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Blade of the Immortal (US) #17
Blade of the Immortal, Volume 17: On the Perfection of Anatomy
Manji, the immortal swordsman, lies imprisoned in the bakufu stronghold of the mysterious Habaki Kagemura. Seeking to impart the life-extending powers of the Manji's kessen chu bloodworms to other humans, Kagimura orders his medical examiners to discover the secrets of Manji's amazing regenerative abilities. Using a series of convicts as live subjects in an increasingly grisly series of twisted experiments, Burando, Kagimura's lead medical examiner, begins to grow more desperate and sickened with each horrifying failure. And through it all, Manji lives, and regenerates, and bides his time for the moment that he can pay back his tormentors... limb by limb!
184 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Hiroaki Samura
476 books246 followersHiroaki Samura ( 沙村広明) is a Japanese cartoonist and illustrator. He is best known for writing and illustrating the manga Blade of the Immortal (1993-2012). Among his other manga series Die Wergelder (2011-2018) and Wave, Listen to Me!, the latter serialised since 2014.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 13, 2023
I would argue you could skip this volume if you have a thing about body horror. I don't know where a portion of this subplot is going to go, but for the main plot nothing happens. A twisted doctor is brought in to try and solve the riddle of Manji's immortality at the behest of Kagimura, but they don't know about the bloodworms. So it's just about hacking limbs off people and reattaching them to others. Rin is looking for him, but that's about 4 pages altogether. This feels like a lot of time spent on the experimentation and nothing happens to justify it. Maybe in subsequent volumes this was all really important, but I'm over it right now.
February 1, 2020
Rating: 4.43/10.00 | 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
I’m just not into this change in storyline. The experiments suck and it just feels like a different story with Rin just sitting around being alone and useless and Manji bored sitting around hoping for this storyline to die as much as I do 😂😂
I’m just not into this change in storyline. The experiments suck and it just feels like a different story with Rin just sitting around being alone and useless and Manji bored sitting around hoping for this storyline to die as much as I do 😂😂
April 24, 2013
The most tenuous volume, at least for me. Burando’s experiments fail time after time in what’s simply the most disgusting visuals in the series, and if someone called it torture porn, I couldn’t defend it. Does it add further weight to the difficulty and mystique of Manji’s immortality? Yes, but that’s not enough to justify what fills up this volume. It’s not the same as the endless battles in some volumes; these are convicts steadily and uncommittedly marching into medical slaughter. The lack of agency and higher frequency of gore makes it feel more like torture porn than I’d wish on this series.
The art remains strong – weaker than Shortcut, but still nuanced and detailed on level with any other manga I’ve read. But Rin sits around for a month, not searching for Manji, and the Itto-Ryu members she met have no plot progression despite the cliffhanger from Shortcut. The character progression is exclusively those few people (mostly Manji and Burando) who resent the medical experiments more and more. It’d be lying to say I disliked it, for I read through the book in three sittings, only putting it down when the violence became too graphic for me to put up with in the moment. It’s still a morbidly fascinating story arc, but it’s one that really ought to have wrapped up by now, and feels padded for time. That the padding is visual Body Horror simply isn’t for me.
Rin’s side-chapters suggest everything will come to a head by the winter. There are people already in motion, even though they’ve been missing for volumes. There’s one character (who I won’t spoil) who has doubtless needed these weeks of downtime, and is likely setting up a huge return. That’s an uncanny strength of Samura’s Blade of the Immortal - even when the current arc feels like it’s dragging, there’s the perception of payoffs on things set up before it.
The art remains strong – weaker than Shortcut, but still nuanced and detailed on level with any other manga I’ve read. But Rin sits around for a month, not searching for Manji, and the Itto-Ryu members she met have no plot progression despite the cliffhanger from Shortcut. The character progression is exclusively those few people (mostly Manji and Burando) who resent the medical experiments more and more. It’d be lying to say I disliked it, for I read through the book in three sittings, only putting it down when the violence became too graphic for me to put up with in the moment. It’s still a morbidly fascinating story arc, but it’s one that really ought to have wrapped up by now, and feels padded for time. That the padding is visual Body Horror simply isn’t for me.
Rin’s side-chapters suggest everything will come to a head by the winter. There are people already in motion, even though they’ve been missing for volumes. There’s one character (who I won’t spoil) who has doubtless needed these weeks of downtime, and is likely setting up a huge return. That’s an uncanny strength of Samura’s Blade of the Immortal - even when the current arc feels like it’s dragging, there’s the perception of payoffs on things set up before it.
