The plot is super simple. We follow Shimazu Toyohisa, a samurai (and also a real life person by the way) as he pretty much mortally wounded while trying to kill Ii Naomasa during the Battle of Sekigahara and after trying to chase after them on foot, he is suddenly teleported to this room with a guy (it's hasn’t been explained properly yet) and he pretty much throws poor Toyohisa through a door and into the fantasy setting of this manga. He is then saved by some elves and brought to two other people of his kind who are “The Demon King Of The Sixth Heaven, Oda Ufu Nobunaga” and the legendary trap “Nasu No Suketaka Yoichi” who then very shortly start their conquest of an country by saving the elves from the oppression of the Orte Empire which we later learn, was made into the powerful figure it was by the one and only Adolf Hitler so there’s that classic “Hellsing” charm and if you think that’s the only thing that’s so left field, well you are wrong. This manga might as well be called “Out Of Left Field” because there is so many things that come out of left field, it’s ridiculous but yet again, this makes that ridiculousness seem sensible and makes a very interesting and surprisingly grounded storyline and I think that’s one of the many factors why this is better than Hellsing.
If you are still wondering what’s a Drifter, well it’s simply someone who has gone MIA if what we got on it by hints since this is yet to be expanded on but it seems like they only pick historical figures as Drifters. I mean, that’s the only explanation I can think of the fact the man at the desk choose mainly people who are known for some form of war experience, from ancient tacticians such as Hannibal and Scorpio Africanus to WW2 Kamikaze Pilots but this being Hirano’s work, of course he took liberties. As many liberties as he wanted in fact because he takes these figures from history and then twist them to fit his comidical needs. Like, we already talked about how he made Hitler a good guy but then he also makes Hannibal a senile genius with a obsession with raspberries, the Count Saint Germi a wannabe drag queen with a hard on for elves and he even makes the french saint, Jean De Arc a pyromaniac who wants to burn everything. This isn’t “Hellsing” who jabs at religious and political bodies for fun, this is its own form of twisted humour where each liberty the mangaka takes on a historical figure, they become far more interesting to watch but also makes them into far more believable people (for the most part anyway) plus the fantasy setting is just great for these people to be thrown in as well. We see them interact and get used to things that they are unfamiliar with, either it being magic and technology that’s beyond their time period and the same applies to the inhabitants. The inhabitants of this world, even though they are pretty much glorified play pieces for the Drifters who are in turn, play pieces for the man at the desk, they are just like the Drifters when it comes to new technologies and we see how they adapt with the new technology like how Dwarves went from not knowing what a musket is to mass producing the things for war against The Black King. You can see there is a message about how technology is a dangerous thing somewhere in this manga but I don’t care because that would get in the way of my fun but that unfortunately doesn’t mean it has other ways.
To be perfectly fair, this isn’t perfect to say but yet again, nothing can be truly be perfect but this series does has it flaws, two to be precise. Let’s start with The Black King’s identity because if you didn’t get it soon as you saw him, you are blind. Like, Hirano doesn’t even try to disguise the fact who the king is truly is. I won’t spoil it here since I would just be being an ass then but there is so much hinting at his identity but Hirano is still going “It’s a secret” when it’s so bloody obvious. We get it, you like secrets but you kind of let it out of the bag very early on. You just can’t stuff it back into the bag and still play it like a secret after you went parading it around like this super amazing thing. It’s just so annoying to watch after a while and it went from bothering me to just annoying the hell out of me. My other problem is more of a self-worrying one because as the story is going, I feel like this series is going to end quickly. This series is only 70 chapters long at the point of writing but with “Hellsing” ending at 95 chapters, I feel like this story is going to be short. I mean, at the point we are at now, the Drifters are getting ready to finally fight the Black King head on in a final battle but unlike Hellsing, who ended with the no loose ends or threads to continue with, I feel like Drifters has the space to expand beyond this chapter. I mean, they made a somewhat temporary peace (if the manga is to be believed) with a Merchant nation the Orte empire was at war with and the Drifters has Orte in their hands now so those two loose ends are tied up but to be perfectly honest, I want there to be a way for the Black King to escape this battle and then hope that this Merchant Nation turns heel and now use the guns they acquired from this “peace treaty” to start the war anew. For me, I don’t want “Drifters” to end so early so I’m just hoping that I’m wrong and that the series will continue.
This is the part where I usually talk about how I personally feel about the topic but outside of talking about how amazing the drawings are (trust me, it is amazing) and how good the anime adaption is, I have nothing else to add. To me, Drifters isn’t something I shouldn’t be talking about so much since I feel like if I say anymore, I would ruin the fun for you guys so here’s the mandatory 8/10, obligatory summary of all the points and the compulsory comment about reading/watching it and where you can do so. See you next week for probably more manga reviews if I can’t find anything interesting in terms of games or movies to talk about because I’m both broke and in the dry season for anything noteworthy coming out unless people want to hear me rant about the MCU.
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