Kacchuu no Senshi Gamu General Discussion

[M-92 Mantis]

What did you all think about this bizarre little story? Anything you liked or didn't like about it?

NOTE: Since we have finished this story in its entirety, spoiler boxes are not needed, since I assume people who have already read the story are the ones discussing it.

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For me, I really like this story for just being different from the rest. Lots of people say it's too silly or goofy for them, which I can understand, but I appreciate its attempt to not be the exact same set of elements and tropes in most of Yoshi's other work. I had a blast reading it with all the insane powers, telepathy, transformations, etc. This story just went along with whatever Yoshi wanted and I think he had fun making it, at least halfway. The potential for it was lost when the focus on the ganin and supernatural abilities go more towards Nobunaga and a history lesson, with less influence and screen time for Gama and the enemy ganin. I wanted to see more evil samurai dogs turning into dragons and such, but I also did enjoy some characters like Toukichirou and Rando.

[Kit]

I feel like I have so much to say about KnSG, and yet so little, at the same time... As crazy as the concept is, I thoroughly enjoyed most of what it did. I LOVE the focus on backstory, and how certain things came to influence the characters and events. Volume 1 was very good at building the suspense with the Gama Clan having broken apart the Kagerou and now wanting to wipe them out. Yes, there were continuity errors with it, but ultimately it did its job, in my opinion.

Volume 2 is where it started losing its charm, a bit, for me. While I somewhat like the idea of there being some (borderline) supernatural force involved in what history has deemed a battle with a nearly impossible outcome, I feel like Yoshi got too caught up in his history lesson and forgot to tell a story. There was so much potential to continue building on the Gama Clan and how it had further broken the Kagerou Clan, with Gamu and Rando struggling on their own, but instead it seemed like the pacing got broken to randomly deal with Okehazama and Nobunaga. I realize it's a big deal for samurai to be serving a lord, but it kinda forsook the original setup, altogether for it. Rando and Gamu kind of forgot about their clan and the Gama in favor of doing that, until it was shoehorned back into the ending.

By the time the ending came around, I was sad to find Yoshi seemed to just breeze through it, almost like he was tired of the series. Gama was supposed to be this charismatic, very influential and powerful ganin, but the way the fight played out just made him seem like a joke. Gamu kept up his flaw from the entire series of being literally untouchable, so there was no tension or prospect of him losing. I feel like Yoshi tried to soften this by having Hayabusa help, with the ravens, but that just came off as more random and unnecessary, since Gamu wasn't losing, anyway.

I do appreciate that it wrapped up with the acknowledgement that everyone who knew how to make the kijinbari was now dead, and so the ganin would eventually die out. It was a nice wrap-up in that regard, because it kept more questions from popping up, and made this seem like it could be a real legend, which is what I think the original intent was. Still, it left me wishing the series was longer to tie up more loose ends and have more elbow room with what it had established.

(I guess I had more to say than I thought. )

[Deleted]

My first impression after chapter 1: this is actually a lot better than I expected! And looks really, really promising... It stretches the meaning of artistic license, but I don't mind that.

I will now carefully avoid this section to make sure I don't get any awful spoiler.

[乃ĿŌŌƉȲ₭ȲŌŪƧĦĪṜŌ]

I'm all for supernatural elements and even a bit of history, but this particular tale didn't do it for me. I feel like there were too many moments involving the humans, which caused me to be a bit bored of it. I'm not saying that there should be no humans in any of Yoshi's works, but I feel like - and this is something that's really only my problem - for someone who was writing this mainly about dogs, he...kind of forgot about the dogs, which killed any interest I had in the series.

[Deleted]

Alright! After WAY too much time, I managed to finish this series (I'm a slow reader)...

After the first volume, I thought two things:

1) This thing is AMAZING!!
2) There's NO way it can only be two volumes.

It's like... They are two completely different stories. Written by different people.

First, KNSG proves that a story doesn't need to be realistic to be believable. The talking dogs with magical power and super strength, telekinesis, pins in the brain and all that... I don't mind it. As long as it is consistent, it's a fantasy story and I'm fine with that. It actually makes the battles a lot more epic. I really like the "badass character who is obviously stronger than anybody else meets an opponent who can match his strength" theme. You know, Devil May Cry (anime) style, or Hellsing.

