is a Japanese manga series written by

Oji Hiroi , real name , is an author and video game developer. He co-authored ''Samurai Crusader'' with Ryoichi Ikegami. He also created the '' Far East of Eden'' and ''Sakura Wars'' role-playing video game franchises, and wrote the ''Sakura Wars'' manga. ...

and illustrated by

Ryoichi Ikegami is a Japanese manga artist that usually works as the illustrator in collaboration with a writer. He is best known for ''Crying Freeman'' (1986–1988), written by Kazuo Koike, and '' Heat'' (1999–2004), written by Buronson. The latter won the ...

. It was serialized in

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics ( manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the H ...

's ''

Weekly Shōnen Sunday is a weekly ''shōnen'' manga magazine published in Japan by Shogakukan since March 1959. Contrary to its title, ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' issues are released on Wednesdays. ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' has sold over 1.8billion copies since 1986, ...

'' from July 1991 to March 1992, with its chapters collected in three ''

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...

'' volumes. In North America, the manga was licensed by

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

, which serialized it in their ''

Manga Vizion VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ ...

'' magazine in 1995.

Plot

The story follows Kumomaru, a Japanese samurai who travels to Europe during the 1930s and becomes embroiled in a plot to steal the legendary Japanese sword

Kusanagi is a legendary Japanese sword and one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was originally called , but its name was later changed to the more popular ("Grass-Cutting Sword"). In folklore, the sword represents the virtue of valor. Legend ...

. While in Europe, Kumomaru befriends

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and attempts to stop Major General Kamishima and his

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

allies from conquering China.

Publication

''Samurai Crusader'' is written by

and illustrated by

. It was serialized in

's ''

'' from July 3, 1991 to March 11, 1992. Shogakukan collected its chapters in three ''

'' volumes, released between January 1 and April 1, 1992.

Media Factory , formerly is a Japanese publisher and brand company of Kadokawa Future Publishing. History It was founded on December 1, 1986, and its headquarters are situated in Shibuya, Tokyo. It is a subsidiary of Recruit Co., Ltd. Media Factory was possi ...

re-released the manga in two '' bunkoban'' volumes on April 5 and May 2, 2003. Media Factory released a complete edition on December 22, 2006. In North America, the series was licensed by

, which serialized it in their magazine ''

'' in 1995. Viz Media published the three volumes of the series between August 5, 1996 and December 6, 1997.

Volume list

Reception

In '' Manga: The Complete Guide'', author Jason Thompson wrote: "Author Hiroi Oji ( ''Sakura Taisen'') delivers a satisfying, big-scale historical adventure story that reads like a mix between an '' Indiana Jones'' movie and a 1980s Hong Kong film. Artist Ryoichi Ikegami is in fine form throughout, with great action scenes and precise period detail. Seasoned Ikegami readers who’ve been through the torrid likes of ''

Crying Freeman is a Japanese manga series written by Kazuo Koike and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami. ''Crying Freeman'' follows a Japanese assassin hypnotized and trained by the Chinese mafia (called the "108 Dragons") to serve as its agent and covered in ...

'' and ''Offered'' will notice that the thrills here stop just short of a PG-13 level of explicitness. Still, it’s nice to have a straightforward Ikegami adventure yarn that doesn’t require hiding the pages from plain sight from time to time." Katherine Dacey of ''The Manga Critic'' praised the series for its art, stating: "No detail goes overlooked; even the most inconsequential characters’ clothing is meticulously rendered, and the street lamps in every city are drawn with such care as to distinguish a Parisian boulevard from a Shanghai corner." Dacey however, criticized the series for its dialogues, explaining that they "feel more like policy discussions than real arguments, despite Ikegami’s best efforts to stage the scenes as dramatically as possible." Dacey concluded: "Perhaps the best way to summarize ''Samurai Crusader''‘s appeal is to say that it has all the virtues of ''Crying Freeman'' and '' Wounded Man'' — crazy action scenes, sexy leads, mustache-twirling villains — without the copious nudity and sexual violence that can give even the most committed manga fan pause."

References

External links

* {{Weekly Shōnen Sunday - 1990–1999 Adventure anime and manga Historical anime and manga Oji Hiroi Ryoichi Ikegami Samurai in anime and manga Shogakukan manga Shōnen manga Viz Media manga