after looking at the picture provided by MJ, the Furi Santoku is, to me, almost a modified Chef's knife. It has more belly, and a less severe drop point. Most santokus I have seen drop the point nearly to the cutting edge and have very little belly. The cutting edge is slmost formed in a straight line from bolster to tip.
I think the Furi model would be more comfortable, as it allows both chopping and slicing motions. As I've said so many times, the shape of both the blade and handle of my Croma Chef's knife make the tool so much easier to use and produce less fatigue.
For simple chopping, the santoku, like a good Chinesse cleaver, will make short work of celery, carrots, etc. But I can do the same with my Chef's knife, plus slice, carve, and perform decorative touches. It's more of an all-purpose shape. And as with all multi-purpose tools, you lose some of the excellence for each single purpose, but gain by the tools utility. Better knives limit the functionality loss and try to maximise the utility, providing an excellent all-around tool.
As an example, I could use my Chef's knive to fillet a fish. It would work and I have use it for such a purpose. But the blade is really too wide for the purpose. It's a bit clumsy. But it works wonderfully for both chopping and slicing. It sorks for carving a turkey, but is a poor substitue for carving a bone-in ham. Again, the blade is too wide to make the tight turns required for the job.
My son uses the Croma Santoku. He prefers it to my chef's knife of the same brand. He absolutely swears by the thing. I tried it out and found that I couldn't do as much with it. I don't like it.
The point is, use what is most comfortable for you. And choose knives for their funtionlity rather than because they are the brand of the week.
Seeeeya; Goodweed of the North