The first scene, where the ganin attack the enemy camp and wreck havoc in the whole army, was GREAT. One of the best premises I've ever seen in a manga, really. There are talking dogs, badass superpowers, and ninjas. I don't know how it could get any better than that. And the whole first volume kept the momentum going: the apex of this series is the fight between Gamu and Belmondo, and the subsequent destruction of the village. That was legendary to say the least. I even like Rando, he's not the typical brat of Yoshi's stories (like Daisuke). The backstory is also great, the clash of the clans, Honou and everything.

That could have been the perfect start for a 5-10 volume story. It had everything: great character, a potentially deep and interesting story, a beautiful and magical lore, a plot twist that killed almost everyone. Storytelling 101. I would have liked it SO much to see Gamu and Rando go on a mission for revenge, seek allies, until the final epic confrontation against Gama. HUGE potential.

But instead we get... This. Volume 2. Rando and Gamu join a random daimyo for some unknown reason after a year living in the shadows, and it's a big history lesson for more than half of the volume. Which would be fine if KNSG were 10 volumes, but not like this. The pace is way too slow, and when the initial confrontation between Gamu and Gama shows up again, we have 4 chapters left until the end of the series.

That ending... Wow. I could say it's rushed, but it isn't enough. It's Paranormal-Activity-level rushed, they compressed the story so much that it became a black hole for all my hopes of reading a good story.

(Whoa, that was poetic)

Suddenly, we discover that the ganin we thought dead for the entire volume weren't dead at all. I don't even remember their name, because they're shown maybe TWICE in the entire ending. They're supposed to be strong, brave, legendary warriors. But they're only relegated as cameos. You know how Ginga has this big problem of having just too many main characters, especially GNG? Well, KNSG has the opposite problems. No characters at all, except Gamu and Rando. We are told that Rando's mother is alive, but we never see her.

And oh my god, the final battle. I expected something epic. For half of the story we are told of how strong Gama is, and then he dies before the fight even starts. Taken down by RAVENS. Not even by Gamu, by random RAVENS. When he died I thought it was some kind of joke, but no, that was the end of the story. I can't even comment on it. Words cannot describe how disappointed I am. If it isn't the WORST ending I've ever seen/read in any kind of fictional story, it comes very close.

Not only because of how bad it is in itself. But also because it took a potentially awesome story, and ruined it. I never thought I'd say it, but this is just as bad as one of those open endings we all hate.

[Durango]

I was so sure that I had posted in this topic, but I think my opinion about the series has just been in chapter/volume releases, so might as well make a post here now. Basically I agree 100% with everything Togo just said, but I'm still going to write my own thing down even if I can't form a such beautifully versed post as the one above mine.

Okay, so before coming to GS I had only read little bits of KnSG because someone I used to hang out with liked the story a lot, and so they showed it to me a bit. I wasn't really all that interested, my attention being more on GNG and SSY. The armor dogs just didn't seem appealing to me and I was bored by the story that I saw. When I joined this site, I figured that I had no reason not to give the story a shot since the entire first volume was available at the time.

Imagine my surprise when I was pulled in by the story after a chapter or two. It was history with dogs, and it was fascinating, not nearly as over the top that I had thought it was. The story is short but that's not something I would consider a downside because the setup is something that would've felt too dragged out for me if it had been like ten volumes long. It was fascinating for couple volumes, but with Yoshi's presentation that's as much as I could've taken it without groaning. Frankly I don't even remember what happened in most of volume 2, so I guess to me it started going downhill really fast.

I still think that some of the moves, the more supernatural elements of the series, are a bit ridiculous but that's something that is present in most Yoshi stories so I guess I can't hold that too much against KnSG. The story also had the other Yoshi thing, where the main character is amazingly superior to other characters, so Kusakage and Shiba felt mostly useless to the story because Gamu had everything covered.
There was never really any "oh no, Gamu's in danger!" moments because he was simply too above everyone else's skill levels. Gamu was OP, and I can't say that I would've liked him.

