Kamui Gaiden

Co-written by Kudo Kankuro - who wrote Ping Pong and a shit load of other great stuff, but has been largely doing comedy the last few years. Nice to seem him back to drama.
The manga is...well, strictly speaking, I haven't read the manga. This is Kamui Gaiden, and I read Kamui Den I (there's also a Kamui Den II).
Kamui Den I is uh...fascinatingly erratic, although I never actually finished it. Have all three series in a pile. But it basically lurches wildly between lengthy animal kingdom specials (heavy handed analogies), history lessons so heavily reflecting the author's communist beliefs they amount to propaganda, and crazy ass ninja shit.
My understanding is that Kamui Gaiden is just the crazy ass ninja shit, the author having mellowed out a bit.
More than enough to mine for awesome.