Mugen no Juunin: Immortal

This was a great show. It started out rough. I didn't like the first three episodes that much, but I was drawn to the character and the concept so I stuck with it. I like the more adult/violent stuff... And this has an immortal wisecracking samurai. What's not to love? I couldn't be any happier about my decision to stick with the show more so than how I feel today having watched the finale. That was excellent. From episode 4/5 to the end I had a blast watching this every week alongside Vinland Saga in the fall, and alongside Dorohedoro this season. It was consistently ... great every week.

So, the main problem with this adaptation for most viewers should be the story. I haven't completely read the manga (I've only just begun) but I am aware that they have cut some material out and have rushed through some of the things they adapted. Despite not being aware of what was cut, it definitely did feel disjointed at times. That aside, every other aspect of this show was fantastic. Great voice acting. Great music. Nice animation. Maybe not the quality of Attack on Titan or something fancy like that, but still excellent most of the time. I loved the direction and style I saw in these episodes.

The closest anime I could compare this to is Shigurui. I loved the Shigurui manga. I was somewhat disappointed by the anime adaptation. This show is what I wanted the Shigurui anime to be. It has life and style to it that was missing from that other show.

I couldn't recommend this show more.

- Despite being known as the Hundred Men Killer, you have some good in you. I’m surprised.
- I’m flattered.
- Who said it was a praise?

Stop me if you’ve heard any of these before. A daughter of a samurai hell-bent on avenging her father’s death. A ronin with unparalleled sword skills, but no attachments to the world. He agrees to be her yojimbo because she reminds him of his dead sister. A colorful villain of the week demands to hear the protagonist’s name before they can cross swords with him.

Mugen no Juunin is every chanbara cliche possible thrown together into a blender and made into a ... smoothie. The original manga started in 1993, it’s an old series, so those tropes are played mind-numbingly straight - do not expect any deconstruction of the genre or postmodern meta-fuckery, this is neither Katanagatari nor Samurai Champloo.
The “smoothie” part of the metaphor refers to the fact that the narrative is incredibly fragmented - you can’t even consider it a road movie, you just see random barely coherent snippets of the character’s lives. This is to be expected, considering the original manga spans 30 volumes and this anime adapts hundreds of pages per episode.

What I’m getting at, however, is that nothing of the stated above really matters. It’s not that kind of series where those things matter. Instead, it’s something you watch to see a freak with severed human heads sewn into his body reciting poetry and arguing that you can’t call it true love unless you kill her. Something you watch to see an artist/samurai struggling to find his “painting-do” and swinging around a brush tied to a katana. Something you watch to have your scenes of period drama grimdarkness counterpointed by a sudden “Onii-chan, baka!” Even the snippet structure actually works, thanks to a masterful directorial work of Hamasaki Hiroshi (Steins;Gate).

8/10 for the style-over-substance show in the best meaning of the word.

What defines a disappointment isn’t what you got, it’s what you expected.

Blade of the Immortal is one of the most illustrious manga titles to date on the back of its artwork alone. No critic worth their salt has ever paraded Blade of the Immortal on the quality of its writing, characterization, storytelling—none of it. It’s all on the art. And rightfully so, so when I see it getting adapted by LIDENFILMS, a studio whose prettiest production to date, Hanebado!, had to rely on the trusty ol’ rotoscope to stay standing for even a single cour, the last thing I expected was an anime which ... had even a whole percentage point of the visual fidelity the source material made itself famous with. What I did expect though—and certainly not from the LIDENFILMS name—was an utterly irresistible tone only director Hiroshi Hamasaki could deliver. Hiroshi Hamasaki is an industry veteran in every sense of the title, and while many of the younger members of the community will’ve probably fallen asleep or scrolled away from this review by now, those aware are sure to be intrigued at worst and excited at best by the mention of his name. Personally, I’m in love with the man, and while I recognize works like Shigurui and especially Texhnolyze were what they were on the profound strength of their writing and conceptualization more so than their visual direction, I can just as easily recognize how said directorial tact of this legend has carried less thematically or emotionally exceptional works all on its own. Be it good shows like Steins;Gate, bad shows like Terra Formars, or even purely artistic pieces like episode seven of Paranoia Agent, all of Hamasaki’s works have been imbued with an alluringly suffocating tonal aesthetic, and Blade of the Immortal boasts the same, but only when it could afford the price of admission. Literally.

As my score suggests, I wasn’t all that disappointed. Studio LIDENFILMS is no industry giant, nor are they even a noteworthy player. The studio is under the publication Ultra Super Pictures, which produces a lot of the more—for lack of a better term—eccentric animation studios. Be it Hiroyuki Imaishi’s Studio Trigger, Gonzo’s CG subsidiary Studio SANZIGEN, or Yutaka “Yamakan” Yamamoto’s Studio Ordet, Ultra Super Pictures prides themselves on platforming those who’ll find little success with more corporate minded producers, and LIDENFILMS began as no exception. Whether it be ambitiously attempting to revive a Yoshiki Tanaka classic with their remake of Arslan Senki or making their debut with Senyuu, a short-form gag comedy directed by the aforementioned sensation that is Yamakan, LIDENFILMS began as a home for passion projects, but as time went on and money presumably ran out, the studio began settling for increasingly lifeless projects. Among these cynical jobs taken to keep the lights on, LIDENFILMS has worked hard to continue turning out creative works, and Blade of the Immortal is the latest addition to this roster. Intentions aside, though, Blade of the Immortal is…ugly. The color design is good, because Hamasaki, but the actual coloration in practice is uneven, poorly shaded, and overall, radically inconsistent. The shot composition is good, because Hamasaki, but the utterly insufficient animation direction betrayed nearly all the visual flair available from such cinematography. The sound effects are good, because Hamasaki, but despite the sound designers being more than competent, the choppy key animation makes all but the ambiance seem off kilter and messy. Now, I understand all this may come as a bit of a surprise to those of you well-versed in the genre and the names involved, because Shigurui, an aforementioned work directed by Hamasaki back in 2007 and animated by Studio Madhouse, was heartbreakingly gorgeous despite being fairly conservative with its animation. Shigurui is a samurai drama in much the same vein as Blade of the Immortal, and as its team was miles more talented, it managed to be prepossessingly engaging despite its sparse animation. I’m not denying the fact this adaptation was hard to mess up. I'm just saying they did mess it up.

