Takehiko Inoue (Slam Dunk, Piercing) announced on his official Twitter account that the 323rd chapter for his manga Vagabond will be published in Kodansha’s Morning magazine’s ninth issue on January 29, 2015. Inoue admitted that it “has been a while” since his last chapter, which was published a year ago.
しばらくぶりのバガボンド323話は今月29日売りのモーニングに掲載の予定です。
— 井上雄彦 Inoue Takehiko (@inouetake) January 6, 2015
The series went on a 4-month hiatus last February 2014 and planned to resume it on June. But it was delayed again until fall.
Vagabond is an action, adventure, historical and samurai manga that was published on March 23, 1999. Inoue served as the story writer for the manga. The manga served as a fictionalized account of the life of a Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, a character from Eiji Yoshikawa’s novel, Musashi. The manga has collected 37 compiled manga volumes. The 37th volume was released on July 23, 2014. The current volume focuses on the arc after the Yoshioka War. Here is a list of the volume that covers the different arcs of the manga:
- Volumes 1-2: Miyamoto Arc – Chapters 1–21
- Volumes 3-4: Kyoto Arc – Chapters 22–32
- Volumes 4-8: Hozoin Arc – Chapters 33–76
- Volumes 8-11: Yagyuu Arc – Chapters 77–104
- Volumes 11-13: Tsujikaze Kouhei/Shishido Baiken Arc – Chapters 105–127
- Volumes 14-20: Sasaki Kojirou Arc – Chapters 128–179
- Volumes 21-27: Yoshioka Arc – Chapters 180–242
- Volumes 28-present: After the Yoshioka War/Kojirou revisited – Chapters 243–present
Here are the first ten volumes of the manga:
Viz Media, an English publishing company, licensed the series for English release in North America. There are currently 36 compiled manga volumes being published. The latest manga volume was published on October 21, 2014. The 37th volume will be published on April 21, 2015.
The manga won the Grand Prize for manga at the 2000 Japan Media Arts Festival. It has also won the Kodansha Manga Award in the general category in the same year. In 2002, it has also won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize, and has sold more than 82 million copies worldwide. Also, the North American version for the manga was nominated for the 2003 Eisner Award in the Best Writer/Artist category.
Synopsis of Vagabond manga from MAL:
Growing up in 17th century Sengoku era Japan, Shinmen Takezou is shunned by the local villagers as a devil child due to his wild and violent nature. Running away from home with a fellow boy at age 17, Takezou joins the Toyotomi army to fight the Tokugawa clan at the battle of Sekigahara. However, the Tokugawa win a crushing victory, leading to nearly three hundred years of Shogunate rule. Takezou and his friend manage to survive the battle, and afterwards swear to do great things with their lives. But after their paths separate, Takezou becomes a wanted criminal, and must change his name and his nature in order to escape an ignoble death. Based on the book “Musashi” by Eiji Yoshikawa, Vagabond is a fictional retelling of the life of Miyamoto Mushashi, often referred to as the “Sword Saint” – perhaps the most famous and successful of Japan’s sword fighters.
Visit Vagabond‘s official website here or VIZ Media’s official page for the manga here.
Source – ANN
