For five volumes, the Chiruran series follows a group of mercenaries in search of power. But, in this new volume, Shinya Umemura and Eiji Hashimoto propose a return to childhood.
Chiruran's gang returns
Edited by Mangetsu, Chiruran follows the Shinsen Gumi, a samurai militia that became legendary in 1859. We could see the group unite, suffer attacks from rival gangs and suffer a betrayal in the last volume. All this was told to us by Shinpachi Nagakura when, in 1912, a young journalist interviewed this former captain. The members of Shinsen Gumi are numerous and this volume adds in the past a new character, Ryôma Sakamoto, samurai of Tosa. However, without dominating the narrative, Hijikata remains the common thread of the series. This young man is willing to die to win a duel. This completeness makes this character strong. Shinbee is proud of his job as an assassin because he leaves a mark in history. We then feel his modest origin and the contempt for the poor in the already very unequal Japanese society. The reader discovers in this volume the childhood of Hijikata. His first weapons and his early ambition to be the best fighter of the archipelago. We discover him not very attentive at school and an incident with his teacher makes him think about what a man is. In the present, Chiruran's new adventures resume at a hundred per hour with a fight between Hijikata and Shinbee. This duel is a spectacle for the apprentices of the clan. We have fun with techniques such as sacrificing the dragon's tail and then striking the dragonfly. The sword schools are multiple and in conflict. The staging of these fights on a black background by Eiji Hashimoto is still as successful.
How does one become a killer?
In these new episodes of Chiruran, we discover Hijikata's past and his friendship with Izô Okada. This young man is forced to steal for food. Ignoring his friends, this naïve young man who dreamed of being a samurai discovers the dark reality: behind the beautiful words, there is no morality because each clan is ready to do anything for power. The young man loses his humanism when the first drops of his opponent's blood squirt. Men – even his friends – are no more than straw dummies. This is the first symptom of his madness or conditioning. His rival clan manipulates him into their best assassin as he seeks challenges to prove his strength. Chiruran also talks about masculinity, the need of these samurai to assert their strength, their virility. When he kills his first man, Izō Okada is a virgin intimidated by the geishas. The reader will be touched by the beautiful portrait of a lost child and it is one of the many tragedies of Chiruran. There is not only death in combat but social or psychological inevitability. We never escape who we are since childhood. The succession of battles creates a sinister atmosphere in a country plagued by constant violence. Through Shinya Umemura's screenplay, Chiruran mixes shonen and historical narrative. The reader receives a lesson about the samurai at the time. The sixth volume of Chiruran is deeper than the previous ones. Even if the reader still loves these bigger than life fights, we discover behind a light story a darker background by following Izô Okada. The innocence mixed with the savagery of this assassin makes him a touching character. If this column intrigues you, you can find chronicles on The Fire Mandala and Keiji.
