Blade of the Immortal 11

Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 2002 – 27+ volumes

Here’s a volume with Manji on the cover, yet no Manji in it at all. Not even a panel. I don’t think anyone even uttered his name (although I think I know what that one man has in mind for his Tegata). No, I’m sorry, they did mention his name once. More distressing, there was no Rin. She was left in a terrible spot, and I want to see how she handles it.

This volume, instead, focused on Hyakurin and the terrible vengeance of the Itto-Ryu. A comrade warns her never to leave a man alive, but only minutes before turning her over to the enemy. What follows is… very difficult to read. I don’t have much stomach for torture. There are worse scenes in Tenjho Tenge, but this is still pretty bad, and Hyakurin is tortured for the entire volume. We are saved the rape scenes, but there’s still some pretty brutal stuff, and they discuss things that are worse still (apparently one was a man who tortured Christians, something I am unfamiliar with in the context of Japanese history, if it is true). The vengeance at the end of the book is interesting, if only because of duration.

I don’t really have that much else to say. Hyakurin is an interesting character, but other than the fact she can take torture, the nature of her relationship with her young apprentice/ward/servant, and what she was originally drafted into the Mugai-Ryu for doing, we don’t learn a whole lot about her. We’ve already seen she’s got her hard and soft sides, and what was provided wasn’t the kind of information that would change my opinion of her. She’s a hard woman, though, and it’s likely this experience will make her harder still. I’m curious to see how this affects her role in the series.

Maybe next time, we’ll see a little bit of Manji and Rin. While Manji has his new, fun partnership to explore, I am dreading what happens to Rin.

Blade of the Immortal 10

Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 2002 – 27+ volumes

This volume’s definitely a lot calmer than the last, but it also drops some bombshells story-wise, which I appreciate about as much as the ludicrous violence we just saw.

The first part of the volume focuses on Anotsu and just what he’s up to in the next han over. He meets with the head of a dojo in the mountains who proposes that the Itto-ryu absorb his dojo. There’s lots of manly displays of swordsmanship and proving and whatnot, but also a bit of romance involved. I like that the story has never really treated Anotsu as a bad guy, at least from what we have witnessed of his activities. This is more of him growing up and out, and some questions about what he wants from life. Now that the story is less focused on the Itto-ryu and Rin’s revenge (sorta), I’m interested to see what role he’ll take.

Later, we see the aftermath of Manji’s fight. Hyakkurin comes to give Manji some bad news, and Manji learns even worse news from the guy that puts him up as he recovers, the old artist that gave Rin all that money. We finally learn the nature of the Mugai-ryu and why Manji was a part of it (or at least considered for it), and we get an even bigger twist at the very end, a simple fact that meant all Manji’s hard work could have been avoided.

At the same house/inn, later, Magatsu shows up, and he and Manji strike up an interesting… friendship. I love both those characters, and I love the dynamic between them. Watching them reach their goal should be a lot of fun. It also makes me wonder if Manji has given up on Rin.

Meanwhile, Rin is bankrupt and helpless. I’m also curious to know where that eventually goes. I’m a little worried that it just means “prostitution.”

This just gets better and better. It’s been dwelling less on morals lately, and while that is a big part of the story and what the characters are doing, I think it’s nice to just have the characters acting as themselves for awhile, without a lot of pausing for discussion. I’ve still got eight or so volumes to read in my stacks, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Blade of the Immortal 9

Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 2002 – 27+ volumes

YES. This volume was amazing. As much as I liked the last one, this is exactly what it lacked, and what it was building up to. Even Rin gets to shine.

There are two halves of the story here, now that Manji and Rin are split up. In the first half of the book, we see Manji’s fight. The last volume ended with Manji up against three travelers, with his arm out of commission, for all intents and purposes. Of course, we know this doesn’t really matter to him. This fight is absolutely insane. It is horribly bloody, and Manji uses everything from deception to brute strength to try and take them out. From trees to the river to a rice paddy, it goes everywhere. He uses a dead body as a blood smoke screen in the river. There is one man that won’t go down, who is killed again and again and again. He’s not immortal, just tough. And for every time they lock horns, Manji is put at a further disadvantage. For all his weapons and for not being able to be killed, Manji is as fallable as the next man. Things don’t end well here, and Manji has help. And all for the Tegata so that he can go chase after Rin.

