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Saturday, March 28, 2020

Amazon Prime's 'Blade of the Immortal' Is a Decent but Unsatisfactory Anime Adaptation of a Manga Masterpiece

Produced by Liden Films for Amazon Prime, Blade of the Immortal is an anime series adaptation of the classic manga of the same name by Hiroaki Samura.  It premiered last fall 2019, and being a fan of the source material (or rather, the Dark Horse Comics reprints), I closely followed its double cour run, which just recently ended.  Actually, there was already a 13-episode Blade of the Immortal anime back in 2008, but it wasn’t really a good adaptation, and it didn’t tell a finished story.  On the other hand, this new anime adaptation covers the entire saga within its 24 episodes.

Blade of the Immortal is notable for having arguably one of the coolest samurai-type fictional characters ever in Manji as protagonist.  To save him from a life-threatening wound, an 800-year-old nun named Yaobikuni stuffs Manji with sacred bloodworms which can repair any injury and reattach severed limbs.  This basically gives him immortality, which paired with his mastery of the sword and various bladed weapons, makes him very dangerous in a fight.  He collects weapons, and is somehow able to carry all of them with him at all times (it’s a detail that demands the same suspension of disbelief given to Batman, whose arsenal of gadgets somehow all fit inside his utility belt).
The plot revolves around Manji and Rin Asano, a teenage girl whom he’s agreed to become a bodyguard of.  Two years prior their meeting, Ittō-ryū, an organization of ronins and assassins led by Kagehisa Anotsu, invaded the sword school of Rin’s family.  Before her eyes, her father was killed, and her mother was raped and kidnapped (and later revealed to have been murdered, too).  Vowing vengeance, Rin trained in the next two years, although her training didn’t improve her fighting skills much.  While visiting her father’s gravestone, she encounters Yaobikuni.  Upon hearing the girl’s story, the ancient nun recommends that she hires Manji to help her.

If memory serves me correctly, Blade of the Immortal is the first manga I’ve read.  It was one of the manga that Dark Horse Comics was republishing in English back then, a time when otaku culture was not as widespread in the West as it is now (this was one of the reasons why Dark Horse Comics as a comic book publisher stood out to me).  That comic book really blew me away.  The art and story leaped out from the pages of every issue I read.  Hence, Blade of the Immortal is kind of a special property for me.
With that in mind, I found Amazon Prime’s anime adaptation to be underwhelming as a whole.  Now, it’s superior to the 2008 anime by a far margin, and evaluating it as an anime per se, it’s actually pretty decent.  It’s even effectively stimulating and beautiful when it is at its best.  Still, I don’t feel it has been able to give perfect justice to its source material.  I believe it could – should – have been done better.  Blade of the Immortal deserves better.

While the anime starts out with some promise, it becomes clearer as it progresses that a high quality wouldn’t be sustained all throughout.  There are moments of greatness here and there, but in between are stretches where the show settles with passable presentation.  In addition, although it’s a violent and graphic show, the fights and set pieces aren’t very striking.  Overall, I think the 2017 live-action film adaptation, albeit imperfect, did a better job in making its action and storytelling compelling.
It also doesn’t help that this adaptation noticeably cuts corners.  While other properties can get away with this, something like Blade of the Immortal can’t.  It has the kind of story that demands its audience to pay close attention, but if attention isn’t won consistently, the narrative can come off as uneven and even boring at times.  Thus, it requires high production value and riveting execution all throughout – something that this anime can’t quite deliver.

In the end, it’s also possible that Blade of the Immortal is simply just one of those manga that’s “unadaptable” into anime – meaning, its glory as a work of art can only be truly represented through manga form.  Regardless, even though Amazon Prime’s anime adaptation is mostly okay, it’s still unsatisfactory.  When the source material is arguably a masterpiece, “okay” just doesn’t cut it.  It needs to be exceptional.

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