Though, I guess they didn’t mess up the story. As I initially teased in the introduction, Blade of the Immortal is no piece of literature. It’s an artbook, but to say it has nothing on paper would still be something of a disrespect. Blade of the Immortal is a wondering samurai tale about Manji, a cursed samurai hellbent on revenge on those who killed his sister, and Rin, an orphaned girl hellbent on revenge on those who killed her parents. As it happens, these two villainous parties just so happened to have been the exact same people, so having met, our companions unite under their common goal on a quest for vengeance. However, as it also just so happens, Manji is straight-up immortal, so while the story itself amounts to episodic encounters proceeding the exact main conflict which you would expect, the garnish atop such a standard structure which makes it all worthwhile is what little aesthetic style Hamasaki could wring out of the production staff and what sensational amounts of blood and guts the original creator could wring out of Manji. Though I will say, my own opinion having already been stated, I’ve seen no shortage of manga fans complaining about the pacing of the anime. Apparently, the anime adaptation flies through the manga’s narrative at a breakneck pace, and if you’re now wondering why I didn’t complain about the overload of information you’d think would be a side effect of this decision, it’s because the manner in which they sped through the story was by heavily cutting it down, not speeding it up. While more moderate manga fans claim the cut content was unnecessary anyway, I myself can personally guarantee it, because I watched the anime just fine, and to be frank, if events happened at any slower a speed than they did, this show would’ve been one hell of a slog. After all, no story with this little going on under the surface needs to be extended to any greater run time than absolutely necessary.

At the end of the day, when it looked good, it was absolutely bewitching, and when it looked bad, it was still a competent if cliché story. The quality of animation was already waning by the end of the first episode—no joke—but at the same time, the fist five minutes of that episode were downright cinematic genius straight from the creative vaults of the priceless mind of its legendary director. If this was an arthouse adaptation by a studio that could handle it, or even if it was made by the same staff only instead into a film or short OVA series with a higher quality of animation and even less attention to an already uninteresting narrative—as long as it was in favor of a pure tone piece—I could easily recommend it to anyone and everyone who’s down with some gore. As it currently stands, though, I’m afraid it’s far too tiring of a time commitment wherein the viewer is forced to indulge a production which proved itself to be able to deliver on some serious aesthetic perfection right off the bat, but which literally hasn’t the means to continue delivering said visual displays on a consistent basis. Ultimately, it seems I can only confidently recommend Blade of the Immortal to those taken with Hamasaki’s style like myself and unfazed by the prospect of wading through the many hours of mediocrity to get to the few minutes of excellence, those who are just samurai otaku and will enjoy anything in the genre which isn’t abjectly awful, or those who are honest-to-goodness bored with anime and just want a gaudy passion project to shake things up, even if said project barely had the production chops to be gaudy about anything.

Thank you for reading.

This show is just a pure disappointment and garbage, the only somewhat ok episode is the 1st episode, the rest is trash.

Story: The story is about a immortal samurai and a girl whos family was killed by a different dojo. The girl goes looking for the immortal samurai so she can ask for his help to kill the people that killed her family, I thought this was an interesting concept but the show just disappointed me.

Art: The art is trash, once I started watching more and more episodes, I started to hate the art more and more, if you like good animation, then this show ... is bad for you since the art is utter garbage.

Sound: I hated the op, it is really annoying and pissed me off if I heard the first 10 seconds of it, and the soundtrack for this show is very disappointing as well.

Character: The main problem with this show is the main female character, it just made watching the show very unpleasant. I thought the immortal samurai was a good character but not the female. She was trying to get revenge for her family, but anytime she saw someone that killed her family, she would hesitate each time, try to reason with them, get them to apologies for what they did and because of that she almost die each time. If it wasn't for the immortal samurai, she would have been dead by ep 2. Also when she had the opportunity to kill them she would just utterly fail.

I wrote a lot of negatives things about this show because I feel the show just wasted my time. It was unpleasant experience watching this show. I recommend never watching this show, you would just be wasting your time.

The silver blade cleaves the skin, ripping, tearing through broken flesh. A sea of scarlet spews, transforming into rain dancing amidst the blade that released it. The body broken in two, now covered by a cascade of carmine droplets as numerous as the lives cut short by the sword and its wielder. The loud eruption is followed by silence as the chaos settles into tranquility. It’s a scene characterized by its duality.

There’s a strange sense of serenity to Blade of the Immortal 2019. For all of the vile horrors it presents as rape and death are littered across the show’s 24 episode run, there’s a ... strange sense of tranquility and naturalism to be found in much of it. The world presented by this show is a cold, often quiet one where almost everyone will die or suffer immense pain and bloodshed. Despite this, characters can still have a peaceful dialogue about poetry or engage in several moments of levity and comedic relief that do not feel forced. There’s so much to love about this show, yet all the same, there’s a lot that holds it back. This all stems from the 24 episode runtime the show had, as well as the studio that took on the project.

Let’s start with the visuals. An action show is certainly incomplete without its fight scenes. Sadly, Studio LIDENFILMS had significant problems delivering, as most fight scenes resorted to a myriad of quick cuts in place of actual animation and choreography. It often felt like characters were teleporting during these scenes, and there were several admittedly brutal impacts that somehow felt weightless. I doubt anyone is gonna look at the studio and expect brilliant fight animation on the level of what the best Sunrise, Bones, Production IG, or Ufotable productions can put out. However, even with the studio rarely putting out a work anyone has praised for its animation, it’s startling to see moments as jank as some of the running animation in episode 19 and 20. On top of that, there are several moments --especially in the first episode-- where we just see extreme close-ups flashing as background colors flicker white and red. While the intent was likely to show the insane brutality of these violent, bloodthirsty moments while saving on animation costs, these scenes are borderline epileptic. The background just becomes a bunch of strobe lights that cause pain or at the very least, significant discomfort. Lastly, the artwork is relatively fine and consistent for the most part, but it becomes rather difficult to tell characters apart barring those with more distinct designs.

