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The first volume of Bamboo Blade begins by introducing us to high school kendo instructor Toraji Ishida, who is poor, in debt, and living on instant noodles. While having dinner with an old friend a bet is made where Toraji must have his all girls team beat the team of his friend. Unfortunately, Toraji only has one active member on the team, resulting is a desperate search for new recruits. During the search, he finds a student named Tamaki Kawazoe, a quiet girl who seems to be going through social withdrawal, but is an exceptional swordsman herself. Unfortunately, she refuses to join, resulting in Toraji to commit various acts to make Tamaki join the kendo club.

Characters are interesting, but average. Kojiro with his financial dilemma is interesting, but his selfishness makes him an extremely unlikable. The team captain, Kirino Chiba, is easily the most engrossing, due to energetic and hilarious personality. Tamaki is a bit underwhelming, due to her lack of emotion, but her strong sense of justice gives her some personality. Other characters include Yuji Nakata, the only normal character in this manga, but he lacks an forceful personality, Danjuro Eiga, an insult to manliness, and Miyako, a girl who dates Danjuro for reasons that have yet to be explained.

The art lacks consistency, due to character models either being mildly detailed, or downright ugly. One example is Danjuro, whose face is the biggest insult to humanity itself, due to it looking bland and laughably ridiculous. The kendo fight scenes are greatly exaggerated, with action being complicated with lines and blood splatters (despite the fact that no blood is actually there).

Volume one of Bamboo Blade has an interesting story to tell. Unfortunately, mediocre characters and artwork makes this manga ultimately mediocre. Hopefully volume two will provide polish to this otherwise acceptable manga. Those who have an interest in kendo or enjoy the school life or comedy genre may enjoy the first volume of Bamboo Blade.