I like Rando as a character though. His.. feeding on ganin milk makes me gag, but I still like the kid. I like that he has a special bond with Gamu, even though I'm still not sure how I really feel about the dogs being able to communicate with humans like that. Or with each other, but I'm generally not that big fan of telepathy in stories anyway. Always comes of as either really obnoxious or creepy to me, and also creates plot holes quickly.

I know I just complained about the more ridiculous aspects of the series, but I have to mention that I actually loved The Flying Ants Battalion. The idea and the design, and it would've been amazing to see more of them and not just in that one battle. Actually, more focus on Gama's side of the whole thing would've been great just in general .

I liked Belmondo, he was interesting character and his history with Gamu would've been cool to see in full, so I was really disappointed when he was killed off so early on. The fight seemed just too easy, so easy that it was pointless. And Honou was great, but sadly yet more wasted potential but what else is new with Yoshi's writing.

And finally... the ending. It was stupid. Just downright stupid. The entire time the story build up more and more of Rando's relationship with Gamu, having them develop shared abilities and then.. Gamu just decided that Rando was a burden. Okay, whatever. I'm not even going to touch the Hitchcock death of Gama, but I will never forget how moronic that was.

That came out pretty disjointed but.. yeah. I sound more negative about KnSG than I actually am, I'm more on the neutral territory about it. It was great at first but so weak in the second that I just can't like or dislike it.

[Deleted]

Thanks for the mention/compliment, Durango. It looks like we all share that bittersweet feeling about this story.

[saske]

Ooookay!
Finally, after that sir @bucciamarcia suggested me to take a read to KNSG, I managed to read both volumes of it!
The first volume quite surprised me, it was an interesting and peculiar story, yes I was used to ninja dogs with some kind of powers, from Ginga, but in here it was all much more of it! Like some of you said too, it's a story very different from Ginga, interesting as well and I've liked it!
I liked most of the characters, Gamu at first, Belmond at second place and Honou at third. I've really liked the flashbacks with her and with Gamu and Belmondo as puppies! >w< Kusakage and Shiba were fine as well! Not sure why, I was never able, in both volumes, to like any of the humans, beside maybe Rando's father.
The battle between Gamu and Belmondo was good! I liked all their powers and transformations! WOHA!
Even though there were, near the end, those...flying mutated dogs with weird noodles(?) as legs. EW

As for volume two, it's a complete different story. I'll just live as if it never existed, aside from the part where we get to know that Kusakage and Shiba are still alive, that made me happy since I didn't disliked those two and I was sad to think that only Gamu was left, after the house caught fire...
It was a very slow story, boring to keep up because of all the historical references and all the army marching down. I love history but in this case, I had difficulties to follow the story and I hardly remember much of it, if not for the end, the battle of Gamu and Gama. Well "battle" it's a big word, nothing so sensational happened and, just like Durango said, Gama wasn't defeated by Gamu but by ravens who, apparently, by eating the corpse of that dog that betrayed Gama for Gamu, lent them his spirits, so that the birds could help the dogs.
Okaaaay.
A very fast ending for the continuation of a story that apparently wasn't wanted by the author.

Part 1 was a YEY!
Part 2 was a UGH BORING.

[Deleted]

May 25, 2016 3:19:02 GMT -7 saske said:

sir @bucciamarcia

But yeah... you pretty much think what we all think about this story, I guess.

[ninjadoge]

ok,so im wondering whether or not to download this so from what i heard about a guy called lord edo and the volume face its about samurai dogs/wolves but pls tell me if im wrong

[M-92 Mantis]

Jun 24, 2016 13:58:56 GMT -7 ninjadoge said:

ok,so im wondering whether or not to download this so from what i heard about a guy called lord edo and the volume face its about samurai dogs/wolves but pls tell me if im wrong

Yes, it's about Gamu and his team, a group of samurai dogs with supernatural abilities, fighting against an enemy ganin (samurai dog) with both sides involving historical war lords from the Sengoku period of Japan.

There is only one wolf character in it.

Unfortunately, the second volume focuses a lot on the feudal warlords instead of the dogs as much. But the first volume involves a lot of cool fights and the dogs showing off their different abilities.