Act Four – Rin at Odds

The fourth episode of Blade of the Immortal focuses on the backgrounds of our two sides. On one side we have Rin and Manji, and on the other we have the Itto-Ryu led by Kagehisa Anotsu. However, it’s the latter who gets the most attention this time around.

So before we get into Kagehisa’s background, let’s quickly go over Rin and Manji.

Now, we don’t actually get any new information about Rin’s past in this episode. But we do get some information about her father, whose death started the events of the series. We already knew he was a samurai officially recognized by the shogunate, but now we also know a bit more about why he was killed.

Part of the reason for his death was the fact that Rin’s grandfather earned the title of samurai over the grandfather of Kagehisa. But, what seems to have been an even bigger factor is that Rin’s father was accused, by Kagehisa, of soiling the way of the Samurai by not continually striving to be stronger.

I’ll discuss that a bit more when I go over Kagehisa’s past and the origins of the Itto-Ryu. But first I need to mention Manji. I believe it was last week when I mentioned that we don’t really know how he became immortal in the first place, but it seems to be a curse.

In this episode, we still don’t have the answer. But we do have another piece of the puzzle. He tells Rin that over a two year span he killed 100 samurai. We don’t know if this was before or after he gained his immortality, but we do know that it was “some time ago” and that the Itto-Ryu are stronger than those samurai were.

My guess: that was before his immortality.

Kagehisa Anotsu

As for Kagehisa Anotsu, the current leader of the Itto-Ryu, we learn that he didn’t have the best childhood. From what we see, he lived alone with his grandfather who often physically abused him for being weak. His grandfather also seems to have been taking out his anger regarding not being named an official samurai on the young Kagehisa.

From what I understand, it’s this physical abuse which made Kagehisa’s eventual killing of Rin’s father a personal matter. Yes, his lack of samurai ideals played the biggest role, but Kagehisa also wanted revenge for what he dealt with as a child by the hands of his grandfather.

And since Rin’s grandfather, the one who “stole” the samurai title from Kagehisa’s grandfather, to Kagehisa he was the cause of the abuse. But Rin’s grandfather is no longer alive, so Kagehisa decided to kill his son, Rin’s father.

So now that we know how Kagehisa started the cycle of revenge found in the story, we look at how he became one of the most formidable swordsmen in all the land. After all, when he was a child he was referred to as weak by his grandfather — something that certainly doesn’t describe him today.

Well, it all started when he was defended against something or someone by a mysterious swordswoman. This woman was then beaten and left for dead by Kagehisa’s grandfather for no apparent reason. But what influenced the young Kagehisa to become stronger was what happened next.

Rather than being killed by the wild beasts she was left out for, she ended up killing 52 of them and escaping. This act seemed to show Kagehisa that just because someone appears weak and beaten doesn’t mean they can’t actually be strong.

Itto-Ryu Origins

Contrary to what I originally thought, Kagehisa technically didn’t found the Itto-Ryu. It’s implied that his grandfather is the founder, but it could have even been around long before him. With that said, the Itto-Ryu drastically changed once Kagehisa took over, so it’s almost not fair to consider it the same group.

At the age of 10, Kagehisa decided he was going to kill his grandfather and take over as the leader of the Itto-Ryu. However, at this point it doesn’t seem like there were actually any other members of the group aside from his grandfather.

This is also the same time when Kagehisa gained his first follower, the first samurai Manji defeated in the series. You know, the one who had his ex-wife’s head sewn onto his body. Even back when he began following Kagehisa her head was already attached to him, but he didn’t yet have a second.

However, Kagehisa’s grandfather knew that his grandson was planning to kill him, so he came up with a plan of his own. He invited one of his old samurai pals over and asked for his help killing Kagehisa and his follower. Kagehisa’s grandfather alone was too frail to kill the follower, which is why he needed an accomplice.

Unfortunately for Kagehisa’s grandfather, his accomplice decided to kill him instead. Why?

He claims he killed his friend because Kagehisa’s grandfather was worrying about losing the Itto-Ryu. So by killing him, he’s making it so he no longer has to worry. But I think he’s actually planning to become the leader of the Itto-Ryu himself.

He probably recognized that he could kill Kagehisa’s grandfather to get himself in good graces with Kagehisa and then eventually assassinate him at a later point to become the leader.

Conclusion

I’ll admit, there are some flaws with my prediction, such as why Kagehisa would still be alive after all these years if his grandfather’s killer also planned to kill him. But maybe he failed and was killed by Kagehisa. Or maybe he decided to truly become one of his followers at some point.

