World Famous Comics: Blood of a Thousand (Blade of the Immortal, Book 1)
Blood of a Thousand (Blade of the Immortal, Book 1)
By: Hiroaki Samura Publisher: Dark Horse Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Dark Horse Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 136 Publication Date: March 15, 1995
Product Description: "To end his eternal suffering, he must slay one thousand enemies!" Manji, a ronin warrior of feudal Japan, has been cursed with immortality. To rid himself of this curse and end his life of misery, he must slay one thousand evil men! His quest begins when a young girl seeks his help in taking revenge on her parents' killers . . . and his quest won't end until the blood of a thousand has spilled!
This title contains: Blade of the Immortal: Criminal, Blade of the Immortal: Conquest #1-3, Blade of the Immortal: Genius #1, #2
Amazon.com Review: Blade of the Immortal is a pure, unadulterated samurai epic told in a very moody black-and-white comic book. Artist Hiroaki Samura uses pencil drawings combined with pen-and-ink work to create this punk samurai feast. We don't know much about Manji except that he has been given the gift of immortality by an old witch in the form of the "blood worms." He makes a deal with her to end his immortality if he can kill 1,000 criminals. Soon everyone wants to hire him as an assassin, but it becomes increasingly difficult to tell who the real criminals are. Another interesting aspect of this book is the integrity of the "translation" of the art: because Japanese is read right to left and English is read left to right, most Japanese comics that are translated into English first have the art photo-reversed or mirror-imaged. Hiroaki Samura requested that this not be done. And so, for the most part, all of the panels were arranged in reverse order. Additionally, some of the dialogue and sound effects were left in their original Japanese calligraphy (with translations provided in caption boxes).
Slow Start to a Brilliant Story A series about an immortal samurai who must kill a thousand criminals to earn the right to die? Sounds like the perfect set-up for an endless bad-guy-of-the-week/tournament fighter franchise. Except, in Hiroaki Samura's hands, this seemingly inane concept yields a story so rich it has few peers.
Manji is the titular "immortal," tasked with redeeming a life of indiscriminate murder by taking out villains until he's paid off his karmic debt. There's just one problem: figuring out who the villains are is easier said than done. He gets caught up with Rin, a young woman on a quest to avenge the murder of her parents by the maverick Ittou Ryuu dojo, a sword school whose members follow only one creed: Anything to win.
Far from providing nameless fodder for generic fight scenes, however, the members of the Ittou Ryuu are as fully-developed as the nominal heroes, each with his own distinct motivations and personality. As Rin's hunt goes on, the question of who--if anyone--is doing the right thing becomes murkier and murkier.
Under this story run a number of thematic currents, messages about the humanity of our enemies and the price of revenge. The series completely avoids being ham-handed about these themes; they arise naturally from the characters' interactions.
Samura, meanwhile, is a superb artist: his visual style has a unique, penciled look, especially in the lovingly-illustrated views of old Edo (Tokyo); his writing is second to none, with vivid dialogue that flows spontaneously from the various personalities at play (and brought into English by Dana Lewis and Toren Smith in one of the finest translations in all of English manga). Page layouts are varied but organized (except for the whirlwind fight scenes, which can become hard to follow).
If "Blade" has an Achilles' Heel, it is this first volume, which is simply not the strongest book in the series. As fully-formed from the start as Samura's vision clearly was, the opening chapters simply don't shine the way later installments do. Other volumes of the series waste no time on flashbacks or summaries, however, so reading from the beginning is a must. Also, the production values on the American version of the book are not as high as later volumes; the reproduction of the art is disappointingly grainy.
Despite these shortcomings, "Blood of a Thousand" is a necessary first entry in a series absolutely worth reading. At its best, "Blade of the Immortal" is matchless in its beauty and power.
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Great writing, Great art With Samura action comics have definitely moved a step forward. The author is an extremely good writer and artist. His fight scenes are somehow difficult to understand at the beginning, but they'll drag you in very soon. His characters are simply among the best in comic world, even if you are a fun of western comics and don't like mangas too much. After volume 15 the Manga slows its pace. Since it was selling well I reckon they filled the story with some parts that could have been omitted. But anyhow it stays as a masterpiece in the comic world. S.
the amazing blade of the amazing immortal well i will not spoil this comic but i'll say this ..... if u like japanese comic and u like the bloody actions of the samurai with a great fantasy , then this comic is the right choice for u
in breif, it talks about a ruonin "manji" who is immortal and seeks to kill 1000 bad guys to get rid of this curse of his....
good luck in reading this comic
Blade of the Immortal, Volume 1 The plotline for this series is very basic: man protects girl on her quest for revenge. That's not a bad approach to the story, however. Plus, it's not just a slice-'em-up killer story. The author/artist of this manga has implemented memorable and often disturbing characters and one major catch: the hero can't die until he kills a thousand villains. Another catch is that it's not always an obvious decision: who is the bad guy in this manga anyhow? They're all human, mostly, and very real human outlooks and experiences drive their actions. Nothing is as simple as reading the back cover would lead you to believe.
Plotline aside, my initial draw to this series is the beautiful artwork. Whether we're seeing a bathhouse or bloodbath, the creator's unique style implements pencil art into the traditional pen and ink style. The story is rearranged from its original Japanese format using copy/paste to make it read from left to right. I prefer the original format, but the minor continuity problems do not interfere with the read that much.
If you buy the first one, you may end up buying all the rest! But that's not a bad idea.
Thrilling and focused With many plot twists that literally left my mouth agape I couldn't put this book down as long as I wasn't done. A very entertaining read that seems sad at many points in it's gruesome plot line.
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