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Blade of the Immortal Anime Offers Complete Adaptation
By Yung Namahage • 4 years ago

We talk a lot about live-action adaptations of anime/manga here, so here's a little personal anecdote. About a year and a half ago, I went to see a showing of a Japanese movie titled Blade of the Immortal. It's not often that you see foreign language movies in theaters, after all. It was directed by the prestigious Takashi Miike, the man behind over 100 movies including adaptations of previously written material, e.g. AuditionIchi the KillerAce AttorneyJoJo's Bizarre Adventure and others.


Image result for blade of the immortal movie


I only found out after watching it that Blade of the Immortal was based on a manga by Hiroaki Samura. I went in expecting a movie about an undying samurai dismembering dudes with a katana and it exceeded in that respect. But as a feature length live-action adaptation of a manga I had no way to compare it to the source material. Of course I had planned to read it at some point, but now I might not have to.


Liden Films will be creating a brand new anime series based on the title, called Blade of the Immortal -Immortal- to differentiate it from the 2008 anime adaptation. And unlike the previous anime or the live-action movie, the new series promises to be a complete adaptation of the manga. A big task when there's 30 volumes of material released over 19 years.


Hiroashi Hamasaki (ShiguruiBlade & Soul) will be directing, while Makoto Fukami (Psycho-PassBerserk 2016/17) is handling the scripts and Shingo Agiso (The Heroic Legend of Arslan) is covering character designs. Confirmed voice cast include Kenjiro Tsuda (Hannes in Attack on Titan) and Ayane Sakura (Ochako Uraraka in My Hero Academia) respectively as the swordsman Manji who's been cursed with immortality and Rin Asano, the girl that needs him to avenge her family. Here's a PV:



Dororo left a samurai anime-shaped hole in me in and this looks just right enough to fill it. Maybe, just maybe it'll even be good enough to finally forgive Liden Films for what they did to Berserk? It's set to start streaming on Amazon this October if you're interested.


Are you a fan of Blade of the Immortal? Have you read it or seen any of its prior adaptations? Are you hyped for this one? Let us know in the comments!