First chapter feels like a classic. A brutal archetype of the revenge build up cycle we often see in modern manga/anime, it frontloads us full of violent injustice to give us a motive and it even includes a ninja training montage. Second chapter kinda ruins it. Ousted by the ninja, our 'hero' becomes a cult leader. This would be totally fine and fun, but the mangaka overshows his hand in my view, devolving into a very preachy feeling screed against organized religion. He takes up half a page to explain in an aside how he is in fact an atheist. He tells us that the strawmanof a cult he built "may seem absurd", but like many religions "even today", spiritualists will always be there to take advantage of those going throw hardships. Yawn. It really makes you lose faith in him to tell a true feeling tale, given his explicit personal views. Regardless of its pulpy and sensational nature, I value the feeling of raw reality a story like this can provide.

The method of revenge, this religious exploitation, leads into a 'scientific' multi-decade Rube Goldberg like conclusion clearly informed by a 1 day study sesh at the city library, and it fails to connect IMO. Feels patronizing and immature.

Really, can't sing enough praises for the overall tone and art style on display here though. Simple, but merciless in its action and emotive in the harrowing aftermaths. Dude was clearly a master even relatively early in his career. I will be reading more of him, and I'm curious to see if his plotting matures when it has more time to breathe in his longer tale 'The Legend of Kamui'.