by Takehiko Inoue, based on the novel Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa, 202 pages Musashi fights to maintain his focus as the remaining Yoshioka change tactics, hoping to gain the advantage before there are none of them left to benefit from it.
Sloshing through the mud and bodies and still-flying swords, Musashi grows increasingly exhausted and distracted. To more effectively convey this state of body and mind to the reader, Inoue switches from his usual detailed linework to panels of chaotic, dreamlike ink washes when depicting images from our faltering hero's weary, blurring perspective. He also intersperses the battlefield carnage with quieter, bittersweet flashbacks to the childhood of Ueda, the young man chosen to lead the Yoshioka in Denshichirô's place, and to scenes of impatient Kojirô learning how to write Musashi's name while pestering his hosts about his fellow swordsman's absence. These quieter moments are essential and welcome respite from the constant battery of the senses that fills the spaces between them, just as the clean, cold blanket of snow that surrounds Musashi in the final images is a relief after the seemingly endless bloody mire. Inoue knows his characters, knows his art, and knows how to tell a good, moving, balanced story.
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