Saturday, April 9, 2011

Bamboo Blade

KIRINO, ACTIVATE CAT SMILE POWER!!!
Think of a sport with bamboo swords. I know what you’re thinking, “What sport possibly has a bamboo sword in it?” The answer is simple it’s Kendo. Kendo is a regular sport in Japan that is usually played in a dojo and is considered nosier than other martial arts.
Why? They had to hit the target and yell what they were trying to hit.

Does this sound even a little bit possible? Yes it does this sport is easy to learn but hard to master. Bamboo Blade starts with child-like Kojiro living in a run-down apartment with almost nothing to eat but the same terrible food every day (ramen). Shortly, Kojiro makes a “friendly” bet (to make some quick money) with an old friend who is a teacher. The bet is a kendo match between an all-girls team (consisting of five members) of their respective schools.
Free Food = Insanity

But things don’t go, umm, according to plans when an apparent kendo master,

Tamaki Kawazoe
,can beat them all but shows no interest to be in a club with other people…
The characters come alive with a wide array of personalities. Ranging from quiet (Tamaki), loud (Kirino), and to the seemingly innocent (Miya-Miya).
Seemingly Innocent
Wow. You’re probably asking why the characters are so “great.” Let’s look at some characters. Tamaki the main character is a master at Kendo but is a super otaku; Miya-Miya has a split-personality from nice to insane and has an insane stalker named Reimi; Saya is random usually changing her interests, goals and highly pessimistic.

This is a great manga but action tends to fill up most of it, where dialogue could fill it. Take these facts; for examples, most practices that Kojiro leads fill most of a chapter, also the “small” fact that the only part you can recognize them are when they are fighting during the matches is their eyes and occasional dialogue. But this story is full of laughs. The timing is just right too. Take Saya’s presumption of Azuma; for example.

A student that is excelling in grades and aiming to learn more different subjects, 4kids would definitely air this.

But, she isn’t a god-like student. She is a student that studies one-hundred times more than your average student. Yet she seems to fail at almost every subject possible. Because of her terrible grades she was told by her parents that to pass she needed the extra time to study and so had to quit Kendo and focus on her studies. So she put her fake glasses on and tried to do her best to impress and bring her grades up.


Ohm, did I forget to mention something? Why, yes I did. The other only negative thing that could possibly affect this from being good is that it’s not finished in Japan and y0u won’t get a GREAT ending to an awesome slice-of-life story. If you don’t look at that, you have a story that is filled with comedy and interesting characters with interesting characters. If you’re looking for a comedy pick this manga up because it won’t disappoint.
  • Written by Masahiro Totsuka, illustrated by Aguri Igarashi.
  • It lasted from December 3, 2004 to September 3,2010 with fourteen volumes
Snow Drgn

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