Blade of the Immortal

AUTHOR: Samura, Hiroaki

ARTIST: Hiroaki Samura (illustrator); Tomoko Saito (letterer and retoucher); Wayne Truman (letterer and retoucher)

PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics

FIRST SERIAL PUBLICATION:Mugen no Junin, 1994- (English translation, 1996-2007)

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: English translation, 1997-

Publication History

Blade of the Immortal was first published in Kodansha’s Afternoon magazine in 1994. It was picked up by Dark Horse Comics and released in pamphlets in 1996 and then collected into graphic novels, the first one appearing in 1997. The last pamphlet-style comic is issue 131 (November, 2007). Thereafter, Dark Horse Comics released only the graphic novel format.

A common practice in U.S. manga publishing in the 1990’s was “flipping” in which publishers “mirrored” manga pages so that the comics would read left to right, Western style. At creator Hiroaki Samura’s request, Dark Horse Comics did not use this method and instead cut up the pages, rearranged the panels, and redid the lettering. These changes were made so that the fighters would not appear to be left-handed and Manji’s personal symbol would not appear to be a Nazi swastika, rather than the counterclockwise Buddhist symbol. Although Dark Horse Comics acknowledged that this process can disrupt the flow between pages and panels, the publisher accommodated Samura’s wishes.

Plot

Set in the late eighteenth century, Blade of the Immortal follows the path of vengeance taken by Rin Asano, a sixteen-year-old girl whose family was murdered before her eyes by Anotsu and his sword school, the Ittoryu. She enlists the aid of Manji, a swordsman whose body is inhabited by kessen-chu, or “sacred bloodworms,” that make him immortal. Because he has killed one hundred good men, he vows to kill one thousand evil men, which will end his immortality. The first volume recounts how Manji accidentally killed his sister’s husband and her resulting madness and death.

The first five volumes depict the battles between Manji and Rin’s foes. Manji and Rin kill Sabato Kuroi, who killed Rin’s father; the immortal Eiku Shizuma; and Araya Kawakami, the man who raped Rin’s mother. Manji also fights with Ittoryu members Magatsu, who survives and reveals the secret of Manji’s immortality, and Makie, who nearly kills Manji.

The next volumes, from Dark Shadows to The Gathering II, introduce members of the mysterious Mugai-ryu, who also seek to kill the Ittoryu. Meanwhile, Anotsu is offered an alliance with Habaki, an official working for the shogun. Despite their concerns about the sadistic Mugai-ryu member Shira, Rin and Manji ally with Hyakurin and the Mugai-ryu, who share the common goal of killing Anotsu. Their ambush fails, and Anotsu escapes to Kaga; the group is stymied by the fact that they lack a tegata—an official pass that will allow them to move through checkpoints.

Rin departs to travel by herself, and Manji ambushes several Ittoryu members with help from Hyurakin. After a fierce fight, he kills the trio, but not before the tegata has been ruined by the bloodshed. Master Sori appears in the aftermath and takes Manji back to his house, revealing that he could have gotten Manji a tegata had he merely asked. There, Manji meets and briefly allies with Ittoryu member Magatsu, who is on the hunt for Shira.

The volumes Secrets through Last Blood follow the different characters on their paths. Anotsu’s trip to Kaga is an attempt to forge an alliance with a sword school by marrying the founder’s daughter. However, the government orders the school to kill Anotsu. The volume also covers Rin’s struggles to cross the mountain to Kaga; she meets Anotsu accidentally and travels with him. Finally, while Rin helps an ill Anotsu in Last Blood, the sword school catches up with them. Manji, Magatsu, and Makie arrive to rescue the pair. Temporary alliances dissolve, and the volume concludes with Giichi taking Manji to his boss, Habaki, which begins a new story arc.

The next seven volumes, from Trickster to Demon Lair II, recount Manji’s imprisonment in the catacombs under Edo castle. Habaki, the shadow leader of the Mugai-ryu, is an official under the shogun, and he permits gruesome experiments to be performed on Manji. His goal is to learn how to pass on Manji’s immortality to others. Meanwhile, Rin searches for Manji and is able to do so only with the help of Doa and Isaku, new members of the Ittoryu.