There are some significant saving graces to the production, however. Miraculously, the CGI is not only sparse but actually ok. Very few scenes display them and they’re only used for swords that look as metallic as humanly possible. Moreover, there are still several gruesome impact shots that look either beautiful and artsy, or downright devastating. If only the contents of the fights transitioned into those moments better, as there are several gory explosions that look absolutely majestic. While he and his team at LIDENFILMS don’t seem to be too cut out for action, Hiroshi Hamasaki proves to be a wonderful director, presenting dazzling, sometimes imaginative sequences. There are certain nigh-picturesque shots of Edo period cityscapes and nature in general, sometimes transitioning between one beautiful shot to another such as in the finale when we transition from one of our main characters to the sun which her silhouette is placed in the center of. Several quiet moments are captured beautifully through shot composition, conveying the tranquility that parades much of this anime. There are also scenes where certain characters’ mental states or perceptions are warped in the latter half of the show, and they are captured vividly. The fight scene with a crafty old man in episode 21 as well as the sequences in episodes 15 and 16 where Dr. Burando loses his mind out of the sheer grief of his experiments resulting in people’s deaths are prime examples. I cannot begin to describe how vivid and disturbing these scenes are.

Did you notice how I was only able to name one of the two characters I mentioned in the previous paragraph? That brings me to another problem with the show. There are so many characters to keep track of, and a lot of them don’t get the time they need to stand out or even be identifiable. The prime example of this is the miniboss squad one of the antagonists, Kagimura Habaki, has, In episode 22, these guys are just introduced with no fanfare. While there are nice glimpses of a character in two out of the three characters here, they are quickly rushed out and even killed offscreen in the next episode. So many side characters just get thrown into the narrative without any real introduction. Combined with how the art style gives several characters the same face, it adds to how indistinguishable, borderline unrecognizable some of the characters are. In fact, I believe that certain characters that were supposed to be hunted down were simply forgotten by the narrative, such as the long-sword guy who is one of the lackeys of the main antagonist. Even the characters we actually care about have several rushed moments, like when we meet someone they care about for the first time, only for them to die in the exact same episode like we’re supposed to be devastated almost as much as they are. It’s genuinely difficult to remember the names of most of the side characters. Makie is the only one I consistently remember, at the time of finishing the show and writing this shortly after.

This was one of the many casualties of the 24-episode runtime as it simply was not enough to do justice to a 30 volume, 209 chapter manga. Even after the director asked which parts he could skip given that this was meant to be a complete adaptation, so much about the writing feels rushed. I don’t know if the show needed a few more episodes or an entire cour, but it certainly needed time. Here, episodes often just end abruptly or are paced so poorly that they often just feel like a collection of scenes strung together without any real sense of progression as characters just teleport from location to location with only cuts to black as scene transitions. As such, even some of the more entertaining episodes feel like they go on for double their actual length.

The other casualties are the relevant characters themselves. I do enjoy watching most of them, such as the straight-laced yet earnest anti-samurai Taito Magatsu and the tragic, conflicted former prostitute and current Ittou-ryu member Makie. A lot of their stories are filled with emotional moments, and they often feel like believable people. Kagimura Habaki deserves special mention as the second primary antagonist, as they somehow managed to take a character who instigated a heinous research project that involved the kidnapping of prisoners and eventually husbands, and make him genuinely sympathetic with the horrible hand he is dealt and the resolve it leaves him with during the show’s final quarter. Hell, even some of the more depraved characters such as the first episode’s antagonist, Sabato Kuroi, and the rapist/killer madman Shira, have genuine moments. It adds to how believable some of these characters are as people to some extent, sometimes having tender moments like this. Sadly, a lot of them still have rushed conclusions or plot points, and some of them simply meet up through contrivance, particularly with most of Shira’s and Magatsu’s encounters with each other and our main protagonist in the second half. Shira deserves special mention for instigating about half of the show’s 4 or 5 rape scenes, and the show comes off as a little to sleazy in these moments for my liking. I understand that some of these characters are savages, but some of them should have been toned down while others --namely when one of the best female characters, Hyakurin, gets this treatment a second time by a character episode 22 just introduced and then killed off-- should have been removed entirely. Never did I imagine calling a rape scene filler, but this anime works in strange ways. At the very least, a majority of these characters get beautiful sendoffs in the final two episodes, with some of the most powerful and well-directed death scenes I have seen in a long time. It certainly does help that the first 9 minutes of the finale are without any audible dialogue, relying solely on the visuals and sound effects to convey the dizzying, gruesome fates of several of the relevant characters whose paths have intersected at the end. Still, I could see many of these characters being even better and more fleshed-out in the source material, even if this show does still try its damnedest at times to keep them intact. Even after this, there’s still a handful of relatively compelling side characters I haven’t mentioned.