It’s crazy, but not nearly as suspenseful as what Rin gets up to. Because while we know that Manji will probably come out on top, Rin has no such special skills. While Manji is fighting for the Tegata, Rin is trying to bluff her way through the gates into the next han as a family member of a local that lives on the border. It’s not as easy as it sounds, and the guard breaks out the family register and goes as far as a full-body inspection. If she and the innkeeper she’s with are caught, they will likely be executed, and Rin is taking a big risk. You don’t know how prepared she is for scrutiny, and the questioning gets more and more intense. I loved it. I gained a lot of respect for Rin after that scene.

I’m sure the next volume won’t be nearly this spectacular, since all there is to tell next is probably… well, whatever happens to Manji, and Rin’s travels. But if it was always like this, I wouldn’t appreciate volumes like this. This series is spectacular. I loved every page this time around, and I think I’ll probably burn through the rest of the volumes I have pretty quickly now.

Blade of the Immortal 8

Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 2001 – 27+ volumes

Man, this is still some heavy stuff. I still find it hard to sympathize with Rin. She is the most realistic character in the series, a person driven by revenge who is not a monster and cannot truly hope to achieve her goal, but tries anyway. She’s the moral anchor of the series, too, something it desperately needs in order to keep it from getting too ludicrous. She’s a great character. And yet, you can’t help but hold it against her a little bit when she fails to measure up to the insane creeps that keep coming out of the woodwork to fight her and Manji. It’s difficult to get through the parts where morality is questioned too, since in the world of the series, violence and death are acceptable by everybody except Rin.

She needs to be there, because otherwise the act of killing innocents and things like that becomes insignificant. She keeps the depravity from escalating, in a way. I do like that Blade of the Immortal is somewhat reigned in, compared to other seinen work where things spiral out of control and violence and intricate fight scenes only increase as the series goes on. I love that type of series, but there’s something to be said about keeping things real. Or as real as they can be when your main character is an immortal badass, and your villains walk around with women’s heads sown into his shoulders, anyway.

Anyway. As important as she is, it’s really hard to like Rin when she splits from Manji in this volume. It feels like an exercise in futility on her part to go down the path without Manji to take care of the monsters for her. So the story is now in two main parts, following Manji and Rin as they try to cross a heavily guarded border where they will surely be stopped. Rin decides to use deception and the kindness of strangers to cross, while Manji decides to obtain a pass through any means necessary.

Rin’s story is the more interesting this time around. Her plans hit an early hitch when she finds herself on a wanted poster for the brutal murder committed by the group member she and Manji were with last time. With her face on the wanted poster, she can’t even walk through a town, let alone cross a border without being executed. She absolutely breaks down, both for falling into the trap of having her face recognized, and also for gaining recognition as a criminal, something it seems she’s struggling with. She’s not a murderer, but murder is her ultimate goal, and she’s not a criminal, yet she and Manji regularly get themselves into problems that the law would not agree with.

Manji… he just tries to get a little information. And fight. The fight lasts into next volume, and hasn’t gotten to spectacular. Yet. Hopefully both Manji and Rin’s story will get a bit more interesting next volume. This was mostly exposition, I think, but it’s hard to tell since this was all still fairly interesting stuff.

Blade of the Immortal 7

Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 2001 – 26+ volumes

The plot has… moved in a different direction, but is no less interesting. Manji and Rin are still paired with the rogue organization after Anotsu. Manji comes up with any number of excellent reasons not to trust them, but Rin seems to want to go along with them. They’ve got a plan and a grudge, which Rin is all right with.

There is another moral crisis towards the end of the book, when Rin sees one of the organization’s more ruthless assassins in action. It’s… less of a moral and more of a ruthless slaughter, actually, but while the intent of both parties is death, in this case it’s a question of mercy.

I’m still missing Manji a little, though his observations at the beginning of the book and the way he comes through at the end are pretty choice. And for over-the-top action, I can’t argue with that last sequence, though we have the assassin to thank for that, less than Manji. And by “thank,” I mean… wow. That scene was pretty brutal.

I also liked the cover that Anotsu threw up to cover his escape. He used decoys, and the decoy method was excellent. Very… unlike this series, if that’s even possible. And the hunt for the decoys was even better. Very intense.