August 10, 2022
(Zero spoiler review for the deluxe edition collecting this volume) 3.75/5
Sadly I've gotta say, I'm a smidgey bit disappointed with this one. It didn't help that volume 5 was pretty much god tier. It didn't help it that I've literally been creaming my jeans about this series since the moment I cracked open volume 1. Surprisingly, it didn't even help it we got four volumes instead of the usual three here, bargain though it was. This will be the first volume I don't give five stars to (although volume 4 only just scraped it from memory). This will be the first volume I don't include in my favourites list. This will be the first volume I am not looking forward to rereading. So why is that?
Well, basically, the central plot running through this 'four' volume collection was interesting, although drastically outstayed its welcome, and its still not even resolved. We got some new characters, so that some of the previous main characters can retire to the background to prevent over exposure and boredom setting in (and to have them around for the narratives ultimate conclusion). The commensurate characters we are given are less interesting versions of other characters we have seen at various points. Some of which were fine, although they suffered from the plot being dragged out longer than it should have.
Blade of the immortal has been at its strongest when it goes balls to the wall with its very beautiful, very idiosyncratic historic Japanese-ness. When the story and the art come together to make something that can be little short of breathtaking. There was little if any of that throughout this entire arc, with the narrative, the execution, and the art being the closest thing to 'generic manga' that Samura has offered me, and I wasn't terribly impressed with it. It had occasional highlights, but they were more than drowned out by 800 or so workmanlike pages of nuts and bolts, not terribly amazing manga. But again, this book has so exceeded my expectations up to this point, that good is nowhere near good enough anymore.
Don't let my new found disappointment stop you from starting this exceptional series. It's still an absolute must read. Hopefully this is just a temporary blip on what has been a near flawless record thus far. 3.75/5
OmniBen.
Sadly I've gotta say, I'm a smidgey bit disappointed with this one. It didn't help that volume 5 was pretty much god tier. It didn't help it that I've literally been creaming my jeans about this series since the moment I cracked open volume 1. Surprisingly, it didn't even help it we got four volumes instead of the usual three here, bargain though it was. This will be the first volume I don't give five stars to (although volume 4 only just scraped it from memory). This will be the first volume I don't include in my favourites list. This will be the first volume I am not looking forward to rereading. So why is that?
Well, basically, the central plot running through this 'four' volume collection was interesting, although drastically outstayed its welcome, and its still not even resolved. We got some new characters, so that some of the previous main characters can retire to the background to prevent over exposure and boredom setting in (and to have them around for the narratives ultimate conclusion). The commensurate characters we are given are less interesting versions of other characters we have seen at various points. Some of which were fine, although they suffered from the plot being dragged out longer than it should have.
Blade of the immortal has been at its strongest when it goes balls to the wall with its very beautiful, very idiosyncratic historic Japanese-ness. When the story and the art come together to make something that can be little short of breathtaking. There was little if any of that throughout this entire arc, with the narrative, the execution, and the art being the closest thing to 'generic manga' that Samura has offered me, and I wasn't terribly impressed with it. It had occasional highlights, but they were more than drowned out by 800 or so workmanlike pages of nuts and bolts, not terribly amazing manga. But again, this book has so exceeded my expectations up to this point, that good is nowhere near good enough anymore.
Don't let my new found disappointment stop you from starting this exceptional series. It's still an absolute must read. Hopefully this is just a temporary blip on what has been a near flawless record thus far. 3.75/5
OmniBen.
October 23, 2020
This is a review of the entire series.
Manji is a ruthless ronin stricken with the curse of immortality. To undo his curse, he must take the lives of a thousand sinners. He's a wandering sword for hire that kills without mercy and hunts down evil warriors all over feudal Japan. He wanders and kills without purpose for quite some time, but his long journey to end his own life takes an unexpected turn when he meets a compassionate young girl named Rin who is seeking revenge for her parents after they were murdered by members of a brutal new sword school called the Itto-ryu. Manji accepts the role of Rin's guardian and their drastically different ideals and personalities begin to change each other in ways neither of them could've foreseen as they clash with one merciless sinner after another.
The story cycles between several groups of samurai warriors each with their own moral codes and objectives. Other than Manji and Rin, there is Anotsu Kagehisa; the leader of the Itto-ryu and his band of rogues that openly defy old traditions as they seek to revolutionize the way of the samurai through force. Hyakurin and her partner Giichi who work as government cutthroats under a faction called the Mugai-ryu along with a serial killer named Shira, and so on. There are also hundreds of assassins, criminal gangs and shady individuals that wish to learn the secrets of Manji's immortality for their own nefarious purposes. With so many vicious people on the loose, it's no surprise that this ends up being one of the most brutal and bloody samurai tales ever told.
