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myra_rue's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
homosexualstudying's review
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
tashas_books's review
3.0
I feel kinda “eh...?” about this so far. I’ll read the next few volumes to see if it catches my interest more, but mostly I keep thinking that I’d rather be reading Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue.
brambresseleers's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jasmineblossoms's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
weng's review
Great, the art is stunning and the characters original. Lonewolf and cub, vagabond and this rule the samurai manga world.
thisotherbookaccount's review
3.0
Blade of the Immortal as a series comes highly recommended. Its first instalment, however, comes with a warning tag. Before starting the manga, I was told that the series has a rough, slow start — and I am glad for the heads up.
Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal, like every other manga series that I have ever read before, begins with an info-dump — that is, everything you need to know about the protagonist is told to you at the front. This first volume is front-loaded with everything you need to know about Manji as a character, from his first introduction in the church to his secret backstory involving his sister. This strange narrative decision can be explained by the fact that most manga are released weekly via magazines in Japan, with each issue of the magazine featuring just 10–20 pages of the manga. As such, you want to hook the readers as fast as possible, thus explains the info-dump. Even though it makes for an unnecessary and awkward start to the series, in the context of how manga is marketed and sold in Japan, it makes sense.
Another thing that jumped out has less to do with the book itself, but manga as a whole. Whenever I read manga, it almost always feels like the reader is expected to fill in the gaps and join the dots between frames on the page. One frame may show one thing, while the next frame may show something else altogether, and it does throw the reader off from time to time. It almost feels like there are several frames missing in between, and that the writer/artist missed them out. This makes reading sometimes a chore, as if forces you to go back and forth to re-read certain portions. As a writer of a comic book, it is the responsibility of the writer/artist to lead the reader on. One way to do that is through the dialogues. The 'leading' here is done poorly at times, with dialogue boxes pointing to a single character in the frame, but the character isn't actually speaking those dialogue. It is also difficult to tell when there is a flashback, so that further puzzles the reader. In short, Samura's ability to lead the reader from one frame to the next, one time period to the next and one narrative beat to the next is poor.
Next, for a manga that boasts its hyper violence and action, the action itself is poorly drawn for the most part. You see two swordsman staring down each other on one page, then a frame or two of them drawing their swords, then — bam! — there is a two-page spread of one of them being sliced into tiny meaty chunks. One thing that people say about Blade of the Immortal is that it is a far superior series to Rurouni Kenshin. While that may be the case, at least the latter does action much better. You almost always know where a character is, what was his previous move, what is his next move and how those swings affect the situation. Maybe a swing her causes a cut there, or a stab here draws blood from the enemy's shoulder — whatever. It takes time and effort to make action clear on the page, but it adds to the grittiness and realism. I am not a fan of how Samura has elected to draw action, choosing instead to highlight the gruesome aftermath rather than the swordplay.
Perhaps a part of this has to do with Dark Horse, the American comic book company responsible for bringing this title to the rest of the world. Maybe it's just me, but some frames look undone, as if the first drafts of the frames were chosen and printed rather than the final version. Some frames look faded and pixelated, while the very next frame looks perfectly fine. Maybe something went wrong in the scanning process, but this makes reading somewhat unenjoyable.
As for the story, it is fair. It does not break new grounds, but this is to be completely expected. I am looking forward to the story, the characters and the writer developing as the series goes on. I hope that it will find stronger footing in the volumes to come because, if the reviews that I have heard are true, Blade of the Immortal promises to be a fun and bloody good time.
Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal, like every other manga series that I have ever read before, begins with an info-dump — that is, everything you need to know about the protagonist is told to you at the front. This first volume is front-loaded with everything you need to know about Manji as a character, from his first introduction in the church to his secret backstory involving his sister. This strange narrative decision can be explained by the fact that most manga are released weekly via magazines in Japan, with each issue of the magazine featuring just 10–20 pages of the manga. As such, you want to hook the readers as fast as possible, thus explains the info-dump. Even though it makes for an unnecessary and awkward start to the series, in the context of how manga is marketed and sold in Japan, it makes sense.
Another thing that jumped out has less to do with the book itself, but manga as a whole. Whenever I read manga, it almost always feels like the reader is expected to fill in the gaps and join the dots between frames on the page. One frame may show one thing, while the next frame may show something else altogether, and it does throw the reader off from time to time. It almost feels like there are several frames missing in between, and that the writer/artist missed them out. This makes reading sometimes a chore, as if forces you to go back and forth to re-read certain portions. As a writer of a comic book, it is the responsibility of the writer/artist to lead the reader on. One way to do that is through the dialogues. The 'leading' here is done poorly at times, with dialogue boxes pointing to a single character in the frame, but the character isn't actually speaking those dialogue. It is also difficult to tell when there is a flashback, so that further puzzles the reader. In short, Samura's ability to lead the reader from one frame to the next, one time period to the next and one narrative beat to the next is poor.
Next, for a manga that boasts its hyper violence and action, the action itself is poorly drawn for the most part. You see two swordsman staring down each other on one page, then a frame or two of them drawing their swords, then — bam! — there is a two-page spread of one of them being sliced into tiny meaty chunks. One thing that people say about Blade of the Immortal is that it is a far superior series to Rurouni Kenshin. While that may be the case, at least the latter does action much better. You almost always know where a character is, what was his previous move, what is his next move and how those swings affect the situation. Maybe a swing her causes a cut there, or a stab here draws blood from the enemy's shoulder — whatever. It takes time and effort to make action clear on the page, but it adds to the grittiness and realism. I am not a fan of how Samura has elected to draw action, choosing instead to highlight the gruesome aftermath rather than the swordplay.
Perhaps a part of this has to do with Dark Horse, the American comic book company responsible for bringing this title to the rest of the world. Maybe it's just me, but some frames look undone, as if the first drafts of the frames were chosen and printed rather than the final version. Some frames look faded and pixelated, while the very next frame looks perfectly fine. Maybe something went wrong in the scanning process, but this makes reading somewhat unenjoyable.
As for the story, it is fair. It does not break new grounds, but this is to be completely expected. I am looking forward to the story, the characters and the writer developing as the series goes on. I hope that it will find stronger footing in the volumes to come because, if the reviews that I have heard are true, Blade of the Immortal promises to be a fun and bloody good time.