The next story arc recounts the aftermath of events under Edo castle. Habaki has been commanded to commit seppuku. Since he is given a month before he must perform the ritual suicide, he moves swiftly to destroy the Ittoryu completely. Anotsu, who only witnesses the chaos caused by the events at Edo castle, also moves to gather his forces. Meanwhile, Manji recovers from his ordeal, but he has left his hand in the dungeon. Shira has taken it and has plans of his own. The volume Footsteps concludes with another chance encounter between Anotsu and Rin, the former wanting to speak with the latter for unknown reasons.

Volumes

• Blade of the Immortal: Blood of a Thousand (1997). Collects issues 1-6, featuring Rin hiring Manji as her bodyguard.

• Blade of the Immortal: Cry of the Worm (1998). Collects issues 7-12, featuring Manji fighting with two members of the Ittoryu.

• Blade of the Immortal: Dreamsong (1999). Collects issues 12-18, featuring Manji’s fight with Ittoryu swordswoman Makie.

• Blade of the Immortal: On Silent Wings (1999). Collects issues 19-22, featuring Rin’s accidental meeting with Anotsu.

• Blade of the Immortal: On Silent Wings II (2000). Collects issues 23-28, featuring Araya Kawakami, who raped Rin’s mother.

• Blade of the Immortal: Dark Shadows (2000). Collects issues 29-34, introducing the Mugai-ryu, assassins who are collecting the heads of the Ittoryu.

• Blade of the Immortal: Heart of Darkness (2001). Collects issues 35-42, featuring Rin and Manji’s alliance with the Mugai-ryu and its consequences.

• Blade of the Immortal: The Gathering (2001). Collects issues 43-49, featuring Rin’s departure and Manji’s next difficult fight.

• Blade of the Immortal: The Gathering II (2001). Collects issues 51-57, featuring the conclusion of Manji’s fight and chronicling Rin’s solo adventure.

• Blade of the Immortal: Secrets (2002). Collects issues 58-65, focusing on Anotsu and the alliance offered to him by a sword school.

• Blade of the Immortal: Beasts (2002). Collects issues 66-72, featuring Hyakurin’s rape and torture by low-ranking members of the Ittoryu and flashbacks to her past.

• Blade of the Immortal: Autumn Frost (2003). Collects issues 73-80, featuring the formation of temporary alliances and former Ittoryu member Magatsu’s quest for revenge against the sadistic Shira.

• Blade of the Immortal: Mirror of the Soul (2004). Collects issues 81-89, featuring Rin’s travels with Anotsu.

• Blade of the Immortal: Last Blood (2005). Collects issues 90-98, featuring Rin and Manji’s reunion and revealing the identity of the person controlling the Mugai-ryu.

• Blade of the Immortal: Trickster (2006). Collects issues 99-105, featuring Manji’s capture by those who want to discover the secret of his immortality.

• Blade of the Immortal: Short Cut (2006). Collects issues 106-111, featuring Rin’s encounter with Doa and Isaku, members of the Ittoryu, and the gruesome experiments performed on Manji.

• Blade of the Immortal: On the Perfection of Anatomy (2007). Collects issues 112-117, featuring the doctor Burando’s struggles with the ethics of experimenting on Manji and death-row prisoners.

• Blade of the Immortal: The Sparrow Net (2008). Collects issues 118-126, featuring the formation of an alliance between Rin and Doa.

• Blade of the Immortal: Badger Hole (2008). Collects issues 127-131, featuring Doa and Rin’s attempt to rescue Isaku, who has been taken by the same men holding Manji.

• Blade of the Immortal: Demon Lair (2008). Collects chapters 121-129, featuring Rin’s reunion with Manji and their battle against a series of dangerous foes in the catacombs.

• Blade of the Immortal: Demon Lair II (2009). Collects chapters 130-136, following Rin, Manji, Doa, and Isaku as they battle the insane creature that Burando created in his experiments.

• Blade of the Immortal: Footsteps (2010). Collects chapters 137-143, featuring Habaki’s quest to destroy the Ittoryu and introducing his illegitimate daughter, Ryo.

