Basilisk

Review Date: 2007 August 21 16:09

Reviewed by: Azure

Released by: Tanoshimi

Publishing Country: UK

Author: Futaro Yamada, Masaki Segawa

Age Rating: 18+

Page Count: 288

ISBN-13: 978009950657

ISBN-10: 99506572

Summary

Only three ninja remain on each side Saemon Kisaragi believes he has slain Tenzen and infiltrates Iga territory, the trouble is Tenzen isn’t that easy to kill. Oboro swears that she won’t kill her lover Gennosuke, but with ninja falling on each side does she have any choice?

Review

The first thing that’s noticeable about this volume is how much thicker it us than the books in the rest of the series, though it’s nice Tanoshimi have retained the size and finished off the series at five volumes rather than dragged it on further. The volume kicks off with Saemon Kisaragi infiltrating the Iga territory in order to lure Akeginu out into the open. Whilst initially successful, Saemon gets over confident and his ignorance regarding Tenzen’s powers comes back to haunt him.

Being the last volume the deaths come thick and fast as the story draws towards its inevitable bloody conclusion. Just as in the rest of the series it’s extremely violent and doesn’t shy away from showing anything, whilst this does mean it has impact, but means it’s not the sort of manga that can just be left lying around. Thankfully all the deaths make it much easier to keep track of all the characters, which makes the story much easier to follow.

The conclusion to the story was an extremely obvious one, but that said it was extremely satisfying and well executed. The small note at the end about what happens in the following years really drives the point home.

The plot of Basilisk is simple, but previous volumes haven’t felt quite right. This final book in the series demonstrates a real improvement as the plot focuses on the few remaining ninja. It’s a shame it wasn’t this good from the start, but at only five volumes it’s not such a major issue.

Rating: 8/10