Tamura, Volume 9 Cover Art, Basara, Viz Media.
Basara – Information
Author of Story: Yumi Tamura
Chapter Count: 27 Volumes, 112 chapters
Status: Completed
Content Warnings
These content warnings do not reflect the contents of the review below; only the literary work itself.
- Blood, gore
- Violence, war
- Murder, injury, illness, and death
- Slavery, torture, abuse
- SH, SI
- SA, RP
- Disturbing imagery and topics
- Partial nudity
- Food, ED
- Mature content
Spoiler Disclaimer
This recommendation post may contain small plot spoilers for review purposes. Any major spoilers are hidden by default and are able to be revealed via click or tap.
Basara – Plot Summary
The Basara manga series is a work written by Yumi Tamura, who happens to also be the author of one of my all-time favorite manga—7 Seeds—which, as I mentioned in my recent April Fool’s Day post, isn’t really a romance-focused manga. Instead, it’s more action and adventure focused.
Similarly, Basara has lots of story and action too, but in this story a romance is heavily pushing the plot from the sidelines. That is the reason that Basara is getting its own full review, even though it could’ve fit in nicely with my previous post, haha!
This manga is considered a shoujo must-read, and is pretty well-known in the reader community. However, it is wildly different from the shoujo mangas I often recommend.
There is tons more story and depth to this one—although that opens up a lot more possibilities for sensitive content, so I encourage you to check the content warnings I listed above. This manga has basically every content warning under the sun, so you’ve been warned.
The Basara manga is set in post-apocalyptic Japan, where a tyrannical emperor and his four sons rule over the land. In a small village lives the heroine Sarasa, her twin brother Tatara, and their parents.
Tatara is known as the “Child of Destiny,” a figure from a prophecy who will supposedly lead their country to a better standing. Unfortunately, the Red King (the youngest son of the emperor) comes in, and murders Sarasa’s family. Enraged, she takes her now deceased twin brother’s name, and begins a rebellion—vowing to kill the Red King.
If you couldn’t guess from the plot basis, this story is really not filled to the brim with lovely, sweet romance. However, I wanted to still recommend this manga because the tragic, enemies-to-lovers romance actually becomes an integral part of the plot, the characters, and their growth.
If you’re into stories with tons of action, lots of interesting characters, and a super engaging story, the Basara manga could be a great pick for you. Because it is a tragic romance of sorts, this manga is unique to the stories I usually recommend. If you love slower romances with struggles, uncertainty, angst, and pining, you may really enjoy this one!
Tamura, Volume 6 Cover Art, Basara, Viz Media.
Why I Enjoyed Basara
Yumi Tamura has an amazing talent for writing engaging, interesting stories. It’s not surprising that both this series and 7 Seeds won a Shogakukan Manga award. Basara pulls you in, and makes you desperately want to know what will happen next. You are basically thrown right into an action-packed, thrilling story from the start.
The romance in the Basara manga series may be few and far between, but it leaves you wanting more. A chance meeting creates a passionate love between two people who aren’t meant to be. When we do see romantic moments, it feels extremely special when compared to the other horrific events that happen in this series.
Throughout these their long, arduous journey, you’ll always be wondering how things will end for the star-crossed lovers. You will root for them in both their romantic endeavors and individual improvements, too.
One of the best aspects of the Basara manga series is the protagonist, Sarasa. She is everything you could want in a protagonist—she’s excellently written to be a believable, admirable hero.
She is brave, but always honest about her fear and weaknesses. She puts her life on the line often, but by doing this proves herself to others through perseverance and determination.
Sarasa is driven wild by her thirst for revenge, but also is able to show compassion and even cries often. She is a kind protagonist; even though her overall goal is vengeance and to kill the Red King, she still feels guilt from killing or causing harm to others.
She is also creative and clever, but not annoyingly unbeatable. Sarasa has to learn to lean on those around her in order to find success in her endeavors.
