Enmity between two competing ninja clans - famous Kouga and Iga - comes to a culmination when Ieyasu Tokugawa decides to use them as avatars for his own family feuding groups. Goal is simple - ten warriors from each clan will fight it out and surviving clan will have a secure contract with respective Tokugawa's family group (as they say for 1000 years). Of course it is not necessary to say what will happen with the losing team - most probably wiped out by winning team to the last men, women and child.

And thus starts our story. In the middle of this - lets call it tournament - we have a couple (like in all tragedies they come from opposing families) that tries through love to join the clans. But with all of the century old grudges this looks like an impossible mission (especially touching was the first chapter involving two old masters of the opposing clans as they leave the meeting Tokugawa).

Ninjas in this story are not your historical ninjas but supernatural warriors with incredible skills. In that regard story reminds of Chinese wuxia. Action is non-stop but I especially liked approach to the characters and plotting. The way how clans gain edge over the others is just great twist. And what I found very interesting is that in this clan to clan warfare people die and they dont return. Volume #1 starts with the bang, puts us directly in the center of the conflict and ends with quite the cliffhanger. I didn't have a straight forward favorite here, because these are assassin clans doing some pretty nasty stuff for people in power and ready to do whatever is necessary to defeat the other competitors. Characters are very good, their motives and stands more than clear. I am truly looking for the next volume in the series.

Recommended to fans of Japanese ninja mythology and manga. ( )

A great start to this series. Two ninja clans have been at each other's throats for centuries. Their war held back by a truce. Now, that truce is broken by the land's shogun. Ten ninja from each clan will fight to the death, and the surviving clan will rule the land for the next 1,000 years. To complicate things, there is a "romeo and juliet" angle as there are two lovers from opposing clans, who had been hoping their marriage would bring peace. Oh, and each ninja has unique skills or techniques, which makes the story more interesting as they use their techniques to fight each other. The story is good. The action is pretty good as well, and the first volume ends with a cliffhanger, setting things up for the second volume. This is certainly one to follow. ( )

That's how ninjas are supposed to be! A love story in the middle of a war in an all action packed manga. One of my favorite seinen mangas.
( )

This is the first book in the Kouga Ninja Scrolls series. I enjoyed it, it is action packed and the ninjas we are introduced to have all sorts of crazy powers.

The Iga clan and the Kouga clan have been enemies for hundreds of years. Only the Hanzo Hattori truce has kept the two clans at peace. Now the Shogun has dissolved the truce and ten ninjas from each clan must fight to the death to determine who will be the next Shogun. Caught in between the Iga and Kouga clans are the star crossed couple of Oboro of the Iga clan and Gennosuke of the Kouga clan. Can the love of these two overcome the hatred between their two clans?

This reminded me a bit of the movie Ninja Scroll in the strange and odd powers the different ninjas have. The drawing is very well done; in fact some of the backgrounds are incredibly realistic looking. There is a lot of action and fighting. There are also a lot of characters but they are very easy to distinguish from each other and keep track of. There is a key of sorts at the beginning that shows a picture of the character and their name and clan association.

In this book we are mainly introduced to everyone. I enjoyed most of the characters and all of the their rather disturbing characteristics. This is a very violent book and there is nudity so I would recommend for either older teen or adult.

The only character I didn’t like was Gennosuke, she was so girly and helpless and she kind of bothered me. Hopefully she develops more as a character in later volumes.

Overall if you liked action packed historical fantasy manga I would definitely recommend this series. So far I have enjoyed all the action, the quirky characters, and the illustration. The storyline is pretty straight-forward but I am eager to see where this story is going. I will definitely be reading future books in the series. ( )

Two ninja clans, the Kouga and the Iga, have lived under the Hattori truce for to long to bear. When a successor needs to be chosen, the truce is dissolved. Both clans battle it out, but while the blood flies, two ninja, Oboro Iga and Gennosuke Kouga have fallen in love. As their fellow clan members kill each other off with bizarre techniques, they try to deny the fact that they will have to kill the other to satisfy the others of their clan. ( )