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Drifters #1-3
Drifters Omnibus, Volume 1
Warriors and warlords from Earth's history—"Drifters"—are transported to an alien world and employed to help the nonhuman races defend themselves in a worldwide civil war with legions of monsters led by the malefic Black King threatening the annihilation of both human and nonhuman races. Included in the menagerie of fighters from Earth are samurai warrior Shimazu Toyohisa, Joan of Arc, and Hitler! Drifters is a howling tornado of all-out action and staggering imagination.
From Kohta Hirano, creator of Hellsing, comes Drifters Omnibus Volume 1, a supersized, value-priced collection of the first three volumes of the action-fantasy epic that inspired the hit anime series.
Collects Drifters volumes 1, 2, and 3.
From Kohta Hirano, creator of Hellsing, comes Drifters Omnibus Volume 1, a supersized, value-priced collection of the first three volumes of the action-fantasy epic that inspired the hit anime series.
Collects Drifters volumes 1, 2, and 3.
672 pages, Paperback
Published March 11, 2025
About the author
Kohta Hirano
65 books291 followersKohta Hirano (平野 耕太 Hirano Kōta) is a Japanese mangaka most famous for his manga Hellsing. Starting his career first as a mangaka's assistant (self-described as "horrible" and "lazy" in said assistant position), and later an H manga artist, he went on to enjoy somewhat limited success with other relatively unknown manga titles such as Angel Dust, Coyote, Gun Mania and Hi-Tension. His first major success came with his manga series Hellsing, which got its start and was subsequently serialized in a monthly manga magazine, Young King OURs, towards the latter half of 1997.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 12, 2025
The idea of the creator of Hellsing manga / anime made a story where historic figures out of history show up in a world of Orcs, Elves & Dwarfs would be great. Sadly, while the art is great, the story has holes you could drive a truck through. Several of the characters are a bit over obsessed with "BOOBS" (sigh) and others are just dumb or annoying. Seeing the name drops is kind of interesting but many of the historical figures are nothing like they were in real life. While not actually that bad the story does read like some 12 year olds D&D game with guns and samurai.
Oh and Hitler, a bit of praise for hitler here in the story.
I found this when trying to find which local library had any of the Hellsing manga to read.
Oh and Hitler, a bit of praise for hitler here in the story.
I found this when trying to find which local library had any of the Hellsing manga to read.
March 3, 2026
Why I read it: Kouta Hirano's Hellsing was everything to me when I was 15, and the premise here is very cool, plus it came in this neat MEGABRICK omnibus. I love megabrick manga.
Thoughts: The premise, in short, is that warriors throughout time get yoinked from our realm at the moment of their death and ploinked into another realm (where there's elves and dwarves and dragons and stuff), where they engage in adversarial conflict. Similar to Mortal Kombat, they end up aligned with one side of a conflict that will end this other realm: Drifters or Ends. To say that Drifters are good and Ends are bad is not entirely inaccurate (Ends want to... end it... and Drifters want Ends to not do their thing, though they don't explicitly want to save the realm until Toyohisa decides to), but it would be an overly simplistic take, since Adolf Hitler was a Drifter. Yeah. That bombshell dropped about halfway through the omnibus, I think, and I couldn't recover from that, personally. Turns out he also got yoinked/ploinked, and when he got to this new fantastical realm, he set up an empire of human superiority, relegated elves to slavery and farm workforce (and stole their women for brothels), and relegated dwarves to slavery and industrial workforce (complete with signs in the quarters that say "Work shall set you free"), and once all this was done, offed himself. Not sure what's happened with the halflings yet; they'll probably show up in future instalments, because the core character group has set themselves against the Ends and are now conquering/dismantling this empire of Man, so eventually they'll have to run into halflings.
There are definitely interesting elements. For example, I'm pretty sure the Black King who leads the Ends is Jesus Christ. I looked it up and that's a common theory, though it's not been confirmed yet, though it honestly would not surprise me. The details fit in a cool way (my fav is how he literally feeds his troops by multiplying grains). Having read and watched Hellsing, Kouta Hirano's irreverent takes on that sort of topic are not new to me.
