|
Even if you have only been an anime fan for a little while,
chances are you have seen a samurai anime. Samurai drama and action is the
Japanese equivalent of British detective drama, with both remaining hugely
popular despite there being too many of both. With such a high output from
each sub-genre though, classics emerge often. The anime adaptation of
Blade Of The Immortal is based on such a classic, the manga of the same
name. |
The series focuses on the character Manji, a highly skilled samurai with the dubious reputation of murdering a hundred honest men. We quickly learn that Manji cannot die due to being immortal, hence the title. This is achieved by 'bloodworms', creatures which live inside his body and are able to repair all wounds. The creatures were placed in his body by the nun Yaobikuni, whom Manji approaches with a deal: she will remove the bloodworms if he kills a thousand evil men. Not only will this allow him finally to perish, but will also redeem his previous foul deeds. |
|
|
|
As you would hope from a samurai anime, there is a lot of sword fighting. The fights are handled well, with excellent animation and lasting a realistic length of time. Interestingly though, Manji isn't that great a swordsman and dies frequently during battle. Although it is to be expected at least once to explain his immortality, I wasn't expecting to happen in, well, pretty much every fight. In fact the fights follow the general formula of Manji receiving a fatal wound and then killing the bad guy, once said bad guy assumes they have been |
victorious. If that doesn't happen it
will be another character doing the killing on Manji's behalf, usually attacking
the enemy from behind. Looks like no-one follows the samurai code in this
series. Clean opening and closing plus trailers. Nothing major. Ratings Feature:
Extras:
|