__# TLDR -- Vagabond is an achingly dull and plodding story that is almost entirely carried by the excellent visuals.
__

It's also one of the most decompressed comics I've ever read -- which is usually a good thing! But this also results in the the pacing of a lot of scenes slowing to an absolute crawl. This is not helped by me failing to care about almost anybody here outside of Musashi.

This slow pacing does work in its favor for the combat scenes, which are some of the best the comic medium has to offer. Shout-out especially to Musashi vs. The Yoshioka school -- that entire sequence is simply a stunning piece of comic book fight choreography. With the right kind of music, this transforms into a highly enjoyable and tense confrontation with overwhelming odds.

This series is drawn very well -- credit here belongs not only to Inoue however, but also in very large part to his team of around five, who did all the background, screentone and scenery work. Meaning, Inoue, like a film director, designates what goes where, but only actually draws the figures themselves, not their environment -- (a totally standard practice in the manga industry, since it works on otherwise impossible publication schedules).

(Inoue talking about his art team: https://web.archive.org/web/20160304055119/http://manga.about.com/od/mangaartistswriters/a/TakehikoInoue_2.htm)

Full credit _does _actually go to Inoue for the stunning watercolor pages and volume covers -- the most beautiful ones I've seen yet in any manga. The man is a highly skilled painter.

Vagabond frequently gets cited as a 'deep' or 'profound' Manga, but frankly -- outside of a few vaguely Zen-flavored statements (which are not wrong whatsoever), it has very little to offer on a philosophical level. Its exploration of Zen remains tragically surface level and wishy-washy, as well as frustratingly vague -- so much so that the series frequently turns into endless pseudo-intelligent waffling by Musashi in later parts.

Speaking of those, the Farming Arc is seemingly the end of this series. I don't see Inoue going back to actually working on this in the format he's used up to now -- and the illustration gallery exhibition he did seems to underscore this view. Dropping four chapters of a totally new arc after the end of Musashi's time in the starving village before peacing out again indefinitely is certainly a strange move.

But that's okay. Genuinely.

Great art is abandoned, not finished.

I realize I may get torn to shreds for this review (...or nobody will care whatsoever?) -- but I gotta speak my truth.

Or at least I'd like to, lol.

Also, I cannot stand Matahachi.
But with that mother, what are you gonna expect, I guess?

In summary:

Some great artwork. Amazing use of screentone. Gorgeous color pages. Some of the best fight scenes in any manga.

Writing is mostly lackluster (though it does have its moments). Most characters are dull, flat and unsympathetic. Most men have horrible haircuts.

CONCLUSION -- In my eyes, absolutely not one of the 'greatest manga of all time'. An achingly dull and slow story, carried mostly by the visuals -- which are quite pretty, thanks to Inoue and his art team.