Since the previous volume, Keiji has left his protector but can we survive without support in medieval Japan? The samurai will prove it to you in style in this fourth volume.
Keiji, the story of a samurai…
Considered totally unmanageable, Keiji has just left his clan and goes to the capital Kyoto. He thus became a ronin, a man certainly free but, for the first time, without protection. However, the samurai is not alone because he travels with Ofû, the daughter of a former love and his dwarf servant Sotemaru. They are united by the same rejection of injustice. When a servant forces a valet to move slurry with his bare hand, they are ready to take out the weapons. Sotemaru uses violence if he is disrespected. This ninja met in Tsuruga is not a slave but he wants to pay his expenses. More technically, this duo also serves the cartoonist Tetsuo Hara has visually reinforced the excess of the hero. Keiji is far from perfect because he hangs out with geisha but he is deeply egalitarian, killing anyone who defies him regardless of their social class. Keiji supports his friends without asking why. More generally, his kindness and playfulness make everyone confide in him. But always with class as when he makes a sensational entrance into the capital Kyoto. He also found himself embroiled in court intrigues by meeting the most powerful men in the country. The politician Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the tea merchant Sen no Rikyû. The hero uses violence if necessary but he is also a fine strategist. This fourth volume of Keijo remains in the style of Tetsuo Hara with gory scenes and excesses in the number of opponents. The problems of proportion show that the size is not real but illustrates the power. But, by telling the life of a kabuki-mono, every day also becomes a fashion show and the reader enjoys Keiji's extravagant outfits. His encounter with the best-known kabuki-mono, The Language of Apis, is as much a sword conflict as a comparison of outfits.
… In an unequal society
Keiji lives in a society with strong social inequalities. A bourgeois despises others and imposes his domination by humiliation. We also discover that his father, the Regent's Master of Tea, is much more than a supplier to the prince but also his political advisor. Yet he was the son of a fishmonger and it was his talent that brought him wealth, prestige and political influence. He dominates the merchant guild and uses his influence to support the most pro-trade clan. However, it remains marked by its modest origin that it bears as a scar visible to all. It is through him that Keiji accedes to the mysteries of power. He meets him at a tea ceremony in a bamboo forest. We discover in this volume the different clans like the Tokugawa. The series alternates between big stories and small anecdotes. Some pages are clearly taken from Buddhist painting. Short texts present the different clans and the motives of the alliances. Western influences began to arrive in Japan through trade and Christianity. A leader is nicknamed "the general of storms" because all his victories took place in the rain. However, the narrative may be found a bit simplistic. For screenwriters Keichirō Ryû and Mio Asō, a hero is the one who hits the hardest while a feminine attitude or physique is a source of mockery. Indeed, despite the violence of some scenes, Keiji is a moral or even religious series sometimes. A prayer of the high priestess of Marici can heal. Published by Mangetsu, Keiji continues on his way. He keeps a tempestuous and moralistic temperament but now exercises it in the capital in the heart of the mysteries of power. You can find other chronicles of Mangetsu with the first volume of Keiji and Butterfly Beast.
