One of my most beloved manga series Blade of the Immortal (無限の住人) by Samura Hiroaki is now slated for an anime release later this summer, with production covered by animation studio BeeTrain. (Big thanks to CMWilly for the heads up.) I can’t really say I am familiar with the studio’s work, but I do hope they get this adaptation right.
Blade tells the story of Manji, a lone swordsman bound by an oath to cut down 1000 evil souls in atonement for his past sins, and to this cause bestowed near immortality by sacred bloodworms that crawl beneath his flesh.
I want to take this opportunity to talk a little more about the manga, because I’m such as big fan of Samura Hiroaki’s brilliant art work, and Blade of the Immortal is just so superlatively good. His swordfight scenes are at once terse yet elaborate, cinematic, and all beautiful, though sparing no expense for blood.
(Above) Mood Master. A few select panels illustrate Samura’s fantastic use of cinematics and astute composition. Reading the comic is an excellent exercise in storytelling and boarding.
Outside of his comics Samura’s artwork is pretty hard to come by. Here’s the Blade of the Immortal post card collection, containing his insert illustrations and covers, many in full color. He has also published an artbook, Brutal Love (人でなしの恋), but due to the explicitly adult content of the book its inconvenient to show it. You can get a copy here.
Update 270608 : A Blade of the Immortal’s illustration collection is now available. Read more about it here, and get a copy here.
Blade of the Immortal Anime official homepage
Blade of the Immortal entry in Wikipedia
BeeTrain Animation Studio
Blade Of The Immortal Anime Series – Amazon Prime Video
Blade Of The Immortal Teaser – Takashi Miike
Blade Of The Immortal – New Edition Manga Covers
Blade of the Immortal Illustration Art Book Review
Blade Of The Immortal Trailer – Takashi Miike
March 28th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Hey! Blade of the imortal is one of my faves to.
March 29th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
How come I’ve never heard of any of the animes/manga you talk about. Guess I’m not otaku enough. LOL! The story sounds like Cho Hakkai’s history from Saiyuki. I’ll go check out the manga, if I find a translated version.
This definitely sounds interesting – I love all these supernatural stuff. 🙂
March 30th, 2008 at 7:19 am
whoa! havent been watching any new anime series for a long time, i guess i will be looking forward to this one :^)
thanks for the heads up!
March 30th, 2008 at 7:24 am
I loved his comics too! Unlike the typical manga artists, he drew his manga sketchily(with pencil.perhaps..), which further enhances the appeal of his manga..adding on the spontaniety and rawness of his works. His art reminds me of another manga series-shidoh by Takahashi Tsutomu, although there are still clear distinctions on the way both artist executes the work
March 30th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Wow this should be incredible.
March 30th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Ivy, John, Dave – Definitely a series to look out for. :]
Jay Cee, james – There must be plenty of other fans out there ! I think he’s an absolute genius when drawing hands, very very beautiful hands. Spent hours and hours studying them.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:51 am
niiiice! its been screaming for a screen adaptation for a long long time!
but beetrain?…lets hope they do a good job out of it.
June 30th, 2008 at 12:38 am
I love this manga.. and I hope the anime arrives soon in Italy!!! bye
March 10th, 2016 at 9:18 am
Hello! I’ve been reading your site for a while now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Dallas Texas! Just wanted to say keep up the good work!