The Magnificent Bastard 1: The Legend of Keiji

Keiji #1-2

by Keiichirô Ryû, Mio Asô (Primary Contributor), Tetsuo Hara (Illustrator)

The Wildest Samurai Who Ever Lived

Tetsuo Hara’s masterful follow-up to the generation-defining Fist of the North Star—a rollicking samurai epic inspired by a real-life legend.

Long before the Japan of today, there was a land riven by a century of war between hundreds of feudal lords. Standing astride this most chaotic and storied era in Japanese history was a samurai unlike any other—courageous, free-spirited, and peerless on the battlefield, Keiji Maeda had a bombastic style and a penchant for outrageous antics as well as incredible feats of daring. Beloved by his friends, admired by his enemies, and utterly confounding to authority figures, he went out of his way to break every rule but one—his warrior’s code. Adapted from a classic historical novel by the iconic artist of Fist of the North Star, there’s never been a more thrilling way to experience the golden age of the shogun, samurai, and ninja than this larger-than-life legend of the wildest samurai who ever lived!

Genres: Manga

392 pages, Hardcover

Published December 9, 2025

About the author

Keiichiro Ryu (隆 慶一郎 Ryū Keiichirō?, 1923 – 1989)was a Japanese editor, acclaimed screenplay writer, and historical fiction writer.

Reviews

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

A samurai warrior with a devil-may-care attitude and an outlandish sense of style runs roughshod over the real people, locations, and events of Japan in the 1580s. He's a superman who towers over everyone else and can cut half a dozen men in half with one swing of his sword. And, like Bugs Bunny with a body count, he vexes the lords and ninja who constantly jockey for his assassination with his campy and dismissive antics.

I requested this from NetGalley because I recognized the illustrator as the creator of the delightfully over-the-top Fist of the North Star series. What I didn't realize at the time was that I had already read the chapters in this book in a serialized format more than twenty years ago in the short-lived manga anthology magazine, Raijin Comics (starting with Raijin Comics: Issue 19).

The pages are visually memorable, but the tangle of political intrigue and lack of tension due to Keiji's uncanny luck and overpowered skill set bores after a while. Having gotten a taste of the opening chapters twice now, I'm not motivated to continue on for the remaining eight volumes in this series.


Disclosure: I received access to a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com.


FOR REFERENCE:

Omnibus collecting material originally published in tankōbon manga form as Keiji volumes 1-2.

Contents: Chapter 1. The Sanctioned Kabukimono -- Chapter 2. Blade of the Roaring Beast -- Chapter 3. Scars of Loyalty -- Chapter 4. A Man's Blood Boils! -- Chapter 5. The Late Bloomer -- Chapter 6. The General's Lament -- Chapter 7. Oath of the Wild Chrysanthemum -- Chapter 8. To Live or to Die -- Chapter 9. The Mighty Warrior -- Chapter 10. The Warrior's Vow -- Chapter 11. A Tearful Drinking Battle -- Chapter 12. The Fight of Suemori -- Chapter 13. Hotaru the Kunoichi -- Chapter 14. The Tragic Crest -- Chapter 15. The Coldhearted Kunoichi

[Dustin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perfect example of what I'd call a Bro/Himbo Manga. It's big, it's loud, it doesn't take itself too seriously, it revels in its machismo, it's violent, it's very dumb in a very endearing way, and it's got heart as well. Just an overall fun ride.

Also, the art here is wonderful. I mean, Tetsuo Hara is a legend for a reason and his work fits this story perfectly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the review copy!

[Terry Rudge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alright, so first off,the artwork and style is Absolutely bang on. Slick, sharp, oozing with energy and quality.

Now, the stories themselves… fun, sure, but they never quite hit that deeper gear I was hoping for. It’s like eating a gourmet meal that somehow leaves you a bit hungry after. Satisfying in the moment, but missing that extra something to really stick with you.

I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the graphic noval overall. The pace, the tone, the general swagger of it all was really good. I just wish there’d been a touch more lore, a bit more meat behind the flash.

So yeah, stylish as hell, fun to read, but not quite the full feast.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics- Vertical Comics for an advance copy of this graphic novel that features a manga legend adapting a classic story about a samurai who is carving his own path, the people who come to rely on him, and the many allies and people he help, in his own particular way.

