World Famous Comics: Blade of the Immortal: Autumn Frost
Blade of the Immortal: Autumn Frost
By: Hiroaki Samura Publisher: Dark Horse Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Dark Horse Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 232 Publication Date: January 07, 2004
Product Description: You'd think that Manji, the immortal swordsman, would have dispatched just about every sinister personality in feudal Japan on his mission to slay a thousand evil men. But instead of thinning out the vicious herd, he's only shaken loose the most vicious and depraved. Now, Manji and his pal Magatsu are on the trail of one of the baddest apples in the barrel, Shira, old enemy of Manji - and a one-handed enemy, courtesy of the immortal's blade. But while Manji and Magatsu are hunting Shira, the crafty killer has hired a pack of hunters of his own, and if he can't kill Manji, he's hoping for the next best thing: to cut Manji to pieces on a daily basis. Streetwise and violent and yet possessed with a dark grace and beauty, Hiroaki Samura's award-winning Blade of the Immortal has taken its rightful place among the finest that graphic fiction has to offer, a stunning tour-de-force of story and art like none other.
What's An Arm Between Enemies� Hiroaki Samura's 'Blade of the Immortal,' set in the late 18th Century, is the story of that adventures of Manji, a swordsman made immortal and Rin, a young woman who seeks revenge against the men of the Itto-ryu, who killed her father, These are led by Anotsu, an unorthodox but deadly fighter himself. At this point in the story Manji and Rin have become separated, as each pursues their own path to Kaga, where Anotsu awaits.
Manji has teamed up with another fighter, Magatsu, and the story starts with them swapping adventures on the road. Suddenly an old enemy of both, Shira, appears. Shira is a psychotic with a taste for killing women and the girl Magatsu loved was among his victims. This triggers a free for all battle that occupies the majority of this manga, pitting Manji and Magatsu against Shira and a set of hired killers. As is normal for Samura, the fighting is imaginative and beautifully choreographed, as well as full of Manji's wry sarcasm.
We get a short glimpse of Rin before the focus shifts to Anotsu himself, focusing on his decision to accept Hisoka's hand in marriage. This exacerbates the tension over Anotsu's take-over of the sword school where she resides. While this has yet to break out into decisive action, the note of violence hangs over the wedding like a promise, and it is only a matter of time before Anotsu's mettle is tested again.
It is interesting that Anotsu, originally introduced as a villain, is gradually being shifted into a more sympathetic role. Samura has spent the time to develop him as a character, and it is impossible not to feel some sympathy for his goals, even if his methods are often cruel. What this will mean in the long run is difficult to foresee, but clearly there are more surprises planned.
'Blade of the Immortal' has been a series as exceptional in its way as 'Battle Angel Alita' is in its. In each case, the hero gradually develops from cold fighter to a brilliantly alive human being, dedicated to his companions. Of course, Alita's appeal is more universal, while Manji remains focused on his local problems. Hiroaki Samura uses the vehicle of the story to bring to life the Japan of his times, touching not just on the Samurai class but a wide swath of society. While the extreme violence makes this a story that is not for everyone it is an exemplar of its genre.
Hearts of Fire, Hearts of Stone Think it would be great to live forever? Manji, a crass ronin of eighteenth century Japan, doesn't agree. Cursed to immortal life for prior misdeeds, he must dispatch a thousand evil men to the judgment of the Buddha in order to die himself. Joining a young girl on her quest for vengeance against the rebellious Itto-Ryu sword school, Manji soon has dire need for his twelve blades as he faces a motley assortment of hardened warriors, psychopaths, philosophers and just plain jokers. The thousand-man requirement is met by the painful stroke of give-and-take; and is told in a fashion that puts most modern epics to shame.
This, the twelfth compilation released overseas, features the return of Blade's most vicious scoundrel, Shira, a cold-eyed killer capable of unspeakable depravities. At the climax of *Heart of Darkness* (BotI vol. 7), Manji cut off Shira's right arm, putting a kink in the assassin's typical routine of butchery, whoring and all-around reprobate-behavior. Upset but unruffled, Shira has decided that an `eye for an eye' is an adequate reparation for the loss of his arm; he intends on taking Manji's right appendage in payment and enlists three dim-witted stooges to help him ambush the lazy immortal. But unbeknownst to Shira's death-lust maneuverings, Manji is traveling with Magatsu Taito - a former top-blade warrior of the rogue Itto-ryo sword school - who has a grudge to settle with the serial-killer. . .
