Sengoku Youko

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To start this review, I will state that I am still EXTREMELY mad about the Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer adaptation. I will also preface that this is not my favorite of Mizukami's works, with Biscuit Hammer and Spirit Circle being superior in my eyes. However, this is still a top 10 manga of mine for excellent reason. It is ambitious and has a storytelling prowess not seen in his other works. While Spirit Circle is a layered story, and Biscuit Hammer is a spoof on the Sentai genre, Sengoku Youko is just Mizukami showing he can do a traditional Shonen while still maintaining his ... trademark untraditional style of fluid plot progression, nuanced character writing, and the beautiful emotional core at the heart of all his works.

The plot starts rather simply for a Mizukami story, following a pair of brother and sister (at least they call each other that) "Youko", or demons, named Jinka and Tama. They traverse the lands, with the younger sister being a proclaimer of absolute peace to misdoers, pleading with them to reconsider their actions. When this proclamation fails, Jinka goes beast mode and beats the meanies up easily. There is also a random guy that joins along with them named Shinsuke, and they kind of just let him. The start of the story isn't perfect, but it makes sense as it emulates many of its other shonen counterparts, then tears apart these traditional storytelling values in a unique way. I like to see the first 1/3 of Sengoku Youko similar to Hunter X Hunter, with our main characters all rather simple at the beginning, but showing both explicit and implicit growth with every scene that comes, making their growth immensely satisfying. I won't go any further into the plot, as the next 2/3 of the story is spoiler-heavy, but I will say that Sengoku Youko never stays stagnant, always growing as a narrative and making daring choices. Some work, some fail, but none of them are meaningless.

Now it's time to talk about the cast. A strength that all of Mizukami's manga have is that every plot point grows every member of the cast in some way, and that is no different for Sengoku Youko. My personal favorite character is Shinsuke, a character who starts out as your stereotypical shonen "I'm a normal guy stuck in a crazy world!" MC, but slowly grows into something far grander. He experiences the greatest character writing out of any manga I've ever read, consistently adapting in every scene, so much so that the Shinsuke from the beginning, middle, and end are all completely different characters. If nothing else, read Sengoku Youko for the absolute writing masterclass that is Shinsuke's character. The rest of the class ranges from great to serviceable, with characters like Senya, Jinka, and Douren being the other highlights. Senya has a really unique power and how it relates to his psyche creates polarizing dynamics, Jinka is a great foil to Shinsuke and would be higher if not for a questionable plot decision, and Douren is just so fucking cool. The only flaw with the characters is Tsukiko, who in my opinion does not receive a sufficient amount of development to justify her screentime. I felt that she was honestly quite expendable as a character in most of her scenes, and brings little impact to the overall narrative. She isn't actively bad, just a rather dull point in a non dull series.

And this final section will be spent on me GUSHING about Mizukami's art style and how much he has grown from his early days. Unfortunately, the site is bugging for me and won't let me post any pictures on this review, but I implore you to look up some of his art. At first glance, the art is almost mediocre, with a simple, shonen-like design lacks a lot of difference comapred to older mid-2000s manga with the same style. But Mizukami has absolutely perfected the art of expression, and his shading is some of the best of any mangaka I've seen. Admittedly, Biscuit Hammer is rather shoddy, with some scenes looking out of place and the art a bit wonky, but Sengoku Youko has not a single part that is flawed in any manner. It is excruciatingly beautiful, an example being Shinsuke's art style during the narrative. His change in design and character is so poignant to the points in the story that he's in, from jubilant, to fulfilled, to despaired, to content, every level of his character is only accentuated by the art. This review might seem like a bit of a Shinsuke dickride, but he's not the only one with outstanding artistic design. In fact, every character has such a fun unique design, and Mizukami uses the fighting techniques these characters have with a great scale yet never seems to falter in terms of quality. Overall, this is the peak of Mizukami's art, and seeing his progression throughout his career makes it an even more satisfying read.

Overall, I give Sengoku Youko a 9/10. It's gripping, unique, and nuanced in many regards. The only flaws are a few drawn-out plot points and questionable decisions (specifically with Jinka) that hold it back from Mizukami's other manga. I am so hyped for the anime and I pray to the gods in heaven above that they don't massacre another one of Mizukami's creations, otherwise I will riot.

THE MEH

The premise of Sengoku Youko is both generic for a fighting shounen and familiar coming from its author, who was working on Hoshi no Samidare at the same time. Two siblings (not really in here) defeating both bad humans and demons and telling them to do better, out of love for either one or both species.