At this point, all that’s left is our main trio of sorts. Manji is an immortal hardass with a heart of gold, with some snark and wiseness to him. Not the most groundbreaking or compelling protagonist, but one who does lead to a lot of charming and humorous moments with other characters. There’s a surprising level of chemistry he has with Rin as well as Taito Magatsu as they continually encounter one-another. Speaking of Rin, she’s a case of watching an incredibly desperate crybaby evolve into someone with some semblance of maturity. As much of a pain as it can be to watch her cry almost every episode in the first half and end up doing very little outside of getting captured while bellyaching about her revenge, it does become satisfying when she continues to put revenge aside while managing to come up with useful plans to help her comrades in the third quarter. While she is never the most compelling character, even by episode 9, she starts earning badass moments that make her growing pains worth it. Even in the early episodes, she still comes off better than other whiny “I’m useless and weak” protagonists due to having several amusing moments with Manji, the one she hires to protect her as she continues her quest for revenge. Finally, there’s the man she wants revenge on, Kagehisa Anotsu. He’s an ambitious man, wanting to take the dojo-crushing Ittou-ryu and have it wage war on Edo Japan to showcase the impact of his hateful grandfather’s style. He does this while consciously wanting to spite the spirit of the abusive geezer thanks to the terrible upbringing he had, and how he was forced to leave a peculiar girl he saved in a tree after the man wanted to kill her. It makes the relationship between him and Rin complicated, as she wants him dead but the two still share a past and therefore, she sees some humanity in the stoic man. He is perhaps the least interesting of the trio on his own, though his more vulnerable moments with Rin and Makie as well as his final showdowns in the last two episodes make him somewhat compelling regardless.

The only significant aspect of the show I want to touch on that isn’t a mixed bag is the show’s music. While I am not huge on "SURVIVE OF VISION" by Kiyoharu thanks to the extreme engrish on display, the howling vocals and badass guitars make for a decent mood piece perfect for a chaotic bloodbath such as this show. Without an ED to speak of, all that’s left is the soundtrack by Eiko Itsubashi, who had never done an OST for anime before. There are several neat tracks befitting of this time period. However, while they do make for decent pieces that fit the show, rarely do I feel they ever stood out on their own. It works for what it has to be, nothing more, nothing less.

It would be easy to call this show a lackluster adaptation of a great manga, elevated by the skills of its director. The narrative is very heavily truncated even from an anime-only standpoint as episodes feel bloated and characters are thrown in without proper introduction. While some episodes did work well enough from the episodic treatment at first, some of them could have made for slightly longer mini-arcs. Once the story gets going around episode 6, the pacing is still too quick for its own good despite the myriad of glorious moments in the latter half of the show. For an action show, the fight scenes are often the worst parts of the anime’s visuals barring some of the brutal finishers. There is a lot to work with, and I can tell that I would have a blast reading the manga whenever I do so. Everything was just held back by this show needing to be 24 episodes when that was not enough to properly capture what was offered. Even a skilled director can only do so much, so it’s a miracle this show remains functional and compelling despite its constraints and issues. Perhaps another cour could have given characters more room to shine and the narrative more room to breathe. The show is sometimes at its best when things are quiet or vivid. At the same time, I dread what that would have done to the show’s already lackluster fight scenes. Alas, greatness is hamstrung. It’s a mix of greatness and mediocrity, much like the duality of the show’s tranquility and brutality. Alas, unless you want to see more of what the Steins;Gate and Texhnolyze director is up to, it’s more difficult to recommend this show than I would like given how enjoyable I found this show to be. Much like the characters themselves, proceed with caution.

Blade of the Immortal is a samurai anime that has been blessed by Hiroshi Hamasaki’s fantastic direction. At its core, Blade of the Immortal is a rather simple revenge story, but is elevated by the quirks of both Hamasaki, the director, and the mangaka, Hiroaki Samura.

Hamasaki’s direction of this show is absolutely crucial to its success. He brings such an overwhelmingly nihilistic tone to everything that he works on, and Blade of the Immortal is no exception. The often washed out colour palette, the great shot composition, and the incredible action choreography, all of Hamasaki’s hallmarks are present in this show. The manga is ... cruel, but the direction of the anime really brings out the cruel nature of the setting and characters to a whole nother level. You’ll often see horrific things happen to good people, all in the pursuit of selling the tone of the show. I cannot stress how actively Blade of the Immortal puts its tone above all else, it's genuinely difficult not to feel as though you are being sucked into the world that the characters inhabit.

Unlike in other Hamasaki works, his direction of Blade of the Immortal isn’t supposed to necessarily make the viewer feel bad about the awful things that are happening, it’s more so that it revels in it. Blade of the Immortal is very much so, an Ero Guro story. Its violence isn’t strictly focused on horrific sword fights, but is quite often focused on erotic violence. This is what I mean when I say that Blade of the Immortal revels in its violence. It doesn’t try to hide its appeal as an ero guro work, but more so indulges in the many aspects of the artistic genre. Its combination of eroticism and grotesqueness directly feeds into the tone of the show.

The characters in Blade of the Immortal are, for the most part, very good. While Manji may be a decent but flawed main character, it's Rin and the side characters that really steal the show. The best episodes in Blade of the Immortal are the ones in which Manji is either less relevant, or isn’t present at all. My favourite episode at the time of writing this is episode nine. This episode completely focused on Rin and her determination to exact revenge upon those who killed her family. What I like the most about Rin’s character is that, while she is trying to get stronger as a fighter, the show is very aware that it wouldn't be possible for her to get very strong in such a short amount of time. So instead, she is shown to be getting stronger mentally, she has seen so many horrific things since the start of the show, that she has had to change in order to adapt to her surroundings. The villains are all pretty good and are varied to say the least. On one hand you can have a completely irredeemably evil villain like Shira, who is the main source of this show’s erotic violence, and on the other hand you can have a villain like Anotsu, who despite being the one who killed Rin’s father, is very sypathetic and even supports Rin’s journey to exact revenge upon him. An overall very good cast of characters.

Blade of the Immortal may have some issues, in its rather weak main character, simplistic story, poor pacing, and occasional tonal whiplash, but overall, I’ve really enjoyed it.

Blade of the Immortal is an okayish manga (6/10), but enjoyable nonetheless, so when I found out that there were plans for a 2nd attempt to adapt the complete story I was surprised and a little excited. I thought this would receive the treatment FMA got with Brotherhood, but boy was I wrong. This new adaptation is below average.