• Blade of the Immortal:Scarlet Swords (2011). Collects chapters 144-148, featuring Anotsu and the Ittoryu’s attempts to foil Habaki.

Characters

• Manji, a.k.a. Killer of One Hundred, is a tall, one-eyed swordsman who earned his nickname by killing policemen while working for his mob bosses. When all his wounds are healed by the kessen-chu, or sacred bloodworms, that he is given by a Buddhist nun, he vows to kill one thousand evil men to free himself from the curse of immortality. He has a cavalier attitude toward his fights, frequently acknowledging that his immortal body has ruined his sword skills. He often wears a kimono decorates with a sauvastika, a Japanese Buddhist symbol of good fortune, and he carries an impossible number of oddly shaped swords and knives. In addition to having lost one eye, he has a wound that stretches across the bridge of his nose, his missing eye, and his forehead, which he received before he had the kessen-chu.

• Rin Asano is the daughter of the owner of the Mutenichi-ryu, a venerable sword school. Her family was murdered before her eyes by Anotsu and the Ittoryu. Though fourteen at the time, she vowed vengeance. At the age of sixteen, she persuades Manji to be her bodyguard and to aid her in her revenge. She often wears a kimono with flames on the hem and sleeves in which she hides short knives that she hurls at her targets.

• Kagehisa Anotsu is a tall and slender man who wields a heavy, blunt ax and is the leader of the Ittoryu. His grandfather was expelled from the Asano family sword school for using a foreign weapon, and the resulting family shame causes Anotsu to orchestrate the murder of Rin’s family and seek to destroy all sword schools. He loves the swordswoman Makie, whom he met as a child, and is briefly married to Hisoka Ibane for political reasons.

• Makie Otono-Tachibana is a swordswoman of the Ittoryu and the best fighter in the school. She wields a three-jointed spear, which she hides in a shamisen, a musical instrument. She is in love with Anotsu, whose life she saved when they were children.

• KagimuraHabaki is an officer serving under the shogun who offers an alliance to Anotsu but secretly plots the Ittoryu’s destruction. He is a tall, mustached samurai who carries traditional weapons.

• Hyakurin is a member of the Mugai-ryu who allies with Rin and Manji. She dyes her hair blond and uses a crossbow with poison darts. She is on death row because she murdered her samurai husband for killing their son.

• Shira is a member of the Mugai-ryu who allies with Rin and Manji, but his sadistic tendencies put an end to their alliance. Manji and Magatsu each cut off one of his hands. He is thought to be dead until he is discovered in the catacombs under Edo castle.

• Eiku Shizuma is a member of the Ittoryu who poses as a wandering monk, but in his fight with Manji, he reveals that he also possesses the kessen-chu and has been alive for more than two hundred years. He poisons Manji with kessen-satsu, literally “bloodworm killer,” which opens all of the wounds that the bloodworms had healed. Manji kills him after recovering.

• TaitoMagatsu is a member of the Ittoryu who was present the night Rin’s family was murdered. He survives his first battle with Manji and reveals Manji’s immortality to the rest of the Ittoryu. He wears a mask over his lower face and has spiky hair, and his sword hides a dagger in its handle.

Artistic Style

A classically trained artist, Samura has been praised for his realistic drawings of the human body and his use of perspective. His character design is anachronistic; characters have spiky, punk hairstyles and wear sunglasses. As is common in manga, the work is presented in black and white. Throughout Samura’s work, he uses the “scratchiness” of his drawings to depict speed and violence.

In early volumes, Samura depicts the climaxes of the characters’ fights as full-page meditations on violence featuring entangled bodies, weapons, clothing, and unrelated symbols and images. These drawings are reminiscent of Japanese wood-block prints, such as those from the famous ukiyo-e artist Yoshitoshi Tsukioka. Although Samura has never claimed Yoshitoshi as an influence, instead citing the influence of manga artist Katsuhiro Otomo, both use the entire page and flatten the foreground and background as if the action can barely be contained by the borders. This technique prompts the reader to pause and consider the artwork carefully in order to determine which body part belongs to which character. Later in the series, Samura abandons these full-page scenes to focus on more realistic depictions of the dramatic action. His panel layouts and pacing show great sophistication, allowing for quiet moments that illustrate the characters’ reflections on past events.

