Let it bloom

Scatter!

            Nature has been fed up with us for a long time and is now showing signs of fighting back. In four years we’ve had 5 category five hurricanes that have made history for the sheer power of nature being broadcast through all social media, took the world by its throat and promises to not let go until we get our shit straight. But what if, nature took a more positive role in making the world more like it was back then? In the 2016 one-shot manga by Shibata Yuusaku, known as an assistant to famed One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, the mangaka delights the reader with a short story about a man wandering the now barren desert of society in hopes to plant more trees in soil that is supposed to be infertile. The story focuses on the main character Sahara Sanjuro, a wandering samurai who along with Yae Tokiro are in search of The Valley of the World Tree. As the name suggests, it is the last living tree from before the calamity that shook the world a century ago that still lives. And in these 4 delightful chapters, we see the hijinks and adventures of this unlikely duo as they take on the mechanized warriors that haunt the desert.

However, there is a distinct reason that Sahara is called the flower samurai. His sword. The aptly named flower sword is unique in its own way since it is not made of conventional steel nor iron, instead, it is a sheathed blade that can be used when the user is about to attack the gigantic robotic warriors that roam the world or other significant threats. The other reason I prefer to leave to you the viewer to read and discover.

This is a short one off adventure that has the promise of greater things to come from the author, and one who hopefully has the opportunity to shine as his mentor does.