Act Nine – Gathering

I’m going to be honest, Blade of the Immortal episode 9 was a little suspect. After the events of the previous episode, a member of the Mugai-Ryo receives information regarding the whereabouts of Kagehisa. Apparently he made it safely into Kaga.

I wasn’t sure if he was really going to travel to Kaga, or if this was all a setup, but it seems like he really is there. That’s not the problem, however. The problem is that it’s decided that Rin is the only one who can cross the border, likely because she’s the only one without a bounty.

That logic in itself is fine, but who expects Rin to defeat Kagehisa at this point in time? It wasn’t all that long ago that she was easily defeated by him, and it’s not like she’s trained all that much since then. He has far more practice and real combat experience than she does.

Manji’s job is to be Rin’s bodyguard, and apparently even he thought this was a good idea. In fact, it seemed like he was the one who suggested it in the first place. I know she’ll be fine because she’s the main character, but from Manji’s perspective there’s no reason to think Rin is ready for this.

And to make things more perplexing, she sets off on her own. You’d think that Manji would accompany her until she gets near the border, but instead what we see is Rin traveling through towns alone. Where did the sense of danger lurking around every corner go?

Also, do I know I said Kagehisa does appear to be in Kaga now, but should the Mugai-Ryu really be trusting their mole that much after what happened?

Wanted Poster

Unfortunately for Rin, this plan for her to cross the border on her own falls apart almost immediately after she discovers a wanted poster with her face on it. It also includes Manji, but we know he already had a bounty so that’s nothing special. The poster also mentions a 10 ryō reward for information leading to their capture.

However, even though her plan has now been foiled, Rin doesn’t return to Manji. Instead, she decides to take matters into her own hands and cross the border at any cost. To do this, she visits a woman whom she previously met who mentioned there being only one way to cross the border illegally.

This woman puts Rin in contact with a couple who live in the town next to the border crossing. The couple has a history of smuggling people across, but hasn’t performed that kind of work in the past three years after being caught once. At that time, the woman they were smuggling was beheaded for her crime.

Rin does eventually convince the couple to help her, but again, this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

The couple initially doesn’t want to smuggle her across the border because they don’t want her to lose her life if they get caught. But Rin assures them that they don’t have to worry about that, because she’s already a wanted woman. Even if she she doesn’t get caught and killed here, it’s only a matter of time.

She also confides in the wife about needing to avenge the murder of her parents. As we learn, the wife also lost her parents. But what doesn’t make sense is that if caught, the couple will be killed too. Don’t their lives matter?

Sawa’s Resolve

Anyway, it doesn’t seem like the couple value their own lives either, because they agree to help Rin cross the border. And per the wife’s plan, Rin takes on the role of Sawa, her sister.

To do so, she had to memorize Sawa’s family history, including that of her birth family and the family she was married into. This is to combat the fact that the guards have a detailed list of everyone who lives in the border village and their family histories.

But that’s not the crazy part about this. After all, memorizing someone else’s life so you can pretend to be them for an hour isn’t much of a commitment. No, the real commitment comes in the form of what Rin had to do to her own body in order to truly become Sawa.

Sawa has twin children who were born via cesarean section. This is something the guards are aware of, and so before allowing Rin to pass as Sawa, they ask to perform a check of her body for signs of this. And to their amazement, not only does Rin oblige, but she willingly disrobes to prove her identity to them.

Now, Rin can’t get a cesarean section scar that quickly, so she relied on the guards not inspecting the scar closely. It was a real wound, but it was too new to actually be a real scar. The wife had sliced open Rin’s stomach (not deeply) so that there would be a visible wound there should she be made to strip.

And I have to say, if I was in Rin’s position, that’s where I’d tap out. I know the wound is supposedly superficial, but that knifed looked like it went in a little too deep.

Conclusion

What do you think about Blade of the Immortal episode 9? Do you think Rin is actually ready to take on Kagehisa? Or is Manji being too reckless? Should the couple have helped Rin cross the border? And how far are you willing to go to avenge your parents’ murder by the hand of Kagehisa? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Act Eight – Mugai-Ryu

Although they were introduced just one episode ago, we already have a pretty good understanding of the Mugai-Ryu. They’re an apparent rag-tag group of rogues who have a vendetta against the Itto-Ryu for various reasons. And, although this isn’t confirmed, they have a wealthy, potentially powerful, backer.

At this point in time, however, I’m less interested in how the group is financed and more interested in what they all have in common. Obviously they hate the Itto-Ryu, but why? Are they the survivors of samurai dojo which have been otherwise wiped out? Perhaps some of them are, but not all.

