APADFTMOM Day 13: Samurai 8 First Impression

It’s May 13th in Japan right now, I’m waiting for Game of Thrones to start, and Samurai 8: Hachimaru-den just dropped on the Shonen Jump app. Samurai 8 is the much-awaited new IP written by Masashi Kishimoto, known best for a little pillar of the manga industry known as Naruto. I just read the first chapter which clocks in at a little over 70 pages, which is about what I expected considering the hype generated from its marketing and its author’s prominence in Shonen Jump for well over a decade. Let’s take a very brief look at Samurai 8’s opening although I can tell you well ahead of time that if there’s any time to pick the series up and start following it, it’s right now while it’s first coming out.






Samurai 8 is a science fiction work centered around samurai on a quest to collect seven keys, all of which are within the bodies of samurai. Samurai are established as cyborgs whose bodies are reformed as complicated robots around their keys, which take the place of the human spine and brain within the samurai’s body. These seven keys open Pandora’s Box, which contains the means through which a warrior named Fudo Myo-o saved the universe. The story follows a sickly boy named Hachimaru as he becomes a samurai and sets out to collect these keys.




Hachimaru’s father meets up with a samurai to buy an item to help aid Hachimaru’s health, and the samurai notices an item in the man’s possession that serves as a hint for where another important item is. This item ends up being kept inside Hachimaru’s body, who is shown sitting at home with his dog making a wish to a daruma. This daruma turns into a cat-shaped robot named Daruma who reveals himself to be a samurai and accepts Hachimaru as his apprentice, revealing that he created Hachimaru’s favorite game to try and locate people interested in samurai. The samurai from before breaks into the house with the goal of stealing the item within Hachimaru’s body, and he shows that he has taken the boy’s father hostage. At this point the canvas is painted enough to begin Hachimaru’s journey which begins in the chapter but will not be spoiled here.




Right off the bat, there is no establishment of just how the universe is in danger, but that type of revelation is usually saved for the first four or five chapters as opposed to the very first. Samurai 8’s first chapter is all about setting up the baseline lore for the series and giving the audience a glimpse of the protagonist. There is also some minor worldbuilding with a fair amount of technobabble thrown around as well as a showcase of the various items that will be important throughout the series. Along with keys, there are also spherical objects known as locker balls that grant cybernetic bodies to those compatible with them and holders, which seem to be a type of animal familiar but are not elaborated much on.




Hachimaru is shown to be a very frail, ill child who is bound to a large medical machine that is keeping him alive via tubes plugged into his body. He cannot eat solid foods, has a fear of sharp objects ranging from needles to blades, has a strained relationship with his father stemming from his father’s promises that he will be able to leave the house soon but never elaborating on how soon. Hachimaru’s father has a plan to create a special wheelchair for Hachimaru although he has had a lot of trouble with getting it working.




The villain for the chapter is a nameless samurai who introduces a lot of important-looking side lore such as samurai souls having tangible forms that can be locked inside containers with special keys separate from a samurai’s spine key, and also the ability to don a strong samurai armor that is durable enough to reflect normal katanas. Samurai are said to be extremely rare so since this man was not given a name right away, he will most likely come into play again in the next few chapters in one way or another.




There is no overall villain established for the series, which fits with Masashi Kishimoto’s character-focused writing style that shapes the world around the development of the protagonist. It would be fair to bet that there will not be a true major antagonist established for quite a while. The story already sets itself up to not have one overall Big Bad with Hachimaru needing to collect six more samurai keys and with those keys most likely being collected through combat. It is also possible for Hachimaru to assemble a group of samurai with the shared goal of opening the box together, but that would be a bit difficult to write around. Gathering a group of living samurai requires either eliminating samurai as potential meaningful opponents or falling into the common trope of the hero befriending all of his enemies.




Samurai 8 puts a lot of ideas on display against a whimsical setting that combines the past with the future. There is a lot of storytelling to do in the next few chapters in order to help the series find its legs, and committing to the series early on is the best way to decide whether you’re sticking with a winner or if you should drop it if it doesn’t meet expectations. Personally I get a bit of an Edens Zero vibe from it and the two series share a lot of beats in regards to the history of their authors. Both authors are coming off of series rooted in magical powers and jumping genres to sci-fi space explorations. Edens Zero has been pretty good so far, and I trust Masashi Kishimoto’s writing a lot more than Hiro Mashima’s. Samurai 8 will definitely be something to keep an eye on so go ahead and drop that $1.99 for the Shonen Jump app.