Orient (Volume 1) - My Dream is...

Musashi and Kojiro dreamed of becoming samurai and freeing the world from evil demons. However, by the time they had grown up, the demons were revered as gods and the samurai were reviled as villains.

Orient (Volume 1) – My Dream is…

What happened?

Now that the demons were viewed as benevolent gods, mankind did its best to appease them. They lived on a diet of metals and ores and as such the miner became the most respected position someone could hold. Musashi had trained hard and was now expected to go on and become a fantastic miner. Of course, he still harboured dreams of becoming a samurai, although he could never tell anyone that. Meanwhile, Kojiro who was a descendant of a samurai was publicly shamed for his lineage.

The day had come for Musashi to graduate from school and become a professional miner. He was taken through the gates of the city with the other graduates to begin his new life. Unfortunately, life outside the city was not quite what they had been promised. Thousands of miners tolled away digging for metals and ores. They were often murdered by the gods depending on the quality and quantity of their wares.

Musashi was horrified but he had expected this. He was ready to rise up and fight the gods, however, he had left his special pickaxe behind. That’s when Kojiro flew over the city walls on a mechanic horse with Musashi’s pickaxe. They fought back killing the demons present. However, that forced a demon lord to appear. This was just the chance Musashi was looking for. It would be their first great accomplishment on their way to becoming samurai!

What did you think?

I’ve mentioned before how there’s a pretty clear formula to a lot of shounen. Black Clover and Kaiju No. 8 are two that instantly spring to mind, however, they both managed to make it interesting with varied characters and a world that was subtle enough to make you want to know more. Well, Orient didn’t do any of those things. Sure, the artwork is fantastic, but it felt like every other shounen story.

I will keep reading because it wasn’t exactly bad, just not great. Hopefully, it will improve and make me want to get to the end. There is an anime so I have faith that it will do enough, but as far as first volumes go this was one of the weaker ones that I’ve read of late. I found Musashi’s over-exuberance to be annoying but also found Kojiro’s flip-flopping about whether or not he still wants to be a samurai to be exhausting. I had high hopes for this series as it’s focused on samurai and we all know I love anything samurai. So, the fact that it hasn’t instantly grabbed me is a concern.