Gamaran

In my opinion, there are two parts to Gamaran; there's the intense and fast-paced action up to around chapter 60 and there's... the rest.

- - - S T O R Y - - -
The story is pretty weak, to be honest. In fact, up to around chapter 60, there's barely a story at all. It's pretty much just all about Gama wanting to get stronger. The manga is amazing action at every turn. Each enemy is a master of a different martial art, most of which using different weapons, which keeps things really fresh and interesting. Things go from one battle to another immediately before the main characters have a chance to rest, then they continue the battles even while they're resting. It's pretty addictive to read with how the action doesn't let up. It's also great how the enemies are killed in just about every battle, so you don't get predictable repeat battles and drawn out crap. The technical explanations and the way every match has everything on the line makes it quite enjoyable. The intensity of the matches is similar to Hajime no Ippo, but with no training scenes or personal life.

For "the rest", the story develops a lot more, but the action dwindles. Whatever foes weren't eliminated before have their roles dragged on till the later chapters of the manga. For some reason, the author also decides to start giving nameless characters backstories before they die. To make things worse, the battles become a lot less realistic, less focused on weapon variety, and they last longer.
The later enemies are far too gimmicky and can barely be called martial artists. That's always the worst part of shounen manga in my opinion. DBZ went from martial arts to shooting beams at each other, Bleach went from samurai action to shooting beams and clashing swords while never actually cutting each other, Berserk went from medieval wars to solely fighting monsters. The enemies in Gamaran are still human (mostly) and they still get cut and die from mortal wounds, but it's just not the same, and just not as good. Thankfully, Gamaran never resorts to a "power level" system where the battle is over before it starts, like in Toriko or the later YuYu Hakusho.

- - - A R T - - -
I dunno why the other reviews are hating on the art. I thought the art was well done. It does have some similarities to a cross between Naruto and Bleach; that is to say the art is more realistic than typical anime/manga, but still keeps the part of it that makes it appealing.

Characters have the different kinda faces you'd expect from manga. That is, you're bound to come across some pretty familiar faces as far as eyes, noses, head shapes, and hairstyles go. Some of the characters have pretty distinctly different eyebrows, though, which I think helped with making them look different.

I think the setting is quite well done. Pretty much everyone wears things like hakama and kimono. This manga doesn't have the "badass" samurai who walk around shirtless, carrying 9 swords, wearing bright red clothes and armour, etc. (I'm looking at you, Sengoku Basara). There is a lot more discipline and respect for the blade in this manga, and the way everyone dresses in traditional clothes makes it all the more convincing.

The colour pages disappointed me, however. For example, Zenmaru's hair is red. Why would a Japanese person in feudal times have red hair? There are a lot of characters with white hair, which, in manga, means it can pretty much be any colour. This part really doesn't fit in with the setting. There are some characters who are introduced as foreigners and they have blonde hair, which is fine, but what's everyone else's excuse?

- - - C H A R A C T E R S - - -
I have a few complaints here. Let's see...
Hyuga Bros.: They join the Ogame school as comic relief characters. They wish to learn the Ogame style, but are essentially ignored. I think they could've developed into cool and respectable characters given the opportunity. Obviously, they shouldn't be as strong as the main characters, but it'd be nice if they were able to at least offer some support.

Iori: He was incredibly badass. He always looked like he had such intensity to him. After a certain plot point, however, he becomes incredibly tame. Even the way he's drawn, his eyes just don't look as crazy as they used to. He's barely present in the story, so... come on, give us the true Iori when he's actually there, not this watered down version. The author probably wanted to give him rivals, but toning down Iori is not the right way to do it.

Ogame girl: I don't remember her name. She pretty much had no reason for existing other than offering some rare opportunities for jokes, which weren't even funny. It would've been cooler if she secretly knew how to fight.

Naoyoshi: Based on the relationship between his mother and Jinsuke, I thought he surely had to be Gama's brother, but nothing about that was ever elaborated on. It just kinda feels like a disappointing loose end.

- - - E N J O Y M E N T - - -
The humour in Gamaran is pretty weak. They shouldn't have even tried. You can only comment on Gama's lack of pubic hair so many times before it causes your humour senses to cry instead of laugh. What are we, 11 year olds? Kashitarou's obscene fantasies also weren't funny.

I'm glad this didn't have some ditzy, big breasted character, though. In fact, it barely had any females at all, which was surely for the best. Fan service is one of the worst parts of the industry.

I also feel I should mention the story has plot twists during "the rest", and you might not always see them coming, but, to put it bluntly, they aren't exciting.

