Synopses & Reviews
Like fine literature and cinema, the medium of comic books can be a powerful vehicle for storytelling when it's done right. As Louis L'Amour depicts the adventures of the American West with fluid prose, and John Woo stages gorgeously choreographed shootouts in films chronicling a mythical Asian crime underground, so does Japanese writer/artist Hiroaki Samura elegantly and boldly tell the story of an angry young orphan who, in ancient Edo, seeks an immortal samurai's help avenging her murdered parents in his amazing comics series, Blade of the Immortal. Samura has been recognized by a wide variety of organizations - from the Japanese Government's Ministry of the Arts to the comics industry's annual Harvey Award Committee - for his groundbreaking contributions to graphic storytelling. Publications from The Washington Times to U.S. News and World Report have included Blade of the Immortal on their recommended-reading lists. Samura's art is instantly recognizable and without peer in his native Japan - from his expositional development of subtle plot features, to the gorgeous, and often graphic, details of brutal fight scenes between honorable ronin and renegade sword students. For storytellers like Hiroaki Samura, art is a striking and powerful tool, and the gut-wrenching drama it depicts inspires a great range of emotions - most typically, heart-rending empathy for the young heroine, Rin, as she struggles between wanting to be a good person and wanting a rogue band of killers to suffer as her parents did.
Synopsis
Manji, a ronin warrior of feudal Japan, has been cursed with immortality. The curse of the bloodworm is what keeps him alive--slit his throat or stab him in the heart and these mystical worms will force his body to heal. This immortal curse will not be lifted until Manji has killed one thousand evil men! If you like samurai action, Hiroaki Samura's "Blade of the Immortal will keep you on edge.
Description
The immortal samurai, Manji, and his charge, Rin have lost their best chance to avenge the death of Rin's parents at the hands of Anotsu Kagehisa's renegade sword school, the deadly Ittö-ryü. Manji and Rin's alliance with the mysterious Mugai-ryü assassins has failed, and now for Rin to pursue her parents' killer, she must pass through the Shogun's checkpoints that control the roads out of Edo, a task she must perform without Manji, who is one of the most wanted men in all Japan and sure to be detected at the checkpoint. When Manji discovers Rin has gone, he faces the impossible choice of storming the checkpoint by force or leaving Rin to face Anotsu and his trained killers alone. And when Rin is falsely named as an accomplice in a savage murder, the stakes are raised ever higher as she faces even greater odds to fulfill her blood oath!