Blade of the Immortal 01
One man, one thousand to kill.
Ten seconds into the intro I came to the conclusion that this anime is sexy. Or at the very least the intro is – swords, check, blood, check, tied up naked chick… priceless. Obviously one shouldn’t judge anything by its cover but this one really sets the tone of the show with its gritty yet somehow sexy presentation and opening theme.
Blade of the Immortal is the anime adaptation by Bee Train and Production I.G. of the similarly named manga which has been going steady since 1994, spanning 22 volumes at this point in time. The premise of the show is that Manji, a skilled samurai killed 100 people in the past and vowed to kill 1000 villains to atone for his sins, a ridiculous goal were it not for his inability to die. I have to admit to never having read the manga, but I’ve been told it’s a masterpiece so I’m glad to say that the show’s presentation has quality written all over it.
This first episode introduces us to the main character and how his sister never recovered from the shock when Manji killed her husband. We don’t see a lot of the background that lead to Machi’s husband’s dad attacking Manji other than that his dad got killed by Manji when he was a child, but assume that his dad was part of law enforment hunting Manji down.
Throughout the episode we see the tragic result of the event in how Machi’s personality is more like that of a child than an adult.
I really wasn’t expecting this so early in the show – Machi gets killed by a rogue samurai. While Manji does kick his ass along with those of his 20 henchmen, it’s still a bit sad, especially for a first episode.
Of course this sets the stage for Manji’s badass declaration to kill a thousand villians.
Who else to declare it to than an 800+ year old grandma? (Hell, I might turn her into a smiley on the forums sometime!) The episode ends on a younger side though with two ladies on the search for Manji. Probably to kill him.
This episode would get a 10/10 but because it ends, I give it a 9.9/10 and look forward to next week!
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I read the first volume of this years ago and never gave it a second look. The main character is supposed to have killed 100 people while he was still mortal, yet everyone he fights gives him a beating, until he eventually manages to kill them thanks to his inmortality. It’s extremely lame and takes away all the tension of the combat.
That really does sound lame, but considering you only read the first volume, it leaves room for the guy to become an actual badass later on…
to calorro:
reading the first book doesn’t really give a good impression and meaning to the story. i actually read about 5 other books, before i actually read the first one. it kinda gave me a puzzle piece to what’s happening and what’s to be done. the 1st book did suck but it GETS BETTER.
give the manga a chance..
as for the anime, oh god.. does it fail so far.
Even if the first book’s introduction to the plot sounds “lame” of sorts, the art was enough to amaze me. Especially the mural panels (which I would have prefered they stayed true to in the anime, cause that’s one of the things i loved about in the manga).
I’m up to the 8th volume at the moment (totally regretting not buying up to vol 10 last time) and I absolutely loved it. And I know I’ll love it more and more as I continue reading.
All it takes for a series is to give it more of a chance than just one.
I’m glad this became an anime, it’s not bad, but the manga really is still the better of the two
I love Machi xoxoxoxo
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