I have loved comics all of my life, starting with my Grandmother buying me issues from the candy shop down the block from her apartment in the Bronx. In the pre-Internet days I assumed that everyone around the world enjoyed Spider-Man, and Superman and the comics I read. The occasionally edited cartons like Star Blazers and Battle of the Planets that I saw from Japan were just shows, I didn't realize they were drawing on a rich history of manga. Even know I feel I am still learning about the world and stories from Japan. Which is fine as I am always finding new things, things that might be old, or works by legends that I have missed. I know Fist of the North Star from a bad VHS tape a friend gave me years ago, a hyperviolent story about a desolate future. Eventually I read the stories the anime was based on and enjoyed them. Which is why I was looking so forward to this. The Magnificent Bastard Volume 1: The Legend of Keiji is based on a series of stories by Keiichirô Ryû, adapted for manga by Mio Asô and illustrated by famed artist Tetsuo Hara, and tells of a samurai, who lives large, is large, and seems to find trouble and allies with ease, and lives his life by his own principles and more importantly his own honor.

Maeda Keiji is a kabukimono, part of a group of samurai who live life on their own terms, be which in a culture like Japan, is grounds for talk. And for people to resent. Keiji is tall, a warrior of renown, and yet for all his acts, for all his sass, has a sense of honor that is better than most around him. Something that also drives people crazy. One of his worst enemies is his Uncle, who has wishes that Keiji would do the honorable thing and die. To do so he sets traps, sends ninjas, and sends him on missions to fail. Which Keiji does not. Keiji has claimed a horse, larger than most, meaner than any, and has made a friend. Keiji breaks sieges, avoids being blamed for accidents by smarts and playing the game far better than most. When that doesn't work, well there is always a little swordplay to take care of things. Keiji is good to his friends, fair to his enemies, and lives the way he wants. No matter how many people try to kill him.

A fun story, with a lot of humor and a lot of ultraviolence. The humor is juvenile in many ways, from a time where comics were loaded with this kind of stuff. I doubt anyone could be offended, again its Jackass levels of humor. The stories are good, and set the scene for a longer tale, linking together friends, enemies, and a whole lot of swordplay. The art is the standout of this work. Big, clear crisp characters. Backgrounds that standout, castes that seem imposing. A horse that seems to have been lifted from nightmares to carry a figure of vengeance. One can see why Tetsuo Hara is so well considered. Really beautiful stuff.

Fun story about a character bigger than life, in more ways than one. Humorous, in a teenage kind of way, with really great artwork. I can't wait to read more in this series.

[Christopher Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Special Thanks Goes to Kodansha Comics/Vertical Comics For the ARC

Considered to be a follow-up of Tetsuo Hara’s iconic manga, Fist of the North Star and considered to be one of the wildest stories in manga today, inspired by a real life legend, Set towards the end of the Sengoku Period. The Magnificent Bastard: The Legend of Keiji, a tale about a tall, handsome, and deadly samurai named Keiji, who revels in own taste of beauty. Whether its slaying men on the battlefield, carousing with courtesans in the pleasure district. But in an era when might and ruthless politics reign, staying true to oneself—while staying alive—is no easy feat. As feudal lords vie for supremacy, Keiji’s House prepares for a clash with the powerful Hojo Clan. When a team of scouts is dispatched to procure wild horses for the House’s army, they are attacked by a creature unlike any they have ever seen. Tasked with slaying this beast, Keiji sets out to tame it instead. Once the Hojo and their ninja master catch wind of this expedition, however, Keiji will have more than a wild beast to break.

The Magnificent Bastard was one of those books that will grab your attention immediately. Not only due to its title, but how it honors a legendary figure in history (even if its just a fictionalized account to it.) What I enjoyed most of this story was how well-mixed was historical facts with elements of fantasy and action, not to mention how well paced the story was. Despite it having alot of gore and violence, it manages to balance it with witty-humor, but I wouldn’t recommend it to younger readers, mainly for older readers.

The artwork was a nostalgic treat to enjoy, fans of Fist of the North Star will feel right at home with this book, since the book shares the same artist. It consists of wonderful line work, beautiful crosshatching, and great use of screen tone. My only concern if people weren’t familiar with this series was the sexual themes, vulgar humor, but does provide censorship in certain areas. The characters were designed well, offering certain nods to the artist’s previous works at times and eye catching detail to the backgrounds/castles.