Blade of the Immortal makes ultra-violence look like a poetic art form. Blood and limbs fly like scarlet paint. Blades cut through flesh and bone like knives through butter. The use of clever battle poses and finishing techniques against the backdrop of hyper-stylized Edo period art makes for some museum-worthy battle and death scenes.
Despite how glamorized violence and bloodshed is throughout the series, it does not shy away from exploring the aftermath of said violence and how it impacts the psychological state of the characters. A sweet girl like Rin seeks revenge against Anotsu of the Itto-ryu for leading an assault that resulted in the murder of her family and slowly grows accustomed to the constant brutality that the path of revenge leads to. Anotsu himself isn't the one-dimensional evil monster that Rin believes him to be as he is driven by a sense of revenge himself; his revolution against outdated traditions begins only because people he loved were hurt, killed and outcasted by the harsh rules and teachings of the old sword schools. Even those who live through vicarious swindling and assassination such as Hyakurin and her partner Giichi have very traumatic upbringings and take no joy in their work.
We see how violence warps these characters into killing machines and then we see how the violence they inflict on others leads to more tragedy and bloodshed. Whether it be physical, mental or sexual, the violence throughout the series never goes unexplored or unpunished. It somehow manages to be brutally elegant and mature at the same time, the bloody battles are fantastic and the effects it has on the characters is even more so.
What seems to be a cliche samurai revenge story subtly transforms into an exploration of the psychological effects that violence has on many different types of individuals. Some are defined by it, some are bound to it, some love it while others allow themselves to grow from it or be destroyed by it. Violence and revenge are never fully justified nor condemned. It's presented from a very neutral and realistic point of view, allowing you to see it from every angle possible and judge for yourself whether it can be justified or not.
The story is simple, but the webs of conflict between many groups of complex and dangerous characters is where it truly shines. Strong development, elegant violence, moral ambiguity and an unusually modern punk tone in the dialogue and mannerisms of the characters offers a unique way of exploring a feudal-era drama that defies the expectations of a traditional revenge story.
***
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Manji is a ruthless ronin stricken with the curse of immortality. To undo his curse, he must take the lives of a thousand sinners. He's a wandering sword for hire that kills without mercy and hunts down evil warriors all over feudal Japan. He wanders and kills without purpose for quite some time, but his long journey to end his own life takes an unexpected turn when he meets a compassionate young girl named Rin who is seeking revenge for her parents after they were murdered by members of a brutal new sword school called the Itto-ryu. Manji accepts the role of Rin's guardian and their drastically different ideals and personalities begin to change each other in ways neither of them could've foreseen as they clash with one merciless sinner after another.
The story cycles between several groups of samurai warriors each with their own moral codes and objectives. Other than Manji and Rin, there is Anotsu Kagehisa; the leader of the Itto-ryu and his band of rogues that openly defy old traditions as they seek to revolutionize the way of the samurai through force. Hyakurin and her partner Giichi who work as government cutthroats under a faction called the Mugai-ryu along with a serial killer named Shira, and so on. There are also hundreds of assassins, criminal gangs and shady individuals that wish to learn the secrets of Manji's immortality for their own nefarious purposes. With so many vicious people on the loose, it's no surprise that this ends up being one of the most brutal and bloody samurai tales ever told.
Blade of the Immortal makes ultra-violence look like a poetic art form. Blood and limbs fly like scarlet paint. Blades cut through flesh and bone like knives through butter. The use of clever battle poses and finishing techniques against the backdrop of hyper-stylized Edo period art makes for some museum-worthy battle and death scenes.
Despite how glamorized violence and bloodshed is throughout the series, it does not shy away from exploring the aftermath of said violence and how it impacts the psychological state of the characters. A sweet girl like Rin seeks revenge against Anotsu of the Itto-ryu for leading an assault that resulted in the murder of her family and slowly grows accustomed to the constant brutality that the path of revenge leads to. Anotsu himself isn't the one-dimensional evil monster that Rin believes him to be as he is driven by a sense of revenge himself; his revolution against outdated traditions begins only because people he loved were hurt, killed and outcasted by the harsh rules and teachings of the old sword schools. Even those who live through vicarious swindling and assassination such as Hyakurin and her partner Giichi have very traumatic upbringings and take no joy in their work.
