One of the best manga ever made, Vagabond has sold over 82 million copies worldwide thanks the exceptional work of its creator, writer and illustrator Takehiko Inoue, but has it also been made into an anime?
First appearing in 1998 as serialized in the Japanese magazine Morning, the manga series Vagabond rose in popularity due to its detailed artwork, its well-crafted storytelling, and its unmatched commitment to quality. It’s no surprise that it has received significant critical acclaim throughout the entirety of its run.
Vagabond’s success can be traced to its source material. It’s based on the masterpiece 1930’s Japanese novel titled Musashi, which coincidentally also began life in serialized form. The book is very loosely based on the life of the real samurai Miyamoto Musashi, as author Eiji Yoshikawa takes readers on a 1000-page journey that is considered by many — including myself — to be an incomparable work of art.
Miyamoto Musashi is often named the greatest samurai who ever lived, and he even wrote a book in 1643 that you can buy today, called The Book of Five Rings.
Vagabond used the completed Musashi novel as its root. It changed some things, most obviously Musashi’s main rival, Kojiro Sasaki — even making him deaf, for instance — but that’s the most drastic difference.
Unlike Musashi, however, Vagabond is not yet a completed work and, sadly, may never be. It has been on hiatus since 2015 when the series was intended to be briefly delayed, as announced by Inoue, so that he can take time off for further research. This was motivated by the series heading into its final stages and Inoue wanting to perfect the ending. However, nearly a decade later and the series is still at a standstill.
Will it ever be an anime? Although there have been rumors, there has never been an anime of Vagabond in production. Many believe it’s mostly because the artistic achievement of the book would be almost impossible to duplicate whereas others suggest that manga is the perfect medium for it, andVagabond in any other medium would fall short.
Inoue himself made his directorial debut with an anime of his manga, Slam Dunk, the result of which was an award-winning film, actually called The First Slam Dunk. Of course, this also shows that Inoue hasn’t been totally committed to finishing Vagabond but it does show that maybe, just maybe, he could be the one to pull off an anime version of his masterwork.
Though fans of the series would love to see a Vagabond anime, they will 100% be thrilled with just the manga itself being completed.
For those interested in seeing any version of Musashi on a screen, then one only need to find the 1950’s trilogy starring Toshiro Mifune titled Samurai. The first film won the Academy Award for Best Foriegn Language Film of 1954, and I personally ranked two of the three films amongst the greatest samurai films ever made. Max is currently streaming all three films, in color, and it’s worth your time watching. Oh, and it’s also based on Eiji Yosjikawa’s novel, which you can buy a copy of from almost any online bookseller.
If you do, maybe throw in a copy of The Book of Five Rings.