[Audrey S · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marking 25 years since its original publication, this edition of The Magnificent Bastard brings you right back to the 1990s and does not shy from the gore and the manliness to the point of homoerotic depictions that established this machismo genre. I found the first chapter where he tames his loyal companion, an enormous horse named Matsukaze, to be the most compelling regarding his character exploration and the most entertaining as well.
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This manga will be for the history buffs who are well aware of the Sengoku period. There are quite a few instances of paragraphs of information dropped suddenly - that tell the stories before and after specific events as if to feed you background information but none of them were particularly compelling and only slowed the story down.
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The art style I found to be overly blunt in its character designs - the pretty men are the good guys, the average looking men are the supporting cast, and the ugly men are the bad guys. Of course all women are gorgeous and their robes falling off and exposing skin at every turn in most definitely not historically accurate wardrobes. But hey, they look hot right?
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I will give credit that the female characters were moderately interesting, but they all inevitably swoon for Keiji in ways that defy their character depiction so any interesting parts of the character simply fall flat in the end.
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Overall it was interesting, and while I enjoyed the gore, the story did not hold my interest. I was not the audience for this level of machismo but I’m sure others will be.
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*I received an eARC from Kodansha Comics | Vertical Comics & NetGalley. All opinions are my own*

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Magnificent Bastard 1” is a tale of a warrior unlike any other. He is bigger, stronger, and more handsome. And he likes turning on the charm with a wry smile, cracking jokes and cracking heads.

Speaking of which, apparently heads just pop clean off like my sisters Barbie’s heads did when I would torture her by playing too rough when I was a kid. There are a lot of heads and arms flying off because of swords. As matter of fact, you can cut someone in two from top to bottom if you have a good enough sword and are strong enough yourself. All of this is played up for laughs and is cartoonish violence, never graphic in nature.

But if that isn’t troubling to you, there are also juvenile antics. There is an instance of him mooning his opponent, urinating on an opponent (and having a companion join him in doing so), male and female nudity that has convenient arms or items covering essentials, and full-frontal nudity of our hero. But don’t worry, you don’t see anything because the artist has erased it and just left that part of the picture blank. But if you want descriptions, his body parts are described by other characters…just in case you wondered.

The stories are funny and the kind of stories a young kid might make up about a hero they have made up to just to make the character seem invincible. And the artwork? Amazing. Like, absolutely beautiful.

Overall, harmless, juvenile fun for adults and maybe older teens. Not really for younger readers.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

[East of Reality · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read right to left

This is the story of a horse and his boy … well, a demon in horse shape and Keiji who might as well be a demon in human skin considering his size, strength, and ability to survive just about everything thrown at him with a smile and a laugh. It’s adventure after adventure, a handful of battles and, at the end, Keiji gets himself a girl.

I know nothing about Japanese history so I don’t know what Easter Eggs or homages there are in this book, but to me Keiji ends up feeling more like Robin Hood with the good humor, good looks, and good luck. He’s bigger than life and stands up for the little guy. To be honest, I think a great deal of this went over my head and I found some of the scenes a little on the dry side. I think someone more versed in Japanese culture or history will enjoy this more than I did.

I mean, it’s fine, and it has a few moments that I liked — like letting an enemy general go because the battle was over and Keiji doesn’t hold grudges; or highlighting the service and loyalty of an old retainer — but this book just didn’t call to me. I do hope if finds its audience, though.

Thank you so much to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC!

[Siina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Magnificent Bastard is a historical manga set in the feudal time of Japan, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi ruled the country. The main character is Keiji Maeda, the adoptive son of the Maeda Family. He's something else though - flamboyant and his outlandish and wild personality was well known. He meets actual historical figures of the time such as Tokugawa Iyeyasu and Rikyuu the tea master. He tames a monstrous horse and shows his bare ass when it comes to enemies and such. We get to see battles, relationships growing and his travels. There manga was written in the 1990s and of course it shows. The art is very manly and brave altogether as we seen from the bare ass incidents we get to enjoy more than once. The historical approach and the real people are the best part and how this at least tries to be somewhat realistic.

