Perhaps I had high hopes for this volume because I LOVE period pieces, especially ones set in Japan, but this story felt a bit flawed and eventually lost my interest.
The pacing and formatting of the story was not easy to follow. The dynamic between the 3 brothers were this manga's redeeming point however those short and small moments felt too sparse.

Overall, this was not a bad manga by any means! It just did not hold my attention long

Thanks NetGalley and Tokyo pop for the ARC of Laughing Under the Clouds (vol. 1) for reviewing.
In the Meji era, three brothers worked as ferrymen for Japan's largest prison. They didn't just row the boat but also fought to capture escaped prisoners.
As the first volume of the Manga the story was not attention grabbing to make me read the next one. The digital format of the Manga was poor quality and difficult to read. The only thing I liked was the relationship of the brothers.
The bonus story Fleeting Laughter was enjoyable.
Overall. It was average.

I don’t quite have this manga figured out. I think I need book two to understand more of what is happening. Three brothers and a housemate (who appears to be 600 years old) ferry prisoners to the prison, or catch the ones that escape. Part of why I find it confusing is because of my limited history knowledge of the samurai. At times they seem evil and others times a hero. I only know what I have learned from movies and let's just say western culture does a bad job teaching eastern culture. I prefer the main story to the second story in the book that takes place 100 years earlier. And while I found this book interesting. I don’t think I found it interesting enough to pick up the sequel.

I’ve wanted to read this manga for sooo long already, ever since the anime came out in 2014 (the manga was published in Japan from 2010 to 2013, so it’s been a while too), and I’m really happy we’re getting the chance to check it out now in English!! The art is super pretty and it’s what attracted me to it at first, but now the curiosity this first volume built up in me will probably get me going until the series is over.

There’s three brothers, a lot of criminals, and a huge evil called Orochi soon coming back; the plot by itself didn’t show up until the end (maybe not until the extra story called Fleeting Laughter, kinda a prequel set 600 years before the start of the series), but I enjoyed the siblings by themselves and interacting with each other a lot. There wasn’t much, though, I feel like the extra story had more emotional depth than the first few chapters of the manga, but I’m sure the angst will build up soon enough.

It’s good, I’m curious, and I can’t wait to check out the second volume to see how the brothers will interact with each other and grow. And hopefully meet some more characters as well, since some things were hinted at, but nothing clear was shown - just creating more suspense.

The epub formatting for this book is so awful that I can't comprehend a single page in ADE & I don't have access to Netgalley Shelf. I was really looking forward to reading & reviewing this book because I love the art style and I loved the anime series. 3 stars because I'd hate to give the manga itself a negative review.

(*Slight formatting issues--Had to read on the NetGalley App on my phone which made some panels hard to read)

I love these types of stories that are set in historical Japan and have supernatural elements. The story sets off with an introduction to the Kumo family, three brothers who help the government with ferrying prisoners to the Gokumonjo Prison that sits in the middle of a lake. In the midst of the first chapter, we see the dynamics of the brothers and follow them as they catch a few prisoners. This is the "present" story.

The next two chapters jump to 600 years prior to the events of the first chapter--which I found a little odd, but ok--and introduce a whole new set of characters. I think these chapters were included to introduce the Oroshi curse, but I just found it a little odd, since it takes up the majority of the first volume and I get the feeling we aren't going to see these characters again. One of them is from the Kumo family, while the other main character of these chapters is from an infamous Abe family of exorcists. We learn that the Orochi demon serpent is reborn every 300 years into a human vessel. That may or may not be important for the "present" story.

Overall, I am curious to see where the story leads because this is right up my alley of usual reads, but I did find it to be a little bit of an odd first volume.

Interesting to have Laughing Under the Clouds finally in English. I do enjoy manga about Japan's rich history. The manga is set in Meiji era when crime rate rose and prisons were full. Thus a new one was built, one that is inescapable called Gokumonjo, situated in the center of Lake Biwa. The three sons of Kumo are chosen to transport the prisoners to the prison, but there's something fishy about the prison. Actually I liked the history part of the story more, meaning the story that happened 600 years before our main story. Otherwise this first part was quite slow and we only see the brothers fighting criminals and such. Perhaps along the way we get to know them better, but at least now I didn't get enough of the series to say really anything about it.

