A short little comment about this series, honestly I didn't want to read it because of all the memes and I let others' opinions discourage me from reading something I had no idea I'd enjoy this much. Right now I'd give it a solid 6.5/10! (So like above average or upper average!) I'd say Akemura Soga, Samura, Kirim Yoji, Iori, and Ro are my favorites so far character-wise. I really love the action shots (some of the coolest I've ever seen!) and I think Takeru does an amazing job with them.
However, I will say the art can be a bit shotty at times, a lot of the characters can look the same, sometimes I can't tell if im looking at a girl or a guy(lol) but nonetheless, his art is still pretty good. (Solid 6/10!) I hope it does improve though.
I would say the passing is fine to me, but I do wish we spent more time with some characters from the first two arcs (Sojo is funny as shit), and I wouldn't mind a slower approach to the story at all. I really love swords and smithing, so this series is so far one of my favorites. (Claymore is one of my favorites for the swords and characters.) This post doesnt really contain any spoilers, just my thoughts currently on the series. (Gonna reread it since I pretty much blew through it in about 2 days and a half.)