- - - O V E R A L L - - -
Overall, this was pretty cool. The first 60 chapters were exceptional; perhaps the best battle manga I've ever read (and better than battle anime I've seen). It was all battles with no bullshit. Plus the battles were actually cool and had depth to them, not just senseless violence like Hellsing.

I recommend reading this up to the point where Ranmaru captures a certain person. Things go downhill after that, though. Before that is 9/10, after that is 6/10.

PS: The ending is pretty anti-climactic.

I just finished this manga
It’s been a long time since I read something realistic, bloody and with a GREAT ART!! It’s so satisfying.
I liked all the main characters “ this is rare to happen LOL “, each one of them has his own charm but I completely fell for Iori OMG he is so COOOL !! .Also I liked the support characters, each one of them has his own way to use the swords!!
The storyline are amazing and I got excited while reading it. Although I didn’t like the ending or we can say the last chapter, but overall the manga was so good, and I highly recommend it.

(*Yes a 7 isn't that high of a rating but I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Gamaran to all manga fanatics!)

Oh God where do I even begin?! Gamaran is a shounen manga on STEROIDS. Seriously every single chapter is jam-packed with action. The author takes no bullshit whatsover and doesn't waste a single page with unnecessary fillers or pathetic love/romance plots. If I had to describe Gamaran to readers I guess I'd liken it as the kick-ass version of Sword Art Online & Naruto with hints of Rurouni Kenshin's awesome-ness. Unlike Sword Art Online and Naruto, however, Gamaran isn't PG so you can expect to see alot of blood, gore, and EPIC fights with brutal death scenes. In fact, we are introduced to our 15-year old MC, Gamaran, as he effortlessly slices a man in half. HYPEHYPEHYPEEE!!!

As far as the story goes, I'd give it a 7 because not too much time is put into world building. But the author compensates any lack of background material with full-throttle action scenes. From the get-go the manga's protagonists are thrown into an epic battle of the strongest to win the title of legendary swordsman. Yet the plot takes a twist and our main protagonists meet their biggest challenge yet, and will have to hone their will and skills and become stronger than ever before in order to meet the obstacle(s) ahead.

As with the mediocre story line I'd also rate the manga's characters a 6. Although many interesting and bad-ass figures are introduced, the characters lack depth for the readers don't really get a chance to learn about their background/history. All we see are the MC's motivation to become the strongest warrior. But hey, I'd take 100 chapters of awesome action over 200 chapters of boring background stories any day.

One of the manga's main weak point is the art. I rated it a 5 because the art was rudimentary and frankly very poorly done. Nevertheless the action scenes were good enough for me to overlook this critical flaw.

For those of you who thirst for some good, entertaining action I'd recommend you check out Gamaran. I was able to fly through 100 chapters in one sitting without ever getting bored. Also, if you like stories centered around the Edo period than this manga is a must-read!

Gamaran is a historical martial arts manga with fights, fights, fights and nothing more.

Story: The only manga of this genre that I have read but still I think I am able to say that it has a very simple and predictable storyline. 6/10

Art: The art is very good and the fights are drawn very clean. The background drawing is also very good. So why 8 and not 10, because the characters are drawn very similar, and there is nothing really special in the art, it is just very good. 8/10

Character: There are a lot of characters, whom the author gives them more time than he should. He spends time showing their past, while the readers knowing that afterwards they will die since they are fighting with the main protagonists. Something that is not bad and neither good. Also their stories aren't something exceptional they are very usual stories. The main protagonist looked like he had a lot of potential. But his character development is proceeding with a very slow pace. 7/10

Enjoyment: A lot of battles not only with swords, but with all kinds of martial arts. Fast pace and some interesting techniques, that the mangaka afterwards explain how they did them. Its very easy to read and if you are bored and want to kill time is very good. 10/10

This manga turned out be a big disappointment even before I started to notice that.
So far the manga can be divided into 3 parts:

I. Chapters 1-43 (Four main battles): The story started off fast-paced, impressive and very promising with a cool lead character, who was reckless, decisive, and reliable in any situation. There were creative twists during the battles and many types of weapons were showcased.

II. Chapters 44-66 (Only one main battle): The pacing became slower, the chatting exhaustively longer, and the fights simpler, more predictable, effectively reduced to merely slashes and thrusts. Enemies died faster and in less splendid ways.

III. Chapters 67-last (Many mini-battles): By this point, the story became extremely slow. It's more talking and bragging than fighting. Characters' traits became inconsistent, and ultimately indistinguishable. Events became so absolutely mediocre that no one can expect to see anything new. In short, from this point the manga became even worse than that crappy Bleach.

Gamaran is my first samurai manga. Its quite odd to have read a manga that doesnt have any super powers or sci-fi elements, but still, it was fine and fun.