The initial plot structure is one of the same for a fighting shounen as well, the main group gets formed while defeating minor enemies, antagonist organization and big bads appear, more and more powerful bads appear later on, the good guys get stronger by getting more and more power ... ups, some romantic interests thrown in, and there you have it, your fighting shounen served and ready to go.

The comedy can be a mixed bag, there’s a lot of the usual silly yelling, funny moments thrown in during serious ones, overreactions and the like, yet there’s also some good comedy about subverting those typical shounen moments by cutting them off out of annoyance around one of the protagonists, so it evens out.

The powers are based on elements, spiritual energy, illusions, and the fights revolved completely around either fist or sword fights with demonic powers or transformations in them. At most they mix some boxing in it but that’s about it for innovation, which is very basic and inferior in terms of choreography compared with Hoshi no Samidare.

At least the usual craziness from this author is still there and if all you want is epic scales and scope in your fights, you will have them in both parts of the manga.

The art is overall decent but can be rough around the edges since the author was never very good at drawing. The artwork is simplistic and often lacks details or backgrounds, the character designs are simple and generic and feel kind of reused from other works, the motions are so-so, and as a whole there’s a very sketchy feel about what’s on the pages. At the same time the special effects are really powerful, and combined with the sketchy art style, the darker, hypest and more psychological moments in the manga have a raw feeling that make them immersive, impactful and memorable enough.

THE BAD

You can’t have your typical fighting shounen without its typical elements and moments, and that’s where all the bad writing comes in:

-Convenient power ups in battle, with even its own nine tails like Naruto.

-Quick training sessions on rooms where time moves differently so the main characters can conveniently become way stronger in order the defeat their opponents. Sometimes not even that but training montages through flashbacks and after time skips instead.

-Forgiving old bad guys that become future allies against stronger new enemies.

-Lack of permanent deaths in the long run. For the most part that’s present as well, but at least the characters that do die in here are more fleshed out than the ones in Hoshi no Samidare.

-Meh antagonist organization. As a whole they are fine, there’s enough variety amongst them and both good and bad guys in it but individually almost every member in it is lacking powerful enough characterization. Eventually two or three of them are fleshed out but the vast majority of them are not. Later on more antagonists appear and they leave a lot to be desired for how hyped they were when they appeared for the first time. Plus their existence is confusing in a way that feels like a plot hole. They come from the far more advanced past and despite claiming that they try to prevent their end, descendants keep over the time on which the series take place in, how is that possible?

-Random anachronistic element that doesn’t fit the historical setting, in the form of a rapper like villain that even speaks in English randomly, what the hell is with that guy?

-Lots of last moment saves and characters appearing randomly when needed.

THE GOOD

Despite the criticisms I’ve made, I think that Sengoku Youko is overall a decent one time read fighting shounen plainly for its second half, which although it still has the issues from the first, it also amplifies the good parts of it and adds some more on its own.

First of all, it takes an interesting narrative choice by switching the roles of some characters, thus you have some good guys from the first part being the antagonists while some bad guys are now the protagonists, while at the same time it follows every single recurrent side character or antagonist from earlier with a new role and newer character dynamics with some others, thus everyone remains kind of relevant for the story and plot and there is a sense of evolution for most of them that way.

This is done by not forgetting anything from both the earlier and the later parts, as every seemingly unimportant side story and character reappears with a role in the final battle and arc, while it also tries to make some sense out of the stuff that previously didn’t have much, or any.

The themes are ok as well. As it seems to be the case with this author, it’s anti-suicide, edgyness, depression, losing yourself out of greed for power, people getting a new perspective and identity in life and all that stuff, with this time the relationships between humans and demons as an addition.

Last year we have had several anime depicting demons in different ways, Frieren as irredeemable, Helck as victims, the S-Rank Adventurer Daughter anime as something in between, as there were demons that were just evil, as well as others that could be reformed with better nurture. Sengoku Youko takes a similar stand as the latter, as there are both demons that kill for hunger and humans that kill any demon indiscriminately, as well as demons and humans that coexist peacefully, since even though they are different on the outside, they still share presence in a same spiritual world, thus being essentially the same. The end of the manga also shows how demons can be reformed by being taught a different diet.

The key to the theme exploration is the presence of characters that are both human and demon, products of artificial experiments. Thus both demons and humans learn that coexistence is possible through them, with the key characters for that aspect being Shakugan in the first half, who was not just a friend for Tama and a romantic interest for Shinsuke, but also the one that helps the human hating Jinka notice that.