We see how violence warps these characters into killing machines and then we see how the violence they inflict on others leads to more tragedy and bloodshed. Whether it be physical, mental or sexual, the violence throughout the series never goes unexplored or unpunished. It somehow manages to be brutally elegant and mature at the same time, the bloody battles are fantastic and the effects it has on the characters is even more so.
What seems to be a cliche samurai revenge story subtly transforms into an exploration of the psychological effects that violence has on many different types of individuals. Some are defined by it, some are bound to it, some love it while others allow themselves to grow from it or be destroyed by it. Violence and revenge are never fully justified nor condemned. It's presented from a very neutral and realistic point of view, allowing you to see it from every angle possible and judge for yourself whether it can be justified or not.
The story is simple, but the webs of conflict between many groups of complex and dangerous characters is where it truly shines. Strong development, elegant violence, moral ambiguity and an unusually modern punk tone in the dialogue and mannerisms of the characters offers a unique way of exploring a feudal-era drama that defies the expectations of a traditional revenge story.
***
My Social Media
My YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPs...
My Instagram Account: https://www.instagram.com/michael_sor...
My Wattpad Account: https://www.wattpad.com/user/Michael-...
My Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/SorbelloHorror
My Facebook Account: https://www.facebook.com/michael.sorb...
March 6, 2025
Well, that was heavy.. and not in a good way.
It was ok.
I doubt that anyone who's interested in this series is going to judge Blade by this volume, since it's the 17th, but for all who stumbled through, this is not your usual Blade of the Immortal volume. It's just one of those chore-to-read ones, with a plot that we could have been done with in 20 pages, but instead it was dragging out to be like 300pgs.
It felt like I was reading about Manji being cut off by doctors for the entire volume, if not, at least the 80% of it, easy. In fact, I can't remember a time where this guy that his name escapes me because of how boring he is, didn't want to become immortal like Manji trying to figure out a way.
In short, I didn't like this. Amazing artwork as always, but hopefully it's going to pick up from now on and be done with Manji being a prisoner and a lab-rat of sorts. Tedious and boring.
It was ok.
I doubt that anyone who's interested in this series is going to judge Blade by this volume, since it's the 17th, but for all who stumbled through, this is not your usual Blade of the Immortal volume. It's just one of those chore-to-read ones, with a plot that we could have been done with in 20 pages, but instead it was dragging out to be like 300pgs.
It felt like I was reading about Manji being cut off by doctors for the entire volume, if not, at least the 80% of it, easy. In fact, I can't remember a time where this guy that his name escapes me because of how boring he is, didn't want to become immortal like Manji trying to figure out a way.
In short, I didn't like this. Amazing artwork as always, but hopefully it's going to pick up from now on and be done with Manji being a prisoner and a lab-rat of sorts. Tedious and boring.
December 5, 2020
The initially intriguing premise surrounding Manji's imprisonment starts to wear a little bit here. The focus becoming the doctor performing surgeries. And while the doctor is an interesting character, he's not strong enough to be the center of a book.
The whole Rin and Manji being separated angle is also way overused at this point.
The whole Rin and Manji being separated angle is also way overused at this point.
August 9, 2018
Ok manga....Overall story💩1/10 But on the plus side pretty decent samurai/Feudal japan type manga with lots of Explicit Violence(Heads,ears and other body parts flying all over the place)👌😅💀👂👃💕💕
January 21, 2019
Guro porn is good porn.
April 24, 2020
6.5/10
January 24, 2024
Interesting subplot but really drags the story down.
April 26, 2024
La espada del inmortal se convierte en una historia de horror. ¡Estupendo!
February 23, 2025
Solid volume - we get a progression of the prior volume - not too much that’s new but the storyline of trying to make another Manji is morbidly engaging.
June 15, 2025
The story continues in fascinating horror. Perhaps it drags a bit longer than ideal, but it still held my attention throughout.
Want to read
September 26, 2025manga
November 24, 2013
This takes a break from the swordfighting and moves to a story about a doctor charged with discovering the secret of Manji's immortality. His moral dilemma coupled with the consequences of his failure is actually pretty interesting. As usual, I have lost track of all the other characters except Manji and Rin.
11/23/13
OK, now that I've got a hold of all the characters, Samura is very good at diverting. He's like a salesman that steers you to the more expensive product: "Sure I could continue to talk about the blood feud that drives the plot, but wouldn't you much rather hear about the crazy, unethical doctor?" And it works. I also get more and more curious about his opinions about the Western influence on feudal Japan. Not only is there the "whatever works" school of thought on the swordfighting, but not the influence of Western medicine. Manji, for all of his cynicism and practicality, has a part of himself that is mystic. The conflict seems to be whether to let the mystery of tradition and magic go forth or whether to dissect it both literally and figuratively. Manji's body resists the science.
