Product Description

Chapter One: Starts off with Kyoshiro still battling against Nobunaga, and is unbelievably calm in battle. The onlookers also see how he is able to use the same sword techniques as Kyo, such as the Mumyoujinburyuu. Kyou seems to have the upper hand at the end of the chapter. Chapter Two: Kyoshiro hesitates in killing off Nobunaga, overcome by a flood of flashbacks. Kyo's spirit urges him to do it, and Kyoshiro is ripped apart by the internal struggle of two spirits in his mind. Just as Nobunaga takes this opportunity to kill off Kyoshiro/Kyo, the Gate of Hell opens and Akira appears!! He reveals that he is in possession of both Kyo's body, as well as Shiina Yuya's life (soul)! Chapter Three: Akira gives a gun which belonged to Yuya-san to Kyoshiro, and Kyoshiro lashes out. When Akira reveals the bloody (and NAKED) body of Yuya-san, Kyoshiro flips out, despite the fact that he should've spent all of his energy fighting with Nobunaga. It looks like Kyo's spirit takes over as he faces off with Akira, as Akira tells the bitter tale of his past: Kyo found Akira as a child after destroying his village, and offers to take him in and make him the SECOND strongest man in the world. Nobunaga jumps in to kill Akira, but is frozen with Akira's freezing powers. Shindara interrupts to introduce...Yuya-san! She's alive and walking out of the Gate. Chapter Four: Yuya-san's fine and we find out that she aided Shindara in escaping from Akira's ice trap. When Kyoshiro confronts Akira about his lying before, Akira says that he just wants to make him suffer and that Yuya-san is his obvious weak point. He then disappears into thin air, and tells them that if they can find him, he'll give back Kyo's body. Then, Kyo and Nobunaga get back into their fight, determined to finish it once and for all. Chapter Five: Nobunaga is the loser and his head blows off. Before anyone can come and check on Kyo they find that they can't move their bodies, thanks to...Kotarou, an accomplice of Shindara. Everyone starts to leave the scene of the bloody battle when Yuki's brother, Nobuyuki, shows up to say hi. But BAM, they notice that Nobunaga's head is gone!! We find that Shindara has taken it and is bringing it to "Shatora" who has been waiting a long time for it, in order to revive Nobunaga. Chapter Six: Bath scene of Yuya-san thinking over the past battle and events. The Gate of Hell apparently won't open again, and she feels guilty for causing so much trouble for Kyoshiro (getting caught, helping the bad guys, etc). Previously, Akira had proposed to Yuya to come with him and "be his woman" but she refused. She's also worried and afraid about how Kyoshiro killed her brother. Now Kyo and all his buddies decide to go and find Akira! Chapter Seven: Chapter opens with Okuni telling Yuya that she might want to consider killing Kyo to get revenge on her murdered brother, but Yuya is confident that Kyoshiro will return to his normal self. Nobuyuki leaves for Edo, but Yukimura discovers it's only under Ieyasu-sama (Tanuki)'s orders, that he came in the first place. And also that, if they had lost against Nobunaga, Ieyasu probably would've had them all wiped out. In that army of 20,000 men, there are two specific people that they should look out for, Nobunaga warns. Just as Nobuyuki leaves, Shindara shows up to talk with Yukimura. Yukimura reveals that he used to go by the name "Sarutobi Sasuke". Chapter Eight: Shindara reveals the "Guren Joudo'"s plan to resurrect Nobunaga, as well as to wipe out Kyoshiro. Kyo threatens that when he gets his body back, he's gonna kill all of Shindara's people out. With that, Shindara leaves, and Yukimura revelas to the others that he was never fighting alongside them as a friend, but simply because he feels that Kyo can serve as some benefit to him. He then tells them that Akira is hiding Kyo's body in the royal castle in the capital! And they all head out for it! Chapter Nine: The troupe's camping out in the forest. Nothing much except that Sasuke's a bit peeved thinking how Shindara's stronger than him and whatnot. Toro tries to get a peek into the girls bathing. Bontenmaru shows up, and he's also off to the capital to kill Ieyasu and become the next ruler.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1187402 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-07
• Released on: 2004-12-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 10
• Binding: Paperback
• 216 pages

Customer Reviews

All Star Manga
Worthy series to own! Action, action, action! Lots of plots, and some philosophy too. Enjoy!

