Die Wergelder

Die Wergelder isn’t Samura’s magnum opus, however, it’s an excellent manga. This is a tough series to recommend due to its graphic nature. I genuinely believe it’s best to be comfortable with Samura’s style before reading it as the first chapter can be a lot. Even with the context of the manga, that chapter is a bit of an oddity. However, it establishes some very important elements: The drug trade, the exploitation of children, government secrecy, a revenge tale and the inherent tragedy of it all. In general, I think Blade of the Immortal (BOTI) eases you into some of the more sexual elements on display and the horrific violence that can be afflicted on the characters. It's somewhat of a blend of his more obscure works (Brute Love, Bradherley no Basha, Harukaze no Snegurochka, Ohikkoshi) with BOTI characterisation and scope being interwoven.

Art

This section will be similar to my 'Wave, Listen to Me!' review as a lot of the core strengths from there is applied here.

Samura is one of the best working artists in the industry. His ability to depict subtle features of people and human expressions is extraordinary. Just from the composition of the frame, the lightning informs so much about the character's perspective. As this is a more veteran Samura he's not struggling to find his specific style, it's just as polished as the latter half of BOTI but from the beginning. The man's depiction of the human anatomy is wonderful, you can just immediately tell he's done sketches of people with his unique and indistinguishable art style. It's less experimental than BOTI however it's more creative than Wave, Listen to Me! which is appropriate for the kind of narrative he is exploring here.

Panelling

This is easily his best panel work by far. This is due to the focus of the manga being more action-oriented. He coined a term called "FAPMA" which stands for "Flash and Pretentious Martial Arts". This is most readily apparent with Jie Mao who is an excellent ass-kicking character. There's this wonderful flow throughout, even the non-action sequences but those action-oriented sequences are where he flexes his ability as an artist. He's not just an excellent artist but an excellent comic-book artist (akin to old Disney, Tezuka or Toriyama).

Dialogue-Writing:

Samura's dialogue is some of the best in the industry. I've stated this numerous times, but he has written some of the best female characters depicted in this medium largely due to his dialogue. The character interaction is never clunky, but rather natural. The writing is excellent, the plotting so far has an excellent pace to it and it's rather intricate. As the series progresses the scope widens and has some interesting ramifications. As a whole, I’m interested in all the plot lines from Nami, Jie to Shinobu. Samura has given these characters a good amount of depth especially with the limited-on-screen presence utilising his time very efficiently. I love all the main characters here and I want to see them succeed. I would like to note the atmosphere is also brilliant which is a combination of excellent writing and being a great artist.

Conclusion

To cut this short, this is a fantastic series from one of the best in the industry. There are some over-the-top elements, but it’s executed with sincerity (and heart). It’s a shame there is not much discussion for the series due to its lack of accessibility, being bimonthly and being released in omnibuses, so each release takes up to 3-5 years. I’ve recently reread volumes 1-4 to read volumes 5-6 and the quality progressively gets better. In volumes 5-6 there's a ton of lore being dropped, the plot progressed in very meaningful ways, recontextualising some past events and interesting character explorations. The artwork and panelling are fantastic, the writing is intricate and it’s a high-quality series which is what you expect from Samura. I can see this series getting better and better as it progresses. I would recommend it, but the caveat is the slow release as he’s releasing Wave, Listen to Me! Monthly.