Blade of the Immortal

[tnynyn]

Summary:

Manji — a rōnin swordsman condemned to immortality unless he kills a thousand evil men for all the good men he killed. Rina Satou (Negima!'s Negi, Bamboo Blade's Satori) will play Manji's fellow traveler Rin. Hirofumi Nojima (Kagehisa Anotsu), Kazuya Nakai (Taito Magatsu), Masashi Ebara (Sabato Kurui), Katsuyuki Konishi (Eikū Shizuma), Daisuke Namikawa (Araya Kawakami), Mamiko Noto (Makie), Megumi Toyoguchi (Hyakurin), Toshiyuki Morikawa (Giichi), Shinichiro Miki (Shira), and Maaya Sakamoto (Machi) complete the cast.

Koichi Mashimo will direct the animators on Bee Train as he did for the .hack// franchise and Noir. Hiroyuki Kawasaki (The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Sorcerer Hunters) will oversee the scripts, and Yoshimitsu Yamashita (Murder Princess, Samurai Champloo animation director) will design the characters. Kō Ōtani (Ayakashi Ayashi, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing) will compose the music.

Dark Horse Comics publishes the manga in North America.

Coming Sumer 08...can't wait. Been awhile since I've seen a good samurai anime.

[Atheist]

Definitely something to look out for!

[Munsu]

This is awesome news... I just hope they don't screw it up as anime adaptations tend to do. I hope they keep the violence... without it, Blade of the Immortal loses 75% of its charm.

http://mugen.kc.kodansha.co.jp/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...med-for-summer

[Kraco]

It certainly does have some very gruesome violence that's even very important to the story itself and not just slapped on top of it. Let's hope that aspect won't be too much watered down in the anime.

[Shinji Ikari]

This is the most awesome thing since bread came sliced. How I have longed for this to happen. The characters look awesome on the site.

As the manga already has so many volumes, at least it's possible for the story to stay true to the manga.

They would have to keep the violence and making it into an anime for adults only since it plays a pivital role in the manga, him being immortal and all.

[Idealistic]

Wow, I've never heard of this series, probably because I don't know much about mangas except for the more popular ones, but this looks really cool.

I've been wanting a more mature (hopefully) anime that has to do with sword-fighting/samurais and all that good stuff. I like Naruto and Bleach, but let's be honest, it's more targeted towards the younger crowd.

Well, can't wait for this.

[tnynyn]

Yeah I agree with Idealistic, I do watch and read the bleach and naruto manga/animes, but I feel its more geared towards younger audiences. Btw, I think the animation will have the same look and feel as Samurai Champloo, which IMO, was a very good anime.

[Koyuki]

This is really great news! I've read a bit of the manga before. But I haven't bought it in a while. I just hope they try to catch the art and stay true to the manga and make it a seinen anime. If they do it will be great!

[Everon]

The manga had good character development and fantastic art design, but I got disappointed with a few plot twists that happens in the later volumes.

[kAi]

WOW!!! This is awesome news!!

I can't wait for this, they better not fuck it up, I'll be so pissed.

This is a really good series, and as others have mentioned it can't be geared towards a younger audience, it will lose too much appeal.

[Munsu]

I wonder how BeeTrain will handle this... this wouldn't be the company that I would've thought would make this type of series, with their peculiar type of soundtrack that is abundant in all their series.

From what I see it's on AT-X, so we should get some HD versions which is nice... and I think they've had series series there that have had some level of violence. So we'll see.

[Atheist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rdZIFWNcYI

Here's a trailer for the anime! Looks awesome!

[Kraco]

Yeah. That didn't look bad. Jolly good.

[Munsu]

Well, all of those looked like scenes from the first couple of chapters of the manga, so it looks like at least the start will be loyal. Saw some blood in there, so that's good.

I hope this is a long series. 22 volumes and ongoing currently in the manga.

[Abdula]

IF they do this properly then it may actually get me to start posting in GA. I really hope they stay loyal to the manga and I too think this should be a long series because they certainly have a lot to work with. 22 Volumes, I should go read the rest then, I left off somewhere around 13 or 14.

[Buffalobiian]

It's here!! No guarantee for quality, so decide for yourself:

[Kesenai Subs][KSN-AEN]Blade of the Immortal - 01 HD[11B946A5].mp4 (224MB)
[Kesenai Subs][KSN-AEN]Blade of the Immortal - 01 SD[54042378].avi (174MB)

[Kraco]

I wouldn't mind if some reputable group picked this up as their next project but it's not like even this sub wouldn't have let you understand what's going on.

What comes to the content itself, I have a bit mixed feelings right now. The action showed much promise, which is important in this particualar show; lots of blood and body parts flying and all that stuff, blades wickedly shining in twilight like in all good samurai shows.

I don't remember the very beginning of the manga in great detail anymore, but somehow this gave me a bit disjointed feeling. Jumping from one place to the next in a rather chaotic manner with little dialogue. Well, no doubt that will change once we get to the main story with Rin.

However, the thing that bothered me most was Tomokazu Seki as Manji's VA. That voice actor is actually one of my favorites but only in limited range. He was excellent as Sousuke Sagara (FMP) and Shinichi Chiaki (Nodame), but those both characters had something in common: Composed and calm, in control. I actually disliked him as Kenichi. My image of Manji from the manga was a bit barbaric and rough, though, unlike either Sousuke or Shinichi, which is why I would have rather heard some other VA there. Some wilder one.

[Shinji Ikari]

Have to hope some other group pics it up, the picture quality was pretty low and the subs were so-so with poor choice of font and coloring.

Unlike you though Kraco I don't think there was any jumping, I do understand what you mean though, and it will feel like that to anyone who hasn't read the manga, but as i recall the manga was like this in the beginning as well, only different thing there is that you could slow down and digest the changes in time and happenings. So I guess that I'd say it might have been just a tad too fast paced.

All in all a very good episode, and I'm looking forward with anticipation to see what this anime has got to offer, especially since I've longed for this anime ever since I started reading the manga.

I agree with you about the voice actor, I would have prefered someone like Kanna Nobutoshi (Guts in Berserk) because I think Guts and Manji are more alike than Manji and Sagara Sousuke :P

[Buffalobiian]

The story is new to me, as I haven't read the manga. I have to agree that I haven't comprehended everything yet, and the skipping most likely didn't help. But it's enough to get the background as to why Manji is on his redemption now, and that there's a girl who's out there to avenge her father.

Subs are okay, but better picture quality is a must. I don't know if it's the encoder's incompetence or the small file size. Though must groups pump out 350MB releases these days, I remember Shana II looked fine at ~233MB





edit: Live-Evil is the only other group I can find who have announced their intentions to sub this.

[kAi]

Watched the first episode last night.
I can't remember exactly how the manga goes, as it has been quite some time, but from what I can remember it was something to this affect.

I'll be looking forward to more.