The story is 18 volumes long and the volumes are omnibuses containing two volumes. I'm glad older manga are translated into English, since you couldn't do stuff like this anymore basically (sadly so). The setting is interesting, this is even funny at times. The Magnificent Bastard isn't mindblowing, but a nice add-on to the Japanese history genre. Basically, when men were made of iron and ships of ship-making material as Rauno Repomies would say.

[Lanie Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is where I would normally put the synopsis but honestly this is just about one man annoying the absolute crap out of the higher ups and I absolutely loved every second of it!

Outside of the fact that this is one of very few historical manga that I have seen come out recently, it was just a ton of fun. I don't mean to be that nostalgia person, but damn if this did not hit every '90s anime vibe I've been craving recently. Keiji is this larger-than-life samurai who is completely screwed over by his uncle and instead of the court drama that this could have been Keiji just keeps on being himself. He's got his own code of ethics and quite frankly they are ones I fully support. Does he kill people? Yes, absolutely he's a freaking samurai but more than anything he finds ways to point out how hypocritical the samurai class is. He makes his enemies look stupid and that is often far worse than killing them. He spends a lot of time giving those he's pointed at to kill the benefit of the doubt too and I enjoyed that immensely. He knows that his Uncle sees him as nothing more than a tool to kill people (when his Uncle isn't trying to kill him) and so he flips that over on his Uncle. You definitely get the idea that Keiji doesn't necessarily have a side in Nobunaga's war not while he was alive and not after he was dead either. This is simply just a game of thrones and he's certainly playing by his own rules.

Honestly, I love isekai but I feel like this was a well needed break from the genre which seems to be all we are seeing recently in terms of new manga and in turn anime.

As always thanks to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the eArc!

[Ron Baumer · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the premise of the graphic novel sounded good, the reality was I found it a bit confusing. The book consists of several smaller stories and each is done at a fast pace, resulting in a confused story. The author attempts to show a character with great ability and a humorous nature. However, characters are thrown into the stories and leaves the reader confused. Overall, I did not feel this was a great book, but it is one that some will find a good read. For me, I will wait and try the second book to see if the author improves on their writing.

The artwork is great and enhances the story.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Aaron Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of my favorite manga reads to date. The art is simply amazing and I think that you can see such a refinement in the style since Fist of the North Star. The story is a historical epic and is so gripping and entertaining that I was literally absorbed for like half the day reading it. It's got me so pumped up I am looking at my Vagabond series thinking maybe I should read you next lol. There are a lot of similarities between the two so if you like Vagabond you will love this as well. Plus with all the historical information in the volume if you don't know the Japanese history of the period you might just get an itch to learn more because it is replete with it.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

The wildest Samurai who ever lived? Maybe Keiji Maeda has earned that title, but if not, he comes very close! The Magnificent Bastard relates a tale filled with ninja assassins, brave warriors, angry uncles, and striding across the nicely drawn pages is Keiji who keeps one upping his uncle which drives the uncle crazy. There is antics, assasination attempts, battles, revenge, and even a bit of romance to keep the reader flipping the pages! Read the tale and see if you agree!

Thanks Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for the chance to read this title!

[Ryan (Empire of Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I am a massive fan of Berserk and this reminded me a bit of that, only set in Japan and where the main character is a bit more of a clown, a bit more laddish.

The gore was fun, the story was interesting and the art was fantastic. I look forward to continuing the series as more volumes come available.

[Theodora Bonilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun quick read, pacing was well done down to comedic moments made you forget it was time period a bit. The visuals were so wicked as well as the main character being incredibly charming yet the bastard they say he is. By the second time I picked it up I was so engulfed I just couldn’t put it down. Overall a really striking book full of chaos, gore, and cheekiness.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read more graphic novel reviews at The Graphic Library.

Flamboyant samurai Keiji fights in battles against and with his family, drawn with outlandish illustrations from the talented Tetsuo Hara. Keiji is a larger-than-life character who does what he wants, when he wants, and that infuriates his uncle, who often tries (and is thwarted) to have Keiji removed from the family lineage picture. This volume is full of graphic violence, and a few scenes of nudity, so library buyers beware.

Full review in Booklist Magazine.

Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Adult