First off - I may be a little bias towards this manga, as this is actually the first manga that I ever read. But regardless of that, I really wanted to write a review for this particular series as I tend to feel that this gets slightly overlooked. Samurai Deeper Kyo is Akimine Kamijyo's first published manga. Compared to the anime of the same title, this offers so much more to the general audience. And not only that, the anime does not accurately portray the manga. But despite the differences between the two, they both follow the story of Onime no Kyo - or Demon Eyes Kyo, the 'supposed' slayer of 1,000 men who's body was stolen and his soul locked within another's body.

The manga is during the era of Tokugawa Japan, maybe even offering a slight twist on the history of that period of Japan's history. Most of the characters that feature in the manga are actual people eg. Tokugawa Hidetada, Sanada Yukimura, Nobunaga Oda, and Izumo no Okuni to name a few. Sometime after the battle of Sekigahara Kyo's soul was taken from his body and locked within his best friend, Mibu Kyoshiro's, body. Kyoshiro then hid Kyo's body and lived the next four years as a medicine man. The underlying story of the manga is that Kyo, while trapped within Kyoshiro, is trying to find where Kyoshiro hid his body. However, Kyo doesn't make a full appearance in the manga until the 3rd volume where he takes over Kyoshiro's body and keeps his consciousness firmly locked away. That's when the search truly begins. He is joined by Shiina Yuya, a 16 year old bounty hunter who arrests Kyoshiro in the first volume for mistaking him for Demon Eyes Kyo, they come to an unlikely alliance when Yuya witnesses Kyo's emergence from Kyoshiro's body during a battle between some villagers and the ancient day equivalent of the mafia (although, they aren't really a match for Kyo who quickly beats them down). Kyo's initial intention was to kill Yuya, but she defied him and said that she needed to live so that she could find the man with the scar on his back - the man who killed her brother. In subsequent volumes they are joined by a complete cast of characters including Hotaru, Akari, Yukimura and Benitora.

As the volumes progress, so does the story - what begins as a relatively light-hearted and almost comedy story, quickly turns into one of love, betrayal and ultimately, revenge. Kyo was taken in and partly raised like a son by the Crimson King. A man known as the ruler of the Mibu, but Kyo was cast out from among them and was reviled as the 'demon child' as no child had been born to the Mibu since Kyo's appearance. Subsequently he was taken in my Muramasa, himself a Mibu. But one who had left his people and his homeland because he took Kyo in. Muramasa then went on to train Kyo in the Mumyou Jinpu school of fighting. Muramasa loves Kyo like a son, and calls him the Mibu clan's 'Hope'.

The plot line can get a little confusing every now and again, I have often found myself re-reading a few pages to try to make sense of what I am actually reading. But it is definitely worth persevering with. The art style is very well executed, each panel is extremely detailed, and the character development seems to get better with every passing volume. And for a graphic novel, there is plenty of action and the battles get pretty intense (the whole of volume 16 is devoted to 1 battle!) As of now, I am only up to the 26th volume - but I'm eagerly awaiting the next instalment in this saga.