Blade of the Immortal 14
Posted: March 4, 2011 Filed under: Blade of the Immortal Leave a comment »Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 2005 – 26+ volumes
Okay! So, what we have here is what I imagined would be the conclusion of the series. Anotsu is sick and dying, his rivals have come for his head, Rin stands in this confrontation, and then the melee is joined by Manji and Magatsu, one fighting for Rin, the other one presumably fighting for Anotsu.
This is a good fight. Don’t get me wrong. I couldn’t read this volume fast enough to find out how things fell out here. This is what the entire series has been leading up to so far. But, that being said, I didn’t like it quite as much as the bloody Manji fight a few volumes ago. Manji’s role in this fight is minimal, and he allows Rin to pass judgment on the men who are going to kill Anotsu, as to whether they are bad men that Manji needs to kill. Magatsu and Manji both find skilled men to fight… but even Magatsu’s fight wasn’t quite as good as the one he had before this. And Anotsu is dying. There’s also a deus ex machina kind of ending where everyone has to stop. I just… didn’t like it as much.
I… I can’t figure out the aftermath. Without spoiling too much… what about Anotsu’s fate? The characters were stating one thing at the beginning of the fight, and we saw something completely different in the aftermath.
After this fight, the story goes on, and we find out that the Mugai-Ryu are rather forcefully pressing Manji into service, and this may interfere with his bodyguarding of Rin. He passes this off as nothing at the very end of the volume, but their reunion after the brawl with Anotsu was more emotional than I was expecting. I’m fond of both of them at this point, though Rin still irks me occasionally. Especially with the way she acted at the beginning of this volume when questioned by Manji in front of the crowd of potential bad guys.