STORY 7/10

I find the story very good and interesting, but somewhat it lacks creation. The setting is around the Unabara, or The Land of Demons as sometimes reffered, in which a tournament is held. But its not just some typical martial arts tournament because the tournament is held to determine the next Daimyo(landlord) of Unabara. The contestants are Daimyo's sons. 31 sons were given the task to find the strongest dojo they can and participate for a chance to be the next Daimyo. The story follows the 30th son, Naoyoshi Washitsu, who aims to find the legendary Thousand man slayer, Kurogane Jinsuke. He visits the Ogame dojo, but Kurogane is nowhere to be found, and his son, Kurogane Gama is the only available Ogame student(And Gama is really mad at his dad, and looking for revenge). Naoyoshi asks Gama to help him and Gama agrees, and the two of them set on a journey to find which of the 31 fighting styles is the greatest.

I love the story very much, but I think it could be more creative. Roughly looking, the main plot is centered around the tournament with nothing more added to the story, until later on. You will get to see so much different weapons, so much different styles and moves. Every weapon has its own strenghts and weaknesses and its really well explained how it works. The moves are also well explained, as I see it, I believe that most of them are very legit, as we do see some odd footwork and such, but the mangaka explains it very well. Personally I find the end a bit too rushed and odd, so only 7/10 for the story.

ART 9/10

Art is very well done. The only thing why i give it a niner is that it is very much concentrated on people, and there is less attention given to the buildings and backgrounds, but they are also well made when they are around. Gamarans main forte are the fights. Art in the fights is very good, all the moves are drawn neat and clean, and there are plenty. Most of the time the story is centered around the fight and you will see a lot of it. I think that there are only around 20 chapters without any fights. And there are 197 chapters to read so you will see a lot of hack and slash :D As it is a tournament, there are plenty characters in the process, and I find it very well done as the characters are beatifully drawn.

CHARACTER 8/10

There are a hell lot of characters out there. The thing is that every one of them gets a little background inside a chapter, ranging from two pages to almost an entire chapter to show why the character does what he does. As I find it a bit simplistic, and in any other manga I would find it unsatisfying, but in Gamaran its preety neat. I know that the opponent is gonna die eventually so there is no need for a long backstory as there are many opponents that are gonna get defeated. I fthink Gama is a great character, and I cheered for him during my readings as he is preety awesome in his own way. But Sengoku Iori is my favourite, and if you read it, I think you will see why.

Overall, sometimes I think that Gamaran is quite simple but in way it has its own perks. I wouldnt reccomend it to everybody. If you are looking for a deep and awesome story, I dont think you will enjoy it. But if you are looking for good fights or some casual fun, then Gamaran is the real deal, fights are very awesome and really well done, thats Gamarans forte and thats why I love it.

The manga is quite fast, things constantly happen and it doesn't feel like it's getting slower and boring, it's moving forward and it doesn't waste time with useless training for a long time just for one fight, the mangaka understands that people don't read an action manga for the training but for the fights, and there are a lot of them.

The action is great as the fights seem to be realistic, they're fast and decisive, they don't keep on for many chapters and are well executed. It also helps that the fights are diverse enough, not only between the different characters but the same characters won't win all the time, they are well thought out tactical and situational fights.

The characters are all great and there are a lot of them, all interesting with their backstories and motives and they are all different enough.Gama isn't afraid to kill, he does it because he understands what a fight for survival entails, but don't get me wrong.. he's not a savage blood thirsty monster that only wants to kill to seem likehe is badass, he will avoid doing so if not necessary, it's just that he will kill when he has to.

All the supporting characters have their charm and are awesome in their own way, the manga just feels epic, and I'm not just saying epic because people spam it at the moment whenever they like something but I really get excited for the fights, to see the progress of the characters and what they'll do.

The art is good, above your average manga, it has a lot of detail and the action is well drawn, the characters are unique and their appearance suits their personality and all around there's little to complain when it comes to the art, because one can understand the battles.

I really do recommend this to anyone that likes battles with swords and amusing fights without many fillers and aquick pace.The story is quite generic but it is well written and paced and just flows nicely.

Feel free to express your opinion about this review and don't hesitate to comment about your opinion. :)

im too lazy but i loved this manga a hell of a lot, probably wont appeal to all but i finished this in like 2 days, im very put off by ancient or historical manga but i thought id give it a try, reading this on a whim i was caught in the first chapter and binged from there, it was so much fun, very likeable main characters lots off badass moments, fights seemed tactical and kept me on edge, chances are you'll enjoy this so just give it a go, like i said im lazy so i thought short and sweet is best since i dont really read reviews fully

I decided that I should write review for one manga I really liked, and I chosed Gamaran.

