Wild Wild West!

From the mind that brought you Rurouni Kenshin and the later series Buso Renkin comes the three-volume Western "Gun Blaze West"!

In the American 1800's, a young boy named Viu Bannes lives with his older sister after their parents are killed by gunslingers.  One day, a man named Marcus Homer comes along and inspires young Viu to become stronger.  He tells him of a mysterious places off in the far West where the best and the strongest go.  The name of the place is Gun Blaze West.

Tragically, Marcus is seemingly killed in a gunfight right before Viu's eyes (thankfully, Viu defeats the bad guy soon after).  Years pass, and soon Viu starts off on his own journey to master the ways of the gun and discover the promised land of Gun Blaze West.  He is joined by the smart guy rope master Will Johnston and the lady immigrant samurai Colice.

Now, I'm not much of a Western kind of person.  It just seems to me like all the basic traits have been done to death: guns, horses, bathing in barrels, saloon brawls.  But Gun Blaze West takes some of the original tropes and then throws in some more wild-style crazy action elements.

For example, Viu learns a special skill called Concentration One later on, learning how to exercise extreme focus for one second at a time.  There's a freakin' armored giant with an army of knights and a freakin' super-soldier, for cryin' out loud!  This ain't yer Daddy's Western, son!

My little brother probably said it best when he called it "One Piece with cowboys instead of pirates".  Sadly, the series only lasted for three volumes.  Nobuhiro Watsuki wasn't exactly too enthused about it and it got cancelled relatively quickly.

But it tells a good story, and the action elements are relatively unique.  If you can find this series anywhere, I would strongly advise you to pick it up.  It's a good way to kill a little time (in a good way).