(*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!