wonder how many people know about this one…!? its one of the best ongoing mangas and one of the best of all time IMO. if you like samurai showdown, ninja scroll (NSII is coming this year, IIRC) and/or soul caliber, you gotta check it out.
its released through darkhorse. so many memorable characters. anybody looking for a real piece of art and just great characters in general try it out now. 1 warning though, the first 2 or 3 volumes start out slow, and theres a slow part (takes too damn long) when the main character is captured in volume 17 or something like that.
While it hasn’t been necessarily cancelled, Dark Horse has stopped releasing single issues of Blade of The Immortal. Supposedly that means future issues will only be available in trade paperback form. So I guess that means I no longer read Blade of the Immortal.
i’m a huge fan of blade of the immortal. i’ve been collecting it since the beginning. the only beef i have with this series is that dark horse is publishing it in mirror version, so things have to be cut and pasted in order to read it from left to right. i wish they would just start releasing them in their original form from right to left.
They stopped releasing single issues? That’s why I haven’t able to find it in any comic stores.
I agree with everyone else though; BotI is by far the most superior manga I’ve read. Nothing I’ve seen has the same kinetic energy and sheer scope and detail in terms of the art. . .the closest that anyone comes is Shaman Warrior, but that’s nothing compared to BotI.
I’m just annoyed that this prison arc has been going on for a while. The momentum is slowing down and there seems to be no point. But at least the artwork is still as amazing as ever.
it’s confirmed on the last page of the last issue that it will be continued in tpb form. i personally don’t mind it because the pacing of some of the arcs seems to really be fitting for tpb… but that’s just me. i’ll keep reading it since i think they’re almost about to start the last arc, but it does blow not getting it monthly.
and co-sign on the prison arc being hella long. shit needs more hyakurin and giichi too.
I kind of lost track of the series during the prison thing (I switched off between Mugen no Jyuunin and BotI… I read MnJ first then read the BotI version a year or so later so I could make sense of anything I couldn’t understand in the Japan version)… but it’s really mature-written comic with brilliantly-developed characters… you could change the perspective of the series so some other character, and not Manji, is the main focus, and the series would still hold up. And the art quality/detail in the action scenes were really eye-opening when I first read the book. Yeah, needless to say I’m really impressed with the BotI series.
I agree, I read this series a while back, but just stopped because no new issues were coming out for a hwile. Glad other people are aware of its pwnageness
has the series changed much? i kinda got bored of it since their really was no character development…hack and slash can only go so far wit me. the girl constantly wanted to hunt her killers down and when she had a chance to off them…she never did. kinda pissed me off.
the series did change quite a lot. the basic point is rin is still looking for her parents killers. but from volume 2 on more and more characters are introduced and a lot of them keep returning. the story can be seen through more than 1 characters eyes. most characters are in the story for themselves and have goals or other things they need to accomplish. even rin changes from a 1 dimensional girl to a fully developed character. and she doesn’t just turn into a fighting goddess in a few chapters like in most mangas meant for kids. the part where manji was captured took a lil too long for my taste, but the series picked up like you’d expect from the writer. its ion its full brilliance again, and it seems all the pieces are starting to move for a final showdown it seems. might no be the final, but seems a lil like it. we have the itto ryo getting together again, the mugai ryo is also getting ready. we have some characters not tied to the big picture, but there for revenge and the likes. characters like shira (the back haired turned grey rapist/killer), the boy of the guy manji offed, the guy who sold painted masks (and hes grown too). and more and more things to name.
anywayz, for people who just read a few chapters and stopped, wondering if they should give it a chance. you wont be disappointed. for the ones who where reading it, keep on doing so. the prison arc is finally over, and the action seems to be going in the right direction. still, good to see its liked over here.
p.s. is wolf and cub on the level of Boti, or not as good, or even better? personally i like boti even better than vagabond and even more than berserk, which is quite something in my book.
I don’t remember any of that happening. Did Dark Horse release a new trade paperback? What’s it called? They’re not in issue form anymore. What’s going on?
i think darkhorse is only releasing complete volumes from now on. no more single chapters. also, ive also checked out the japanese volumes which are ahead of the US ones.
i know, they even found it necessary to mention it in the first volume of Boti i bought way back in 95/96. but they added that this wasn’t possible with all panels. so there might be panels that manji has his left eye ripped out instead of his right eye. haven’t really checked it out that much, but i remember back when i bought the first volume that there was a panel (or 2) with manji having his scars on different sides. don’t quote me on this as it has been over 10 years. i could have been wrong.
i stopped reading halfway through the prison arc… gotta pick it up again. i’m still kinda bugged that they bothered to get into how the bloodworms worked… i wish they’d left it more ambiguous because this is the type of shit that makes writers retcon stuff later on.
anyway, i love this manga… but it’s probably not for the faint of heart. for example, i really didn’t think Hyakurin would be gang raped like that… it left me feeling kinda sick, but (1) that sort of shit really happens and (2) it just makes the possibility of her dying believable.
lots of very well-thought out discussions on different subjects too - it’s like Samura really took his time considering what motivates the characters. i like how Anotsu isn’t your clear-cut bad guy. one thing i am getting a little tired of is how Manji is like… a smirking Wolverine. wish they’d show more of his history and flesh out his character a bit.
i don’t even consider anotsu a bad. he isn’t on good therms with the lead lady of the manga, but thats understandable. compared to what kind of other people hes got in the gang hes actually quite the nice guy. stands by his ideals.
one thing manji has got to get back is his skillz. hes been living of his immortal flesh too long, against the likes of maki that wont be doing him any good. though i do find it funny he still likes to stress out the fact that he killed those 100 samurai before he had his immortal flesh.
don’t forget that rin had several chances to kill anotsu and didn’t do it. as a matter of fact, she helped him survive. that changed a lot of stuff about the direction this story was taking.