I liked this volume a lot better than the last, but it still feels like it’s in a transitional period. I don’t mind, now, since there is much less talking, but I’m eager to see where it moves on from here.

Blade of the Immortal 6

Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 2000 – 26+ volumes

I probably mentioned this before, but as cool a name as “Blade of the Immortal” is, the Japanese name “The Inhabitant of Infinity” somehow trumps it in every way. I can see how it’s a little too… ambiguous, given the time period this was initially released in the US. But still. Awesome.

This was… a strange place to jump back into the series. The first half of this volume isn’t about Manji and Rin, but rather opens the story up on Anotsu’s side. There’s some politics and revenge plots involved, but in particular we see a lot of Magatsu, and see things from his perspective. The rogue Itto-ryu school is about to become an official sword school under the shogunate, and there is at least one group who is more or less out to kill them all. A group that has a whole lot more drive and skill than Rin. We see two or three of the devious traps they set for members of the Itto-Ryu here, but the Magatsu segment is the most heartbreaking.

I do love it when villains are properly humanized and given perspective, and I like the apparent shift in tone here, where things are becoming less black and white and we’ve got more than two sides at play now. Of course, the whole point of Blade of the Immortal is that things are never black and white, that’s been the theme all along. While Rin kills the henchmen that killed her parents, she’s also killing people with lives and families of their own.

There is a Rin segment at the end, when a rowdy-type guy tries to recruit Manji to team Kill Itto-Ryu. Manji passes the ball to Rin, who is the one that wants the revenge, and the tough guy and Rin wind up having a very, very interesting conversation.

While I do like Rin for the perspective she brings, she can be a little frustrating in a story like this. She wants revenge, but is wishy-washy and physically not up to the task. That’s the point, of course, but when scenes like the one in this book happen, the beef scene, it makes me like her a little less. Perhaps that’s only because I wouldn’t have puked or been horrified, but maybe I’m more callous.

I do love the way things are beginning to open up, though. I like all the new characters, but I also hope that Manji continues to play a big part. But where is the immortal’s place in all this, really?

Blade of the Immortal 5

Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 2000 – 26+ volumes

Every time I look up the volume count for this series, I’m reminded that “The Inhabitant of Infinity” is the coolest name for a comic ever.

Anyway, the second half of the maskmaker’s story.  Rin decides she wants to… put a stop to all this, or something, and simply wants an apology instead of payment in blood, particularly since the latter would put the maskmaker’s son in the same position as she.  There is a lot of reflection on the nature of revenge.  A lot.  Almost too much, but I still really liked how much the characters talked about their sides, and how the coin can flip from peace to violence so quickly.

The flashback that starts off the volume, with Rin and her grandpa, the latter explaining to Rin what to do if the past catches up with her, was quite touching.  Also touching were the lengths both Rin and Manji went through to console the son at the end of the volume.  Those scenes were probably my favorite part.  Poor kid, and poor Manji.

Anyway, of course Rin is in over her head, and of course Manji gets involved.  The fight this time wasn’t quite as epic, mostly because I could not figure out how Manji was losing.  He was, pretty much the whole way through, and apparently Manji “fights fair,” a statement I find hilarious when applied to someone who has that many hidden weapons and is immortal.  The battle between the two was pretty excellent, though, considering the maskmaker did try to take the advantage whenever and however he could.

The maskmaker’s methods for women… that was one of the creepiest things I’ve ever seen.

But yes, this was another excellent volume.  A little philosophy-heavy, but it had the action to balance that out and illustrate its points, and the art always looks excellent.  I do wonder if the series will be moving in another direction now that Rin has… decided she doesn’t want revenge?  Or has she?  I am interested in the direction things will take from here.

Blade of the Immortal 4

Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 1999 – 25+ volumes

Ooh, this volume was really good.  There were two stories this time, the first spotlighting Rin’s weakness and what she would do if she actually met Anotsu, and the second a strange face-off at a street festival with one of Anotsu’s men and Rin’s emotional growth from the first story.

I can’t say too much without spoiling what goes on, but I liked both of them for being very, very interesting.  They take a hard look at the character motivations, and there is some light shed on alternate perspectives and how evil the bad guys really are.  Rin has to face up to some hard facts both on her skills and reason for revenge, and then later decides that a touch of humility might be the right choice in some situations.  There is a strange confrontation at the very end of the volume that depends a lot on knowing how the social system works in Japan.  I didn’t realize all of what was going on in that scene until I read the end notes, but I liked it a lot more when I realized just how humiliating it was for Rin to do what she did.

