Basara is an epic tale about Sarasa who replaces her twin brother; prophesized to be the boy of destiny and unite Japan; after he falls in battle. That in itself is more or less a cliched setup for a show, but Basara pulls it off incredibly well.

The whole first volume deals with Sarasa's taking up of Tatara's name. After that, things get pretty deep. Each volume (of 7 that I have read thus far) seemingly add another layer of complexity to the story. I much more than a simple "Unite Japan after an Apocalypse" type story, which has much to do with its amazing characterization and their drive.

The characters are plentiful, and wonderfully diverse. Even stock characters somehow breath uniqueness either do to an interesting back story or the party around them in which they interact with. But for me, the best part about the characters is that both good and bad characters are given the same treatment. A character who is truly evil is few and far between. Most of the"bad guys" are just following a different path than Tatara is in order to unite Japan. Nonetheless they are provided with a full backstory early on along with their motives and relationships and inner thoughts being revealed which really makes them feel human rather than an arbitrary obstacle or goal. This makes it hard to root for "good" or "evil" to triumph, as well as adds pain when either actually does. However there are some truly evil characters in the story thus far, and I truly hate them; loathe them even, as I suspect was intended.

New characters never stop entering the picture, and old characters dissapear, reappear, and die often, keeping things fresh and really unpredictable. Not so unpredictable though that an event comes off as alien or out of place, or that deus ex machina is being used. Just unpredictable enough to be lead around by the manga-ka's story.

The only part of Basara I can really find fault in is the art. I am not going to complain about style or character design because, really, it is quite wonderful. There are just many pages in each book where I have no idea what I am looking at. The most recent example I can name comes in volume 7, where a whale leaps out of the water. I wouldn't have been able to identified it as a whale if the speech bubbles hadn't said so. To be honest, I didn't even see anything, I only saw a wave. But after really close inspection, there was a whale, it just happened to have the exact same shading as the water. It may just be that Viz messed up in printing Basara, but whatever the reason is, there are a few moments per book where I have to strain myself in order to understand whats happening.

But with that being the only real problem at least for me) I can safely recommend this manga to anybody who enjoys fantasy or adventure stories. I am sure you wont be disappointed.