Very enjoyable story of a school kendo club. Although the teacher is kind of contemptible, it's not enough to be unlikeable (and lack of money is a real problem). So far, a fun and lively read, and the art holds up for action scenes too. ( )

Having long been a fan of the anime series, this was a something that I was highly anticipating to purchase when the manga was first announced. While most anime/manga series that centered on a group of females would take the path of lowest common denominator and make the series of pure fanservice (i.e. Ikkitousen, Saki, Akikan, Queen's Blade, etc.), it's very refreshing in the case of Bamboo Blade in that it effectively makes a story based on the characters themselves while making kendo interesting. The only other time I've seen something like this was with Hikaru no Go.

While it turns out that the anime is faithful to the manga (at least up to the first volume), what caught me by surprise was the how different the art style was in the beginning. All the characters, except for Kirino, seemed to be of a rougher design and was a bit hard to get use to. For example, Dan-kun was twice his usual height (same eye level as Yuuji). :D Still, by the end of the volume, the art exponentially improved and it felt like the artist finally got his groove. Similarly, where at first the story seemed a bit aimless, by the end it felt like all was starting to come together while the humor was definitely improving.

As I know how much this series will continue to improve, this is a series that I highly recommend to fans of humor and action. ( )