anime: Blade of the Immortal: ep 1
Jul. 16th, 2008 11:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreI should state up front that not only is Blade of the Immortal my favorite manga ever(its status was threatened a bit during the never ending prison arc, but it still wins) it's WHY I'm into anime and manga. For those of you who have known me long enough, around 2001~, I was very vehement about not reading manga. Mostly, I didn't care for the art style, didn't want to read backwards, and was generally pissy about US comics trying to mimic it and making reading issues as they came out ANNOYING. But people kept telling me and telling me that it was good and I'd like the stories, and the art would grow on me, etc. etc., so I started picking up some odds and ends, mostly manhwa (Hey, want to build up an immunity to the stuff manga and manhwa can churn out? Start with Les Bijoux!) and some older flipped Viz stuff, and I acknowledged that it was better than I thought, but I still wasn't incredibly into it. But I kept seeing this flipped manga that sounded interesting and had very different art, and I was curious, but it was priced higher than the rest. I asked around a bit and decided to try it out, and I was completely addicted by the end of the first volume and had ordered and read all the other available trades within a few weeks. And then I needed more stuff like it so I found and started reading other samurai manga-Rurouni Kenshin, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Vagabond...Lone Wolf and Cub and I, sadly, did not click well, what with every woman in it being evil, a prostitute, dead, or some combination...I do appreciate its value, though-and I eventually became the manga loving psycho I am today.
Blah blah blah, testimonial over.
The point is, they will never make an anime I anticipate or fear as much as this one.
The basic plot is this(much of this is revealed in the first episode, all in the first few chapters of the manga, skip these two paragraphs if that's too many spoilers): In the Edo period, a man named Manji killed his master after learning he was corrupt. Manji was declared an outlaw, and over the next 2 years, he killed 100 men who were sent after him. One day, he ended up in the village where his sister, Machi, lived. Manji fought and killed Machi's husband, not realizing who he fought until he saw Machi as he was killing him. Seeing her brother cut her husband into pieces in front of her drove Machi mad, reducing her mind to that of a child. Of course, having to take care of a mad sister doesn't exactly make people decide to stop hunting you. Somewhere along the way, Manji met an immortal nun who (apparently against his will) made him immortal by stuffing him full of worms that heal him from any enemies. Eventually, Machi is killed by Manji's pusuers, and after he avenges their deaths, he makes a deal with the nun: He'll kill a thousand evil men to atone for the hundred good men he killed, if she'll finally let him die.
Also in Edo is a teenaged girl name Rin. Two years ago, her parents were murdered in front of her by a rogue band called the Itto-Ryu. Unable to get revenge on her own, she eventually stumbles across the nun, who suggest she get herself a bodyguard. It should be obvious who she suggests. So Manji and Rin make a deal: he'll take care of her for four years while she seeks her revenge. As long as he keeps her safe, he's free to use or sell her as he wishes (the likelihood of him following up on that is already obvious at that point) but if she's ever hurt, the service is free.
SPOILERS OVER.
If you've ever seen the artwork for BOTI, you know that there's no way it could ever possibly be transferred to anime form. See this post? The interior art looks exactly the same, only without color. See also this post. Or this one. As you can see, there's simply NO WAY those designs or that style of storytelling will transfer well. You'd see it a lot better if I actually had or knew of some posts with action sequences from the manga.
My fear regarding the anime art was that they would make it too stylized. Instead, they went with streamlined, more simple versions of the designs. For the most part, I think it works pretty well. If you don't think about Hiroaki Samura's artwork, the anime art is excellent. Unfortunately, they seem to be trying to overcompensate for that and the anime fighting slash lines by very stylized death scenes. The opening and ending credits are gorgeous, but there are random modern skylines that jar me. And a couple "WTF??" shots, ONE OF WHICH GOT IT'S OWN POST! (Unfortunately, I don't think I care much for the song.)