Story - 3/10
The pacing is the worst aspect, it's so fucking rushed you can barely understand what's going on most of the time. The story itself is nothing special, a pretty straightforward revenge story, with lots of convenient chance encounters for the sake of the plot ... that felt artificial and forced in the manga, and this rushed adaptation only makes these faults more evident. There are many times that characters that the plot requires get together conveniently bump into each other. The first few episodes are very episodic, our 2 protagonists search for a villain of the week, they kill him, rinse and repeat, when all the minor villains are dead most of the story consists of characters walking long distances chasing someone, they meet, they fight, no one dies, they get separated, rinse and repeat. It's very formulaic and gets old pretty quickly, fortunately there's an arc inside a dungeon that breaks this cycle, but here it's so rushed you barely get a break from all the chasing and fighting. In the manga the interaction between characters during these long travels was a welcomed change of pace from all the action. This adaptation seems to only care about the action, the travels are not only rushed but sometimes skipped entirely, this means a frenetic and chaotic pacing reminiscent of clusterfucks like Rise of Skywalker.

Art - 3/10
The visuals are horrible, everything looks grey, probably an attempt to appear "mature" (like Zach Snyder movies but worse), all the grayness gets really tiresome after some time. Animation is serviceable when characters are speaking between each other or doing minimal movements, but it looks really bad during fight scenes, it looks really stiff and amateurish (it's not as bad as One Punch Man 2nd season but it's still pretty bad). At least the character designs are pretty good and reminiscent of the manga art style, but for some reason everyone now has gigantic ears, they look ridiculous. The artwork of the manga is beautiful and certainly the best aspect of it, it's a shame that this anime is so ugly to look at.

Sound - 6/10
The music is fine, most tracks are forgettable but a few of them are pretty good, specially the ones used to create a creepy atmosphere. The OP is complete garbage imo, really cringey edgy song with Berserk and LoGH levels of nonsensical engrish (and it's visually ugly, just some random visuals, looks like they quickly made them with After Effects), I ALWAYS skipped it. The ED features some nice relaxing music from the score (unfortunately the visuals consist entirely of a rotating water wheel).

Characters - 6/10
The characters obviously suffer because of the stupidly fast pace (specially Kagehisa), but at least Manji and Rin's relationship wasn't completely butchered. The main antagonist Shira was pretty entertaining when he first appeared, but he is too one dimensional (and it's very ridiculous how he keeps getting stronger with every limb he loses).

Enjoyment - 4
The manga is entertaining, with great artwork, decent characters and many intense fights, this adaptation is trying to cram 30 vols into 24 episodes, characters feel underdeveloped, the pacing is so fast your brain can barely process what's going on, low quality animation and ugly monotonous visuals don't help. Overall this anime is a huge disappointment and not even enjoyable, I reccomend reading the manga instead.

This is one of those adaptations that take a lot of creative liberties when it comes to direction. Hamasaki's imprint is very apparent with this one, with many scenes preferring stylized compositions over cohesive ones. And when it comes to a simple samurai story, I believe this is one of the most interesting ways to do it.

With the source material being this graphic and revolting, the use of effects like static, rapid frame changes and outlandish imagery drives these moments home and makes them more memorable overall. This also includes the fight, while mostly stylized in direction, they don't compromise on animation quality and good ... choreography.

The soundtrack of the show also fits the bill, with it being very simplistic yet very fitting to the era ascribed to it. The opening on the other hand, is very painful to listen to.

When it comes to the overall story and them skipping parts of the manga, the characters introduced receive their fair share of development and moments, so the show, as well as its continuity wasn't affected by the omitted chapters. And while certain parts of the show feel rather rushed, this was a very entertaining watch, and genuinely grew to be a personal favorite.

A must watch.

The story is great, its dark and have amazing characters. I never read the manga, so I was a bit confused about the story because they dont explain everything, they avoid showing some important things (maybe because this is just 24 episodes to an manga with 200+ chapters).

But... The animation is just terrible, they dont even show the fight scenes, sometimes when someone is fighting, we just see a black screen with some sword's sounds. not even in the final battles there was a fluid animation. At least the character design is beautiful.

Its worth watching, if you ignore the animation.

I never thought I'd ever say this. Go watch the live action movie, don't waste your time with the anime. Spoilers ahead.

I love anime set in the samurai era, unfortunately this one was a mess. I can't tell if it's because the source material is awful or the adaption was awful because the live action which was extremely trimmed down was pretty enjoyable, but the anime which had far more content (that was still rushed), was far less enjoyable, and frankly sucked. Here's why.

The fundamental story of BoTI is solid and very fitting. The arcs and the villains however are pathetically executed. First the arcs. ... BoTI tries to, and fails, hard, in imitating the iconic atmosphere Monogatari has for one very simple reason. The pacing is shit. BoTI rushes around, drags on, and gets lost each and every arc all simultaneously. It feels like you're watching a show that's being animated as you're watching it.

The show is also extremely gratuitous at times. It constantly has excessive cruelty / gore / rape to remind you it's mature and set in a dangerous world. Something completely unnecessary after a certain point. Constantly shoving that sort of thing in your face is a cheap sleight of hand used to avoid actually addressing mature topics in a mature manner. Having the same character get raped or rape when it adds nothing to the story or atmosphere is irritating and makes you think the author has a sick fetish or is relying on such cheap and easy to achieve emotional actions to distract from the failings of the series.

The story arcs themselves are often based or start with ridiculous nonstarters, and just drag on. In the beginning, like first 3 episodes, it was fine and you could clearly seen potential, but by the 6th, it was gone. The connection between each arc / episode seemed to be disappearing, and by the end, you felt like someone had dosed you with morphine while watching each episode, and struggle to remember what is happening and why. Simply put, what's bad is not particularly the story or the events themselves, but the way they are portrayed and connected to each other.

The characters however, and more particularly the villains are straight awful. Namely Shira, and Ren... (whatever his name was).

