Basilisk

In the ongoing saga of my newest random manga reading...today I decided to check out Basilisk, being scanlated by Mangass. I knew nothing about the manga before hand- I chose it at random, more or less.

Basilisk is about two feuding ninja (yes, ninja) clans, Kouga's Manji Daini and Iga's Tsubagakure during the Keichou era. The current Tokugawa shogun has decided to choose his successor by choosing ten ninja from each family and having them fight to the death. This way his potential successors don't have to risk their own samurai armies in fighting over the succession; after all, ninja are easily replaced.

The clans have been at peace for 400 years because of a treaty/seal/vaguely mistranslated important thing under the jurisdiction of Hattori Hanzo, the shogun's shinobi leader. But most of the clansmen have been itching for an excuse to fight, despite the peace treaty. However, the grandaughter of the head of the Iga and the grandson of the head of the Kouga are in love, so the feuding would kind of have to stop when they finally got married. Fortunately for the dissenters, the shogun came up with this crazy scheme and gave them an excuse to fight.

The art is lovely, The backgrounds are either computer generated or derived from photographs, or a combination of both; some of the forest scenes are breathtaking, even in the middling quality of the black and white scans. The character designs are varied and detailed; the style feels a bit like a cross between Gantz and Les Bijoux, if that makes any sense at all. It's a more realistic-ish style, heavy on computer-simulated screentones for shading. The main characters (Gennosuke of Kouga, Oboro of Iga) have very pretty eyes, and there's a good balance between grotesque and pretty characters.

The characters are pretty awesome (Juube! Orochimaru, you only wish you were that cool- and Gennosuke could totally take down Itachi with both hands tied behind his back), and the plot looks like it's going to be full of crazy ninja battles and political intrigue, which is exactly what I've been craving lately (aside from doughnuts, of course). The manga has a very dark, medieval feel to it, full of gore and naked people (I know how to pick 'em, no?); I wish there were more of it out/scanlated.

...well, hell. Somebody's head just exploded. I seem to be sensing a theme, here. Ooh, make that two people with exploded heads. Delicious!