Shinsen Gumi evokes a dark part of Japan's history. Adulated as much as feared, he is often portrayed in threatening features. With Chiruran, Eiji Hashimoto and Shinya Umemura try to restore their nobility. Just like Mangetsu who was not afraid to embark on the adventure. This historical series currently has 29 volumes and continues to grow in popularity.
Charismatic samurai
At the beginning of 1859, the young Toshizō Hijitaka, known as the "demonic vice-commander", was not yet a member of Shinsen Gumi. He goes from city to city, challenging the dojos in order to improve his kendo and sell his remedies. This clever little one falls on a bone while attacking the Tennen Rishinryû where Isami Kondô humiliates and intrigues him to the point. Toshizō eventually joins them, forming a strange family of classmates as well as thugs and intellectuals. Although we seem to follow mainly the rather mysterious story of Toshizô, a charismatic hothead, we also dwell on the other big names in the making of the Bakumatsu. Moreover, the narrator is actually Shinpachi Nagakura, one of the few survivors of the group. He tells this past to a young journalist who reminds him of the former vice-commander. This young woman is the antithesis of Shinsen Gumi and yet she is the one who seeks the truth about them. 
A part of Japanese history often overlooked in France
Automatically, the mangaka duo's bias to use an interview as a scripted basis, sets the tone for the desire to give the floor to Shinsen Gumi. An opportunity to portray the facts as they lived them. After all, isn't it said that history is written by the victors? Especially since this group with the azure jacket chose to defend the wrong side. They were followers of the tradition and honor of the samurai, the armed arms of the Shogunate. The Bakumatsu is the bloodiest period after the Sengoku, a new civil war that claimed many victims. This transition from the Edo period to the Meiji period is above all an opposition between the Shogunate and the Emperor. These two national powers had ruled hand in hand until then. But the arrival of foreigners with the famous black ships of Commodore Perry set fire to the powder. 
This era was often the setting for manga and anime, crystallizing the fantasy of epic battles. Kenshin the Wanderer is an adaptation similar to that of Chiruran but from the point of view of the supporters of the empire. Gintama is a parodic and anachronistic version. As for Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan, this fictionalized shôjo tackles the same facts with a fantastic touch, while being more historically accurate.
A very careful adaptation
We must salute the work of Mangetsu editions on Chiruran. The logo of the series seems to be made in calligraphy with a substance that one could imagine to be blood. The translation is simply excellent, with a tone that fits well with the period and character of the different characters. There are also many explanatory annotations, concerning terms but also specific events. This makes it affordable to discover history with a capital "H" of a feudal Japan trying to modernize. This French version is therefore at the level of the original work. With Shinya Umemura in the script, who we already knew in France with Valkyrie Apocalypse, we know that we will be entitled to incredible characters and dantesque fights. All under the sublime pencil stroke of Eiji Matsumoto in dynamic, nervous and detailed boards.
