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By: Samura Hiroaki
Genre: Samurai
Serialized In: Afternoon
Mangaupdates
If you haven't read this one...
... you absolutely must.
It's easily the best manga I have read so far.
"Blade of the Immortal follows the deeds of Manji, a skilled warrior who has a decisive advantage: no wound can kill him. In the past his criminal actions led to the death of 100 other samurai (including his sister's husband). He becomes immortal at the hand of a seemingly ageless nun named Yaobikuni, and is compelled by the death of his sister to accept the quest that will end his agelessness. He has vowed to make amends by killing 1000 evil men, and until he does Manji will be kept alive by Kessen-chu ('sacred bloodworms'), remarkable creatures that allow him to survive nearly any injury and reattach severed limbs even after hours of separation.
Manji crossed paths with a young girl named Asano Rin and has promised to help her avenge her parents, who were killed by a cadre of master swordsmen led by Anotsu Kagehisa. Anotsu killed Rin's father and his entire dojo, making them a family of outcasts. Anotsu's quest is to gather other outcasts and form an extremely powerful new dojo, the Itto-ryu (a school teaching any technique that wins, no matter how exotic or underhanded), and has started taking over and destroying other dojos.
In addition, another group called itself the Mugai-ryu; has materialized, in opposition to the Itto-ryu. Its true leadership and motives are a mystery, but its methods (any tactics that leads to victory) resemble those of the Itto-ryu. - Wikipedia"
In addition to all that, there's one character that if you're a Naruto fan, you'll definitely like him. Magatsu Taito. He looks like a cross between Kakashi and Zabuza - you'll know it's him when you see him.
In any case, if it sounds good, you're in for a treat. Just a warning here, though, as with Basilisk, there is some graphic content - violence, and some of the more horrible rape scenes I've seen in any media. There are a lot of flying limbs - hands, arms, feet, heads. But the amazing thing is the art is done so masterfully, it's almost so beautifully done that you aren't as disgusted as you could have been in, say, watching a movie. The artist is so skilled that he makes each panel take on a life of its own - all the characters' expressions, their bodies, even their hand gestures - you'll want to re-read this one even after you catch up to the latest chapter.
Anyway, it's an ongoing. It's up to 15 volumes in America, but in Japan it's up to 18 volumes. It's not over. There are usually a volume done every year, so I don't know how long it will be before Blade of the Immortal is done. I'm excited though - there seems to be an end in sight, and I can't wait to see how this story ends.
So far as I have determined, the only way to read this is through mIRC at #lurk. The first fourteen volumes are available for downloading there, the fifteen volume is in individual chapter downloads. The first volume contains three chapters that introduces the characters, but the second volume is when the story really gets going (also when you meet Magatsu Taito.)
EDIT:
Thanks to Ulquiorra, we have another source where you can read BotI online:
http://groups.msn.com/ATU-BOTI/bladeoftheimmortalmanga.msnw
Also, pokecheck pointed out that we can also get summaries of what's going on in the Japanese chapters from this site.
http://www.z-builder.com/manga/mugen/summaries.html
Also, another thing - this is the English version that's availabe at lurk, so if you read it, you'll have to read it left-to-right in the standard English reading method. It was originally done right-to-left like any other Japanese manga, but Blade of the Immortal was one of the first mangas published in America, so they used the copy and paste method to re-arrange the panels. They did a damn good job though - after a while (before I found out it wasn't the case) I thought this artist originally did this manga that way for an American publishing company. As it turned out, though, nope.
Anyway, if you like Blade of the Immortal, this is the place to talk about it. Don't forget, if you want to discuss any details in the story, be sure to use spoiler tags.
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( i have some sort of irc-phobia, only use it when necissary... )