11/23/13
OK, now that I've got a hold of all the characters, Samura is very good at diverting. He's like a salesman that steers you to the more expensive product: "Sure I could continue to talk about the blood feud that drives the plot, but wouldn't you much rather hear about the crazy, unethical doctor?" And it works. I also get more and more curious about his opinions about the Western influence on feudal Japan. Not only is there the "whatever works" school of thought on the swordfighting, but not the influence of Western medicine. Manji, for all of his cynicism and practicality, has a part of himself that is mystic. The conflict seems to be whether to let the mystery of tradition and magic go forth or whether to dissect it both literally and figuratively. Manji's body resists the science.
November 11, 2009
So far my least favourite volume of this fantastic series. It just takes place in prison and no nice things are going on there, that's for sure. As for the art, it reaches a new level of simplicity, especially in the first chapter. But of course, only compared to another volumes of BotI, otherwise the art is still better than almost everything else that you can read in manga genre. I just wish for more sword action and less torture action in the next volume.
September 9, 2008
An interesting turn of events, but the pacing went to complete shit.
May 17, 2009
My biggest complaint is that nowhere on the outside does this book say it is volume 17 . I thought it was a stand-alone.
September 17, 2018
[REVIEW FOR THE SERIES...]
Blade of the Immortal (Vol. 1-31)
Blade of the Immortal (Japanese: 無限の住人 Hepburn: Mugen no Jūnin, lit. "The Inhabitant of Infinity") is a Japanese seinen manga series by Hiroaki Samura. The series is set in Japan during the mid-Tokugawa Shogunate period and follows the samurai Manji, cursed with eternal life, who now has to kill 1000 evil men in order to regain his mortality. The series ran from 1993 to 2012, and has garnered itself quite a fan following and now has several animated and movie adaptions.
The Blade of the Immortal series is perhaps one of my top favorite manga series of all time and I’ve read a lot of manga in my life. I’m still not completely sure what it is about this series that worked for me; all I know is it did. The truth is it is a very dark, violent, historical manga with elements of fantasy and mysticism. Much of it involves very gritty and gory sword fighting scenes and super fascinating cast of characters, heroes, villains and all shades in between. The story keeps you on the edge of your seat, if you manage push past the first few chapters, which can be very confusing honestly. Once you get into the meat of it though, it becomes enthralling, disturbing and even emotional. And the art...well it’s exquisite and only improves as you continue through the volumes... Check it.
WOW. Epic no? So this is Manji, our cursed yet extremely skilled samurai hero (anti-hero?) who is on a quest to kill 1000 evil men in oder to relieve himself of this curse and die peacefully. So it all starts when he is the cause of the death of 100 good samurai, due to his criminal actions, and is cursed to immortality, (by means of "sacred bloodworms" (血仙蟲 kessen-chū) that allow him to survive nearly every injury and even reattach dismembered limbs, by a 800-year-old nun. After a tragic turn of events he then vows to make amends for his sins that will allow his curse to be ended. This dark endeavor for redemption causes him much sorrow and suffering, but Manji always manages to persevere. His life only gets more complicated, however, when he meets Rin.
Manji later crosses paths with a young girl, named Asano Rin, and promises to help her avenge her parents, who were killed by a group of master swordsmen led by the mysterious and evil Anotsu Kagehisa. Anotsu killed Rin's father and his entire dōjō, making them a family of outcasts. Anotsu's quest is to gather other outcasts and form an extremely powerful new dojo, the Ittō-ryū (a school teaching any technique that wins, no matter how exotic or underhanded), and has started taking over and destroying other dojos, and threatens to defy the honorable system of the samurai realm.
Manji and Rin team up together to hunt down the savage Anotsu, which leads them on a perilous adventure, down a simultaneous path of revenge and redemption. I love the platonic dynamic between Manji and Rin. This series is a wonderfully thought out read, amazing illustrated and filled to the brim with action, excitement, mystery, and suspense and of course, a load of violent sword fighting scenes. There are a series of other interesting characters that I will not go into in this review, but suffice it to say, Blade of the Immortal is a read to remember. I highly recommend this to seinen manga fans, but not to the squeamish or faint of heart. This is a very graphic series.
[OFFICIAL RATING: 4.8 STARS]
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews