Shounen Samurai 8: Hachimaru Den by Masashi Kishimoto & Akira Ōkubo

[Admiral Teach]

Is that completed?

Alas, yes.

 

[HereNThere]

This story honestly need a better paced beginning. It basically hit the ground running and I honestly didn't feel like reading all of that exposition week after week.

This really could've been Kishi's Hunter X Hunter, but that series started out simple before jumping into the big concepts. It drip fed us the information about the world so we had a decent grasp of everything before the novella of exposition started after 20 or so chapters.

The potential was there. The concept was good. The execution wasn't. Also, Hachimaru wasn't much of an interesting character, in my opinion.

 

[Admiral Teach]

This story honestly need a better paced beginning. It basically hit the ground running and I honestly didn't feel like reading all of that exposition week after week.

This really could've been Kishi's Hunter X Hunter, but that series started out simple before jumping into the big concepts. It drip fed us the information about the world so we had a decent grasp of everything before the novella of exposition started after 20 or so chapters.

The potential was there. The concept was good. The execution was. Also, Hachimaru wasn't much of an interesting character, in my opinion.

I liked him until after he left his homeworld. Then he went rather bland fast. The snaggletooth guy and Ryuu were far more interesting. Wish it'd have been about Ryuu, who can't remember his past, or samurai training, or if he ever had a princess, and if she even loved him. So many possibilities there.

Yes, the execution was not good in how it delivered the samurai combat.

 

[Jammin]

This story honestly need a better paced beginning. It basically hit the ground running and I honestly didn't feel like reading all of that exposition week after week.

This really could've been Kishi's Hunter X Hunter, but that series started out simple before jumping into the big concepts. It drip fed us the information about the world so we had a decent grasp of everything before the novella of exposition started after 20 or so chapters.

The potential was there. The concept was good. The execution was. Also, Hachimaru wasn't much of an interesting character, in my opinion.

The best part character-wise, was the Ann conclusion at the end for me. Though I wonder if that would have ever happened had the series continued as intended.

So maybe in a way this situation sort of forced something good to happen. Because that would have been a huge gamble had the series been successful. In a cancelled series it's a lot easier to make that call. But I think we all agree that it was the right call to make. Turning the whole series into a sort of origin story for a matured Ann in a way.

One of the things I've noticing about Kishi's writing over the years is that he's one of those authors that really struggles with natural character progression and fitting that into his stories. He has a tendency to retroactively write character progression because of that. He'll write an character origin flashback in order to create the illusion that the character has progressed. But really once a character is set they very rarely change. And when they do he has had a lot of trouble doing it in a believable and relatable way.

This Ann thing is one of the exceptions to that. This ending just feels right for her character and Hachimaru's character.

 

[Admiral Teach]

It feels like one of those 1990s 25 episode anime. It accomplished what it needed to and left on a nice note that promises more we will never get out of sunrise or the other studios.

 

[Otakuch]

It feels like one of those 1990s 25 episode anime. It accomplished what it needed to and left on a nice note that promises more we will never get out of sunrise or the other studios.

Do you think it is worth to read ?

 

[DDed]

Already complete: https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/titles/100059

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 28, 2020, Original Post Date: Mar 28, 2020 ---

Spoiler: the ending

Okay, they killed off the main character, but this looks meh to me for the story

 

[Otakuch]

Already complete: https://mangaplus.shueisha.co.jp/titles/100059

--- Double Post Merged, Mar 28, 2020, Original Post Date: Mar 28, 2020 ---

Spoiler: the ending

Okay, they killed off the main character, but this looks meh to me for the story

Wow, I acidentally clicked show spoiler, and this manga is non existed for me now.

 

[Aeneas]

This really could've been Kishi's Hunter X Hunter, but that series started out simple before jumping into the big concepts. It drip fed us the information about the world so we had a decent grasp of everything before the novella of exposition started after 20 or so chapters.

Yeah, I was thinking about that.

A very telling comparison: S8 ended with 43 chapters. Chapter 44 of HxH? Start of Heavens Arena (i.e., the introduction of Nen).

 

[uberfayt]

I read the first few chapters of S8 when it started. It felt....bland, like a plain dish of white rice with no seasoning: plot felt vague, main character was very vanilla, and the world seemed empty (partly due to the lack of shading of backgrounds)...It couldn't captivate me. But then I thought to myself "this is just the beginning, let's just leave it for now and let it build itself more"...I did this with many mangas, If I find the beginning boring I start checking later chapters to see if the story captivates me at that point (that's how I got into Naruto, for example). However, didn't work with S8...So I concluded it was not my cup of tea, kinda like MHA.

Did I expect it to be canceled though? absolutely not! just learned the news now actually. I think it is a bit unfair, especially when series that are clearly crap at this point *cough* TPN *cough* are still running. Moreover, reading the above messages here I understood that S8 had lots of material to explore and a good potential for a good story, even if it took too long to kick off. That's really unfortunate...

I'm also intrigued that some would compare S8 to hxh...

 

[Altuzer Von G Dust D]

Well Kishimoto I can give more to this series but maybe he did not feel prepared to
I imagine that maybe someone already mentioned it but I still wanted to say it.
Perhaps in the future he will retake the Concept and improve it.

 

[Monox D. I-Fly]

Isn't it ironic that most people want Boruto to end because it didn't live up to Kishi's Naruto but its Kishi's own work Samurai 8 which got axed instead of Boruto?