The two members of this organization whom we know the most about are Shira and Hyakurin. So, let’s talk a bit about the potential reasons they each have for joining this group.

Shira is probably the more straightforward of the two. Based on what we’ve seen of him over the past two episodes, he’s a psychotic killer. He has no issues with killing innocent civilians, and actually appears to get pleasure out of it. The only reason he likely joined the Mugai-Ryu is because it will give him a chance to kill more people.

And sure, he could have joined the Itto-Ryu for that, but he also probably wants to fight against strong swordsmen. He can’t fight against the members of the Itto-Ryu if he’s one of them himself.

Hyakurin’s motivation appears to be very different. She tells Rin that she has two kids, but it seems to be implied that they’ve already died. She also implies she was once married to a samurai and that Rin shouldn’t get involved with samurai. Is her ex husband a member of the Itto-Ryu? And did he kill their children?

A Mole in the Itto-Ryu

Regardless of why the various members joined the Mugai-Ryu, what’s clear is that their group is highly organized for a bunch of random rogues with little in common. Aside from their wealthy backer, they even have a mole planted within the Itto-Ryu who’s feeding them information on Anotsu’s movements.

It’s implied that this mole is the man we meet at the beginning of the episode, Makoto, but I’m not so sure. He could be the mole — after all, he was asking all the right questions. However, I get the feeling that he’s just there to mislead us and that the real mole is someone else.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised is Anotsu Kagehisa is the mole himself. None of the Mugai-Ryu members apparently know what he looks like, so they could have been in contact with him the entire time without knowing it. This would explain how Anotsu has countermeasures for all the leaked information.

It makes more sense the more I think about it. He didn’t simply have diversions to combat the leaked information, he actually had teams of Itto-Ryu assassins attempt to take out the Mugai-Ryu members who went for the bait.

That’s not the action of someone who’s looking to slip past his enemies. That’s the action of someone who knows his enemies are watching, and is laying a counter trap for them. It’s possible that Anotsu never had any plans to leave for Kaga and instead made it all up to force the Mugai-Ryu’s hand.

If they believe he’s about to cross the border into shogunate-protected territory, they’ll act sooner rather than later to take him down. The only thing Anotsu seemingly didn’t account for is that the members of the Mugai-Ryu are stronger than his own swordsmen.

Cross Dresser

As for the plan Anotsu put into effect, it was said that he would be heading for the border checkpoint disguised as a woman. And it’s this information the Mugai-Ryu latches on to. With the help of Rin identifying the shape of Anotsu’s signature weapon, the Mugai-Ryu splits up and stops each of the many female Anotsu lookalikes on the road.

But, of course, none of them are the real Anotsu. This is why I’m thinking the entire plan was a setup from the start. Since none of the pairs found Anotsu, was he really cross dressing as a woman and heading to the border check point at all? It’s possible, but I don’t think so.

Either he was heading to the checkpoint without a disguise, or he wasn’t heading there at all. And remember, as I’ve already mentioned, even if he wasn’t wearing a disguise the members of the Mugai-Ryu don’t know what he looks like. Having them all looking for a woman would be a great way to slip past them unnoticed without a disguise of his own.

The one thing Anotsu didn’t count on, or at least the prostitutes he hired to pose as his doubles didn’t count on, is that the Mugai-Ryu doesn’t exactly have a code they follow. Some of these prostitutes were spared, such as the one stopped by Hyakurin, but that’s not true for all of them.

We saw that Shira tortured the prostitute he stopped in Anotsu’s place, and would have killed her had Manji not shown up (she still probably died from her injuries). There are also other prostitutes who were likely killed and then had their identities checked afterwards. After all, even if they aren’t Anotsu, they’re working for him in some capacity.

Conclusion

What did you think of Blade of the Immortal episode 8? Do you think the Mugai-Ryu are bad guys after we saw what Shira is like? Or, perhaps Shira is the only bad one of the bunch — Hyakurin didn’t seem like a bad person. Also, who do you think the mole is? And was Anotsu actually heading to the border dressed as a woman? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below. Also follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And, join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Act 7 – Evil’s Shadow

Things have really started to get interesting in Blade of the Immortal with episode 7. I questioned the existence of the Itto-Ryu organization just last week, and this week it’s been confirmed to still exist. But more importantly, a new organization has also appeared — the Mugai-Ryu.

Today’s review is going to focus on both of those groups, so before we get into those, let’s catch up with Rin and Manji. The two of them are taking it fairly easily, not really going out of their way to track down members of the Itto-Ryu.

However, Rin does plan to become a stronger swordswomen (which I don’t think is necessary), and Manji has a plan to take down Kagehisa of the Itto-Ryu.

