Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Blade of the Immortal, Vol 1

A wandering samurai named Manji has been cursed with immortality. The only way to get rid of this curse is to kill one thousand evil men. A girl named Rin, whose family has been killed, seeks Manji to help her avenge her family. This gives Manji some targets to fulfill his curse and begins the quest.


Blade of the Immortal (wiki) is a long running manga series by Hiroaki Samura. The first volume, Blood of a Thousand, introduces the plot and characters.

The premise is interesting, but it still needs to be expanded upon, as I know it will in the following 20+ volumes with its various story arcs. Only a samurai would consider immortality a curse. It seems as if they're always seeking after an honorable demise.

The art, in shaded pencil and heavily stylized, is good. The action scenes are good too. And I like it when characters have special attacks.

Blade of the Immortal: Blood of a Thousand is a neat introduction to what appears to be fairly traditional but good Japanese manga. I can't say it's a must-read, but at the very least, it was entertaining.

1 comment:

redhead said...

I've only read the first in this series, and I really liked it. I'm used to straight black & white inked artwork, and I liked how the artwork was a lot of shading and crosshatching.

now i need to find the money to buy further, and the time to read 'em!