What do you think? Do you think this mysterious, one-armed samurai is plotting something? And also, what do you think about the woman who saved Kagehisa as a child? Will we meet her again? Or have we already? Was she the woman who defeated Manji? Let me know your thoughts 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. Also, come join us on Discord if you’re interested in discussing anime with 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 Three – Dream Pangs

Blade of the Immortal episode 3 was a fairly important episode for one of our two main characters, Manji. Now, it might not actually be all that important in the grand scheme of things, but we learned some useful information about him.

It turns out that Manji isn’t a true immortal. He has an Achilles’ heel, so to speak. Yes, his body will recover from just about any and all damage it receives, but he claims that the one way to truly kill him is by beheading. The only problem with this is that I don’t understand how he hasn’t been beheaded already.

From what we’ve seen, his fighting style isn’t exactly the most refined. Perhaps at one point it was, but as he is now he relies too heavily on his immortality when fighting. He doesn’t particularly attempt to block or dodge attacks because he knows they won’t kill him.

And if we take that into consideration and look at the fights he won in the first two episodes, it becomes clear just how much he relies on this ability. Without being immortal Manji would have stood no chance against the swordsmen he’s defeated so far. All of them inflicted would-be fatal wounds to him.

The fact that he’s not particularly a great swordsman aside, like I said, we now know he has a weakness. But why? Why does Manji have such a weakness? It’s implied that his immortality is a curse which was placed upon him for killing the innocent.

If this is true — it hasn’t been confirmed yet — then why would there be such a simple way for him to be relieved of this curse? Of course, he could also have been lying.

Makie Otonotachibana

Makie Otonotachibana is Manji’s opponent for this week (this series seems like it’s going to be fairly episodic). She’s particularly notable because as far as we know she’s the only female member of the Itto-ryu. It’s possible we’ll meet another later on, but that doesn’t seem very likely.

Interestingly, Makie wasn’t always a swordswoman. It does seem like she always wanted to be a swordswoman from a young age, but her mother convinced her otherwise. In a strange turn of events, her mother convinces her to become a prostitute instead. That’s some good parenting.

However, Makie didn’t stay as a prostitute. She eventually ran away with a man who freed her. And here is where things get a bit confusing. I’m not sure if Makie’s account of what happened next is a lie, or if these were two entirely different scenes.

On one hand Makie tells us that she and the man who freed her were caught and that the man ended up dead by hanging. But on the other hand we’re shown a different scene in which a man purchases Makie’s freedom only to then be killed by her when she realizes he wants to use her strength.

Either way, from that point on Makie followed her dream and became a swordswoman. She then eventually joined up with the Itto-ryu because she believed in their ideals — which I think has to do with overthrowing the shogunate.

And on an unrelated note, when Manji comments on Makie’s appearance he implies that she’s beautiful. I don’t know what Manji is on about though, because Rin is way cuter than Makie ever was.

Manji’s First Loss (of the series)

For the first time in the series, Manji actually loses a fight. During the fight he mentions that he’s never lost ever since he first picked up a sword, but he then says that was just a joke. I don’t doubt that Manji has lost before, but obviously none of those losses resulted in his death.

This loss, however, very well could have.

I think it’s safe to say that Makie was the strongest opponent Manji has faced up to this point. She’s definitely the strongest opponent he’s faced in the series, but I’m talking about over his entire career. For what we can assume was the first time since gaining this power, Manji couldn’t rely on his immortality.

And when he’s defeated by Makie, that’s when he actually tells her about his own weakness. Manji wishes to die with honor by the hand of the woman who managed to take him down. Unfortunately for him, she doesn’t grant him this request.

But this should be a turning point for Manji. The first two episodes introduced us to the idea that he’s immortal. And of course that would be a broken ability. But not only do we learn he has a weakness in this episode, we actually saw him lose. He saw himself lose despite having this power he’s relied on for so long.

So going forward I’m expecting to see Manji rely less and less on his immortality. After all, if he couldn’t defeat Makie even with it, he likely doesn’t stand a chance against the leader of the Itto-ryu.

Conclusion

While I’m a bit disappointed that this series seems to be so episodic, I have high hopes for it going forward. After all, Samurai Champloo was episodic for the majority of its episodes and that’s a solid anime. I know this series isn’t exactly the same as that, and it’s probably more like Dororo, but that’s not a bad thing.

