[Manga] Gamaran

[Kagustuchi]

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Review

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General Info:

• Series Name: Gamaran
• Year of Serialization: 2009
• Author(s): Yousuke Nakamaru
• Artist(s): Yousuke Nakamaru
• Genre(s): Action, Historical, Martial Art, Shonen
• Current Status: Completed
• Moment of Reviewing: Completed
• Other Formats: N/A

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Series Summary:

Middle Edo Period -- One state becomes the gathering place for sinful martial artists, who believe in nothing other than power, know of no other way of life other than letting oneself go wild in the battle. That state is the Unabara State, the 'Haunt of Demons' Washitzu Naosata, the ruler of the powerful state, Unabara, is looking for his successor. He calls upons all his 31 sons, and tell them to search for whoever they believe to be the strongest martial artist of all. Each of their chosen martial artists then are to fight against each other until only one is left standing. Whoever is the winner, whoever has the strongest martial artist in nation by his side will become his successor . . . Out in the midst of the mountain is the doujo of the 'Daigame Ryuu' (Giant Tortoise Style). There lives Kurogane Gama, the son of the legendary swordsman, Kurogane Jinsuke, who is believed to be able to kill 1000 martial artists in Unabara. There, one of the son of Washitzu Naosata, Washitzu Naoshi, comes in search of the legendary swordsman, only to find that he had gone missing several years ago. After seeing the battle style of Gama, he instead chooses to ask Gama to come with him. Wanting to become stronger, Gama agrees to his offer, and that marks the beginning of Gama's battle to become the strongest of all

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Critical Review:

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Going into Gamaran, I didn't know what to expect. Having found it by Mangapanda's 'Surprise Me' button on boring day begging for me to start a new manga. The next 194 chapters were definitely a treat, but Gamaran has some inherent flaws, but not of which are considered irredeemable after sitting through Gamaran's better parts.

The first thing you'll notice throughout the story of Gamaran is that it has a similar setting to Rurouni Kenshin, a period piece during the 'Age of the Samurai'. Setting a nice backdrop the for theme's of the story. Revenge on his father being Gama's main goal throughout the manga. As the plot unfolds, revenge becomes a very prominent theme. Secondary characters Ichinose Zenmaru and Sakura Shinojou both have revenge plots that play out over the course of the manga. This sets a very serious tone for the manga as the attempts at humor usually fall flat, the introduction of Kashitarou is the only time I ever truly laughed. This darker approach is also driven on by the fact that story-wise, the main character(s) are always in a situation where the enemy vastly outnumber them, leading to villians being killed at a very quick clip. In one instance, one of the strongest 'Good' Characters 2 shots a pair characters that would have been considered a match for the main protagonist after they speak only a single sentence. As such, only the main villains get any real character progression.

Though all those villain's dying brings us to the strongest part of Gamaran, the fights. This manga has forgone the typical Shonen tropes that are prominent throughout manga such as Naruto and Bleach (Not that they're bad in those manga) and takes a much more strategic route making the characters mostly human in terms of battle power instead. Fights usually play out blow by blow for you to watch, usually accompanied by an analysis by the characters afterwards. Most characters also carry a different type of weapon, the most popular being a Katana. Though even then, only a few of the characters have the same fighting styles. So while the villain's didn't get much development, they all fight in a unique way. Every single battle is different this way, forcing the characters to use different strategies to beat each opponent. The characters being mostly human status also makes for intense fights, a single blow being dangerous.

These fights are made better by the competent art style. Very Shonen in style, the lines are very clean and easy on the eyes. You'll never think your looking at a cluster of lines and shading, much more Naruto and far away from D. Gray Man. The authors use of dramatic effects in his art also keeps the action looking stylish, if done wrong this could have very easily derailed the manga. Luckily that's not the case.

Overall, Gamaran was a good manga that had it's moments. I frequently had nights where I would get into those "Just one more chapter" ruts, devouring one of the manga's fights or trying to get to them. I would recommend this manga to anyone that places a lot of stock into the fights in manga. As there are a lot of them and they're all a pleasure to read.

Gamran does a lot of things Ok-Well, but fights are what it does superbly.

8/10

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[Caliburn]

I once read Gamaran when it was still
ongoing and then once again completely when the series was finished. The first time I still thought it was an entertaining series, however the second time I was quite disappointed.

Many characters get introduced, giving me the expectation that they somehow will bring something beneficial to the plot...and then they get killed instantly. For instance I remember an early scene during the first round of the tournament with those naginata users. One of their members, a bald guy, became excited, on which his comrades were saying something about how psycho he becomes when he gets like that. I then had the immediate impression of something messed up is going to happen...and then he instantly gets killed.

Another example is that there was a group of four elite spearman of which three got killed by the same man, the 4th one survived and was still part of the group. The three new members were given some kind of a tragic or messed up background, but the one that survived was easily killed without having any kind of value to the plot.

There are countless of examples like that throughout the series. The writer also has a weird variation of this habit, namely he introduces a character, gives him on the spot a background - almost always a tragic one - story and then lets the character be defeated and potentially killed or make them never appear again. But with a rare few he then does make them appear like the archer guy. This pattern is especially noticeable with those elite fighters that the main character had to fight. Eventually most of them die, but some of them survive of which one that actually was never properly introduced. He just ran around killing people, but then survives in the end.

Simply said many parts felt very superficial and seemed the result of random choices.

Frankly in terms of plot and character development it wasn't a good series. Chronologically it was weird. First all the characters fight each other and then there's some kind of short, weird time skip and all those characters are suddenly organized in a disciplined army. I really had no feeling with the story anymore at this point. That same weirdness was also present geographically. You made a comparison with Rurouni Kenshin, well there you really feel like you're in the Edo period, but in Gamaran it's like you're in a separate world. It felt like that there was nothing outside the things you saw in the series. It's supposed to be in Japan, but to me it felt like Japan was not there. That context was missing.

When I read the end of the series I came to the conclusion that the write wrote it all just to remember the readers of the spirit of a swordsman. This was the only explanation I could come up with to explain all these weird quirks of the writer, especially the climax of it all. Normally a story is written in service of its main characters, but in Gamaran it was the opposite: everything was subjugated, including the main characters, to this 'ideal of a swordsman', something very abstract. Hence that the author did all that stuff with killing off characters by the dozens and gave most of them only superficial backgrounds. They were all of secondary importance.

I do have to admit that in terms of fighting it was good. A large variety of traditional weapons make an appearance, but also how they have to be used. Even in many martial arts based series who want to be 'realistic', often they end up in using irrational moves and techs. However most techs used in Gamaran are given realistic explanations with practical results. It's often very simple, but highly technical to preform them in real combat. For instance I remember an attack where someone sweeps his sword vertically down and the swings it upwards while having the shoulder dislocated. This way the arm becomes a bit longer, making it able to have the opponent miscalculate the trajectory of the blade and have his face slashed in half. It's only a small difference, but with deadly results and you can really feel that the character would have had to train a lot to be able to do it.

In this sense it's probably one of the most realistic martial arts manga that has been made, martial arts with weapons though.


If I would sum it all up I would say the entire series is some kind of an allegory on the abstract notion of what it means to be a swordsman or something along those lines.