Random Musings: Wrapping Up the Blade of the Immortal Monthly Review Project

Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal was one of the first manga that I ever read and it was the first series that I made a point of collecting. Even before I started writing at Experiments in Manga, I was reading and reviewing Blade of the Immortal. However, I wasn’t very consistent or timely with those reviews. And so, early in 2012, I began a monthly review project in which, beginning with the seventh volume, I would read and review one volume of Blade of the Immortal every month.

Nearly two years later, I have reached the twenty-seventh volume and my reviews have finally caught up with the English release of the series. I also plan on reviewing the new volumes of Blade of the Immortal as they are published. Assuming Dark Horse continues releasing Blade of the Immortal as it has been, there should be a total of thirty-one volumes in the English-language edition and we’ll see the end of the series in 2015.

Deliberately focusing on a single series month after month was an interesting experience and one that I enjoyed. I believe that it allowed me to see overarching plots and themes more clearly; it forced me to really look at what was going on and I noticed details that I might not have otherwise. Overall, I found it to be a valuable exercise in reviewing. So much so that I’ll soon be taking up a new monthly review project. I’m putting it up to a vote, too, so be on the lookout!

The links to all of my Blade of the Immortal reviews have been conveniently collected below, including the links to my reviews of Samura’s Blade of the Immortal artbook and the novel based on the manga written by Junichi Ohsako. (Some of the older reviews were written before I had read much manga and before I really knew what I was doing; I find them rather embarrassing, so please be forgiving.)

The Art of Blade of the Immortal
Blade of the Immortal: Legend of the Sword Demon

Comments

James says

17 November 2013 at 10:51 PM

Good work on this. BOTI is one of my all time faves. When the series ends i’m going to have to re-read the whole thing.
If you’re taking suggestions for a replacement monthly thing Berserk is fantastic.

- Ash Brown says
  
  18 November 2013 at 8:40 AM
  
  Oh, Berserk is one of my favorites! I would love to write more about the manga, but I’m not quite ready to tackle such an lengthy series volume by volume. Maybe I could approach Berserk by story-arc rather than by individual volume, or find another way write about it without resorting to formal reviews. I’ll have to think on it! (And thank you for the kind words!)
  
Aaron says

20 November 2013 at 8:30 PM

I quit reading Blade of The Immortal after volume nine some things make me really uncomfortable and that volume crossed a line I wasn’t comfortable with, that being said my Public Library in their “infinite wisdom” decided to shelf the volumes I gave them in the Teen scetion go figure (LOL)

- Ash Brown says
  
  20 November 2013 at 8:40 PM
  
  Yeah, Blade of the Immortal can be pretty brutal at times. Personally, I don’t think I would shelve it in the teen section; considering some of the story developments, as a whole I would only recommend the series for more mature readers.

Random Musings: Wrapping Up the Blade of the Immortal Monthly Review Project

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