Blade of the Immortal 12
Posted: January 31, 2011 Filed under: Blade of the Immortal 2 Comments »Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 2004 – 26+ volumes
Ah, this is more along the lines of what I was looking for. I love the partnership between Manji and Magatsu. It makes you wonder how many of the guys Manji slices and dices that he could eventually get along with. Magatsu, in addition to being an awesome tough guy, is a lot of fun to have around, and the banter between he and Manji cracked me up. It’s not quite friendly or familiar, but the way Manji takes on a mentor role, while Magatsu gives him grief about it, was just the right amount of levity. Especially after all the bad stuff that happened last volume.
Manji was in fine form this volume all around. It would be a shame to see him diced up so soon after the last time, and I was happy with the way the fight turned out this time around. Magatsu got to see the majority of the action, turns out, and he’s pretty great in a fight, too. The one thing about fights with Manji is that they can get overly ridiculous given his immortal status (not that I normally mind), whereas the fight with Magatsu has an edge to it, since he’s getting skewered pretty good and is likely to die from it.
His opponent has one of the most disgusting and terrifying weapons I think I’ve ever seen. That truly was insane. Let me not spoil it for you.
The one thing that surprised me was how long the Magatsu fight lasted. Since Magatsu had been a match for Manji, I assumed he was quite the superior fighter. And yet this opponent gave him a lot of trouble in simple ways, and Manji had to coach him through the first half. It was… odd, to say the least, and strange to see him struggle so much. Also, I do not believe that man is dead. He will most certainly be back, perhaps in Tenjho Tenge fashion as a zombie robot of some sort.
The last few pages return to Rin. She’s not faring so well, but at least her situation has not degenerated as much as I’d feared. I’m looking forward to what happens.
There’s a lot of story dealing with Anotsu this time around, too… except his story segment is the least interesting at this point. Maybe it will go someplace later (most likely soon, it looks like he’s about to have some female trouble), but this is one of those cases where I find myself frustrated by the split in narrative, wishing the pages had been dedicated to another character.
-The one thing that surprised me was how long the Magatsu fight lasted. Since Magatsu had been a match for Manji, I assumed he was quite the superior fighter. And yet this opponent gave him a lot of trouble in simple ways, and Manji had to coach him through the first half. -
Remember, Magatsu basically got Manji in a trap on his home turf last time, rather than a strait match of skills. Magatsu’s sort of young but smart, and yea, a fun character. As well as probably the sanest swordsman we’ve seen.
That’s true about Magatsu being the sanest swordsman so far. I do like that Anotsu is portrayed as such a level-headed guy right now, too. He fights hard, but he’s so normal compared to his crew of monster swordsmen he headed at the beginning of the series.