Created for Shonen Jump, Samurai 8 is by the legendary creator of Naruto, Masashi Kishimoto. Well worth a look to see what the fuss is all about.

I was sad to see the end of Naruto so when I heard Kishimoto was coming out with a new series I was delighted to read it and find a new series to love...unfortunately that isn't how things went for me. Samurai 8 has some aspects in common with Naruto, but is overall a very different story with a different genre, setting, and feel that just didn't quite work for me. It seemed well enough put together and of course the artwork was great, but try as I might I just could not find any passion or interest in the story as I read. When I completed volume 1 I had no hunger to find out what happened next. Sadly, I found this new series very easy to put down and completely forget about. Probably not a bad series, but it definitely wasn't right for me and I probably wouldn't recommend it to others. Your mileage may vary.

I enjoyed the over all premise of the story. This didn't quite captivate me as I had hoped but it is still interesting. I will continue to read the next few volumes to see if I will want to keep reading this or maybe put it on the back burner for now and read other things I am more into. I can see where other reviews mentioned having a hard time understanding what you are looking at in some of these smaller panels. I too had to sit and stare at a few of them to comprehend what exactly I was looking at. Over all an interesting new take on a samurai adventure series.

DNF- read only up to 20%, this was just not for me. Nothing wrong with the story or writing, just not my taste

I was worried that Kishimoto-san wouldn't be able to pull away enough from Naruto, since that's been his living legacy. Hachimaru certainly has similar themes-a promising young boy who doesn't know his full potential, a world that mixes Japanese myth/history with fantasy/sci-fi-but it's unique enough to stand on its own. The art direction is fantastic, and really is what nails this series as a distinct entry into a genre that can be hard to stand out in.

There are some issues with just throwing the reader into a situation, using terminology, then pages later explaining it when it would've been just as easy to explain when the word first came up. And while the backgrounds and intricacy of the art are fantastic, it is lacking when it comes to facial expressions. Hachimaru seems to really have about three primary facial expressions (surprise, excitement, and shock), which is more than some characters.

However, the world and story are intriguing enough that I can't wait to pick up the next volume.

This was interesting. I didn't get all the way through because I found the storyline hard to follow. I did finally get what was happening, but by then I didn't care any longer.

Great start to a new series. Artwork is fantastic. Interesting characters and plot. Hope they make this into an anime. Can't wait to read more.

<i>arc provided by the publisher and netgalley in exchange for an honest review</i>

This manga was cute, full of action and the father and son relationship was so pure.

I had fun with this one! I usually don’t like stories where the disabled character is magically cured but in this instance, I didn’t mind it. It was interesting how the Samurai’s work and how they are created.

The robotic animal companion’s aspect was super cute too.

Overall, this was cute and I had a good time reading it. I might continue with the series one day!

3/5 ⭐️

tw: suicide

This is not a book for a reader who is not especially familiar with manga. There are cultural references that the average American reader may not understand. The plot and illustrations are incredibly complex. Certainly impressive.

A new series by the author of Naruto is sure to get attention from manga fans. This series is a sci-fi samurai tale with an unlikely plucky hero named Hachimaru. With humor, plays on words and plenty of action and drama the first volume suggests this will easily please Naruto fans.

Surprisingly, this first volume also featured what may be a transgendered character, although how respectfully that will be handled remains to be seen.

Unfortunately, Kishimoto's new mythology requires a princess for every samurai, a person the samurai must protect! While the princesses are hinted at having their own power, this clearly gendered division of samurai fighter/protector = male and princess / protected = female may not appeal to today's teenagers, many of whom have heroes and stories that have already taught them to see the problem with these kinds of gendered dichotomies.

Overall volume one is a fun read that is sure to be popular and only future volumes will illuminate how well Kishimoto will do on gender politics.

I read a free egalley of this title on Netgalley.

Thank you to both Netgalley and Viz for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I am starting my manga and, having read many Viz publications and finding a samurai cat extremely appealing, dove into this one. I really enjoyed it although the action was a bit trickier to follow than some other titles I've been reading and the massive Viz watermark in the middle of each page didn't help. The story arc and cocky main character feels pretty par for the course for the genre, but other characters, including the hand-talking character, were intriguing.
A good start to a series and I will certainly request purchase for our stock as we are increasing our manga section. I can see our Naruto, Boruto, and Dragonball Z fans taking to this series.

I am not an experienced manga reader, so the action was a little hard to follow for me. But I did enjoy the book and I will definitely be buying this for my library system. Thanks for the ARC!

When I saw the author of this I knew I had to request an ARC! This is the creator of one of my all time favorite manga and anime Naruto! I have watched since I was a kid and if you enjoyed the manga or anime of Naruto than you already know how detailed Kishimoto’s world building is. This is a great beginning to a new series that will definitely be a favorite. I could not put it down and I bet you wont either. Instead of ninjas we are following samurai and holy moly this is awesome beginning. This is into the future almost like Alita Battle angel vibe with the cyborg samurai characters. I recommend this if you love a great story, manga, Naruto, or all of the above.

ARC Copy...has a promising start with the beginnings of solid world building mechanics and a psychedelic looking Samurai, Space opera visual setting but time will tell if this series can fallow in Naruto's foot steps...the protagonist sort of looking like Naruto may or may not work in this serie's favor.

Thank you to NetGalley and VIZ Media for the free copy of this manga in exchange for an honest review. My opinion was not affected by the free copy.

I requested this because Naruto is a very popular manga in the library I work at, so I wanted to see what the author was doing next. I also thought I might like this since it's science fiction and has samurai, two things I like reading about. I ended up just thinking this is "okay".

This first volume is pretty exposition-heavy and I admit I started skimming. At the moment I'm not too invested, but I can see me picking this up if it gets more into the code of samurai. Right now, the main character is acting a little too much like Naruto and other shounen main characters: cocky, overly enthusiastic, and not really understanding what he's getting into.

The wacky characters and unusual environments are pretty par for the course in animanga. The most intriguing character for me was the one who spoke to their hands. If they come back in the story, I would enjoy seeing their character develop. The relationship between the main character and his dad is interesting, too, and I hope that's explored more. The fighting is drawn well, as expected, but again I'd rather see this manga dive into bushido, and for the main character to become more mature.

I don't feel anxious to see what happens next, but I will check in on this title eventually once the story has more going for it.