The art looks OK, nothing spectacular, but it works with the story. The art is quite graphic and fighting is more like dancing in a sense. Still, Laughing Under the Clouds is nice, because you can't have enough series about Japan's history and aimed at girls too. Or published in English. So, a good choice and only six books long, so easy to approach.

<i>arc provided by the publisher via netgalley in exchange for an honest review</i>

In this manga we follow three brothers who are tasked with bringing criminals to this specially made prison. I really liked their half of the story— I was instantly intrigued by the family aspects of it and how they all worked together. I wish we had gotten to see more of the brothers in this first instalment.

The second half of this manga was a prequel story of sorts explaining some of the events that happened before the brothers are introduced. We learn about this demon serpent who puts himself into a host and we follow these characters who are tasked with finding and destroying him. This story had me tearing up a little by the end of it, it was super sweet and definitely tugged at the heartstrings.

I’m excited to see and read more about this world and the brothers in future volumes!

3.5/5 ⭐️

TW: violence, death, blood.

3/5 stars

I received an ARC of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I was honestly a little confused with this volume. The first half shows the current plot that revolves around 3 brothers who are responsible for sending criminals to prison. The second half is part love story and also sets up the idea of Orochi using humans as vessels and takes place in the past. The switch from current to past was a bit sudden, so that threw me off a little, but I was able to follow along okay after that.

The story itself has an interesting concept! The characters also have a lot of potential. I'm looking forward to seeing where this story goes from here!

Just a quick note regarding the format of the manga: this was SUPER frustrating to read. No matter how I changed the settings on Adobe, the bottom third of the page was chopped off which meant dialogue and scenes were cut to the point where is was SUPER difficult to read. Please keep in mind that that could easily have caused my review to be a star less.

I found the concept and plot to be interesting and well-fleshed out, considering this is only the first volume. The characters are a little flat at the moment, but there is definitely ground work for them. The story was fast-paced and fun to read with lots of tension and action to keep you going. There wasn't a dull moment.

I'm unsure whether I can precisely pinpoint the reasons behind my three star rating as I honestly think this just wasn't my type of read. However, even after saying that, I am still curious to where this story is going as it has a lot of potential

So, the confusing thing here is that we have two timelines. The first one is the current events and it is talked about in the synopsis: three brothers live in a Kumo shrine and they are essentially bounty hunters. They catch and deliver criminals to this inescapable prison in the middle of the lake. That is about half of this volume. The other half is a flashback to 600 years ago. It introduces different characters and the main villain of the story, Orochi, a great serpent. It possesses a human body and brings about destruction. There is an adorable romance in this timeline as well. I did like the story of Kumo brothers, it's just that there wasn't much in it just yet, we only scratched the surface a little bit. But the flashback timeline made me really emotional, the romance especially. And I kinda wish the whole story was about that time and those characters. Overall, not a bad start to a series. It just felt weird to start with a flashback right away.
Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

An interesting first volume, we watch three brothers who take criminals to a prison in the middle of the largest lake in Japan, Lake Biwa. I enjoy the characters so far, and the art is quite stunning. This volume is half about this story, and half about a short story that is a prequel to the current events. It includes an alluded story thread about a human vessel for Orochi, a human who was possessed by a demonic serpent.I enjoyed both and am curious to see where this will go.

Gathered from other reviews, this series has a sequel series (Donten ni Warau Gaiden) and a prequel series (Rengoku ni Warau). This manga was turned into an anime, so I will be checking that out as well. Thank you to NetGalley and Independent Publishers Group for the ARC.

A thrilling and great read! I absolutely had a blast reading this and can’t wait to continue reading the series ( and my gosh that third story part got me crying). The artwork is phenomenal and I just can’t get over it! If you love action, samurais, magic, great artwork, mystery, and even romance, then this is for you!

*Thanks Netgalley and TOKYOPOP for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*