I did like the Sengoku era warlords. Shimazu Toyohisa's straightforwardness and bloodthirst are entertaining and he makes for a good protagonist. Oda Nobunaga (yes, Oda Nobunaga is in this, too) and his love of the firearm and his practical knowledge of how to make gunpowder (apparently it's human waste and burned human corpses in a pit to make potassium nitrate/saltpetre and charcoal, add sulfur, handle very carefully) and his insistence that he should do all the "dirty" work like order executions while Toyohisa remains the "clean" face of their conquest effort were also really good touches. The rest of the big name characters, I genuinely don't care about, but here's a list of familiar names the reader can encounter throughout this omnibus: Nasu no Yoichi, Abe no Seimei, Jeanne d'Arc, Anastasia (she's no warrior, why is she even here?), Rasputin, Gilles de Rais, Count Saint-Germi who is def not Count Saint-Germain, Hannibal Barca, Scipio Africanus, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Naoshi Kanno, Hijikata Toshizo, Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
Would I read more: Eh. I'm good.
Would I recommend it: Did you enjoy Sengoku Basara but thought it needed more blood, gore, and boob jokes? Because have I got the series for you.
Keep or cull: Cull. Again, having previously read/watched/loved Hellsing, I wasn't surprised about the Hitler thing (other than the initial blindside) and I'm not too tender about it, considering that the protagonist/s clearly think his empire of Man is disgusting and needs dismantling, but I still hate it and wish it wasn't a thing, and the things I enjoyed are not enough to keep me going. Also, this manga has been ongoing since 2010 and it's at 96 chapters with no end in sight, and I just... I can't. Maybe I'll revisit this series when I'm 60 and it's complete and Google AI or whatever can beam it directly into my neural implant. Until then, I don't need to keep this megabrick volume on my bookshelf.
Thoughts: The premise, in short, is that warriors throughout time get yoinked from our realm at the moment of their death and ploinked into another realm (where there's elves and dwarves and dragons and stuff), where they engage in adversarial conflict. Similar to Mortal Kombat, they end up aligned with one side of a conflict that will end this other realm: Drifters or Ends. To say that Drifters are good and Ends are bad is not entirely inaccurate (Ends want to... end it... and Drifters want Ends to not do their thing, though they don't explicitly want to save the realm until Toyohisa decides to), but it would be an overly simplistic take, since Adolf Hitler was a Drifter. Yeah. That bombshell dropped about halfway through the omnibus, I think, and I couldn't recover from that, personally. Turns out he also got yoinked/ploinked, and when he got to this new fantastical realm, he set up an empire of human superiority, relegated elves to slavery and farm workforce (and stole their women for brothels), and relegated dwarves to slavery and industrial workforce (complete with signs in the quarters that say "Work shall set you free"), and once all this was done, offed himself. Not sure what's happened with the halflings yet; they'll probably show up in future instalments, because the core character group has set themselves against the Ends and are now conquering/dismantling this empire of Man, so eventually they'll have to run into halflings.
There are definitely interesting elements. For example, I'm pretty sure the Black King who leads the Ends is Jesus Christ. I looked it up and that's a common theory, though it's not been confirmed yet, though it honestly would not surprise me. The details fit in a cool way (my fav is how he literally feeds his troops by multiplying grains). Having read and watched Hellsing, Kouta Hirano's irreverent takes on that sort of topic are not new to me.
I did like the Sengoku era warlords. Shimazu Toyohisa's straightforwardness and bloodthirst are entertaining and he makes for a good protagonist. Oda Nobunaga (yes, Oda Nobunaga is in this, too) and his love of the firearm and his practical knowledge of how to make gunpowder (apparently it's human waste and burned human corpses in a pit to make potassium nitrate/saltpetre and charcoal, add sulfur, handle very carefully) and his insistence that he should do all the "dirty" work like order executions while Toyohisa remains the "clean" face of their conquest effort were also really good touches. The rest of the big name characters, I genuinely don't care about, but here's a list of familiar names the reader can encounter throughout this omnibus: Nasu no Yoichi, Abe no Seimei, Jeanne d'Arc, Anastasia (she's no warrior, why is she even here?), Rasputin, Gilles de Rais, Count Saint-Germi who is def not Count Saint-Germain, Hannibal Barca, Scipio Africanus, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Naoshi Kanno, Hijikata Toshizo, Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
Would I read more: Eh. I'm good.