Tama is important for the theme exploration as well, since she was around humans or half humans as well as demons her whole life, which is why she is the mentor for everyone else in the main group, in terms of getting along between the different species.

And finally, remember that golem from Hoshi no Samidare with an existential crisis that was one of the best, if not the best character from that manga? Well Senya here is the same but done much better, coming from an empty husk of a character to an amnesiac little boy to a dangerous monster that can’t control his powers, to a suicidal half demon half human character with an identity crisis and full of guilt and repentance, to the hero of the story that never really breaks the power scaling, and finally a Buddha like figure that spreads forgiveness, hope, pacifism and coexistence between demons and humans, exactly because of the nurture, psychological introspection and character dynamics and development he has throughout the whole story.

The evolution of other characters is good as well. Jinka starts as an edgy hotheaded character but we also learn how good he is with other demons, and he develops by learning that coexistence between species is possible, before losing himself in his own power, requiring every other character to cooperate in order to stop him.

And Shinsuke begins as a comic relief character that turns himself into the edgy suicidal loner before he also learns the same thing as the other characters, and becomes a mentor for everybody else.

The female characters, as a whole, have an important role also during the fights, which is kind of rare for a fighting shounen, and although they never really match the males in power, for its genre and time period in setting, their roles stand out and deserve a mention, as they are not just romantic interests, plus the seemingly most powerful creature in the series (for the longest time at least) is a woman. Another good thing is that, although they are presented as cute and romantic interests, and although there are some nudity moments in the manga, they are very few and are never shown in a sensual way, thus the women are never treated as fapservice.

The second half also fleshes out other characters that up until that point were fun but shallow.

The conclusion is solid as far as characterization goes, as everyone gets a catharsis, and although easygoing and with a typical happy finale, it is also kind of bittersweet in a way, as it bothers to actually show the inevitable pass of time and its consequences, without a happy ending that skips character dynamics like Hoshi no Samidare, thus I consider this one to be better.

Bottom line, as it’s usually the case with straightforward action fiction, this is not a series you really follow for the writing or substance, even if it does become better in the second half, but the changes in it in the later stages of the manga and the characters, along with the epic shit moments, that make it a one-time worthwhile read.

TL:DR
Very poor start, flat characters, randomly changes main characters 1/3rd of the way through, lots of Deus ex Machina. The end is somewhat better but not by much.

Story: 3/10
It's bad. Lots of things feel like they just happen randomly, characters come out of nowhere and go out of their way to help the protagonists for seemingly no reason or the protagonist gets completely unearned power-ups. Lots of Dues ex Machina, feels out of place and robs the manga of any tension. The story is split into 2 parts, with two different main characters. This is very jarring and changes the focus onto a character that ... previously had maybe 3 chapters of screen time and barely any lines. It feels like the author got bored or something, it's so unexpected of a shift. It also feels like wasted time as you spend a good third of the manga getting to know three characters and then suddenly time skip and now they barely show up again. What was the point? The first part was very weak with all the aforementioned issues while also being written as if we're supposed to be attached to these characters we barely know. The emotional hits simply fall flat.

The second part actually gets better near the end but has many of the same problems. There is a neat twist on the standard shounen training arc plus some fun interactions between side characters but it's really more of the same.

Art: 5/10
Simple art, what you'd expect from a 4koma normally but the fight scenes can be pretty well done.

Characters: 3/10
Most characters (including the protagonists of the first part of the manga) don't have many traits that distinguish them from archetypal shounen battle manga characters. There is also a sort of forced emotional impact we're supposed to feel during certain parts of the manga that simply fall flat because we barely get to know these characters.

It's not all negative however, the interactions between a certain two antagonists are quite good. In the second part of the manga, the growth of the new main character is more compelling than the first half. Still, it's not very much and it certainly doesn't make up for everything else.

Overall: 3/10
Some enjoyable stuff but it's all at the end, and it doesn't justify the slog to get there. I seriously considered dropping this manga quite a few times before I finished it, but I waited because this had such good reviews. Maybe this manga just isn't for me but I really couldn't get into it. Definitely do not recommend this, there's way better out there.

Good
• Interesting take on a training art
• Fights are pretty cool

Bad
• Fights can be hard to follow
• It really does feel like the author got bored a third of the way through and basically soft rebooted the series.
•The female characters don't have a lot of agency and are basically set pieces for most of the manga