Basara?

[Indigo_Eyes]

Pretty recently I saw Basara at Borders and I wonder if anyone is reading it or knows anything about it. I read a little of it, but I wanna know how clean it is, expecially in the later volumes. If anyone can give me any info on it I'd be grateful. By clean I mean on whether or not it curses a lot, has tons of blood, or has the main characters have sex. Thanks for the help!

[Kaori]

I have read the first nine volumes of the series. Ten have been released so far in the US, although I have heard that the total length of the series approaches 40 volumes. Apparently, it was one of the most popular shojo titles of the 90s in Japan, but VIZ has just recently gotten around to releasing it here.

The rating is Older Teens, which is a pretty fair assessment.

Swearing: I am not exactly sure how much profanity there is, but it is fairly mild. I do not recall anything worse than a few d***s here and there, and I do tend to take note of profanity; if there were anything extreme, I probably would have remembered it.

Sex/Nudity: There is no sex in the first nine volumes with the exception of one instance between a couple on the night of their wedding--and even in that case nothing explicit is shown. Bathing scenes do occur with relative frequency, so there is some nudity, but it is important to note that it is neither explicit nor fanservice-oriented (since the target audience is female, there is no need to portray the female body in this manner).

Violence: This is the main reason VIZ gave Basara an OT rating. It is fairly violent, but not overly bloody in proportion to the amount of violence in the story. Most of the battles tend not to be very graphic, although there are a few exceptions. Reading the opening chapter of the first volume will give you a fairly representational idea of how graphic the fight scenes are.

Other: There is a character who is a cross-dresser; however, he makes it clear that his preference is for women.

As for the quality of the manga, if you are not turned off by the art style, it is a very good series. I would say that it is one of the best-written manga that I have read; the plot is both complex and engaging. I enjoy it despite the fact that the main character's love story, which is one of the most important elements of the plot, actually annoys me. The art style, which I have already mentioned, is sometimes criticized, but my opinion is that the excellence of the writing more than compensates for any deficiency in the art.

[Indigo_Eyes]

Thanks for your help!! I've been searching for a good fantasy manga to read, and this seems like it'll be ok for me to read. I'll start reading it when I can