Starting with Rin, I get why she’s training — her goal is to kill Kagehisa. But, like I just mentioned, Manji already has a plan for defeating him, and it’s unlikely it involves Rin delivering the fatal blow. I kind of view Rin like Fuu from Samurai Champloo — she can have a sword, but she doesn’t really need one.

As for Manji’s plan, it involves fighting Kagehisa while he’s on his way to Kaga. It was probably mentioned and I just missed it, but I believe Kagehisa is traveling to Kaga to be awarded the title of samurai. This title would then make the Itto-Ryu an official samurai dojo.

For now though, it’s unclear exactly how Manji plans to meet up with Kagehisa. It was stated that as a criminal Manji can’t travel to Kaga, and there’s no real reason for Kagehisa to seek him out before leaving the region.

Mugai-Ryu

The Mugai-Ryu is the new organization which was created to take down the Itto-Ryu. We don’t know why they want to do this, but we do know that someone named Akage is probably in charge. Aside from Akage the only other named member of this group so far is Shira, the man who approaches Rin and Manji.

He claims to be looking for an alliance with them since they too plan to take down the Itto-Ryu, but it’s unclear if this is really true. Remember, Eiku Shizuma approached Rina and Manji claiming the same thing before he tried to assassinate the latter.

And this made me think, was Eiku a member of the Mugai-Ryu?

Shira, his female accomplice, and a few other members of the Mugai-Ryu have been traveling around and killing off members of the Itto-Ryu. This led Tai, who I’ll get to in the next section, to question whether there was a rat among the Itto-Ryu. Perhaps Eiku was that rat.

But regardless of how the Mugai-Ryu are getting their information about the Itto-Ryu, it’s clear that the two groups aren’t allies. However, as we learn, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Mugai-Ryu are the allies of Rin and Manji. Shira feeds Rin’s own dog to her, so he’s clearly not a good guy.

Also, looking at the sun pattern on Shira’s clothing, is that the symbol of the Mugai-Ryu? Are they actually the Sun Pirates from One Piece? Jinbe, is that you?

Tai, Formerly of the Itto-Ryu

Tai is the masked, blue-clothed, spiky-haired member of the Itto-Ryu we’ve seen in a couple of episodes by this point. He was attacked by two members of the Mugai-Ryu, but managed to kill them both and learn the name “Akage” from one of them before they died.

However, he then retires from the Itto-Ryu for an unrelated reason — he was planning to retire before he was attacked. Because the Itto-Ryu is going to become an official samurai dojo, Tai no longer wants to be a part of the organization. He still believes in what Kagehisa stands for, but he hates the samurai class.

So, will he end up joining the Mugai-Ryu even though they attempted to kill him? Probably not.

There are two main reasons for this. The first is that he doesn’t have any ill will towards the Itto-Ryu, and actually parted ways from Kagehisa on good terms. The second is that in an attempt to learn Tai’s whereabouts, Shira killed Ren, the prostitute who Tai may or may not have been in love with.

She was definitely in love with him.

Also why is it that the best girl of the series was killed in the same episode she was introduced? What is this, SAO: Alicization – War of Underworld? You’ll get that reference in a few months when I review that.

Anyway, because Shira killed Ren, my guess is that Tai will take up his sword against the Mugai-Ryu. We may even see him fight alongside Rina and Manji temporarily. But I do think he’s going to die by the end of the series. While Rin and Manji will likely get a happy ending, Tai seems like hes getting set up as the tragic hero of the series.

Conclusion

Now that the Mugai-Ryu organization has been introduced, how do you think the story is going to be affected? Is there going to be a three way fight between the Itto-Ryu, Mugai-Ryu, and the Manji/Rin ultimate combo? Is Tai going to be a fourth side in this struggle for power, or is he going to join one of the other sides? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

I think Kagehisa and the Itto-Ryu have to be the final boss of the series for Rin’s arc to get some real closure. But does that mean Manji and Rin will be fighting the Mugai-Ryu first? Or, will we get more Itto-Ryu vs. Mugai-Ryu action and Manji and Rin will have nothing to do with their power struggle? I’m interested to see where the series goes from here.

But, if you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below and follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama. I tweet out every time a new post goes live, so it’s the best way to stay up to date. Also, come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Act Six – Wing Roots

The sixth episode of Blade of the Immortal didn’t exactly introduce us to anything new about the world or Manji’s abilities. And because of that, there’s a lot less to discuss regarding this episode than those which came before. But, I still found this to be one of the more enjoyable episodes so far.

Still, there is one piece of information which has been implied in the background of a few episodes, and this one is no different. Is the Itto-Ryu still an active group?