Recycled Goodness
If there's anything that Kamijyo-san can do well, it's the recycling of the same plotline over and over and over and over...well, you get the idea. Following where the last book left off, after Kyo's defeat of Hotaru, the gang are now at the Second Gate. Akira is pitted against two sickeningly pathetic villains: twin nurses Saishi and Saisei.

This is the oddest attempt yet by Kamijyo-san to appeal to fanboy fantasies. The action does pick up, however, once it becomes apparent that Saisei is not as one-dimensional as she seems. While this series is rife with our favorite characters getting "serious" and the constant hint that Kyo is simply waiting to unleash his inner demon, Kamijyo-san manages the astounding feat of holding the reader's attention after 16 trite yet addictive volumes.

The plot is absolutely absurd most of the time and Yuya is constantly dangled as the damsel-in-distress. This time, her life hangs in the balance as the clock ticks and her life will soon be snuffed out by a waterwyrm (created by Shinrei and exacerbated by the aforementioned nurses) in her heart. The only morsels keeping the reader's appetite alive are the promises of revealing Kyo's past (including more of his connections with the Crimson King, Kyoshiro, Sakuya, and the Four Emperors), his terrible power, and the potential romantic interest in Yuya.

Tension and anticipation are what sell Samurai Deeper Kyo yet after pages and pages building up Saishi's fantastic powers, Akira's relatively easy victory seems more afterthought than actual climactic battle. Too much time is spent lamenting Saisei's "tragic" past and the attempt to infuse humanity into Akira is touching but forced.

Why do I rate this volume four stars out of five? Akimine Kamijyo accomplishes the only thing he set out to do: hook readers and keep them on board. Yes, this story is much too drawn out. Yes, the plot is repetitive. Yes, so many boss fights in succession without sufficient character development has reduced SDK to a dull, "tournament"-style manga. Yet, he must be doing something right. I bought it, didn't I?

Secrets revealed
"Samurai Deeper Kyo, Book 5" is full of secrets being revealed -- secret identities, secret pasts, and the secret location of Kyo's much-sought-after body. Akimine Kamijyo shifts rather abruptly from one major arc to another in this volume, but he does it with a bang and some truly astonishing sword-fights -- as well as a new and deadly band of enemies.

The identity of the true Ieyasu is shockingly revealed to Kyo, mere moments before Yukimura's bombs cause his palace to come crashing down. But despite Yuya's fears, Kyo isn't even scratched -- and after some parting jibes from Ieyasu, he and Yukimura finally square off in a maddened duel of fight-loving men (one of whom is wearing a dress). The price: Yukimura finally reveals where Kyo's body is -- in a haunted forest near Mount Edo, Aokigahara.

But the trek to that forest may be even more dangerous, as Yuya encounters a kind young blind man with superhuman skills -- and an old grudge against Kyo. He is also part of a band of new enemies whose presence may mean death to Kyo, if he and his friends can't make it through Aokigahara in time. Unfortunately Aokigahara is not a very friendly place... but then, Kyo may be even nastier.

I have to admit, Akimine Kamijyo doesn't mess around when he's shifting the story focus -- "Samurai Deeper Kyo Book 5" swings the focus from "kill Ieyasu" to "retrieve Kyo's body" in just a few chapters. It also introduces some spectacularly nasty new villains, although they haven't yet been explored in full -- but at least one of them is scarily strong.

It also produces the long-awaited fight between Yukimura and Kyo, a blood-smearing orgy of sweeping blades and crazy grins. And Kamijyo turns the creep factor up to eleven in the last chapter when Yuya is accosted by a tribe of pointy-toothed cannibals pretending to be children (the "ball" monologue is horrendous"). The one downside is that once again, he forgets about what minor characters are doing -- last time I checked, poor Saizo was in critical condition, but we never hear what happened to him.

Interestingly, it also seems that Yuya is outright falling in love with Kyo -- which seems a bit out of character for our tough independent heroine, since Kyo has basically treated her like an inept peon at best. But she also discovers a shocking fact about her brother's murderer, and Benitora turns out to have some surprising secrets of his own. Apparently he's not just another wandering weirdo.

"Samurai Deeper Kyo Volume 5" is another turning point in this kick-butt samurai manga, and it leaves you desperately wanting to know what happens next in Aokigahara.