I really want to like Vagabond, but there's something about it that just feels so off to the point where I can't justify it being that good. It's pretty well received overall, seeing as it is one of the most popular and highly rated manga series out there, but I really wonder what people think is so good about it. If you look at it form a story telling standpoint, there are about 5 different major topics you can hit: plot, characters, themes, art, pacing and overall enjoyment. And out of those, Vagabond only really does one aspect well, to me at least. Now, I will admit that I have not fully finished Vagabond up till the latest chapter, but after reading 200, I think I have a good idea of what the rest will be like.

If we look at just the plot of Vagabond, we can see that it really isn't anything special. Set in the early days of Japan where the the art of the sword is slowly being seen as less and less virtuous as long range weapons are becoming more prevalent, we follow our MC as he tries to be the strongest swordsman in the land. He goes from dojo to dojo, challenging their strongest fighters to defeat them, hoping to earn the title of "invincible under the heavens". Along the way he fails, runs away, fights some more, learns a bit about the way of the sword, overcomes hurdles and moves on to the next place. However, somewhere in between the focus shifts to another main character that is born deaf but loves to fight. The plot for him centers around his father being unwilling to teach him to fight, but he does so anyway because he loves it so much. As if the author wanted to see how many different perspectives he could have in one story, there is a third 'main' character that shows the other side of the story: he doesn't have many skills but goes around claiming to be someone he is not. He gets in trouble, runs away, and searches for his childhood friend, the original MC. Time skips around a lot in Vagabond, so you need to pay attention to it or else you'll end up confused. All this is to say that the plot, which is already fairly basic, has a lot of added complexities that make it hard to follow, which is mainly a stylistic choice, but I feel could have been handled much better.

On the character side of things, Vagabond doesn't fare much better. The characters are pretty one dimensional, with very little growth happening from when we are first introduced to them to hundreds of chapters later. In addition, most of the characers are actually very similar in desires and goals, but this can be chalked up to the setting it takes place in. It still doesn't change the fact that it gets stale to read after a while though. Also, I find it difficult to get invested into any of the main characters since they don't really have any appealing factors. Our first MC just wants to be the strongest because of some vague reason with his father and not being accepted as a child, our second MC just likes to fight, and our third one is honestly just unlikable. None of them make me want to root for them or to see them succeed in their endeavors, which is a shame. A similar story is Kingdom, where the MC wants to be the strongest general, but I enjoy him more since it was a dream he had as a child with his friend who ended up being killed for the sake of the country. It's much more appealing and drew me in more than the motivations found in Vagabond.

Thematically this story is all over the place as well. I'm not sure what the main takeaway message is. All of the mentors we see want their disciples to know that the sword isn't for mindless killing to see who is the strongest since that leads to empty lives ended only by death from another swordsman. This is made so clear, yet it also wants to promote the fact that if you really enjoy fighting, then have at it. The main MC seems to learn that you can't just mindlessly fight if you truly want to learn the way of the sword somewhere around chapter 100, only to admit that he hasn't actually learned anything at chapter 200.

The only thing I can say that Vagabond does exceedingly well is it's art. It's honestly really beautiful, and so many of the scenes are heightened by the style. It looks more realistic than traditional manga drawings, and the colored pages at the beginning of a few chapters can truly be considered art.

As for enjoyment, it really depends on who you ask so I won't talk about it much here, but know that I didn't particularly enjoy my time.

Overall I find that Vagabond is a story that gets heavily carried by its art and more realistic feel. It's really lacking in terms of plot cohesiveness, character development and thematic trends. Now, with all that being said, I don't think it's necessarily a bad manga by any means, only that it isn't nearly as good as it would seem to be from its popularity alone. It's average to slightly below average on all fronts except its art, which is top tier. So I'd say that you should read it if you want to be more cultured, but don't expect too much from it