No Need for Bushido

Overall score:

No Need for Bushido
Schedule: Updates mondays.
Full-colour comics that are a full page in size.
Frequent violence with blood; one instance of near-nudity.

No Need for Bushido is a webcomic that doesn't take itself seriously at all. This is no big deal - many webcomics are practically a running gag for their creators. But NNFB manages to hit a near-perfect tone of silly but not too silly, with it's story about rogue samurai, runaway princesses, ninjas, action, adventure and the flightpath of Penguins. When reading NNFB, it strongly reminded me of an action movie. It's a extremely cinematic story, skipping over unimportant scenes but illustrating important fights (of which there are many) with excellent drawings and a snappy, funny script (it's written by a chap named Joe Kovell). The artist, Alex Kolesar, is very talented and his fight scenes convey excitement and danger in a way that clearly pays homage to the better action movies.

Fanboy gushing aside, lets talk about what the comic is actually about. It is set in feudal japan, during the warring states era (the same setting as the Shogun: Total War game, for those gamers out there). The story concerns the decision of the powerful and warlike Wataro clan to seal a peace deal with the smaller Senshin clan with an arranged marriage. Ina Senshin, the lucky bride-to-be, runs away at hearing this news; simultaneously however, Yorikiro Wataro, the lucky groom-to-be has fled his palace in protest at the dishonourable and bloodthirsty ways of his father, the Daiymo. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the two meet, and find themselves compelled to travel together (while failing to divulge their identities to each other). They meet up and decide to travel with Cho, a blind and marginally insane Tao priest from China and Ken, the drunken and perpetually angry ronin samurai with the 12 foot long sword, whose family died at the hands of the Wataro clan back in the day.

The storyline isn't really that surprising, and it's route looks fairly predictable from here. But this is one of those occasions where a riveting storyline with unpredictable twists isn't really required - the journey may be obvious, but seeing the characters walk it is still fun and exciting. To continue the movie analogy, this is similar to films such as Star Wars - you knew the instant it started that there was going to be a dramatic confrontation aboard the Death Star, and someone would scream into the camera, and that Luke would just scrape through by the goodness of his soul in the end. But it was still fun. Many of us would happily watch Star Wars again, even knowing the end, just because the plot is nearly secondary to the action and heroism on the screen. In contrast, films like Dark City, which I absolutely adored, I've very little desire to watch again - because the plot was king, and seeing it a second time I'd know the plot and it just wouldn't be nearly as awesome as it was the first time.

NNFB is also somewhat typical of webcomics in its blatant and gleeful use of anachronisms. Ina shows the attitude and response to arranged marriage I'd expect from a 21st century woman, not a 16th century princess. A ninja mentions that he moved to Japan because there was no market for ninjas in Canada. Dodos are referenced in smack talk during the fights. Two of the main characters are causican women wearing excitingly revealing clothing (which, it must be noted, I'm happy to accept in any story). This, like the overexaggerated fight talk ('SUPERSONIC ROCK MISSILE ATTACK!!"), Cho's silly sayings ("And as the fruit bat seeks not the carrot, neither should we") and the massive sword of Ken, just adds to the atmosphere of the comic.

No Need For Bushido is a fun, somewhat silly, but very cinematic and exciting comic. The bad guys are very bad, the good guys are perhaps not all that good but at least funny, and the whole comic is very recommended to anyone. The jokes are sometimes old, and sometimes overdone, and it's a comic that really needs to be read in large chunks (fight scenes that progress at the rate of 6 panels a week rarely manage to sustain the excitement factor) but it's definitely earned a spot on my webcomics reading schedule.

Sample Strips
Dishonorable girl ninja
You missed
It was four bystanders
Impressive

Entropy is British, and doesn't do much of anything.

Discuss it in our forums.

Written by Charlie82 on June 16th, 2006