History Manga / Shigurui

* WeirdTradeUnion: Irako becomes a member of the [[WeirdTradeUnion Todouza]], the blind men's guild of Edo Japan. Most of their members work as musicians, masseurs, and acupuncturists, but they have strong connections with the shogun and his government. Shizuhata Kengyou, the supreme leader of the Todouza, gives his support to Irako, making Kogan and his students unable to harm him without severe political consequences.

** Subverted with historical leaders such as Masamune, Kasuga, Tadayo and Toshikatsu. In their cameos, their behaviour is what one expects of successful leaders.

* AwesomenessByAnalysis: During his training, Fujiki notices that his master's bottles have a diamond-shaped hole smashed into them without cracking the rest of the bottle. By trying to replicate such a hole (caused by a extremely fast strike with one knuckle) he discovers the secret of the Shooting Star Technique (holding the end of the blade with the off hand to build up tension). Ushimata notices Fujiki's wrist muscles from practicing, concludes he learned the secret, and promotes him immediately.

* {{Gorn}}: The most telling TagLine that the anime adaptation's advertising campaign went for is "The Beauty Is In The Kill". Sure enough, the fight scenes are ''excessively and graphically violent'' to the point of being an art piece, what with faces going off their heads, yanked intestines, {{Fingore}}, etc.

* AnythingThatMoves: Tadanaga will not let something so trivial as a rape victim (Chika) having unusual equipment stop him.

* BladeOnAStick: While the vast majority of warriors in this series utilise katana, Sasahara Shuuzaburou is a master of the yari and is basically to spears what Fujiki and Seigen are to swords.

* HandicappedBadass: Both main characters, eventually: Irako becomes a BlindWeaponmaster, and Fujiki a one-armed master swordsman.

** Yukinosuke, who is one of the fighters in the third match, would have [[spoiler:reluctantly killed [[RevengeMyopia his opponent]] [[AccidentalMurder by accident]] (he mistakenly uses his technique to turn his ''katana'' to [[SetSwordsToStun the blunt side]] [[SwordOverHead when dealing the final blow]]... While he was already fighting all the time [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace with the blunt side]]), but after the tournament he would have later been [[DiabolusExNihilo abruptly slaughtered]] by an AxCrazy ronin from ''Bukon Emaki'', [[CharacterOverlap in a plot detailed in the other novel]][[note]]Long story short, the ronin [[AbductionIsLove kidnaps the main character (Goisagi)'s]] [[AllLoveIsUnrequited unrequited love interest]] (who moves to Sunpu castle to be [[UnrequitedTragicMaiden closer to Goisagi]], although she shortly realizes that living under Tadanaga [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty wasn't a good idea]]) [[BrickJoke with the help of ninjas]], and appears after the tournament, [[TheWorfEffect killing Yukinosuke]]. After fighting with Goisagi, the tournament's ''other'' Gennosuke (see below) catches the ronin, but after a LiteralDisarming lets him go and escapes the castle, but gets hunted shortly after [[{{Anticlimax}} without fighting Goisagi]][[/note]].]]

** After [[spoiler:Fujiki and the other winners' escape from the castle]], [[SuperReflexes Kyōnosuke Kataoka]] (the winner of the seventh match) and the winner of the fourth match ([[spoiler:Shuuzaburou]]) would have [[spoiler:lead one squad each to catch the three fugitives: Kataoka tries to make a [[JustFollowingOrders bloodless pact with them]] to return to the castle, but Shuuzaburou misreads it as a [[CavalryBetrayal ploy to unite the two squads]] (then again, Shuuzaburou [[MyMasterRightOrWrong only wants to kill the traitors at all costs]]). Having no chance to escape anymore, they fight: Komura [[LetsFightLikeGentlemen fights against]] Kataoka [[AttackItsWeakPoint and wins]], but [[BolivianArmyEnding six soldiers kill him]]. Shuuzaburou decides to kill Fujiki after his [[MookHorrorShow refusal to giving up]], but Fujiki manages to [[WreckedWeapon cut Shuuzaburou's spear]] and [[AttackItsWeakPoint wounded leg]], making Shuuzaburou fall off his horse. When Fujiki is dealing the final blow, Shuuzaburou stabs him with his ''wakizashi'' in a MutualKill. Isoda, without her [[WeaponOfChoice trusted Naginata]], only manages to kill three soldiers before giving up: just before [[IHaveYouNowMyPretty Tadanaga meets her]], [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled she suicides]].]]

* {{Gorn}}: It's drawn by the same man who made ''Manga/ApocalypseZero'', so this is to be expected.