My english grammar is not the best, but I will write everything about this manga that I liked, hopefuly this will help


Story
Good - 6/10
I would put this shonen in category of those I like to call, "darker" shonens. Just with the saying that this manga is set in "Middle Edo Period" you know that there are cruel things happening in it.
The ruler of the state Unabara(Also know as "Haunt of Demons" ) called Washitzu Naosata is looking for his succcessor. He calls his 31 sons and tell them to find a worthy martial art school, they believe is superior to any other school. Son with the strongest martial artist by his side, will become the next ruler of the land - And there is the plot of the series, the whole manga is circling about this one "tournament"

Far in the mountains, there lives a boy called Kurogane Gama, the son of a legendary swordsman, Kurogane Jinsuke that formed "Ogame" school. Kurogane Jinsuke is believed to be a demon, man that was able to kill 1000 martial artist in Unabara.
One of the sons, Washitzu Naoshi in a search of Kurogane Jinsuke, comes to the doujo only to find that Jinsuke is gone missing.After seeing the skill of a young swordsman Kurogane Gama, Naoshi choses to ask Gama to join him, in order to beat his brothers and become the next . Driven by the will to get stronger than his dad, to become the greatest swordman of all the time, Gama agrees to his offer. That is the start of this journey, journey to become the best swordsman.

Now, the whole manga is really fast, it doesn't get much slower in any parts, and I personally don't like that, but Gamaran is just "jackpot".
Story gets more complicated and interesting - as characters evolve, the story evolves too. Since its shonen, story is not the top priority, the story of Gamaran leans on characters, theirs ambitions, past and motives.


Art:
Outstanding - 10/10
Characters, weapons/swords, fights, background, I found everything perfectly drawn. Serious style, with serious and similliar faces of characters, their movements, everything is really original and enjoyable. Art really does suit the cruel Edo period.
I believe that people that are new to this manga will really like this magnificent style and will be overflowed with it.


Characters
Great - 9/10
There are many things about Gamaran characters
Many shonen have really boring, all-same characters, expecially main characters. Gamaran is diffrent, in many ways.
Main character, Kurogane Gama is still a kid, teenager, but he really went through alot. He has that dose of "mainstreamnes" but on the other hand, he really is likeable, mature, smart and great main character. Other Ogame martial artist, Gama's best friends are really great and "badass" too. They all have their, well-presented and really tough past, all of them have something they want to achieve, and the tournament is the way to come step closer to that ambition.The bond between main characters is realy strong, they all believe in each other and are ready to put their lives on the line for their friends.
Like I said, as the characters evolve, story evolves too, they are really connected.
Main antagonists are really likeable too, they too have something they want to achieve, someone they want to protect - somebody that is important to them.


Enjoyment
Great - 8/10
I believe that this manga is really special, it can easily become one of your favourites. Some parts of it are maybe boring and hard to read, but ones you get dragged in Gamaran's world, characters, you will love it.

Overall
Great - 8/10
It's a good manga that brings you great sword action scenes, good and interesting characters and on top of that, might teach you few new things about friendship and loyality
Hope this was helpful

Before I start: This is my first review, so it’ll not be perfect. If you read it, I appreciate the feedback.

I can describe Gamaran with one phrase: A complete blast of action. No unnecessarily complex plot, no exaggerated emotional breakdowns, almost no trace of romance; there are only ever-changing action and fighting. It makes Gamaran a paragon of shounen action/fighting series in my opinion. When I see “action” and “fighting” in genre section, I want to see some real fighting but most of the modern shonen “fighting” series gives us less fighting, more triviality. But Gamaran is sincere; it’s a fighting series and it gives you lots of action and good fights. Nothing more, nothing less and I love that Garaman keeps his promise as a shounen fighting manga.

The strongest element of the series is the fight scenes, which is action-packed, not unnecessarily long and realistic. The mangaka is aware that in the ancient Japan, duels are concluded in several swings since duelists didn’t wear armour and this fact is reflected really well in Gamaran. Also, Nakamura-sensei shows his vast knowledge of the ancient weaponry, you can see it in the descriptions of weapons in series. It takes Gamaran one step further from its peers. And since fights are relatively short, we always see new fighters and different fights. It makes Gamaran more "concentrated".

The weakest point, though, is the almost non-existent story line and lack of any significant characters. However, it is 194-chapters long shounen fighting manga. So, it can be ignorable both because of it and the riveting action.

All in all, Gamaran is worth reading if you like action and fighting genre. This series is a perfect example of how a shounen fighting manga should be: one big blast of ever-changing action.