Mugen no Juunin: Immortal (Blade of the Immortal)

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Japanese: 無限の住人-IMMORTAL-

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Information

Type: ONA

Episodes: 24

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 10, 2019 to Mar 26, 2020

Producers: Nihon Ad Systems, Mainichi Broadcasting System, Pony Canyon, Kodansha

Licensors: Sentai Filmworks

Studios: LIDENFILMS

Source: Manga

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Supernatural

Themes: Gore, Historical, Martial Arts, Samurai

Demographic: Seinen

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 7.43¹ (scored by 27,947 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #2175²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #2331

Members: 83,419

Favorites: 462

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Synopsis

Manji is an infamous swordsman in feudal Japan who is known as the "Hundred Man Killer," as he has killed one hundred innocent men. However, there is something far more frightening than his ominous reputation: the fact that he is immortal. This is the handiwork of eight-hundred-year-old nun Yaobikuni, who placed bloodworms capable of healing almost any wound in Manji's body.

To atone for his crimes, Manji resolves to kill one thousand evil men. Yaobikuni agrees to this proposal, saying that if he succeeds, she will undo his curse of immortality. Soon after this promise, Manji meets Rin Asano, a 16-year-old girl who requests Manji's assistance in killing those who slaughtered her parents.

Initially reluctant, Manji refuses Rin's desperate plea. However, owing to her evident lack of strength, Manji changes his mind and agrees to protect Rin for four years. With this partnership set in stone, the two embark on a perilous journey of bloodshed, vengeance, and redemption, each to fulfill their own life's cause.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Mugen no Juunin
Alternative version:	Mugen no Juunin

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Characters & Voice Actors

Manji

Main

Tsuda, Kenjirou
Japanese

Anotsu, Kagehisa

Main

Sasaki, Nozomu
Japanese

Asano, Rin

Main

Sakura, Ayane
Japanese

Otono-Tachibana, Makie

Supporting

Kuwashima, Houko
Japanese

Magatsu, Taito

Supporting

Suzuki, Tatsuhisa
Japanese

Hyakurin

Supporting

Hayashi, Marika
Japanese

Shira

Supporting

Nara, Tooru
Japanese

Giichi

Supporting

Shirokuma, Hiroshi
Japanese

Yoshino, Doa

Supporting

Kugimiya, Rie
Japanese

Habaki, Kagimura

Supporting

Nakata, Jouji
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Aoi, Hiroyuki

Producer

Hamasaki, Hiroshi

Director, Storyboard

Shimizu, Youji

Sound Director

Kitamura, Junichi

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

	"SURVIVE OF VISION" by Kiyoharu
	2: "Mugen no Juunin Butouhen (無限の住人武闘編)" by Ningen Isu [TV Rebroadcast eps 13-23]

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Ending Theme

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Reviews

Mar 25, 2020

poemofdevil

Recommended

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 ...

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Mar 25, 2020

SingleH

Mixed Feelings

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.

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Mar 25, 2020

Yautja

Not Recommended

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.

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Poll: Mugen no Juunin: Immortal Episode 5 Discussion Hatsuyuki - Oct 30, 2019	23 replies	by Apreggi »» Apr 24, 5:03 AM
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Mugen no Juunin: Immortal

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Characters & Voice Actors

Manji

Anotsu, Kagehisa

Asano, Rin

Otono-Tachibana, Makie

Magatsu, Taito

Hyakurin

Shira

Giichi

Yoshino, Doa

Habaki, Kagimura

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Mugen no Juunin: Immortal

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Background

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