Mugen no Juunin: Immortal

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]

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

Aoi, Hiroyuki Producer

Hamasaki, Hiroshi Director, Storyboard

Shimizu, Youji Sound Director

Kitamura, Junichi Episode Director

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 ... 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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jul 31, 2024

zolla_lucky

Not Recommended

Funny

I saw the cover of this anime, it seems interesting because of the story setting, in ancient times.
I found some scenes uncomfortable to watch, too much abuse of cute girls and boys, this anime has no morals, the main character is too selfish and childish.

At that time I watched this anime at the beginning of covid, because I had free time and was curious because it seemed like it would be exciting, there would be action or sword fighting, it would definitely make me in a good mood at that time, but it didn't.

It took me 3 weeks to finish this anime and 4 months ... to overcome my depression, then I went to a psychologist. thankfully I can still distinguish between reality and anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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