This is a nice bulky manga I rented from the library made by a guy named Hiroshi Hirata. I first thought this was a 1 shot go, but apparently there are other books in the series I've yet to find.
The first thing to catch me off guard was how absolutely violent the manga is. It's so violent and there's so much swearing in parts that there's a cute little box on the back with 'FOR READERS 18+ FOR MATURE READERS' in cute little letters and a quaint little exclamation point next to it. Why did this surprise me so? The manga was in the young teens section of the library.
Aside from the violence, the imagery and art in this book are stunning. I was going to rent my first manga and this, this book, with such great flowing lines and even a writing style so emotional and touching that the guy who dubbed the book could not bear to remove the words from their air bubbles in many parts and, instead, chose to make a new box for the translation right next to it. This book surpasses 300 in awesome, violent art (just not the nudity.)
How should I start... The first chapter is about a group of samurai chasing down a guy in blood sport to physically remove his liver while also consequently ripping him to pieces with pointy sticks, swords, and very fidgety horses. Once you get past that, the book is about a group of samurai that aren't well off in the money world and how they live. The group, known as the Satsuma samurai, are basically split into two smaller groups - one being the guys with what little money they have, and one being the guys (known as yam-stealing goshi) who are scraping cash up in odd jobs. The story splits between how one specific Yam-goshi gets by while keeping his sanity, and the other side is about how the Satsuma richer bastards are trying to keep their title intact against outside samurai groups with far more cash that are doing far better. I think the violence bleeds onto the plot a bit, and the art being amazing makes up for what's missing, but it's overall a fun read... Especially if you like the rkrp.
There are 3 issues of Satsuma Gishiden out right now. But so help me I can't even get my hands on volume 2. So it'll be a while before I can continue my review.