Themes

The major theme of Blade of the Immortal is what it means to be human. The series reflects the notion of integrity in both senses of the word: physical wholeness and ethical consistency. Though Manji evokes awe and horror in his foes when they watch him rise from the dead, pull knives from his flesh, and reattach his severed limbs, he remains whole in both mind and body after every violation. His stability of mind reflects the stability of his flesh. In contrast, when Burando’s test subjects survive the process of transplanting Manji’s kessen-chu, the immortal beings they become are obscene, insane “gods.”

Throughout the series, numerous characters practice body modification as a reflection of their morality. Sabato Kuroi attaches the heads of women he “loves” to his shoulders. Likewise, Shira, who loses his hand to Manji, carves off his arm’s flesh and sharpens the bones into daggers; his sadism turns to masochism, as each attack causes him great pain. In contrast, the swordswoman Makie is able to demonstrate her moral integrity by not getting a drop of blood on her when slaughtering her enemies.

The body politic, as represented by the government and the dojo, forbids knowledge from the West to ensure its own integrity; no Western medicine, art, weapons, or fighting styles are permitted. However, there are members of the ruling institution who are permitted to transgress: Master Sori becomes the shogun’s ninja so he can collect taboo art, and the officer Habaki permits Burando to perform the autopsies and vivisections he has witnessed in the West. Habaki desires to use Manji’s immortality to perpetuate institutional power, and the institutionalized violence that he inflicts on Manji’s body transcends any violation that Manji has experienced in his previous battles. Similarly, those who reject the rigid rules of the dojo, such as Anotsu and the other members of the Ittoryu, are targeted for destruction.

Perhaps the most important rule is the one that governs revenge: Samurai may kill, but no one else has that right. Though Rin has filled out the paperwork necessary for a recognized vendetta, which is her right as a samurai’s daughter, she receives no response. When asked by Makie in Dreamsong if killing people is the right path for her, Rin answers, “If samurai say that killing for their master is a noble cause . . . then isn’t getting your hands bloody for your own parents . . . more human?” Rin is unable to achieve institutional justice and must make her own path. The family unit, rather than the dojo attached to it, is the foundation of true societal integrity; the government seeks only to secure its own power.

Ultimately, Rin’s humanity is the central concern of the series—her revenge will not transgress her morality. Through a series of accidents, she meets her foe, Anotsu, and when given the chance to kill him with her own hands, she refuses to do so; instead, she actively helps him to survive. Though not concluded as of 2012, the story appears to be moving toward a resolution between Rin and Anotsu that may break the cycle of revenge, but the characters may also seek a redress of wrongs against corrupt institutions.

Impact

One of the first successful manga to be published in the United States, Blade of the Immortal proved that there was an audience for Japanese comics among American readers. Volumes of Blade of the Immortal have regularly appeared on the lists of the best-selling graphic novels compiled by Diamond, a comics distributor. The series paved the way for other seinen stories that feature graphic violence, including the Berserk series (2003- ), to be published in the United States. Blade of the Immortal’s anachronistic take on Japanese history and the samurai story has also been influential, likely inspiring elements of the postmodern anime series Samurai Champloo (2004-2005).

Television Series

Blade of the Immortal. Anime Works (2009-2010). Originally produced by Bee Train in 2008, the series adapts thirteen stories from the manga, from Blood of a Thousand to On Silent Wings.

Further Reading

Koike, Kozue, and Koseki Gojima. Lone Wolf and Cub (2000-2002).

Miura, Kentaro. Berserk (2003- ).

Samura, Hiroaki. Ohikkoshi (2006).

Bibliography

Goldberg, Wendy. “The Manga Phenomenon in America.” In Manga: An Anthology of Global and Cultural Perspectives, edited by Toni Johnson-Woods. New York: Continuum, 2010.

Stevenson, Jason. Yoshitoshi’s Strange Tales. Amsterdam: Hotei, 2005.

Tong, Ng Suat. “A Swordsman’s Saga: Blade of the Immortal.” The Comics Journal 228 (November, 2000): 42-45.