Blade of the Immortal 15
Posted: March 26, 2011 Filed under: Blade of the Immortal 3 Comments »Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 2006 – 27+ volumes
I read an essay on the Dark Horse website just before picking up this volume, and I’m sad I’m apparently embarking on one of the most difficult-to-read portions of the series. I had a hard time stomaching that type of thing when it was happening to Hyakurin for an entire volume a little bit ago, and I like Manji a whole lot more. Plus, it sounds like he gets it for a lot longer. Ugh.
But before that, we have some more fighting. Last volume, it sounded like Manji was ready to join up with the Mugai-Ryu, but then Rin is kidnapped by the Itto-Ryu in order to draw Manji out, so it raises the question again… is he going to be both Mugai-Ryu and Rin’s bodyguard? Rin hasn’t said anything about seeking out Anotsu again, so I’m not sure what the status of that quest is. But the way she gets kidnapped and targeted makes me think she probably still needs a bodyguard. But in this case, she’s kidnapped as an easy way to lure out Manji, so maybe she wouldn’t need one if Manji wasn’t around? Hm.
Though she isn’t in this book that much, her role is still a good one. She’s bound and helpless again, of course, though the Itto-Ryu (mostly Magatsu) promise her that she won’t be hurt since it’s Manji they want. But they break out the worm poison that is Manji’s one weakness, and Rin desperately tries to free herself from her bonds in order to warn Manji. When she breaks out at the end of the volume, it’s a great scene, even if she still isn’t really helping. I like her a lot more now, and I’m hoping… with Manji out of the picture, we’ll get to see a whole lot more of her adapting and becoming her own person.
There’s a fight, of course. Itto-Ryu versus Manji, and the Mugai-Ryu member that Manji fought last volume tags along for a piece of the action… for some reason. He fights Magatsu, and while I don’t care about the Mugai-Ryu, I really like Magatsu. I’m not sure which side his bread is buttered on right now, and I’d like very much for him to be a friend to Manji. Which he is. Sort of. Except when the guys he’s with want to kill him. He’s a great character, and I love that he’s not faceless and ruthless as many of the Itto-Ryu are.
Manji’s fight involves worm poison. Of course, the first wound that re-opens is the one where his eye got taken out, so he’s blind for the duration. Blind and desperate. It makes for an incredible fight scene. I was worried his limbs would start dropping off if the degeneration went far enough back.
Later, Manji is taken to some sort of high-ranking general. I’m not sure what happens from there. I intend to find out.
It’s understandable that the ‘prison arc’ (I call it the Burando arc)upset so many readers. The story takes a hard left into new characters and seemed to disregard all of the plot that came before it. Personally, I loved the prison arc. Not at first but after the entire story was collected and I could read it all at once, the prison arc changed from my least favorite story to the best arc of the series thus far.
The next arc is a pretty long one, so brace yourself with that in mind.
Biggest problem with the prison arc is it is so long and if you read at the pace it came out, it felt like it was going on forever. The volumes it consist of came out over a span of three years or so iirc and it just doesn’t ever feel like anything significant is happening for as long and consuming it is.