Jesus as samurai stranger? I’ve seen worse. I think this might be helpful, it opens up the gospel to kids who may not be able to understand the Bible and its message. It shouldn’t replace the Bible (obviously) but I could see this as an introduction to the stories in Scripture:

Ajinbayo Akinsiku wants the world to know Jesus Christ, just not the gentle, blue-eyed Christ of old Hollywood movies and illustrated Bibles.
Mr. Akinsiku says his Son of God is “a samurai stranger who’s come to town, in silhouette,” here to shake things up in a new, much-abridged version of the Bible rooted in manga, the Japanese form of graphic novels.
“We present things in a very brazen way,” said Mr. Akinsiku, who hopes to become an Anglican priest and who is the author of “The Manga Bible: From Genesis to Revelation.” “Christ is a hard guy, seeking revolution and revolt, a tough guy.
[…]
Sales of graphic novels, too, have grown by double digits in recent years. So it makes sense that a convergence is under way, as graphic novels take up stories from the Bible, often in startling ways. In the last year, several major religious and secular publishing houses have announced or released manga religious stories.
The medium shapes the message. Manga often focuses on action and epic. Much of the Bible, as a result, ends up on the cutting room floor, and what remains is darker.

Now for those of you who object, let me ask you one question: what about children’s story Bibles? Do you object to those as well? Because they sanitize many of the stories in the Old Testament. Ever read the story of Samson in a children’s Bible? See any mention of prostitutes? How about the story of Rehab the prostitute? See any mention of her occupation? How about what happened to the occupants of Jericho?

And if you want to complain because the stories have been shaped by the “medium” you might want to pick up a children’s Bible and take a look at how those stories have been reshaped. I was looking through my daughter’s old children’s study Bible, “My First Study Bible” (I can’t quite get rid of it 🙂 and I noticed that all the stories were written from the perspective of the main character in each story. They introduce themselves and then they narrate the story. The focus becomes man-centered. It’s no longer a revelation of God, the Bible becomes a series of stories about God’s people. Evidently, for our kids we think they should be told stories about the people of the Bible, instead of learning that these stories are all woven together to form a pattern that helps us to understand how God works in redemptive history to bring about the salvation of his people through Jesus Christ. That redemptive history is often missing when we teach our children the Bible and it leads to confusion because the kids aren’t connecting to the stories at all. The connection to Christ and therefore to them has been removed and all that’s left is moralistic (you should be like David or Noah, you should repent like Samson, etc.).
So, I can’t see how much worse a Manga Bible could be 🙂