Story: 4/10

The story of Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru follows our main character, Hachimaru, who’s a sickly kid who has grandeur dreams of becoming a Samurai and traveling space. However, because of his unhealthy body, Hachimaru cannot leave his home to pursue his dreams. It’s not until Hachimaru meets a cat Samurai that his whole world gets turned upside down.

If I were to boil down the story of Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru to 1 word, it’d be “predictable”. There were no plot developments, twists, or turns that I didn’t see coming. The pacing of the story is quick, most likely due to the fact that it’s a 43-chapter manga but, at the same time, there are moments in the manga where it felt extremely slow. Because of the quick pacing the story unravels itself fast, you barely get to spend any time with the characters (outside the main ones) and the world around before already moving onto the next plotline. It was due to this that I found it difficult to connect to the characters and invest myself in the overlying plot. You’ve probably seen or read this a hundred times; the main character is an underdog who doesn’t seem to have powers, but an event happens, and the main character discovers hidden power within himself and goes on countless adventures. Well, this is exactly how Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru plays out. That being said though, it’s not like that storyline can’t be great but, in Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru there are no unique twists and no outstanding arcs or storylines to keep the reader invested.

The manga did come to a satisfactory ending though and, Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru does a great job integrating Sci-Fi with Samurais. I found myself thoroughly enjoying the spacefaring, the technology, and everything about the Sci-Fi atmosphere the story included. That aside, it was hard to find any more positive attributes in the story.

Art: 8/10

If you are familiar with Naruto or any other Masashi Kishimoto works, you’ll love the art style of Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru. As I mentioned before, the Sci-Fi atmosphere displayed in Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru is just absolutely great. Even though everything is in black & white, there is still so many things to look at. The world, from an art perspective, is gorgeous. I often found myself just looking at everything in a panel, all the cool architecture, the design of the people and animals, the technology the used, etc. there wasn’t a thing within the world that was dull to look at.

The fight scenes are drawn well too. It was clear to me what exactly was going on and, when you get to see the Samurais don their armor and unsheathe their swords and started going at each other, it was a sight to see.

Characters: 5/10

Sadly, outside Hachiman’s and Ann’s characters, there isn’t much development. Unless you’re captivated by the design of a certain character, I can almost guarantee that you’ll forget most of the characters in Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru. Most of the character design is flat so basically, from the moment you meet the characters, you can already speculate on what kind of character they’re going to be and how they are going to develop as the story progresses. This kind of flat character design leads to linear character progression and it’s definitely evident within this manga.

Enjoyment: 4/10

I wouldn’t say that I had to slug through this manga just to complete it or dreaded my time reading it. There are plenty of points in the manga that had me genuinely enjoy what I was reading. Whether it was the scenery, the fights, or the cool Samurai designs, I enjoyed all of those. As much as I enjoyed those things though, the lack of a three-dimensional character design and progression, coupled with the predictable story, I found myself spending more time not enjoying what I was reading more than the things I did enjoy.

Verdict

Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru the work of Masashi Kishimoto is average at best. It lacks a good story, the characters are flat and one-dimensional, there is no real gripping themes or plots that keep the reader’s eyes glued to the page. The only thing that Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru excels at is the artwork. Each panel that shows off the scenery of the world is wonderfully crafted, and the character artwork designs are great. Overall, Samurai 8: The Tale of Hachimaru resembles that of a filler manga more than anything else.