You know what I said last week about giving harsh reviews…well…that starts next week, because I absolutely love No Need For Bushido (www.noneedforbushido.com) and have done for some time. This week I am going to try to explain why.
No Need For Bushido is a long running web comic created by Alex Kolesar and Joe Kovell, with a complex storyline and a rich back history.
It is set in feudal Japan and primarily deals with the adventures of Yorikiro Wataro, the young heir to the Wataro clan (although, now disowned and hunted for deserting the clan rather than marry). Along his travels, the Tao brings him into contact with Ina Senshin, who has run away from home, Cho Teko, a blind Taoist priest with a penchant for absurd proverbs and Kenta "Ken" Daisuke, a ronin with a love of ultra violence and a huge sword. The over arching storyline is huge and would take me several pages to recite and do any justice to, but despite the size, it’s not an unwieldy or cumbersome back history. (In fact it’s a joy to start this comic from the beginning).
The dialogue never feels stunted or unbelievable…it always has a nice flow and rhythm to it and is well-written and sharp with a great deal of humor combined with equal levels of drama and tension.
Plenty of snappy one-liners, however, it manages not to be pick up and throw away, like so many of the humorous web comics…there is always a point reading it and a feeling that the whole thing has a plot and coherent direction, which draws the reader in.
Great characterization, with characters that feel real, have back stories and you can actually bring yourself to care what happens to them.
And my last point about the writing is that the alternative scripts are some of the funniest things ever written in comics to date, in my humble opinion.
As for the artwork, it is lush and beautiful and accessible. It started quite good and since then has evolved stylistically to excellence. It is cartoonish, but detailed and precise but nice to look at. Also it maintains consistency throughout, something a lot amateur artists struggle with. In short, it is the sort of artwork that makes me go “I wish I could draw like that”.
It’s really hard to be critical of this web comic. I think it doesn’t update enough, but then, that’s because I want more of this almost perfect comic. Apart from that I can’t think of anything bad to say about it.
It is a crime that this brilliant web comic has not transcended to physical media. It need to be collected and put in book form and sold.
I, for one, would buy it.
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