Shira was a cheap, boring and easy to write villain. One that got plot armored through half the series as well. I don't want to waste too much time on a rant, so to keep things short; his bone arm is impossible BS, even for an immortal (which he wasn't when he got it). He'd be constantly bleeding, infected and in immobilizing pain greater than you can imagine; any human, super, normal or otherwise, would be dead within a week flat with that thing. There was zero, literally zero, chance he survives in any realistic setting during the waterfall episode. He'd lost his hands, and likely had both vertebral arteries cut (as he'd been nearly cut in half at the both shoulders), and feel an excess of 30ft on (not in) water. He'd have died. As a character, he was boring and had no character traits beyond "I'm evil, let me tell you what evil things I'm doing so I can hurt you". He was entirely predictable and bland, he could be written by any person and slotted into any story. He's no different than SAO's Suguo. A lazy, unexceptional, gratuitous chaotic evil character.

Renzou was a boring child character, not unlike Gabi from SnK. There's nothing much to say about him that the analogy doesn't already convey. He's unnecessary, poorly done, obviously in the wrong and overall a waste of time and space. The other villains / supporting characters are also kind of just there. Kagehisa has a decent enough backstory and motivation, as does his cousin. Not much to write home about or complain about. Taito however was pretty interesting and well done, a very good conditional enemy / ally. Habaki and Co. is also another "whatever" villain. You just don't remember or care much about them.

Manji and Rin. I don't have much of an opinion of Manji, I don't really have any complaints or praises for him. He's just there as far as I'm concerned. Rin is pretty solid most of the time, going through decent enough character arcs, though I find her nativity and naive morality irritating considering that which she endures throughout and prior to the story. (Repeatedly trusting Shira, and the like). She consistently does stupid things which if any genuine character development had happened should have ironed out that issue and prevented those events, which really detracts from this series and her character. A lot of the conflicts involving her would not have happened had the story adequately addressed the development she should have gone through due the events she's endured.

I think the characters are poor because they suffer collectively from the absolutely abysmal story rather than being awful or uninteresting character on their own. At least they all have absolutely fantastic designs, though, the animation does them no justice.

The animation and art is a fucking mess. It goes from decent to shit and everywhere in between throughout the anime. A lot of the time it looks over-saturated and blurry, like someone left a damp film over saran wrap over the lens of the camera or like you're looking through slightly textured plastic. The characters themselves have solid designs, but the lazy animation and poorly done art ruin a lot of the charm they have when the animation is doing well.

The sound is whatever, the OP was unexceptional and something I skipped every time, the OSTs, voice acting, and sound effects were all extremely average and could not salvage this anime in any way.

The manga is seemingly highly regarded, but this anime makes me think the manga is probably shit, and not worth exploring or finding out if my assumption is correct or not. That is an astounding failure, I cannot emphasize how poor this anime was in any other words.

I again genuinely cannot believe that a live action is better than the anime. If you're considering watching this, go watch the LA first. If you dislike it, don't ever think about touching this anime. If you like it or are ambivalent to it, also don't ever touch this anime because it'll ruin any of your affection towards the series. At least, it did for me.

Blade of the immortal is one of my favorite manga. 30 volumes condensed into 24 episodes didn't cut it. The character development is one of the best things about this story the amount of details given about the historical context, the numerous gory battles that get you wanting to read more, the moral and philosophical aspect to the story, the finality... All gone. The OST is horrendous I would actually prefer silence.

Don't get me wrong some of the episodes where enjoyable (shira vs magatsu)and had my interest but then they announced they were making it into a 24 ep adaptation. And then said they ... will adapt the 'new' Blade series that only has 1 volume out to this day. What the actual f* where they thinking ? An epic story with lots of potential and a 30 volume saga and they decide to end it in 24 episodes to animate something that hasn't even been started properly.

Deceiving, I hope the new series gets cancelled, stop killing this awesome story,

Also you guys who praised the director before this was even finished, are you out of your minds, he surely did not do a good job here

Oh well it was to be expected after all the other lousy adaptations made

Well, this was quite unique ONA, given that its title was Mugen No Juunin or Blade of the Immortal, but it was a bit of a disappointment when the ONA itself doesn't live up to its title, so here are my ratings:

Story- Good 7: For a while it does have a very good story plot when it involves a girl who was the daughter of a certain samurai master that was killed by them Itto Ryu antagonists. But, that just as good as it get, cu'z as one gets to the middle of the series it becomes a disappointment.


Art- Good 7: It does have ... mild nudity but most of it were artistic, however there times that when it comes to the fighting scene one would get blindsided as if if you'd like to ask "How did he/she do that???", also there time that some illustrations were just too distorted that it would take a while to get it.

Sound-fair 6: No comment here.

Character-Poor 3: Frankly, being an immortal this is were the main protagonist Manjin should have had that god-tier powers given that he's been alive for a very long time and he himself would had the experience to be able to see through his enemies attacks, instead, he finds himself in need of assistance and help from his side kick Rin, now I don't know about you guys but him having such attributes was a waste of his skills , it would have been better if original creator , Samura Hiroaki would have portrayed him as a mortal with skills in fighting and in the end he gives his life in defense of Rin when he squares off with Anotsu, Kagehisa, Rin Asano, was somewhat of a damsel in distares but there were times that she was this cold blooded killer and whats confusing about her was that there were time that she forgets her objective of getting revenge, there were time that her being with Manji was more like a romantic interest......also, about them Itto Ryu antagonist there were times that they're the good guys and time that they're the bad guys..Now this was the problem of the original creator, Samura Hiroaki, he basically jumbol from one set of protagonist to another set of antagonist that sometimes who the bad guy is would be confusing until he introduces them Mugai-ryū that was headed by Kagimura Hibaki that has finally identifies itself as the main antagonist.

Enjoyment- Good 7: As an ONA, this was worth watching but barely cu'z adding some mild nudity and some rape scene gives this ONA something to be not let go of.