That may seem like a stupid question, but think about it. At the start of the series, when they attacked Rin’s family, they were traveling in a group. Sure, not all of the members were there yet, like Makie Otono-Tachibana, but they were clearly a single, group.

However, since then, we’ve only ever encountered the members of the Itto-Ryu one by one. And they don’t all seem to still be affiliated with the group. Even the leader, Kagehisa Anotsu doesn’t seem to have much to do with the other members anymore.

The first member of the Itto-Ryu we encountered (I forget his name) wanted to kill Rin despite that being against Kagehisa’s direct orders. Then we had Makie who allowed Rin and Manji to leave with their lives. And now we have Araya Kawakami who’s an official Itto-Ryu retiree.

But if the Itto-Ryu isn’t disbanded? Why are all of their members spread apart? It can’t be because they’re hunting down Rin, because Kagehisa already captured and let her go. Are they expanding their sphere of influence? It doesn’t seem like that’s the case either.

I’m fairly certain they’ve simply disbanded and the former members are currently doing whatever they want.

The Happy Mask Salesman

Some of the “former” Itto-Ryu members decided to go off on their own in search of prey. For that first member we met, he wanted to add Rin to his collection. Eiku Shizuma from last week’s episode was in search of someone who could finally kill him. But, what about Araya Kawakami?

Araya isn’t looking for a fight. In fact, he wants the opposite. All Araya wants is to live a quiet life with his son, Renzo, as a mask salesman. Proof of this is in the fact that he no longer even owns a sword, and his son doesn’t know that he’s a former samurai.

Renzo has never even heard of the Itto-Ryu.

But Araya doesn’t hide this information from his son to protect him from the other members of the Itto-Ryu. He doesn’t even do it because he’s particularly ashamed of his past — he’s not at all. Instead, he simply doesn’t want his son to follow in his footsteps because he knows it’s a lifestyle that, generally speaking, literally gets cut short.

And because Rin realizes that Araya is truly trying to keep his son from going down the same path he did, she decides not to kill him. Araya believes his son will follow his path if he learns about it, and Rin believes Renzo will follow her own path if his father is killed.

This is why I liked this episode. We’ve had other antagonists so far who aren’t completely evil. In fact, I’d say all of the antagonists have been somewhat morally grey so far. But with Araya we actually have an antagonist who has changed their ways — like Makie planned to do after meeting Rin and Manji.

Renzo’s Revenge

However, Araya does get killed in the end, and it’s really his own fault. Rin does say that it’s cruel of him to be able to raise his son and have a normal life after doing what he did to her own mother, but at the same time Rin isn’t going to expose his past to Renzo.

Unfortunately, Araya believes he needs to kill Rin in order to keep her silent, and this is his downfall. Even after being attacked, Rin didn’t plan to kill him, but Manji is a different story. He’s been hired to protect Rin, so he’s going to do just that, even if she doesn’t want him to.

But, Manji is nothing if not smooth. He knows that Renzo would go down a path of revenge if he were to escape after killing his father, so he let’s himself get “killed” by the boy. He even severs his arm and allows Rin to bury it (temporarily) as evidence that he died.

Looking at Manji you wouldn’t expect him to be the kind of person to have a soft spot like that, but I guess he does. I mean, we already knew he sort of has a soft spot for Rin, but maybe it’s just for orphaned kids in general. Perhaps this connects back to his own past in some way.

Also, I wonder how long his arm was severed for. We know that he can still die if he bleeds out, so I’d imagine his arm couldn’t have been severed for that long. But it still would have to have been long enough for it to be buried and then for Rin to show it to Renzo.

Conclusion

So what did you think of Blade of the Immortal episode 6? Were you hoping to learn more about Manji’s immortality? Did you like this episode’s change of pace? And, do you think the Itto-Ryu has disbanded or not? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below and follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama. I tweet out every time a new post goes live, so it’s the best way to stay up to date. And, come join us on Discord if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Act Five – Song of the Bugs

Happy Halloween! I was going to have a special Halloween post this year like I did last year, but then I just didn’t feel like doing that. And since I make the rules around here, we’re sticking to the schedule and reviewing episode five of Blade of the Immortal.

To start things off, I have to say this was a great episode. Not only did we learn a lot of new information about Manji’s immortality, but we also met another, very interesting character by the name of Eiku Shizuma.

Like Manji, Eiku is another immortal swordsmen, but he’s a member of the Itto-Ryu. However, unlike many of the other members we’ve met so far, he’s not exactly all that dedicated to the cause. Sure, he believes in what the Itto-Ryu stands for, but he also tries to ally with Manji to take down its leader.