When it comes to romance, she doesn’t let herself be pulled along or taken advantage of. She has clear goals, a caring heart, and tons of courage. When she falls in love, she knows who is in her heart and is not swayed.
Sarasa’s a very well-written protagonist, whose struggles and growth is something we get to witness and enjoy. You see her grow as a character, and root for her from beginning to end.
Another fantastic aspect of the Basara manga is the storytelling. This manga has a lot of story focused on war, battles, and people of differing beliefs. It beautifully shows the hardships and unpleasant details that results from war. There is no good side versus bad side in this story, but rather two sides both fighting for the same thing in incredibly different ways.
Each side commit wrongdoings and hurt each other. Neither is fully in the right, which is what makes this plot so interesting. We see many characters all who have their own beliefs, values, loved ones, friends, and determination to make things right or to better the world.
I usually don’t enjoy war-related movies or stories (they just don’t sit right with me) but the way this authors portrays it is very intriguing and sort of respectable, in a way.
One of the ways you can see the differences between the two sides is when Sarasa and her love interest, Shuri, are together. They both dream of a better land, but have different plans for how it will be achieved. Sarasa hopes for everyone to be at peace together; she constantly makes friends during her travels and values all life.
However, this occasionally causes her to trust the wrong people and get herself into dangerous situations throughout the Basara manga series. On the other hand, this aspect of her personality becomes her greatest weapon, too.
Shuri, on the other hand, seems to think certain sacrifices have to be made in order for his dream to be achieved. He judges others based on their wrongdoings, and therefore doesn’t value everyone the same.
He doesn’t mind saving who he thinks deserves it, and ridding of those who he thinks doesn’t. Therefore, this makes him a very unlikable leader with twisted methods of achieving his goals.
Both of these characters grow tremendously throughout the Basara manga series, and we see each of them overcome their weaknesses to become stronger. Shuri arguably has the most growth in this story, and one of the best character redemption arcs I’ve seen.
In addition to these two, there is a huge variety of very interesting supporting characters, who all play a valuable role in the story. In fact, there are characters who play such important roles in this story that you’ll become very attached, and feel heartbroken as they experience hardships.
Tamura, Volume 10 Cover Art, Basara, Viz Media.
Any Cons?
The cons in the Basara manga are sort of just what comes with the package. It’s a story-heavy read with lots of characters, backstories, locations, and battles.
If you have trouble remembering who’s who and what’s happening, or just want a quick romance, you might dislike this type of story. This is a manga recommendation for those who like in-depth stories and who will stick it out to see a result.
Secondly, this story is anything but the typical sweet fluffy shoujo. There are tons of depressing, sad, gruesome, shocking, and disturbing topics and scenes in this manga. I wouldn’t recommend it for readers who are easily disturbed.
I feel like a lot of manga readers may be desensitized to this sort of thing, but readers still discovering manga may not be, so I wanted to really get this point across. I suggest reading some super fluffy cute shoujos after finishing the Basara manga series to help cleanse your soul afterward, haha.
The next con is a bit less obvious but something that simply comes with the age of the manga. If you’re familiar with 90’s manga and anime, you likely won’t be bothered by some plot holes in Basara, but for readers who are less familiar with the nuances of older mangas, I’ll write this con here.
Similarly to Sailor Moon and other popular series, there are characters in the Basara manga with hidden but not-so-hidden identities.
In other words, they go by their name and a title, but look exactly the same regardless and don’t really hide their true identities very well (Sailor Moon looks a lot like Usagi, doesn’t she?). You’ll probably wonder how these characters don’t recognize each other (especially those with famous titles) but for plot-pushing reasons, they are meant to be “unrecognizable.”
Another trait of the Basara manga and other older mangas that you can expect is a much different art style. Personally, I have always been a huge fan of Yumi Tamura’s art style. I think it is stunning and gorgeous most of the time; but I understand that not everyone can easily adjust to the older art styles. It’s very different from modern mangas, after all.
