 Hey everybody, welcome back to another First Impressions video. Today we're going to talk about the Valiant Must Fall from Yu Aida. This is being put out by Seven Seas Entertainment, and this was actually one of my preferred, most anticipated releases back in February of this year, and I am excited to chat about The Valiant Must Fall. Let's get started. If I were to describe this book to you, I would say that The Valiant Must Fall is a mix of historical fiction with samurai drama and a hint of the supernatural. We follow the character of Onyuda Haruyasu as he is one of the former samurai that survived the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate. This is in the late 1800s, and of course it's the start of the Meiji government. There's a band on swords and samurai, so our main protagonist here is sort of a fish out of water. He doesn't really know what he's doing, he feels he doesn't really belong, and is longing for this escape and wants this glorious death to happen so that he can leave this world. So in order to pull this off, he decides to target this government official and assassinate him at night. He has some other characters that will join the story later on, so when they start this assassination, they are surprised when the character of Kyoko Shino appears out of the horse carriage at night and proceeds to engage in combat with our protagonist. She is a capable swordswoman herself, and when she is struck by Haruyasu's sword, as well as a rifle shot from Ayame, the daughter of the Hatamoto family, they are marveled that she is able to survive this and is seemingly an immortal. After this intense sword fight, Haruyasu is on the brink of death, but he can't help but feel enamored and just awestruck by Shino's beauty. Shino herself is perplexed by Haruyasu's obsession with this noble death because it relates to her own personal mission. So she decides in a selfish act to draw some of her blood and let the samurai drink it, effectively turning him into an immortal, and now a servant to her. Now healed up, our main protagonist hears out the young girl's story, and it turns out that she is an immortal and is part of this lineage of the sacred village of immortal beings that sometimes would mix with regular humans and produce offsprings, such as our young lady over here, and now unfortunately the government is also in kahoots and knows about these people, and without going too much into it, they have abused this village by using it to produce offsprings, and Shino's mother is an unfortunate victim of this and has gone insane as a result with the way that she's been treated. So Shino is finding a way to unfortunately end her mother's life with this magical sword that is in the government's possession that can actually strike down one of her own kin. And that's sort of the gist of the story. It seems like I spoiled some things, but I kind of wanted to give you the full details of this story because it's only volume one and it's gonna get crazier from here. I like the action, it's intense, it's brutal at times, but I also like the quiet moments. I love the fact that it is a historical epic fiction story. It makes us elements of real life because it is set in a time period that was very peculiar in Japanese history as you had these former samurai trying to adjust to a brand new way of life and that is very difficult to do even in today's time. Regardless of your situation, when suddenly your whole life is shifted in a different direction, it can be very hard to cope and to move forward from that. And here we have a character, a samurai who is lost his will to live and doesn't seem to understand his purpose. Until this event happens with this young girl, it's sort of a revelation and now he's excited for the potential of having this epic mission. And it just happens to cross paths with Shino's journey to end her mother's life and her suffering. So I do like that aspect. I think the characters are well written. I like the dynamic between them. It doesn't go for any extremes when it comes to the action. It's not this shonen battle epic thing with super awesome moves. It's worn down to earth which I appreciate. So it makes for a very cool read and it reminded me of something like Blade of the Immortal only not as graphic or as intense. Still I am looking forward to volume two to see how the story progresses and how they're able to pull off what they are attempting to do because I'm pretty sure the government is going to be against it if they're going to steal some magical weaponry that can assist them in ending an immortal's life. One other aspect that I do love about this series is the artwork. While not as intricate and super detailed as other Samurai series, I do think UI does art is really nice. I like the simpleness of it but still really well drawn. I like the character designs. It's not a dark series even though it has a lot of violence and dark overtones. There's a lightness to it that I appreciate. The action is swift, nice, clean and straight to the point. It's awesome at times and you get the full sense of movement through the panels so it's very well choreographed I should say. This is a fantastically drawn series. I happen to like this a little bit more than the art on Gunslinger Girls. That's just me. So yeah overall if you're looking for an action packed series with fantastic detailed artwork, if you like the whole historical fiction aspect mixed with Samurai drama and you don't mind the supernatural aspect, I think you'll be right at home with The Valiant Must Fall. I really did enjoy volume one. I love that it's oversized, feels great on hand and obviously the bigger page you can admire the artwork a lot more than the smaller Tonkobon size books. So that's going to be it. Thank you everybody for tuning in. I hope you appreciate this little video here. I am excited for volume two. Thankfully that's around the corner so we can continue the adventures of these characters. Nonetheless, have you read this book? Let me know in the comments section down below and if you haven't what are some of your favorite Samurai themed stories that you think I should check out for the channel. Thank you everybody for liking, commenting, subscribing and being a part of the manga geekdom here on YouTube. Truly do appreciate it. God bless, stay safe everybody. I will catch all of you on our next video.