Customer Rating: 
Summary: Samura at his best
Comment: This volume of Blade of the Immortal was great! While it might be confusing the first read, the story of Makie and Anotsu was extremely engaging while tying in Rin and Manji to the story.I think that I would find myself going on and on about how wonderful everything Hiroaki Samura creates is, so I'll spare this audience the rambling. To put my opinions into one sentence, let me state this: If you love quality and can handle some harsher storytelling, buy Blade of the Immortal books!
Customer Rating:
Summary: How is Love from This to Rise Again...
Comment: Volume three in the 'Blade of the Immortal' series is unusual on several accounts. While most of the series focuses entirely on the adventures of Rin and Manji, her immortal bodyguard, 'Dreamsong' shifts the focus onto several of their opponents. Especially Makie Otono-Tachibana, a brilliant geisha, the mistress of Kagehisa Anotsu, and possibly, Japan's greatest master of the sword. As part of this, we will also lean further into the personality of Kagehisa himself, the leader of the weaponry school that killed Rin's parents.Manji, perhaps frustrated by traveling with a beautiful young woman, allows himself to be picked up by a street prostitute and suddenly finds himself confronted with a deadly swordswoman. It is Makie, send by Anotsu to stop the immortal swordsman. Unexpectedly, Makie seems unable to make a fatal strike. Manji, disgusted leaves her alive and defeated, even though he knows there will be a rematch.
The story of why Makie failed that attempt is a complex weaving of her own life as a child, growing up to become a prostitute and then a geisha, and her experiences with Kagehisa Anotsu, whom she has known from childhood. Makie, daughter of a swordswoman, and the cause of her brother's death, is torn between her talents and her dreams. Anotsu owes her his life, but has taken control of hers in a twisted form of repayment. Making a graceful singer and poet into a killer.
Of course, Makie's struggle reflects that of Rin, who has sworn to revenge her parents. Young Rin, no match for Makie's beauty or sword skills is jealous, but in the end, it is her own inner struggle with fate that brings home the truth to Makie. For all the violence that is part of this tale, Hiroaki Samura gives is a grace of word and imagery that recall some of the greatest of Japanese writing. If you read no other in this series, read 'Dreamsong.'
Customer Rating:
Summary: I love this book
Comment: If you are shopping for this volume of Blade, you are probably familiar with the story, characters, setting, and overall goodness of everything Of The Immortal. This has been my favorite so far. The story finally picks up some pacing, while slowing down in other respects. I enjoyed the tortured prostitute character, and Manji again comes across both moral choices and personal obligations, and sometimes what you want isn't what you need, or neccissarily get.Very well worth your time. Buy all of it ASAP.
Customer Rating:
Summary: This is the best stuff!
Comment: I love this series! I anxiously await ever collection. Dreamsong is one of my favorites volumes. The story seems to depart a little from Rin & Manji to focus on Makie. Makie is quite possibly the finest combatant among the vast array of fighters in 'Immortal'. It's great to find out a woman character could quite easily take out all these posturing, big-headed male characters (Manji included). She's ultra-cool and a nice counterpart to the female character of Rin.
The artwork and pace of storytelling is what initially drew me to this series. It's samurai western at it's finest. Some of the kills i find kind of stoopid - Manji carves up an opponent's head with the stroke-shapes of a swastika (volume 1), but overall, this stuff is high intensity action. My highest praise. Definitely buy these books. It's best to start at the beginning to keep track of every character and event. awesome.....
Customer Rating:
Summary: My favorite story in a series of great stories.
Comment: community-help@amazon.com.I stumbled onto "Blade of the Immortal" translations in comic book format. Attracted by the art, and the unusally deep dialogue between the opponents (as dramatic as Kazou Kioke's "Lone Wolf and Cub", but much more up-to-date in sensibility and subject matter) I immediately began looking for back issues, which was difficult. Many retailers don't seem to order many issues of this book. Fortunately the trade paperbacks started coming out soon after.
"Blade of the Immortal" starts off as a fairly typical samurai revenge story, with some unusual horror movie twists. We meet Manji, a guilt-ridden outlaw and expert swordsman, who is cursed with an odd form of immortality. No matter how grievously he is injured, he cannot die. Manji makes a deal with a magical buddhist nun. He will gain the release of death, if he slays 1000 evil men. Soon we meet Rin, a young girl, the daughter of a swordsmanship teacher who witnessed the horrific murder of her parents at the hands of the Itto-Ryu, a renegade sword school. Tortured by nightmares, she seeks revenge, but realizing she has no hope of surviving a direct confrontation with even one Itto-Ryu swordsman, she convinces Manji to serve as her bodyguard and stand in. Taking up Rin's quest seems a perfect confluence of both of their desires: her need to put her parents memory to rest, his to earn his redemption.
The stories take you through dramatic encounters with various members of the sword school. All are dangerous swordsmen with unique styles of combat. Some are quite literally monsters. Each has a unique story, an unique reason for having become a renegade, and this becomes the source of much thought provoking drama before, during and after the battles. All are memorable characters, in particular Shimuzu (Book Two: "Cry of the Worm"), a fellow immortal and Maki, a swordswoman forced into prostitution who fights like the wind (Book 3: "Dreamsong").
Harioki Samura has great timing, the panel layouts make the fight scenes breathtaking and exciting. Also wonderful is the developing relationship between Manji and Rin, a kind of older brother, little sister dynamic that lends the book much humor and necessary warmth (given the bloodiness of the battles).
Beginning with "Rins Bane" (Book 4) Rin's internal debate about the morality and human costs of her quest, takes center stage, and make this one of the deepest and most interesting books to cross the Pacific in years. There's still plenty of action, and the relationship between Rin and Manji continues to deepen, but it's the debates about the sanity of the bushido code, about memory, about filial duty, and hints of political intrigue to come, that make this book an thought provoking and engrossing read.
If you have any taste for the high drama and action, as well as the deeper issues running through comic books like "the Authority", you have to give "Blade" a try. This is the best dramatic manga translation I've read, and it compares favorably with "Lone Wolf & Cub" and "Neon Genesis Evangelion". I really don't think you will be disappointed.