However, older mangas also contain goldmines of references. Oftentimes you can find this in the clothing style or trends within the manga itself—in the Basara manga, you’ll see them in some of the author’s notes. She talks about watching Bob Ross on cable, playing a SNES, and even buying a waterbed. Haha!
Lastly, this story did have a romance pushing much of the main plot which was exciting and suspenseful, but I wish we could have seen more story after things get settled. I wanted to see more happy scenes for the main couple!
More In-Depth Review (Warning: Spoilers!)
The Basara manga may seem a little hard to read at first for someone expecting romance. After all, the male lead is made to be horrible and incorrigible. He is a gross womanizer and an entitled, spoiled brat. His character is made very unlikable, but on purpose.
We see his character grow quite a lot, especially in response to Sarasa’s personality and characteristics. I really enjoyed his character growth and change over the course of the series. His growth is very satisfying, especially after all he did to deserve hate at the beginning.
The romance is also very minimal. I love slow burns, but the Basara manga offers very little romantic scenes for most of the story. But, it makes you keep reading, so you can see when the two meet again and how they eventually discover each other’s identities. You also want the characters to grow first, before they permanently stay together.
We can’t have a revengeful, bloodthirsty Sarasa and snobby, murderous Shuri being together… that just wouldn’t be very romantic or likable. The character growth had to happen along the way!
Although these may seem somewhat like negatives to the story, I did enjoy Basara from start to finish. It was exciting and full of adventure, and I absolutely loved the main character. Even though Sarasa takes on a new identity to avenge her people and eventually save the people of Japan, she does acknowledge her true self now and then.
She is an incredibly strong, determined, and admirable character who completely changes who she is for the sake of others; but I also really liked that she misses being “Sarasa.” I love the fact that when she is with Shuri, she gets to enjoy being her true self as Sarasa.
I think this helped the romance feel meaningful, as she was able to be loved by someone who saw her for her “real” self.
I think that Sarasa becomes a safe haven for Shuri, too. After all, he was someone who was disliked by his own parents, prophesied to bring misfortune, and felt as though he had to prove himself to everyone.
The fact that Sarasa does not completely rid her heart of her original identity is important in other ways, too. In addition to it making the main character feel well-rounded and the romance more passionate, this aspect of Sarasa’s character makes the Basara manga a wonderful, adventurous story with a true woman hero at its core.
We don’t always see a role like this given to a woman in a story like this, so seeing that Sarasa still loves and desires to be her true self throughout the series is very appropriate.
She doesn’t just take a man’s role—the role was meant for her in the first place—and her identity as a woman seems to play a big part in her overall success throughout the series, too. I love that many of the characters acknowledge and respect that, too.
Both Sarasa’s and Shuri’s growth ends up leading to the ultimate goal of unifying a country and restoring peace for everyone. After a story full of battles and negativity, it feels right to end the Basara manga on a positive note with their successful romance.
I also appreciate that the author doesn’t seem to conclude the romance simply by having the couple be magically, perfectly reconciled at the end. That’s just too simple for a complex story like this.
Instead, in one of the extras included at the end of the Basara manga, we see that they still have challenges in their relationship to work through due to their tragic, traumatic past. I actually really liked this, as it felt not only realistic, but also appropriate for these characters and the experiences they have had.
Although they still had challenges to endure in their relationship, they were obviously happily in love! All in all, it was a nice ending.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading! My overall opinion of the Basara manga is that it’s very impressive and incredibly engaging. This manga has a lot of story that shows a complicated lovers-to-enemies trope wrapped up in a crazy, thrilling plot of battles, trickery, teamwork, and character growth.
There’s even some extra side-stories once the main plot ends. It’s another amazing work that I highly recommend reading!
Disclaimer: Any images used for this blog are for illustrative purposes only, are not owned by me, and are under ownership of the artist or publisher.
Images Credit: Tamura, Yumi. Basara, Shogakukan. Viz Media, 2003.
