This is, without a shred of doubt, the main reason why this is my favourite story of all time.

That isn't to say I think Vagabond has the best cast ever, but it's to say that it is the key aspect of the series that shines brightest to me.

The thing with Vagabond's cast is that it doesn't have various SS tier characters. It doesn't have as many brilliant characters as Gintama, Lord of the Rings, ASOIF or HxH. It doesn't spend that much time fleshing out individual characters and developing them to an insane degree.

Vagabond is incredibly top heavy.

The story centres around its deuteragonists, Musashi and Kojiro. Even then, the story clearly favours Musashi and Kojiro also serves as an antagonist, so his role in the story can be quite hard to understand.

But that doesn’t mean the cast isn’t incredible. It’s a common misconception that in order for a character to be good, they must be well developed. This is definitely the case a lot of the time but not always. Vagabond’s cast is phenomenally utilised. Each character has a role -

to serve, a purpose, they either further the narrative in some shape or form or they add to our deuteragonists, Musashi and Kojiro. I don’t want to be here for hours, and I don’t want to type a 5000 tweet thread, so I’m going to focus on a single aspect of Vagabond’s cast +

that I find particularly impressive.

𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐀𝐒𝐇𝐈'𝐒 𝐅𝐎𝐈𝐋𝐒

Many characters in Vagabond serve the role of a “foil” to Musashi, their characteristics and experiences serve to highlight an aspect of Musashi. This isn’t to say that this is all these characters are good for, this is simply one aspect of them.

We’ll start with arguably the most important character in the series outside of Musashi and Kojiro, Matahachi.
Regardless of how you feel about Matahachi, it’s pretty much undeniable that his impact on the narrative and role in the story was brilliantly handled. Matahachi is -

Musashi’s childhood friend, a guy who spent the majority of his life pursuing temporary pleasures to fill the hollow void he created within himself. He’s constantly hating on the success of others, to the point where he is outright willing to impersonate another samurai in -

order to better his own life. These characteristics starkly contrast with Musashi, who is always trying to better himself, who sees success within others and aspires to be like them, who has no concern for how other people see him, who’s willing to learn from every mistake he -

has ever made and also willingly puts himself in unideal situations all to discover what it truly means to be “invincible”. Where Matahachi accepts any and every woman's advances, Musashi constantly rejects them.

The next character who serves as a foil I'd like to talk about, is Sasaki Kojiro.

I'm not bothered to go too in depth about their dynamic, so I'll explain what I mean in a simplified way.

Kojiro wins the love of an entire village within the span of a single day, his almost child-like nature is incredibly charismatic and draws people to him. Musashi, on the other hand, is incredibly mature, self-isolated and isn’t one to socialise much. Kojiro is always going -

after women / the only woman that Musashi would ever think of in that manner is Otsu. Kojiro grew up with a loving father-figure / Musashi’s father manhandled him and viewed him as a “demon”. This stark and blatant contrast between the two serves to complement both of them as -

characters and highlight how wildly different they are, despite both being seemingly the greatest samurai in the story. Their passion for the sword and love for battle is what ties them together, making their dynamic as special as it is despite only having ever met once.

This may be my personal favourite instance of a character who has little to no development being utilised brilliantly by Inoue in Vagabond.

Gion Toji.

Toji and Musashi are very very similar at the start of the Hozoin arc, both are violent and aggressive swordsmen who want to -

fight tough guys. In a three way battle with Inshun, Musashi is defeated and Toji flees.

This loss is one of Musashi’s biggest character moments, it forces him to think introspectively and reevaluate what it means to be strong. For Toji, this loss completely crushes him. It -

leaves him completely demoralised, to the point where one may deem him crazy. Toji serves as the perfect example of what could have happened to Musashi if Musashi didn’t react accordingly to his loss against Inshun.

You can find more examples of foils to Musashi, like Ittosai and Baiken, who are both different examples of what the spiral of killing can do to a man.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐈𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐂𝐀𝐌𝐄 #𝟏

Bear in mind, this isn’t my #1 moment, but this is the moment it became my favourite manga.

Chapter 257. This heavily ties into the Yoshioka massacre, and is also a key reason behind why that is my favourite fight in manga.

Consequence.

Musashi paid a tremendous price in his pursuit of becoming “invincible”. The battle against the 70 Yoshioka left him with an injury that would completely change his life, and that is why I love the fight so fucking much. I’ve never seen a fight continue to -

retroactively get better and better and better. It’s fucking insane. Anywho, the reason why Chapter 257 made Vagabond my favourite manga is because of what it did for the previous arc (Yoshioka) and what it did for Musashi. Takuan introduced Musashi to the concept of -

preordainment and how the very reason we are free is because our futures are orchestrated. This is something that personally hit me because of my religious background. This “contradiction” is something I’m always questioning and thinking about. Due to my religious -

background, this concept of preordainment is something I completely believe in. I have found myself in the exact same position as Musashi in this chapter, countless times. To see something I care about so deeply explored in a manga was a bizarrely invigorating -

experience, and is what made this manga my #1.

𝐀𝐑𝐂 𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒

1. Yoshioka
2. Kojiro
3. Farming (for now)
4. Wandering
5. Aftermath
6. Hozoin
7. Baiken
8. Takezo
9. Kyoto

It’s worth noting that the lowest ranked arc, Kyoto, is a 9/10 arc to me. I also have one more volume to read so Farming could overtake Kojiro.

𝐓𝐎𝐏 𝟏𝟎 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐒

1. Miyamoto Musashi
2. Sasaki Kojiro
3. Takuan
4. Jisai
5. Inshun
6. Denshichiro
7. Otsu
8. Matahachi
9. Ittosai
10. Baiken

I’m too goddamn tired, I’ll make another thread in the future talking about other key aspects of the series lmfao.

Vagabond goat. Vagabond top 1. I love Vagabond. Inoue goat. I'm tired.

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