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If your any fan of Kentarou Miura (of Berserk fame) or Buronson (Fist of the North Star) or, like me, both of them. You'll undoubtedly be so utterly excited to read this that you can barely contain yourself. Like me >_>

Putting them together on a story/art collaboration is just a set up to have a manga full of huuuuge muscled manly men beat each other to death. It was. Every male character in this manga is big, well built, and even sometimes a little ugly as real men are.

Since it was so short, you can't expect much complexity from the story, and you won't ... get much either. But there are a few plot twists that go on near the end that are fairly interesting. If your into history, at least.

Considering how short this is, at a whooping 2 volumes, one would think that the story itself would not be all that complex. It's true that some things kind of move a little fast; however, it never leaves any stone unturned. Offered is filled with various twists and turns, most of which you did not expect to happen until it was right there in your face.

As with any Ryouichi Ikegami manga, the art is probably the selling point here. His style is the most realistic thing you'll ever find in the world of manga. Though some could bitch and moan about it being far ... too sketchy, but you cannot fail to recognize how utterly amazing it is to capture people the way he does. In my experience though, his main characters always look strangely alike, haha.

This manga, as you'll find out is filled with sex, mostly rape too. So if that's a problem, you may want to avoid it. Also, the main villain in the story loves getting head in the oddest situations.

Offered was one of those mangas that just left me wishing there was more, but in the back of my mind knowing that more just would have ruined it with every extra chapter. It's just something that I found hard to let go of, though it's most likely because I'm a nerd for everything Gilgamesh.

The only real thing that could throw people off of this anime is that they are all used to fast paced manly men jumping around showing off their entirely unrealistic swords man skills (that was a shot at Mugen from Samurai Champloo, by the way). Most people would find this show slow and boring or grossly disgusting. However, what they fail to realize is that those are very human things, humans are dirty and seemingly boring.

Shigurui is undoubtedly the most realistic vision of ancient Japan that I've ever come across, where honor is everything and real old delirious old men drool and soil themselves ... without shame.

What really got me was the way sword fighting was portrayed, as mentioned earlier, the sword fights were subtle, albeit highly stylized. That is as real as you can get to true samurai. The art of swordsmanship was just that--an art. It was supposed to be a poetic act of a one on one duel between warriors. It thrilled me to no end how they pulled it off in Shigurui.

Alright, let's make Historie.
Haha. Oh, wow, bad pun.

STORY:
If your a true fan of historical manga, then you'll most likely enjoy this for it's content. Especially if your into ancient greek/persian history. The story at the beginning lacks a little something that I like to call complexity, and it continues on that way until some things happen that cause Eumenes to leave his hometown.

ART:
As with all of Iwaaki's work, there will be some that find the art a little plain or too sketchy for them. This is definitely not art that would be pleasing to those who are fans of shiny, glittering bishonens from a hardcore ... shoujo manga. This art really makes you feel like you can see the soul of a character just by looking through their eyes.

CHARACTER:
Speaking of seeing a characters' soul through their eyes, I'm pretty sure Eumenes (especially young Eumenes) has no soul to should through his eyes. He is the only character that you can't really feel any emotion other than an indifferent bliss radiating from them. He's more of a cold and calculating scholar for most of the series, even when he learns potentially traumatizing stuff. I suppose due to the nature of his race, that's how he is supposed to be though. But some of the other characters, woah. You can tell right away whether they are kind-hearted or filled with malice.

ENJOYMENT:
Any fan of Historical or even Seinen manga will undoubtedly enjoy this. It's simplistic, but thoroughly enjoyable. It draws on in with something that I can't quite put my foot on, maybe it's the little quirks of humor that are thrown into the story while not taking away from the seriousness.

OVERALL:
Admittedly, there's not a whole lot of action. Just a fight here and there, then one pretty epic battle, but again not too many fights. So if your a real hardcore fan of action manga, then that might put you off. If your a fan of highly detailed art, then Historie's art, again, might put you off. Other than those two downfalls, there's really not too much else that's all too bad about it.