Would I recommend it: Did you enjoy Sengoku Basara but thought it needed more blood, gore, and boob jokes? Because have I got the series for you.
Keep or cull: Cull. Again, having previously read/watched/loved Hellsing, I wasn't surprised about the Hitler thing (other than the initial blindside) and I'm not too tender about it, considering that the protagonist/s clearly think his empire of Man is disgusting and needs dismantling, but I still hate it and wish it wasn't a thing, and the things I enjoyed are not enough to keep me going. Also, this manga has been ongoing since 2010 and it's at 96 chapters with no end in sight, and I just... I can't. Maybe I'll revisit this series when I'm 60 and it's complete and Google AI or whatever can beam it directly into my neural implant. Until then, I don't need to keep this megabrick volume on my bookshelf.
July 2, 2026
I'm a sucker for Kohta Hirano stuff as I LOVE his artstyle, and growing up with Hellsing definitely helped that as well. This book was a grail of mine for a long time.
The story is decent, nothing too spectacular but I do enjoy stories taling elements of different time periods and mashing them together (Requiem Vampire Knight & Devilman). Toyohisa, Nobunaga, and Yoichi are a fun trio but they develop into a really interesting duo dynamic with Toyo & Nobu, while Yoichi gets his own storyline which I hope gets expanded upon more in the future. Olminu is a nice supporting character but I hate the constant breast "jokes" that Nobu and other characters make towards her.
Speaking of breasts, Hirano needed to calm down because every single time they're mentioned it's annoying as hell and weird. ESPECIALLY with Joan of Arc. Some other things I didn't exactly like was Hitler being portrayed as somewhat "good" or "successful" in his establishment of Orte, it could just be San Germi talking out of his ass but I think if it was, it could've been portrayed better. Another thing I didn't exactly vibe with were the politics and war between the Drifters and the Ends, while I understand most of it, I really didn't care all too much and sometimes I felt like Hirano didn't either as the whole vibe of it felt undercooked.
Back on good stuff, the fight scenes and large panel action poses are peak as fuck, and Hirano's artstyle almost has a claustrophobic feel too it that's badass at the same time.
I like this but I don't love it tbh
The story is decent, nothing too spectacular but I do enjoy stories taling elements of different time periods and mashing them together (Requiem Vampire Knight & Devilman). Toyohisa, Nobunaga, and Yoichi are a fun trio but they develop into a really interesting duo dynamic with Toyo & Nobu, while Yoichi gets his own storyline which I hope gets expanded upon more in the future. Olminu is a nice supporting character but I hate the constant breast "jokes" that Nobu and other characters make towards her.
Speaking of breasts, Hirano needed to calm down because every single time they're mentioned it's annoying as hell and weird. ESPECIALLY with Joan of Arc. Some other things I didn't exactly like was Hitler being portrayed as somewhat "good" or "successful" in his establishment of Orte, it could just be San Germi talking out of his ass but I think if it was, it could've been portrayed better. Another thing I didn't exactly vibe with were the politics and war between the Drifters and the Ends, while I understand most of it, I really didn't care all too much and sometimes I felt like Hirano didn't either as the whole vibe of it felt undercooked.
Back on good stuff, the fight scenes and large panel action poses are peak as fuck, and Hirano's artstyle almost has a claustrophobic feel too it that's badass at the same time.
I like this but I don't love it tbh
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 5, 2026
Dark Horse never ceases to amaze me at their thick omnibus bricks they put out. For the past three days I have been reading this story from the author of Helsing and have slowly been getting sucked in to it. Honestly it looks like he took a lot of inspiration from Lord of the Rings and then a lot of general fantasy stuff and smashed it together. Then added sprinkles on top that are the Drifters and the Ends. They being great and famous or infamous people of our world that were brought to this world at their death for some grand purpose we are still trying to fully figure out. For some of the people you may want wikipedia handy to get up to date on who they are but story really focuses on Shimazu Toyohisa, Nobunaga and Yoichi and their goal of basically taking over the world. Which on the opposite end you have the Ends and the Black King kind of doing the same thing except with the monster world. There is also a fair bit of humor on top of all the bloody bits i.e. the numerous heads flying off of bodies which really works considering how much chaos everything is in. It's worth a read and with only one more triple Omni left I am curious if they can even finish the story.
June 1, 2026
Imagine if the greatest warlords of our history got transported into a single world and they had to battle it out. That is what Drifters is all about.
So these great warriors and warlords are tasked with helping non human races to defend themselves against adversaries called the ends. Monsters who have crazy abilities. you may recognize some of the characters in there -Oda Nobunaga, Shimazu Toyohisa and even Hitler is in this manga. So these drifters are trying to free the elves and dwarves to help restore the balance of this world.
The concept of the story is really cool, I will give it that. Putting all of these historical figures sounds like a great idea that should have been better than what we got. The story is just not interesting to me, the characters have no depth to them and the art is sometimes inconsistent and not pleasing to look at, at least for me. And I don’t understand why the author keeps drawing characters that look like women, but then he tells us that they are men? Like, what’s up with that? Its just weird.
Did not like this manga. 2 stars out of 5.
So these great warriors and warlords are tasked with helping non human races to defend themselves against adversaries called the ends. Monsters who have crazy abilities. you may recognize some of the characters in there -Oda Nobunaga, Shimazu Toyohisa and even Hitler is in this manga. So these drifters are trying to free the elves and dwarves to help restore the balance of this world.
The concept of the story is really cool, I will give it that. Putting all of these historical figures sounds like a great idea that should have been better than what we got. The story is just not interesting to me, the characters have no depth to them and the art is sometimes inconsistent and not pleasing to look at, at least for me. And I don’t understand why the author keeps drawing characters that look like women, but then he tells us that they are men? Like, what’s up with that? Its just weird.
Did not like this manga. 2 stars out of 5.
May 22, 2025
Historical figures get sucked into a fantasy world where elves and dwarves have been subjugated by Hitler. It's a crazy scenario with terrific art by the creator of Hellsing. The writing isn't as good as the art though and Hirano has a dumb predilection with breasts that keeps coming up. Every once in a while it feels like a 12 year old boy is writing the book and just points over at a woman and says "Boobs" and giggles.
May 22, 2025
I love the Sengoku era. And I love this idea to throw a bunch of historical characters together. I do not like the sexual assault is funny! Or the weird obsession around boobs (I love boobs! But this was weird!) frankly the idea that Hitler was a great leader or had good intentions is laughably incorrect. It is funny that he killed himself in that world. It’s so ridiculous it’s funny. Joan of arc and fucking Anastasia are bad guys? Huh?? What the fuck Anastasia gonna do?
Read
April 1, 2025Ever wanna read about Oda Nobunaga fighting Joan of Arc in a fantasy country of elves and dwarves conquered by Adolf Hitler, in part owned by Saint Germain?
June 10, 2025
Very good
February 20, 2026
Kohta Hirano is a bit one note as a manga author, but damn, I do love to hear that note!
March 6, 2026
Great idea, but there are to many loose ends and characters and the story becomes a little confused
Read
April 28, 2026DNF- Just could not get into it
June 9, 2025
Great opening volume that sets up the call concept along with Hirano's nice mix of action and humor. The idea of bringing historical figures into a fantasy setting to battle is quite interesting and fully explored, along with being fairly accurate to the actual characters (Nobunaga's hedonistic but brilliant mind is a prime example). It is matched by some awesome action pieces and gorgeous art, which also balances some of the ridiculous actions of the story. Overall, call story and a great read.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews