I have been a HUGE fan of Takashi Miike since getting my mitts on a DVD of Audition sometime in 2000. Right after that I went through an Asian horror/action blitz that lasted for years and truly never really let up. A few years back Miike released his 100th feature film, and it was an adaptation of the manga Blade of the Immortal. Like his prior 13 Assassins, it was an excellent samurai film, but unlike the earlier Assassins, Blade of the Immortal had more in common with films like Lone Wolf in Cub, rather than Kurosawa.
When Sentai Filmworks Blade of the Immortal ONA series Blu-ray dropped at my door, I was shocked to say the least. I know Manga series frequently get adapted to anime, but since the movie already happened I hadn’t even considered it, but now here we are 24 episodes of bloody samurai violence and I am SOOOOOO on board with this.
So the series follows Rin and Manji. Rin is a young girl who is the daughter of a samurai, who has been slaughtered, and now she wants revenge. Manji is a cursed samurai, who will be immortal until he can kill 1000 evil men. He agrees to help her, as this will lead him to finish his task, so he can finally depart this mortal coil.
I can’t claim to have read the manga which like Lone Wolf and Cub (which I have read) is an extended amount of volumes, however, the story across the 24 episodes here feels nice, and deep and chock full of enough emotional resonance to pack a punch. I did not finish the series feel wanting for any missing elements in the story, but again I did not read it, so I did not view it through that particular lens.
The animation on the other hand was not the best, but since the series was apparently made for straight online consumption I can assume the budget was quite a bit lower than a standard series. Nonetheless, it did get the job done, and the action scenes were reasonably well handled. The score also fit the tone of the show quite well.
Sentai presents the series with a solid 1:78:1 1080p transfer that accurately reflects the look of the show in HD. Detail is solid, and colors are stable. Audio is in Japanese and English 2.0. Extras are trailers and Japanese promos. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.