Overall- Poor 3: As I've said , this was worth watching but only barely, cu'z how it ended was pretty much rushed that the ending was messy.

Being someone who's never read the original 30-volume manga nor never watched the countless adaptations striving to take the context off of famed mangaka Hiroaki Samura's work and going into this re-adaptation blind, I must say that going in this totally blind, it was all a very wild ride whilst cutting and rushing content for a full adaptation of the manga.

The story of Rin Asano's journey to eradicate the Itto-Ryu, a sword school whose members massacred her family, and perchance the story of the Immortal Manji, the Killer of 100 with his many blades of death, and aiming to kill a thousand more from affliction. ... Both recite their journey for one purpose and lean on each other's strength and resilience to get through the many dangers facing friends and foes, not to mention the bloody scenes of gory, gruesome death. And as they say, the rest is history.

I want to discuss about the choice of director which was Hiroshi Hamasaki. In his 30+ years of animating and directing anime (most of which was in the late 80s to early 2000s), his directing style is one that's left in a bygone era. That's not to say that it was memorable though, as can be seen by the many hiccups in not just directorial roles, but also key animation and storyboard/scripts (which only a niche audience can buy his styles). With him directing the massively original Steins;Gate and the absurdly "so good it's bad" Orange, it's clear that he has toned down his expectations and let the other show segments do the work, but with this full re-adaptation, it felt more like his own pet project to experiment new styles and stick with them if it's deemed appropriate, and sadly the anime adaptation has too many flaws, though some turned-good episodes aren't enough to salvage this.

As much as there's cut content (I tracked the anime through the manga chapters on its pacing speed), it feels just enough to understand even if there's missing info. I mean, surely when productions go "FULL" adaptation, I'd admit that I wanted to see the acclaimed manga in full content, but alas with the time restrictions, it can't be done. Nevertheless, Hiroshi Hamasaki did his best to investigate the manga and only add in important and necessary scenes without bogging the audience down, and that is good.

And there's the music. More than Kiyoharu's "Survive of Vision" being the ONLY song (the rest are background instrumentals), the sound department actually plays a major part in the entire series by providing tension and sense of war and foreboding, even at the most violent and gory scenes of dismemberment and wacky kills. It's safe to say that what music director Youji Shimizu did was a good job at replicating the scenes with eerie tonal shifts.

The elephant in the room is Liden Films and the lack of animation, but not without reason that it chooses the aesthetics over animation. For a series such as Blade of the Immortal, action via violence has always been the selling point of the manga, and the adaptation was lukewarm to even the most bloodiest, gruesome kills. I mean, thank God this wasn't made for TV, but rather being an ONA (original net animation) sponsored by Amazon Prime. Or so I'd hoped that the action scenes would be done justice, but there are some twists and turns to it. It was a decent work done that's for sure.

Overall, I can only recommend this ONA if you're a fan of Hiroshi Hamasaki and his distinctive style, but nothing more.

I feel like this took a turn for the worse

Aight hear me out. I originally gave this a 9 but after the show went on I fell off the tracks and I didn't understand anything that happened and the story wasn't anything that great. Some episodes were just super boring. The start was nice and some episodes near the end but most of was just kinda boring for my liking. If anything the art and the animation were fucking good.

The characters are just there I think. Lets start with Manji. He is this immortal samurai who has killed over 100 dudes. Manji now acts as ... Rins bodyguard. Manji is just a badass samurai whose fighting style is charging aggressively towards his opponent without care and and trying to hit a blow. He doesn't care about blocking or dodging since he can just tank it. Rin just manages to get into more trouble and she does stupid stuff even though Manji warns her. There are other characters but I don't remember anything about them.

Opening. Oh boy, I hate it. The song is sung in broken engrish the visuals are not anything special. But the song just sucks ass. It is probably one of the rare openings I skipped.

You are free to watch this but I don't really recommend doing it.

24 episodes is a long ride and even though I binged the first 10, I had troubles remembering the story and connecting names to faces. The art style is quite good, there are some misses, but overall it is well done, animation at times are smooth as butter, others not so much, so it felt like a well balanced anime considering its production.

Voice acting overall was quite good, however I am disappointed with Sakura Ayane, I heard three different voices for the same character she gives life, Rin's "normal" voice feels natural, however at times when she projects her voice to sound more imposing that ... was amateur-ish and there were moments when those voices were misplaced, Sakura Ayane is a great seiyuu of this generation, but this was one of her worst roles.

A despicable thing about this anime, however, are two things: lack of consistency and terrible writing. Sometimes there is no connection whatsoever between one episode and the following, others even within an episode you can feel there is a huge gap, like something happened behind the cameras and you don't know how the story lead to that. Being able to take a whole series and turning into an anime is a tough job, some people manage, this anime isn't this case.

This anime opening was the worst I've heard, song is bad, the animation of the opening was bad, I would constantly skip, I would leave my bed even after finding that perfect spot just so I could skip the opening.

To keep this review short, and to the point: everything about the show's production value is good. The fight animation is solid, the animation and direction are both good, and the art and music fit very well with the vibe of the show.

HOWEVER, the pacing of this show is absolutely impossible to follow if you are an anime only like I was. Past the first 2 arcs of the story, the pacing is so fast that you will be utterly lost as to what the fuck is happening for the duration of the show. Random characters that you don't know at all will pop up ... out of nowhere like they've always been there, and Manji and Rin just seem to change to a completely different location every episode with no warning. Watching this show without prior knowledge of the plot is like watching a 50 episode series, but only watching every other episode; you will have a very rough idea of what is happening, but you will still be lost.

That is the sole gripe I have with the show, and is the sole reason this show gets a 6 from me. Great direction only goes so far when you can't even comprehend the plot because of the pacing issues.

My consensus is to watch this if, and only if, you have read the manga, and will therefore have an understanding of the plot outside the anime. A lot of the fights are pretty cool, so it may be worth it for some manga readers out there to seen those parts animated. Otherwise if you are interested in partaking in this series, start with the manga and only watch this if you want to see some parts animated.

