Hana no Keiji: Kumo no Kanata ni

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Flowers of Keiji, Keiji's Flowers

Japanese: 花の慶次 ―雲のかなたに―

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: 18

Chapters: 167

Status: Finished

Published: Nov 14, 1989 to Jul 20, 1993

Genres: Action, Adventure

Themes: Historical, Samurai

Demographic: Shounen

Serialization: Shounen Jump (Weekly)

Authors: Hara, Tetsuo (Art), Ryu, Keiichiro (Story)

Statistics

Score: 7.50¹ (scored by 318 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #3163²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #11830

Members: 1,742

Favorites: 15

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Wikipedia

7.50

Ranked #3163Popularity #11830Members 1,742

MangaShounen Jump (Weekly)Hara, Tetsuo (Art), Ryu, Keiichiro (Story)

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Volumes: /18

Chapters: /167

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Synopsis

Long before the Japan of today, there was a land riven by a century of war between hundreds of feudal lords. Standing astride this most chaotic and storied era in Japanese history was a samurai unlike any other—courageous, free-spirited, and peerless on the battlefield, Keiji Maeda had a bombastic style and a penchant for outrageous antics as well as incredible feats of daring. Beloved by his friends, admired by his enemies, and utterly confounding to authority figures, he went out of his way to break every rule but one—his warrior's code.

(Source: Kodansha USA)

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Background

Hana no Keiji: Kumo no Kanata ni has been published in English as The Magnificent Bastard: The Legend of Keiji by Kodansha USA under the Vertical Comics imprint since December 9, 2025.

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Maeda, Keiji

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Reviews

Mar 16, 2018

Hikoukigumo

Recommended

A lost gem from Japan. If you've ever had any interest in samurai and the Warring States period I'd highly recommend it. Rest assured the big three figures of the period (Nobunaga Hideyoshi Ieyasu) along with many others will appear.

Now unfortunately, only the first 30 chapters appear to be out there in English. There are efforts out there to translate the rest on hokutonogun.com, but they seemed to have stalled in the editing phase. In the meantime though, I can attest to the rest of the chapters in this review, having read them in Japanese. I'll admit, I'm still learning so I only half understood ... what was going on, but at least it's a visual media and I was never too lost.

Speaking of which, the artwork is fantastic. I read a reprinted version of the manga with big pages and it does great service to the artwork. It can be both beautiful and horrific (lots of violence in this manga with people getting chopped up). I would say though that there are a good number of characters that look pretty similar. This manga loves to have well-shaped manly men.

The time period can be pretty fascinating. You will learn many things about the time period and culture; sometimes there are entire pages between chapters that give background to the events of the book. There are some more supernatural elements thrown in, but it mostly sticks to realism. As for reading it in Japanese, it uses tons of older samurai language and slang, obviously many steps away from how they probably spoke then but still. I thought this was bad at first due to my limited Japanese level, but I got used to it and started to enjoy it.

The story itself surrounds Maeda Keiji, a roaming kabukimono, which has been described as an "Edo-period eccentric who attracted public attention with their eye-catching clothes, peculiar hairstyle, and weird behavior," which is a good way to describe Keiji. He will often break social taboos in strange ways but it's good because it somehow leads to something good. (As an example, his friend has been gravely injured and is lying on the ground so what does he do? Pee on him. But it's all good because he did it to clean the guy's wounds. So his friend is actually grateful that he got peed on.)

The plot of it starts out pretty simple. Keiji roams around and engages bandits and other bad people. It’s a bit of a bad guy of the week story at times. But Keiji is eccentric, so there are plenty of other interesting developments as well. About half-way through the story begins to have arcs of 20+ chapters. I think my favorite is when he travels out of Japan and encounters Spanish and Chinese people, among others. Keiji has a revolving cast of support characters that follow him. There are a couple of characters that follow him for the majority of the book though. These characters are also quite unique and have their own charm.

Keiji is a bit of a perfect character since he often outshines and embarrasses his opponents and attracts so many women. But that’s not always the case and it is fun to see how his eccentric ways play out. Read some and see how you like it. And if you know some Japanese, try your hand at reading all of it.

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Jan 25, 2017

DiogoAttitude

Recommended

Such an underrated manga. To be honest, I'm not actually fond of samurais or even knew anything about the Warring Kingdoms era (Sengoku era) in Japan. However, this manga actually taught me many things about how the Sengoku Era in Japan was, plus, it has good comedy and manliness!

The story focuses on the life of the legendary Maeda Keiji, our main protagonist. He's a tall, handsome and muscular man with a carefreeing and sometimes childish attitude. However, he is a respected warrior as his strength and mastery in swordsmanship is unequaled. This is the story about the Sengoku Period where factions from all ...

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Hana no Keiji: Kumo no Kanata ni
The Magnificent Bastard: The Legend of Keiji
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Hana no Keiji: Kumo no Kanata ni
The Magnificent Bastard: The Legend of Keiji
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