Drifters - Hirano Kouta

Status: Ongoing

Genre: Seinen, action, adventure, historical, fantasy

If the name "Hirano Kouta" seems familiar to you, it's because he's the mangaka of the acclaimed series Hellsing (if you haven't read / watched it, you should. It's really good) Drifters is his current serialised manga.

The main character of this manga is Shimazu Toyohisa, a samurai from Sengoku period. When he was about to die, he entered a strange door instead and ended up in a strange world. He was found by elves and brought to the "drifters" which turns out to be... Oda Nobunaga and Nasu no Yoichi (a skilled archer from Genpei war).

Turns out, several other historical figures had also been transported to that world; there are "Drifters" like Toyohisa and Nobunaga, there are "Ends", and there are some whose allegiance is unclear. The leader of "Ends", called the "Black King" (who looks very similar to a certain figure that we all know.....) aims to destroy the humans and make the non-humans (orcs, goblins, and the likes) rule the world. Abe no Seimei, a "Drifter", created an organisation called "Octobrist" with the purpose of gathering the "Drifters" to fight against the "Ends".

The world itself is similar to Tolkien's Middle Earth, with humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits, and... Nazgul? o.O  Humans dominate the world and in a lot of parts subjugate other races and turn them into slaves... until Toyohisa comes of course xD

What I like:

• I like the assembly of historical figures put in this manga; it has people from Rome Empire era to World War II. Of course, being a manga it has more Japanese characters but I'm cool with it. 
• I've read a lot of manga where Nobunaga appears, but I have to say I really like Drifter's version of Nobunaga: he's ruthless, he's funny, and most of all.. crazy. One's got to be crazy if he wants to unify Japan afterall xD 
• Cool old men: Scipio and Hannibal. They're already gramps in the world and they have gramps problems like senility and stuffs but they still rule! Don't underestimate old people xD
• Dragons!! .. just because xD

What I don't like:

The only thing I don't like is the slow update T_T HiraKou sensei please T_T  

All in all, this manga is like historical characters meet Tolkien's fantasy world, but it works really well! This is a superb manga and I fully recommend it.

Hope you enjoy the manga, and leave comments to discuss the manga with me :)