There is no fight for Renji this volume, which is interesting, but he has his own chat with the Anotsu swordsman.  The strange and evasive conversation they have with one another is also a high point in the series so far.

This volume was very different from everything that has come before, but I enjoyed it immensely anyway.  What a great series.

Blade of the Immortal 3

Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 1999 – 25+ volumes

Hmm.  This was kind of a strange story arc after what was in the first two.  Strange, but still good.  It focused a lot more on the incidental side character than it did on Manji and Rin, but she was an interesting side character.  She was torn between being a swordsman and being a sex worker (I don’t remember the Japanese word they used for this), and was no good at either, by all accounts.  She was sent after Manji by her lover, Anotsu, the man that Rin and Manji are looking for.  Her sword skills are quite good, in fact, but she lacks the confidence to use them, and she also seems to lack the confidence to be Anotsu’s lover.

We see a lot of nuances to her story, and explanations for both her skills and a bit of Anotsu’s past in a lengthy flashback in the middle of the volume.  The flashback was suitably extreme, but it was nothing compared to the real fight between the woman Makie and Manji.  When she puts on her swordsman hat… damn.  It is an insane fight that is difficult to keep up with.  It’s got a pretty clear winner all the way through, though, something else that was quite interesting about it.

Basically: YES.  Kind of a slow volume, but still interesting, and the flashback and final swordfight made everything worth it.  Moving on to the next volume, then.

Blade of the Immortal 2

Hiroaki Samura – Dark Horse – 1998 – 25+ volumes

So, one of the things I loved about Dark Horse’s large-format flipped volumes for their old series, particularly Oh My Goddess and 3×3 Eyes, was the fact that each volume was a self-contained story arc.  I knew I would miss it when Oh My Goddess switched over to regular manga format, and I really did, because it is super-nice to have a story contained in one volume.  Blade of the Immortal reinforces my belief, since this volume contained a short story about a fellow immortal and a poison that kills blood worms.

On one hand, I was a little bummed when this new character showed up.  I really liked BotI for not making a big deal out of Manji’s immortality.  Usually people start showing up that are bigger and badder than the main character’s amazing-at-first superpower, and the only people that had heard of Manji in the first couple stories were those that knew he slew a hundred men as a samurai working for a government employee.  But then I got to the second volume, and here’s another immortal who knows all about what Manji can offer, and also has a way to take him out of commission.  Bah.

Despite that, it was an interesting story, and I liked the series a little better for exceeding my expectations when it came to that particular aspect of storytelling.  The reason this person knows was because Manji let someone live.  In a way, it’ll be Manji’s carelessness that will be his undoing.  And yet, I was pleased that the person lived, because he didn’t strike me as evil.  After Manji’s speech at the beginning about there being two sides to every story and being careful about who he kills, I was going to be sad if he was just going to start slaying people on the other side for no reason.  The head of the sword school that killed Rin’s parents is certainly evil since he’s going around killing people, and the mutant henchman who sewed heads onto his shoulders was evil too, but the sword school has a solid philosophy behind it (aside from it requiring the death of all sword masters), so the people who follow it aren’t necessarily evil.  This particular guy only stole a sword.  Did he deserve to die for it?  Well, if that’s all he did, probably not.  Manji doesn’t kill him.  He “kills” Manji though, and finds out his secret and tells others.

There was also some deception involving Yaobikuni that I liked, and I also liked the slow, horrible way in which the other immortal tried to kill Manji.  I mean, killing an immortal is awful work, but this was… pretty painful-looking.

I did like that Manji is immortal without being completely invulnerable.  He is clearly feeling pain every time he is stabbed, and his slow death here truly is an awful thing.  There also is a method to kill the immortals… two methods, actually, as of the end of this volume.

I’m going to keep reading.  I need to find the rest of the volumes and read them right now.  I mean… I still don’t think the overall plot is that interesting (it tries to give up on its purpose once again when Rin says that revenge is a silly way to live and forbids Manji from retrieving her father’s stolen sword), but I did like the mini-storyline here, and I have a feeling things will only develop more from here.  I’m definitely looking forward to it.