This manga was the greatest disappointment in recent memory. The hype and push it got pre-release was more then possibly any manga ever, only for it to drop with not even a whimper.

Story: 4/10

You may be confused to see two common complaints about the setting. It has too much exposition, and that it doesn't have enough exposition and is confusing. The reason both of these complaints can coexist is simple, the setting was explained horribly. When we needed exposition we got none, leaving the reader not knowing what was happening, and when we got exposition it was given in the most convoluted and uninteresting way.

The concept the series has of sci if and fantasy mixed had great potential, but it was totally squandered. It also really kills suspense when the power levels start at planet buster and the characters can regenerate perfectly from every attack.

Art: 3/10

The art of this series is probably the worst in recent memory. Though many manga come out with objectively weak art like One Punch Man (Web) and sometimes Hunter x Hunter, they always manage to be able to make sense and not be annoying to look at.

Samurai 8 does not, the manga lacks line density and shading meaning everything looks white, like its a marshmallow world. There is no grit or depth to anything. The first few chapters have partical effects everywhere which just makes the page overloaded and is actually annoying to look at. The backgrounds are very detailed, but it just makes the pages feel full and overwhelming. The artist seems to have caught this problem, and started doing better after the initial first volume of chapters. But it's still not solved entirely and I have to wonder how the artist, writer, editor, or board of editors at jump didn't notice such a glaring issue. The character designs are very simple and flat. I'd be surprised if this artist could draw realistic humans, his proportions of characters seems off and overly skinny and moe blob like.

At the same time Kishimoto does the paneling and story, and carries over all the issues Naruto's paneling had in its final years. Very static panels, not a lot of big ones, showing characters at more of a distance, and not showing scenes it assumes the audience can predict. It feels like it's missing a page sometimes. These techniques exacerbates the flaws the art has.

This isn't a mecha series, but there is something similar to that in the animal guardians who become suits to characters. Their designs are amazingly weak, over complicated, and unmemorable. (And also totally white)

Character: 5/10

This manga basically solidifies the most stereotypical shounen character tropes into the setting. There is the main character, his master, a supporting female he protects, and later a villian he wants revenge on. The only thing it's missing is a classic rival character, something like that has been introduced, but it's so boring and has little development I'll give the manga benefit of the doubt it's a side character and not their serious attempt at a rival.

This simplicity would be fine for a classic style shounen battle manga, the problem is these characters are incredibly boring and weak in comparison to how these roles are filled by countless other shounen before it. Including many running in the same magazine simultaneously.

Without spoilers, a major death happens early in this series, but compared to how that same style of plot point played out in countless other shounen series including Naruto (multiple times), the emotion and impact just isn't there.

The comedy in this series is truly god awful. Lots of people complain about the comedy in later parts of Naruto, I personally had no problem with it. But somehow this is far worse, and really really forced. Kishimoto's classic sad back stories are back, but he tries to rush through them in less then a chapter. Compared to the more famous tragic back stories in early Naruto, or even in other shounen, the ones here are weak.

Enjoyment: 3/10

This manga is the definition of wasted opportunity. The artist clearly puts a huge amount of effort into all the detail, and the writer a lot of effort into the world and setting. But it's managed so poorly it just hurts the series.

In years to come people will forget how hyped this manga was, but it was truly something. It's pre-release trailer got a million views, people had been speculating about Kishimoto's next work ever since he said he had a great sci fi idea. The series launched with multiple color pages in a row, and huge ads on newspapers and in stations in Japan, and thousands of ad slips in other manga volumes.

It's low reception was so baffling to people it brought back the old speculation late naruto haters had that the real reason naruto was a success was because of Kishimoto's first editor.

Overall 3/10 , wouldn't be surprised if it's axed or moved to some lesser magazine to quickly finish its run and sad existence. Would NOT recommend.

UPDATE: Samurai 8 has been cancelled. Because the ending is rushed I have lowered the score to 2/10. I hope Okubo and Kishimoto can come back from this, either working together or separate. If not, I wish them the best in their future.