This `love/hate-triangle' is perhaps the most desperate fight of the series so far, as Magatsu and Shira cannot resuscitate themselves a la wound-healing bloodworms. With Manji, one always _knows_ he can survive just about any blow short of having his head chopped off; and after the violence-orgy of *The Gathering*, wherein the ronin's immorality was tested to an almost ridiculous limit, Hiroaki Samura decided to shift the conflict-emphasis to the other, `normal' characters. In *Autumn Frost*, the duel between Magatsu and Shira quickly reaches a dangerous level of piercing-threshold and pain: the tension of the close-quarter combat, coupled with the feverish passions of both hero and antagonist, give the story as a whole a much-needed jolt of unpredictability and potential mortality.
I was initially surprised to find that Dark Horse included two issues after *Autumn Frost's* harrowing conclusion, the one-shots `The Wind and the Heron' and `Petals on the Wind', which detail the growing relationship of Anotsu and Hisoka Shingyoto. In hindsight, though, I can see why, as this profoundly brief romantic interlude offers a telling contrast to the stonehearted feud of the previous storyarc. . . and when I say brief, I mean brief - events are already transpiring to doom the dreams of these star-crossed lovers.
A note on the artwork: Hiroaki Samura's technique can almost be considered the antithesis of mainstream Manga. Instead of the ultra-clean ink-lines and the large eyes/small mouth stereotypes perpetuated in most Japanese comics, Samura favors a sketch-technique to his backgrounds and action sequences, along with [fairly] proportional humanistic characteristics (the ears are a bit large). The detail and craftsmanship are, as always, superb, particularly in the pencil-work and frame-perspective. More importantly, Samura has evolved in his plotting and drafting of combat: no over-reliance of hacked limbs and death-murals here! Instead, the fight-scenes are so visceral and tension-laden that one can almost smell the coppery stench of intermingled blood, dust and sweat; feel the kicks, blows and (multiple) stabbings as our heroes struggle toward their long-awaited culmination. It's a welcome change from *Beasts*' grim assortment of decapitations and limb-loss.
Five stars.
Wonderful Issue, but doesn't solve the conflict fully. Actually, I am going to rewrite this review a little better seeing as how not many have reviewed it. They take so long to release new novels so this novel will really make you want the next one, but you know it will take another year to release.
Magatsu and Shira are ready to go at it. There are quite a few surprises. Namely Shira. Also, Magatsu releases a few surprises as well. The art becomes beautiful.
This issue is easily read. Now, BTOI has one problem in the entire series. I don't mind that they flipped the panels, but some panels aren't flipped. Sometimes(rarely) a person will be holding a sword with his left hand, then it will be in his right hand on the next panel. This is often confusing as I sometimes have to read a page a few times to understand. Dark Horse did a great job of translating and flipping it, but if you want to alter a masterpiece you will probably mess up. Past issues have found me lost in some battles as they do occasionaly leave things unflipped which can lead to confusion(namely the battle in "On Silent Wings" part 2). This issue is wonderfully flipped and I only noticed two mistakes in the issue. One was where Magatsu's sword switched hands, the other was when he, well, I can't tell you. Still, they did a wonderful job of making the battles much easier to read, and very interesting.
There are quite a few instances where I was surprised, but none compared to the way Shira is drawn. He is so evil, yet he is done perfectly. A very interesting panel is where he says, "Scary, huh. HUH!". I cringed when I read that panel and saw how beautifully Shira was drawn. He almost scared me a bit as he is done perfectly. 5 stars for the art.
We also get to see some of Rin's travels although they are short. Finally, the issue leaves the reader with 20 or so pages on Anotsu. Interesting in it's own way, but not compared to Magatsu/Shira.
This novel was done great. It is a smaller book. It is thick though. That is what counts because the art is simply scaled down a bit. It is basically as thick as HEART OF DARKNESS. You really get a great issue here.
Collects issues #73-#80 The editorial review is incorrect in stating that BotI: Autumn Frost collects issues #73-#78, it actually collects issues #73-#80. In addition to Manji and Magatsu tracking down Shira, this volume also includes Anotsu agreeing to marry Hisoka as a condition of merging the Itto-ryu with the Shingyoto-ryu.
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