Gamaran Review: Generic but good shonen

Gamaran tells us the story of Gama who is nothing short of a genius swordsman. At the beginning of the series we are told about Kurogane Jinsuke, a leader of  Ogame school who has killed thousands of martial artists throughout years, he however has disappeared and only one holding the Ogame dojo up is Kurogane Gama, the son of the legendary thousand man slayer. Gama has only one goal to become stronger. To what end? you will have to read to find out..

As the title says, Gamaran is generic but good. It's a traditional growth story which is composed and paced very well. It manages to keep readers interested enough to plow through the next chapter. Obviously battles and the growth story by learning new skills and gaining strength are the main points of this manga and they are done in very good manner. Especially the battles are very well drawn and there are enough twists to keep readers on their toes. One of the great things is absolutely that Gamaran doesn't try to be anything else that it is.

Gamarans art is very good and it is in fact one of the those series that manage to constantly upkeep very good quality of drawing from beginning to the latest chapters. One of the reasons is of course that Gamaran is relatively new. However I'm pleased with the art since it doesn't create any misconceptions when reading of the intense fights that are present in this manga. This series is, unlike shonen usually, very brutal, which only increases the enjoyment in my eyes.

Characters of Gamaran vary from decent to good: The main character thankfully isn't a tryhard or doesn't try to be funny but is often very content. There are also couple of very good side characters which I like very much, in example Sengoku Iori. Villains are interesting, but heavily dependant on their choice of weapon, which isn't a bad thing at all.

 

The story of Gamaran is its weakest point, but it fortunately isn't dependant on it. It's very generic and doesn't offer many or even any incredible plot twists. The whole weight of this manga relies on it's characters, their growth story and on it's amazing battles that are undoubtly interesting stuff to read. I could say that it can be considered a story element that the battles have managed to be interesting and they haven't really never dragged on too long I believe. That's certainly a good quality in manga that focuses mostly on battles against enemies stronger than the last one. I also must say that the author has done very good job in designing the opponents for Gamaran: they are imaginative and often based on real world martial arts which always brings sort of a authenticity feeling to the manga.