Are you watching Blade of the Immortal? I don’t actually know anyone other than myself who is, so let me know in the comments. And while you’re at it, give me your predictions about the series. Is Manji going to learn not to rely on his immortality? Or is his immortality an integral part of who he is?

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 us over on Discord if you’re interested in discussing anime with myself and other community members.

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 One – Meeting

Normally my weekly Blade of the Immortal episode reviews are going to be on Thursdays when the episodes release, but I was away last week. Also, considering we got episodes 1 and 2 rather than just one, I’m not entirely sure if there will be an episode this week.

However, since we have two episodes to discuss right now, let’s just get into it.

The first episode of Blade of the Immortal introduces us to our two main characters, Manji and Rin. Manji is a ronin samurai who takes jobs ranging from assassination to being a bodyguard. Rin is the daughter of a former samurai dojo master who was murdered, along with her mother.

Rin and Manji come into contact after Rin is advised to hire a bodyguard to protect her from the men who killed her family. The mysterious old woman Rin meets in the graveyard (who claims to be 800 years old) told Rin of a samurai who would be perfect for the job.

Now, before I go on with the summary (which is going to be blending the two episodes together) I have a question. Why are the men who killed Rin’s family coming after her too? I can understand why the first samurai comes after Rin, because he’s crazy, but what about the rest?

When Rin’s father was initially killed and her mother kidnapped two years ago, the leader of the group specifically said to leave Rin unharmed. We don’t know why she was spared, and we don’t know why that second chance at life has suddenly been revoked.

Did they hear about Rin’s plan to avenge her family and want to make an example out of her? Or is there something more going on behind the scenes?

Act Two – Founding

Although we were originally shown that Rin’s mother was kidnapped by the group of men after her father was killed, we later learn that she didn’t survive for long. After seeing his comrades brutalizing the woman, one of the samurai takes it upon himself to put her out of her misery.

He then sews her head onto his left shoulder, because like I said, he’s crazy. He also has his ex-wife’s head sewed onto his right shoulder. This is the first of the samurai to come after Rin, and through the fight against him we learn of Manji’s strange ability.

No matter how much damage he takes, such as having a leg sliced off or his heart pierced, Manji cannot die. Much like why the samurai are suddenly after Rin, we don’t know why Manji is immortal.

We know that he’s wanted for the murder of 100 men, and according to the synopsis of the series he travels around killing evil men to atone for his sins. I would assume that his immortality is some sort of curse, potentially put on him by the mysterious old woman, but we simply don’t know at this point.

In the second episode Rin and Manji come in contact with two more men from the group which killed Rin’s parents. Manji defeats both of these men as well, but not without receiving some serious wounds of his own. But don’t worry, he’s immortal.

This second episode also focused on Rin retrieving the sword of her late father from one of the samurai. However, we know the samurai who had the sword was not the one who killed her father. The samurai from episode 1 killed both of her parents.

Manji & Rin

So what else do we know so far about our two main characters?

For one, we know that Rin is currently 16, meaning she was 14 during the attack on her father’s dojo. We also know that his dojo was attacked by the group known as Itto-ryu so that they could make a name for themselves. They attacked all the surrounding dojo which were sanctioned by the shogunate.

And although Rin is only 16, she views herself as an adult. Though, to be fair, during this time period and considering her circumstances, she would be. In one instance she offers her body to Manji in exchange for his services as her bodyguard, showing that she’s mature enough to understand how the world works for unprotected women during this time.

However, Manji isn’t interested in Rin like that. You’d think that it would be because he’s probably at least old enough to be her father, but that’s not the case. It’s actually because Rin looks similar to Manji’s dead sister. And I think he mentioned that he was to blame for her death, so maybe we’ll get more details later on.

We also don’t actually know exactly how old Manji is. We could guess based on his appearance, but what about the fact that he’s immortal? Does his immortality only stop him from dying due to wounds? Does he still age? My guess is that time is frozen for him, so perhaps his sister died a hundred years ago.

Either way, the fact that Rin reminds Manji of his sister seems to be important. It’s probably why he agreed to take the job in the first place, and it seems to be why he secretly cares about her.

Conclusion

Are you watching Blade of the Immortal this season? This is one of the series I’m most looking forward to, and I’m glad it’s going to be 24 episodes rather than 12. Let me know in the comments what you think about the series so far, and if you’ve read the source material.

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 is uploaded, so it’s the best way to stay up to date.

Also join us over on Discord if you’re interested in discussing and watching anime with other members of the community. We’re currently doing a group watch of Sound! Euphonium, but if that’s not for you maybe you’ll enjoy whatever we watch next.

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.