I will end this review with one final warning, which just about sums up everything I just ranted on: DO NOT WATCH THIS WITHOUT READING THE MANGA EXTENSIVELY FIRST.

This is my first review. I like to keep things brief and to the point. No spoilers. 1-4=don't like 5=indifferent 6-10=like These are my thoughts on this anime.

Story 7:

I think the overall story is really well done. The execution could've been a lot better though. The reason it wasn't that good was because of all the other elements. The story sits with you and the ending solidifies the feeling of the entire anime, the bitter-sweetness of an era in your life, in the world, coming to an end. I don't know whether I'm just slow in my head but there where a bunch of ... parts that were a little too convoluted and unnecessary. And a lot of the characters meet one another at random points which, again, made no sense. It would make sense if "you can't escape fate" was a big theme of this anime but it wasn't. I also want to note that I liked the beginning of the anime more than the end.

Art 3:

The art wasn't the greatest. There are no "fight" scenes. They just imply what happens. the animation is stiff and very still. There is this part where these girls are running but they just look like they are bobbing up and down REALLY fast. It didn't really match will the rest of the show. There was nothing out standing but there are a lot of inconsistencies. What I really dislike was the lack of effort in fights. Almost nothing was amazing to see and the production just came of as lazy.

Sound 7:

I really can't remember much of the soundtrack except for one song. I don't know whether that is because they replayed it a whole bunch of times (which they did) or if it was a banger. Non-the-less I enjoy the one song i remember!

Character 5:

The character design is bland. Same archetypes all the way through. Although, they work very well, and some of the characters stand out immensely. Even the redundant characters were designed properly enough to keep my attention. But there is no nuance in character and not that much development. And creativity was minimal.

Enjoyment 6:

The art is what really brought this down. It one of the reasons the story was weaker, characters were bland, and overall made the show less appealing. I'm not saying that art is everything in a show but the style of art and animation must work with the genres and themes of the show. In Mugen no Juunin, the characters and themes are mature, so you expect a mature art style, but there is little consistency and it comes off as rushed.

Overall 6:

I don't regret watching this and i enjoyed it for what it was. But i couldn't help but think about Samurai Champloo while watching it and noticing all the thing Champloo did right, and all the things Mugen did wrong. Non-the-less i enjoyed this. I would recommend this to people that like Edo Period anime and samurai anime.

English Version:

General: (6.65 / 10)

Honestly, the best phrase that comes to my mind to describe this adaptation at the moment is "Whoever embraces little presses." I mean, it is a show that can be easily entertaining for anyone who is interested in a Sumarai / Historico plot (as in my case), but nevertheless it lacks a lot of depth in the characters, most of them are very forgettable and only a few will remember their names at the end of the series.
One always puts on the table the over-understanding of "cut to adapt" but at the end of the day when you want to convey ... some empathy to the viewer with your characters and at the same time it is precisely the section that you neglect the most, is where inconsistencies arise in the history.
Clearly they applied this serialization as a product to promote the work for which it is understandable, but perhaps personally I would prefer that they use other forms than the crumbling of the characters being one of the strongest characters in the title.
The staging with both animation that was excellent and worthy of appreciation, along with the soundtrack, they performed very well and have been the pillars of this anime throughout its 24 chapters.
Anyway, if you want a series of samurai quite superficial without too much expectation from the plot and development, it is recommended to see a bit of action with gore.


Version en Español:

General: (6,65 / 10)

Sinceramente la mejor frase que se me viene la mente para describir esta adaptación al momento es "Quien mucho abarca poco aprieta". Me refiero a que es un espectaculo que puede resultar facilmente entretenido para cualquier persona que le interese una trama de Sumarai/Historico (como en mi caso), pero no obstante carece de mucha profundidad en los personajes, la mayoría de ellos son muy olvidables y solo de unos pocos recordaremos sus nombre al final de la serie.
Uno siempre pone sobre la mesa el sobre-entendimiento de "recortar para adaptar" pero al fin y al cabo cuando quieres transmitir algo de empatía al espectador con tus personajes y a la vez justamente es el apartado que mas descuidas, es donde surgen las incongruencia en la historia.
Claramente aplicaron esta serialización como producto para promocionar la obra por lo cual es entendible, pero tal vez desde lo personal preferiría que empleen otras formas que no sea la desmenuzar a los personajes siendo unos de los caracteres mas fuertes del titulo.
La puesta en escena tanto con la animación que fue excelente y digna de apreciación, junto a la banda sonara se desenvolvieron muy bien y han sido los pilares de este anime a lo largo de sus 24 capítulos.
En fin si quieren una serie de samurai bastante superficial sin demasiada expectativa desde la trama y desarrollo es recomendable para ver un poco de acción con gore.

if only the studio had been given couple of episode more to build up a Cohesive story instead of cutting both the story and the importance of character dialogue hence a lot of the times i didn't know what is happening in story, another thing that left a little bad taste in my mouth is the fighting some fight needed to be longer in addition to being a real fight not couple of frames changing and thats just it , o but that doesn't take away that BOA has a story that tops most other anime's and im glad that i watched ... it , hope more people acknowledged it .

Edo period. Decapitation. Evisceration. Disembowelment. The breaking of Gods weld. Interchangeable arms. Good guys (are there really any?!?) cavorting with bad guys. Powerful women. Not like the stronger they are the less clothes they wear power but true powerful, intelligent, skilled women who are looked upon as equal threats. The Japanese version of Dr. Frankenstein. And romance. Yes I said it, romance. The blood saturated snow is soaked in romance.
Mugen no Juunin: Immortal makes the Godfather Trilogy look like a birthday party at your mother-in-laws house. Not your cup of tea? ... Go back and watch another season of Pokemon.

Nice ending. Not like Cowboy Bebop ending but nice.