As someone who loves and has read all latest chapters of the manga, I am extremely disappointed with the first episode of Blade of the Immortal. Perhaps I am being too harsh with my first impressions, as the original is almost always better than the adaptation, but I’m sure there will be ARE others who agree with me.
*Warning: Please don’t read further if you absolutely cannot stand the sight of 2D blood.
Thoughts/Plot Summary
I can sum up this episode in one word: confusing. I felt that had I not read the manga previously, I would not have understood anything. Many people are introduced in 24 minutes, and yet nothing is explained about them. The timing of each scene leaves me confused as to where each event appears on the time line of Manji’s life as a whole. And even though you may say that Manji’s past is somewhat explained, the plot runs through his story at full speed, leaving the viewers with almost no information. Therefore, let me guide you through the first episode. I will try to be as detailed as I can possibly be. ZOMG this leeches all the patience I have.
We are first introduced to young adult Manji, who kills two grown men in front of a child. This child, who calls Manji a murderer, will appear later in the episode, as Manji’s sister’s husband.
Flash forward to the present, and we find a man talking to Manji. Although it is never detailed in explaining where Manji is (I’m sorry, I read the manga a few years ago), I believe it is sufficient enough to say that it looks like some sort of confessional. (Okay, I understand Catholicism has NOTHING to do with Blade of the Immortal whatsoever. I’m just saying that it looks like Manji is trying to confess his sins.) Anyway, the conversation is about Manji killing his former lord, who was corrupt. The man, who understands that Manji is the “Killer of 100”, pulls out a gun and shoots Manji in the head. Thinking Manji to be dead, the man laughs and says he is the strongest man. However, as the title suggests, Manji is immortal, and thus, still alive. And he quickly kills the man.
To be even more confusing, the scene changes quickly and we are introduced to entirely new characters. Although I won’t explain too much about them because I would thus be spoiling it for you, I’ll tell you a bit about them. These two, Asano Rin and Anotsu Kagehisa of the Itto-ryu…
… are connected to each other. *Hint Hint. Look below. (And no, I don’t have photoshop.)
Rin is seen talking to the grave of her dead father, telling him she will avenge him.
Flash back to the present, and screw it I’m tired of summarizing, I give up because Wiki explains the rest of the episode much better than I can ever hope to explain it, please read. I will add the respective pictures.
“In the past, his [Manji’s] criminal actions led to the death of 100 other samurai (including his sister’s husband).
Interesting. i wonder how much strength it takes to cut like that.
He becomes immortal at the hand of a 800-year-old nun named Yaobikuni, and is compelled by the death of his sister to accept the quest that will end his agelessness.
This is Yaobikuni, dummies, not his sister.
Manji cuts up the fool who killed his sister (who in fact acts like a child – her mental state ruined after seeing her husband cut in front of her)
He has vowed to make amends by killing 1000 evil men, and until he does Manji will be kept alive by kessen-chū (血仙蟲 “sacred bloodworms”), remarkable creatures that allow him to survive nearly any injury…”
Blood worms at work.
And thus begins Manji’s quest.
Other Thoughts
The OP is some of the worst shit I have EVAR seen.
The ED is okay. It doesn’t really catch my attention though.
What in the WORLD is with the weird montages?! Of his sister? Of him killing someone? And the BGM that supposedly is trying to enhance the plot? No. It doesn’t work.
Manji has a sexy voice. Only cause Tomokazu Seki is awesome.
Will I blog another episode? Maybe. I’ll keep up with a few more episodes, that’s for sure, but if it continues to go downhill… I’ll commit seppuku to retain my honor in committing a serious offense against the manga by watching this.
Calamitous Intent 
Oh thank you for clearing up the episode, though I did manage to make out the gist of the flashbacks, the reason he has to go on to kill 1000 people totally flew past me without me noticing it. Guess the only ‘substance’ I gleaned off the raw was listening to Seki Tomokazu and Sakamoto Maaya 😛
I just can’t wait until I watch this! Despite being confusing, I think blood is enough to satisfy me at the moment
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finally i find someone who agrees with me in this very disappointing adaptation of what i can categorize as no less of a masterpiece of a manga, first of all if u had ur eyes open during the horrible op, i closed my eyes on the first time cuz it was that bad, u can clearly see an array of like lets say EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER IN THE MANGA which is confusing enough to people seein 35647467865 characters u dont know in the opening, second of all in the manga his brother in law and him have nothing i mean absolutely nothing in common except for his sister, so that whole story about manji young adult is made up, never been in the manga, and he’s not killing 1000 bad guys to be mortal because he clearly knows he can die and if he wished to die he would, he’s killing them to redeem himself of his past sins because those 100 he killed were good men, now back to the anime :D, at the end of the anime hyakurin appears (the hot blond chick) which in the manga doesn’t appear for a good 10 chapters or so, they are trying to rush boti into an anime everyone can watch and it is clearly not that it is not meant for everyone, if uve read the manga u can tell the gore is reduced to a naruto’ish splurt of blood compared to the original which should go on the lines of elfen lied or the hellsing ovas so im really disappointed the next episode is gonna be even worse because i already saw rin fightin with the guy with the head fetish so yea very bad adaptation
The manga art looked so much nicer…
And the OP was awesome!
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@issa-sa: Thanks for clearing that up! I didn’t recognize Sakamoto Maaya’s voice at first, but that’s only cause I’m more interested in male seiyuus and Seki Tomokazu is really well known. (Or maybe I’ve heard his voice too many times)
@blissmo: Bloodthirsty much? Haha :] Hope that picture of the dude’s face coming off helped.
@TenSec: wow. what a giant blurb. but i read it all, and i’m glad you agree with me. LOL, guy with the head fetish? I can’t seem to remember who that is…
@omisyth: You think the OP was awesome? Hmmm, maybe. I’m thinking it might just be one of those OPs that grow on you after you continue watching…
The whole episode seems very dark (literally and figuratively) looking at your screenshots. I might pick this up if the brightness is adjusted (for the record, a T61 is bad at handling glare).
I dropped the manga after three volumes because I felt it wasn’t going anywhere. Was I wrong in doing so?
@dingsan: Yea, it definitely is dark. Haha, maybe they wanted to accentuate the man’s flying face so they put it on a bright background..
hmmm. no, cause everyone has their own preference. The manga isn’t done, and I haven’t seen any subs for it recently. Even I don’t know where it’s headed now, so no, I don’t think you’re wrong.
Well after reading that I’m not very inclined to check it out since there are quite a few others I’m trying to watch and blog about.
@Sakura: good idea.
I agree about it being confusing and rushed, the worst part about it for me is that, the best part about the manga well besides the story is the dialogue, Manji is quite funny in that sardonic cynical way, and I’m afraid with this pace that they have started they won’t be able to really show that, and it will just be a very dark show, and I’m not against it necessarily it could still end up coming together it’s too early to say. I will say though that derivative works in a different medium are going to be different and won’t necessarily maintain everyone’s favorite aspects of the original. My least favorite part of the show was the music, it doesn’t feel right, not the intro not the outro not the stuff in the episode, it’s too grand and orchestrated and I think it would be much better toned down and more intimate, more diverse, I don’t know who the composer is, but I think they might of gone the wrong direction with it, when I thought about the music I thought about more a traditional sounding score.
The Manga is a masterpiece and though this seems to be going into some alternate direction, I’m still going to watch it because I think even a watered down version is still better than half the crap that is passed off as anime these days. I hope it gets better not worse, I don’t want to give up on it just yet.
@Dirk: I think the music is a little off too, definitely didn’t really feel right for Blade…
Same here, I’m hoping it gets better, and I’ll keep it for a few more episodes, but if it gets worse…
I blame beetrain… and I had such high hopes for this one too……T_T
@Choux: well, it may get better? Stick around for a while.
it was rushed, like the creators just wanted to get it over with….
lacked it’s story line which might not pull in new fans that haven’t read the manga…
@Valz: you’re right. I’m about to blog episode 2 though, which actually looks a bit better..
Why until episode 13?? But this anime is awesome anyway….