Why exactly he wants to do this isn’t entirely clear, but I do have a guess. I don’t believe that Eiku was ever planning to help Manji defeat the leader of the Itto-Ryu, but I also don’t think it was a trap. Instead, Eiku was testing Manji for another reason — to see if he was a worthy opponent.

And I don’t think he simply wanted to fight a strong opponent. I think he was looking for an opponent who could finally defeat him. This is hinted at towards the end of the episode when he states that the reason he didn’t dodge Manji’s final attack was because he was tired of struggling like a worm to live.

I assume he would have finished Manji off during their first encounter if he had accepted his deal.

Sacred Blood Worms

Eiku is also the one who gives us a lot of new information regarding his and Manji’s immortality. For starters, it’s confirmed that the old woman Rin met in the graveyard at the beginning of episode one is the one who granted them both their power.

However, the source of their immortality is a bit odd. Eiku refers to the “sacred blood worms” as the active force which keeps both he and Manji alive. These seem to be literal worms inside of their blood which heal their wounds.

It’s a sort of symbiotic relationship. The worms have a host body to live in, and the host gains immortality.

We also learn that the sacred blood worms cannot be passed from person to person like a normal blood-borne disease. Eiku tells Rin this is the case at first, but it turns out he was lying. After all, if that were the case then he could have saved those who he cared about who died over the centuries.

And yes, I said centuries. Eiku is confirmed to be a bit over 200 years old which in itself is an important piece of information because thanks to Manji’s reaction, we know he’s nowhere near that old yet. If I had to guess, Manji has only been immortal for a few years.

We also have Manji’s confirmed kill count at 128 while Eiku claims his is no less than 1,000. But to be fair, Eiku also mentioned that he took part in a war which would have given him and his immortal body a lot of enemies to fight against.

Eiku Shizuma’s Blade(s)

So we know that Eiku is Immortal just like Manji thanks to the sacred blood worms, he’s older than Manji, and he’s killed more men than Manji. But what we also learn is that all of this means he has much more experience than Manji.

At some point during his life he discovered a special type of poison which works against the sacred blood worms. This means that an immortal human who’s poisoned by it won’t be able to regenerate their body. We see this when Manji is stabbed by Eiku’s knife.

However, that’s not all there is to the sacred blood worm poison. Not only does it stop the healing of wounds, but it reopens all of the person’s wounds which were previously closed. It’s not exactly clear though whether only wounds healed by the sacred blood worms reopen.

I would think that it only opens wounds healed by the sacred blood worms initially. But, Manji’s scars on his face reopen, and I don’t think those were healed by the worms because they wouldn’t have left scars if they were. Either way, the person who gets poisoned is going to die due to blood loss thanks to all of their past injuries.

Now, what does all of this have to do with Eiku’s blade(s) as this section is titled? Obviously we know he coats his blades in this poison, but did you notice the fur (or maybe feathers) attached to the back of his blade(s)? This actually serves a purpose — it soaks up the poison which would otherwise run off the blade.

That attention to detail alone is enough to make this a good episode.

Nothing in this World is Immortal

The last thing I want to discuss regarding this episode is the fact that Manji and Eiku’s immortality is not absolute. In episode three Manji mentioned that he could be killed by beheading, but we now learn there’s actually more to it than just that.

Yes, beheading would work, but there are a variety of other options as well. It appears that the sacred blood worms can only repair bodily trauma to a certain extent. For example, when Manji’s leg is amputated he’s able to reattach it because he holds it in place while the worms repair the wound.

So what would have happened if his leg was amputated and then thrown into a volcano so he couldn’t recover it? I know, extreme example, but still. My point is, if he can’t reattach whatever gets cut off, I don’t think the worms will heal the injury — leaving him to bleed out.

This is exactly how Eiku dies. His arms and legs are chopped off, and then his torso is pinned to a tree. Like this, there’s no way for him to reattach his extremities, and so he ends up dying due to blood loss.

But as I mentioned earlier on, Eiku also wanted to die at this point. If that wasn’t the case, he could have easily defeated Manji, which is kind of becoming a recurring theme. Manji, despite being immortal, isn’t that great of a swordsman. However, in his defense, Eiku has 200 years of combat experience.

Conclusion

What are your thoughts about Blade of the Immortal episode five? Did you find it as interesting as I did? Do you think we’ll ever meet another person with the sacred blood worms of immortality? And how old do you think Manji is? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤ down below and follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama. I tweet out every time a new post goes live, so it’s the best way to stay up to date. And, come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank HeavyROMAN for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier and Rob Wright and Keyboard Kadabra for supporting at the Kouhai tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.