It's a funny manga featuring the unassuming samurai with a famous father who makes an enemy at school. In order to fight this enemy who has become a demon, he must go to Mount Tengu to get the wind god's sword to use and battle it out.

It's goofy because Yaiba is a goofy reluctant hero with plenty of hijinks, side characters, and a quest.

It's 440 pages of entertainment through humor and fight scenes.

Before the character of Shinichi Kudo and his Conan Edogawa pseudonym came to be, Gosho Aoyama was already making waves in the manga realm. On top of winning the Shinjin Comic Taisho award for newcomers with Chotto Mattete, Aoyama became a household name thanks to his 1988 series Yaiba: Samurai Legend. Not only did it get an anime adaptation, but it also received a remake this past year (which you can watch on Netflix and Hulu each week). After nearly forty years since it first debuted in Japan, Yaiba and his friends have finally found their way into the English-speaking world with the release of the original manga.

But tell me if you’ve heard this one before: a spiky-haired kid who is also a master fighter. He’s never seen a girl in his entire life until just recently. The boy goes on a quest to find a mysterious power, one that will vanquish a great evil that now roams the planet. And as the journey goes on, the friend, ally, and enemy count rise like the temperatures of a hot Tokyo summer.

No doubt Aoyama was a tiny bit influenced by Akira Toriyama and his little Saiyan friend Goku, as his titular character shares a lot of similar traits. (Hell, he’s even got his appetite!) Thankfully, there are enough differences in Yaiba: Samurai Legend that make it stand out from Dragon Ball. For one thing, Yaiba is first thrust into the normal world, as he finds himself interested in going to school with his new friend Sayaka. And with him moving into her home after his dad runs off on another journey, Yaiba gets a taste of what modern society is like, since he spent most of his time in the jungles.

However, when tough student Onimaru appears, the manga goes right into adventure mode. After Onimaru becomes a demon and takes over all of Tokyo, Yaiba and a reluctant Sayaka head out to find Musashi Miyamoto, a master swordsman. Keeper of the legendary Fujinken, Miyamoto is shocked to find that Yaiba can grasp the sword. The question is, can Yaiba handle the godly powers from within?

A lot is covered in the first 23 chapters of Yaiba: Samurai Legend. What starts as a silly rival between a tough student and a wacky newcomer evolves into a good old-fashioned tale of saving humanity. The urge to beat Yaiba makes Onimaru transform into a demon, with a little help from a magic god-like sword. We also see our first mid-boss villain in the form of Geroda, a frog with insane tongue skills. (He’s also kind to the opposite sex, with manners that even Yaiba can learn a thing or two from.)

There are two aspects where this manga shines. For starters, the action sequences drawn by Aoyama are delightfully detailed. Whether it’s a kendo fight with a school captain, a battle in heavy traffic, or even a match between sword and frog tongue, these scenes are shown with a cinematic touch. Not only do they look like solid storyboards for epic fights, but they also manage to capture a strong level of excitement with every slash and kick thrown.

The other element is its sense of humor. There’s excellent comedic timing of its jokes, some old-school Showa-era physical humor, and a plethora of funny faces thrown by Yaiba towards his friends and enemies. This is a series that wants its readers to have a good time, as it throws smart, stupid, and perverted gags at a nearly flawless degree. Even if you’ve seen these silly bits before, they’re shown in a way that’ll still manage to get a laugh out of you.

Yaiba: Samurai Legend might not be original, but it does a lot of things right. There’s great action, a lot of likable characters, and even a solid dose of comedy. I have no idea why it took nearly 40 years for this manga to finally come to the West, but a late release is better than no release at all. So whether you’ve watched the recent remake or are going into it blindly, Yaiba: Samurai Legend will entertain your eyeballs, your funny bone, and your brain with many of its cutthroat traits.

Yaiba: Samurai Legend is a manga by Gosho Aoyama that pre-dates his long-running series, Case Closed (aka Detective Conan).

Yaiba: Samurai Legend Volume One
Written by: Gosho Aoyama
Publisher: Shogakukan
English Publisher: VIZ Media
Release Date: July 8, 2025

Yaiba Kurogane, the title character of the series, is a samurai boy who was raised in the forest by his father, Kenjuro Kurogane. Because of this, all he knows is how to be a samurai and not much of anything else. One day, Yaiba, his father, and a tiger hide in a crate, which ends up having pineapples dropped into it. The crate with the pineapple, Yaiba, his father, and the tiger is sealed up and shipped off. They find themselves in Japan when the crate they’re in crashes open, and it just so happens that Raizo Mine (Kenjuro’s rival) and his daughter, Sayaka, are at the airport. One thing leads to another, and Yaiba and Kenjuro end up staying at the Mine’s house, which includes a dojo. Sayaka’s grandmother, Fuji, knows a lot about kendo and seems to be the head of the dojo.

Already at this point in the story, I couldn’t help but feel that Yaiba is a samurai version of the young Goku in the original Dragon Ball series. Both are short, have spiky black hair, were raised away from civilization while training for their respective fighting styles, eat a lot, and have a one-track mind. Yaiba: Samurai Legend was launched in 1988, so Dragon Ball was well-established as a shonen standard by this point, so it’s not surprising that Yaiba seems to fall into the character traits for a shonen manga lead that were established with Goku. Unfortunately, I found these similarities to be a bit of a distraction while reading the volume.

Unfortunately, our main female character, Sayaka, is there for comedy that relies on the fact that she’s a girl. Like with Goku in Dragon Ball, Yaiba had never met a girl before, so he’s very handsy when he first meets Sayaka. Yaiba does the same with some of Sayaka’s friends at school. We also see poor Sayaka being grabbed at one point by Kenjuro Kurogane, and another time by an enemy henchman later in the series. She’s also portrayed as being a bit of a naggy character toward Yaiba, much like Bulma was early on in the Dragon Ball franchise. The way we see Sayaka used in this series definitely wouldn’t be tolerated if Yaiba: Samurai Legend was a new manga coming out in the modern era. Sayaka’s character and the treatment of her could potentially be problematic for modern manga readers.

We start diverging from the Dragon Ball comparisons, as we see Yaiba tagging along with Sayaka when she goes to school, and how he ends up becoming a student and tries to join the kendo team. While Yaiba’s methods may not be conventional due to his samurai training, he’s able to hold his own… until he has a match with Takeshi Onimaru, one of the members of the team. When I saw Takeshi’s character design, I couldn’t help but think that he was modeled after Tenshinhan from Dragon Ball. Yaiba and Onimaru develop a rivalry, which culminates when Onimaru stumbles across Fujinken (the Wind God’s sword) and ends up being possessed by Fujin the Wind God. After becoming possessed by the Wind God, Onimaru plans to take over the world with an army of demons.

After Kenjuro tells Yaiba that the only way to defeat the Wind God’ sword is with Raijinken (the Thunder God’s sword), Yaiba kidnaps Sayaka and they go on a quest to find Miyamoto (the last known person to have Raijinken). While Yaiba successfully finds Miyamoto and turns out to be the one fated for the sword, Yaiba has a lot of training to do before he can master it. By the end of the volume, Yaiba still hasn’t mastered Raijinken and keeps having the Thunder God trying to possess him. During his training, we see Onimaru sending his minions to try to defeat Yaiba.

When it comes to the art, I can tell that this is an earlier work by Gosho Aoyama. You can tell it’s his art style, especially with the character designs for Yaiba and Sayaka, but it’s a rougher version of the style that he’s developed over the years that he’s worked on the Case Closed/Detective Conan manga I really have to give props to the action panels, though, as Aoyama does a great job of depicting the fights that take place over the course of this volume.

When all is said and done, though, Yaiba: Samurai Legend has a “dated” feel to it between the art and the writing. It’s clear that some of Aoyama’s inspirations for this series came from the original Dragon Ball manga, whose tropes would have become shonen standards by the time he launched Yaiba: Samurai Legend. The treatment of female characters, especially Sayaka, also dates this series, as the way she’s treated here would not be nearly as accepted by modern manga readers. Looking beyond the dated aspect of the series, I found that the writing was decent for a later 1980’s shonen manga, but this series didn’t hold my interest nearly as much as the Case Closed/Detective Conan manga does. I appreciate and respect Yaiba: Samurai Legend for how its success ultimately helped to make Case Closed/Detective Conan possible, but this is a series I’m likely not going to go out of my way to try to continue reading.

Readers who have an appreciation for late 80’s shonen manga featuring plucky young heroes may have the most interest in Yaiba: Samurai Legend. However, for readers like myself who are only familiar with Gosho Aoyama through Case Closed/Detective Conan, I would recommend checking out this first volume of the series to get a feel for how Aoyama progressed as a mangaka from this point to Case Closed/Detective Conan.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. Yaiba is a kid that’s lived in the jungle with his dad and has never been to school. He’s a samurai in training and moves in with Sayaka abs her family. He learns all about school and other things yet runs into battle without thinking. He is loyal to his friends. I do like that it has Musashi Miyamoto in it; who is famous for his swordsmanship.

Yaiba feels a lot like Dragon Ball- a young silly protagonist boy who lives on the wild side, drawn in a cartoony style, as he goes through martial arts adventures and discovers more of the world. Yaiba is a cute protagonist, and this series definitely has the vibe of something originally serialized in the 1980s. It has a very different vibe from Case Closed, Aoyama's other series published in English.

Finally getting to read this manga classic in print, thanks to the arrival of its modern anime remake, is a treat. YAIBA is brimming with lighthearted 90s action, full of fights that are impressive as they are unhinged. With any other protagonist, this could have been a very run-of-the-mill read. But Yaiba is Bugs Bunny levels of wacky: seemingly silly and harmless, but absolutely able to bring foes to their knees.

The power creep of the series is part of the fun, with fellow student Onimaru going from stoic classmate to literal demon-on-earth in a matter of a few battles. While a lot of the biggest and best fights aren't here in the first volume, there's plenty to keep you reading.

This book was not my cup of tea. Too much action and not enough of a story. I am sure the students will like it, though. It just didn't pique my interest long enough. It was humorous in that silly way manga can be.