As far as the story and characterization goes, so far, everything seems pretty spot on. A few things have been moved forward a bit, and one character who doesn't show up until later in the manga is very briefly seen in the episode. While the cameo is anime-original, what the character is doing fits with what's going on with them later in the manga, so I'm not worried about it. The darker elements of the story are definitely still there, but they seem to be slightly cleaned up. We'll know for sure how far the anime will go when it fully gets into the night Rin's parents died.
I'm not sure what i think about Manji's voice, though. I'd never really thought about how Manji would sound, but he doesn't sound as laid back as he should. The other voices, though, seem ok so far.
At this point, I give it a tentative thumbs up. If I weren't used to the manga, I'd probably be flailing all over the place. But if you've read the manga, you know the real tests are soon to come.
Screencaps:
The opening credits. Warning: includes nudity.
Blah blah blah, testimonial over.
The point is, they will never make an anime I anticipate or fear as much as this one.
The basic plot is this(much of this is revealed in the first episode, all in the first few chapters of the manga, skip these two paragraphs if that's too many spoilers): In the Edo period, a man named Manji killed his master after learning he was corrupt. Manji was declared an outlaw, and over the next 2 years, he killed 100 men who were sent after him. One day, he ended up in the village where his sister, Machi, lived. Manji fought and killed Machi's husband, not realizing who he fought until he saw Machi as he was killing him. Seeing her brother cut her husband into pieces in front of her drove Machi mad, reducing her mind to that of a child. Of course, having to take care of a mad sister doesn't exactly make people decide to stop hunting you. Somewhere along the way, Manji met an immortal nun who (apparently against his will) made him immortal by stuffing him full of worms that heal him from any enemies. Eventually, Machi is killed by Manji's pusuers, and after he avenges their deaths, he makes a deal with the nun: He'll kill a thousand evil men to atone for the hundred good men he killed, if she'll finally let him die.
Also in Edo is a teenaged girl name Rin. Two years ago, her parents were murdered in front of her by a rogue band called the Itto-Ryu. Unable to get revenge on her own, she eventually stumbles across the nun, who suggest she get herself a bodyguard. It should be obvious who she suggests. So Manji and Rin make a deal: he'll take care of her for four years while she seeks her revenge. As long as he keeps her safe, he's free to use or sell her as he wishes (the likelihood of him following up on that is already obvious at that point) but if she's ever hurt, the service is free.
SPOILERS OVER.
If you've ever seen the artwork for BOTI, you know that there's no way it could ever possibly be transferred to anime form. See this post? The interior art looks exactly the same, only without color. See also this post. Or this one. As you can see, there's simply NO WAY those designs or that style of storytelling will transfer well. You'd see it a lot better if I actually had or knew of some posts with action sequences from the manga.
My fear regarding the anime art was that they would make it too stylized. Instead, they went with streamlined, more simple versions of the designs. For the most part, I think it works pretty well. If you don't think about Hiroaki Samura's artwork, the anime art is excellent. Unfortunately, they seem to be trying to overcompensate for that and the anime fighting slash lines by very stylized death scenes. The opening and ending credits are gorgeous, but there are random modern skylines that jar me. And a couple "WTF??" shots, ONE OF WHICH GOT IT'S OWN POST! (Unfortunately, I don't think I care much for the song.)
As far as the story and characterization goes, so far, everything seems pretty spot on. A few things have been moved forward a bit, and one character who doesn't show up until later in the manga is very briefly seen in the episode. While the cameo is anime-original, what the character is doing fits with what's going on with them later in the manga, so I'm not worried about it. The darker elements of the story are definitely still there, but they seem to be slightly cleaned up. We'll know for sure how far the anime will go when it fully gets into the night Rin's parents died.
I'm not sure what i think about Manji's voice, though. I'd never really thought about how Manji would sound, but he doesn't sound as laid back as he should. The other voices, though, seem ok so far.
At this point, I give it a tentative thumbs up. If I weren't used to the manga, I'd probably be flailing all over the place. But if you've read the manga, you know the real tests are soon to come.
Screencaps:
The opening credits. Warning: includes nudity.