Creator: Hiroaki Samura
U.S. publisher: Dark Horse
ISBN: 9781595821997
Released: December 2008
Original release: 2005-2006
Awards: Eisner Award, Japan Media Arts Award

Demon Lair is the twentieth volume in the English-language release of Hiroaki Samura’s manga series Blade of the Immortal. Published by Dark Horse Comics in 2008, Demon Lair is most closely equivalent to the nineteenth volume of the Japanese edition of the series published in 2006, although it includes a couple of chapters from the eighteenth volume released in 2005 as well. Demon Lair is also the first volume in which none of the chapters were previously released by Dark Horse in a monthly format. In general, Blade of the Immortal has been well received. In 1998 the series won a Japan Media Arts Award and in 2000 it received an Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material. The series also happens to be a personal favorite of mine. Demon Lair marks the beginning of the end of the fourth major story arc in Blade of the Immortal.

Following rumors of an immortality experiment, Rin and Dōa have successfully penetrated the first level of Edo Castle’s defenses. It wasn’t easy—Rin in particular isn’t in the best physical condition after a brutal run in with the guards in the secret tunnels leading to the castle—but the two young women are determined to find Manji and Isaku. Not that they have any hard evidence that the men are being held within the castle complex; their insider information is sketchy at best. Rin and Dōa are so focused on finding and rescuing Manji and Isaku that many of the finer points of their plan have been neglected, which is bound to get them into more trouble along the way. But for two fighters in over their heads, they have done remarkably well to have made it as far as they have.

From beginning to end, Demon Lair is one long, non-stop sequence of battles, fights, and near escapes. The plot might not move forward much, but there is certainly plenty of action to be had. The last few volumes of Blade of the Immortal have really been building up to and setting the stage for Demon Lair. Some of the developments in Demon Lair may not be particularly unexpected, but there are still some nice twists and surprises in store as Manji’s storyline and Rin’s storyline finally collide again. Samura even mangaes to work in a few brief sweet and touching moments amid all the chaos of Demon Lair. Some of the series’ humor also returns; this is welcome even if it does feel a bit out of place—lately Blade of the Immortal has been pretty dark.

One of the things that stands out in Demon Lair is Rin’s reactions to what she and Dōa discover in the dungeons and tunnels of Edo Castle. Up until now, the rumours of the immortality experiments have just been rumors. Readers of Blade of the Immortal are well aware of the horrifying experiments, but Rin and Dōa are facing the results of the atrocities for the very first time. Slowly Rin is able to piece together what has been going on underneath the castle and she is outraged. It’s a very nice character moment. At the series’ start, Rin was concerned about her own personal revenge. More recently, she has been focused on Manji’s plight. But now in some small way she is also fighting for the people of Edo. Of course, if she plans on making any sort of difference, she’ll need to escape from the castle first.

Creator: Hiroaki Samura
U.S. publisher: Dark Horse
ISBN: 9781593078713
Released: June 2008
Original release: 2005
Awards: Eisner Award, Japan Media Arts Award

Badger Hole is the nineteenth volume in the English-language release of Hiroaki Samura’s long-running manga series Blade of the Immortal. Published by Dark Horse in 2008, Badger Hole collects five of the eight chapters that appeared in the eighteenth volume of the Japanese edition of Blade of the Immortal, released in 2005. Because of how Dark Horse is releasing the series—individual volumes collect chapters by story arc rather than number or page count—Badger Hole ends up being one of the shorter volumes. Blade of the Immortal has been well received in both the East and the West. The series won a Japan Media Arts Award in 1998 and an Eisner Award in 2000, among other honors. Blade of the Immortal was one of the first manga series that I started reading and it continues to be one of my favorites.

After Manji and Isaku both go missing, and are presumably imprisoned, Rin and Dōa have been working together to find them. Rumours of an immortality experiment have led the two young women to a guarded and secluded passageway known as the Badger Hole by the locals. There are jobs to be had there hauling out and disposing of the dead bodies of prisoners and, thanks to the experiments, in increasingly large numbers. If Rin’s theory is correct, the Badger Hole is the entrance to a series of labyrinthine tunnels leading to Edo Castle itself where she believes that Manji at least is being held. And so Rin and Dōa prepare to infiltrate the Badger Hole under the guise of beggars looking for work. With Dōa’s fighting skills and Rin’s quick thinking, along with a little luck, they hope to successfully stage a rescue, but things don’t always go exactly as planned.

While the previous few volumes of Blade of the Immortal have largely focused on the plight of Manji, the other felons, and the doctors involved with the immortality experiments, in Badger Hole Samura turns his attention to the women of the series. At various points in Blade of the Immortal Rin, Dōa, and Hyakurin—one of the assassins of the disbanded Mugai-ryū—have all been shown to be just as strong as the series’ men and in some cases even stronger. In Badger Hole it is the men who need rescuing and the women are prepared to do anything they can to see them safe again. And it’s not just Rin, Dōa, and Hyakurin. The women of Edo, those who have lost their fathers, husbands, and sons to the experiments (even though they don’t know that’s the reason their loved ones have gone missing), also have power, strength, and an important role to play.

In some ways, this empowerment is completely undone by the ending of Badger Hole. Dōa and Rin get into some trouble and it takes a deus ex machina and the introduction of a new Ittō-ryū member to get them out of it. Ozuhan may suddenly appear from nowhere, but the resulting battle is nicely choreographed and dynamic. He has an eerie presence about him and his style of fighting is very different from most of the other characters in the series. Ozuhan does ends up stealing the spotlight from the women, but it seems as though he will be an interesting addition to the series. Badger Hole also reveals Dōa’s first encounter with Anotsu, the leader of the Ittō-ryū who she more or less worships, something I’ve been looking forward to seeing since her introduction. There’s still more of Dōa’s story that hasn’t been told, so I look forward to learning more about her in the next volume, Demon Lair.

Creator: Hiroaki Samura
U.S. publisher: Dark Horse
ISBN: 9781593078713
Released: February 2008
Original release: 2004
Awards: Eisner Award, Japan Media Arts Award

The Sparrow Net, the eighteenth volume of Hiroaki Samura’s award-winning manga series Blade of the Immortal as released in English, was published by Dark Horse in 2008. Dark Horse’s English-language edition of the series divides the individual volumes by story arc rather than strictly by number of chapters. Because of this, The Sparrow Net is most closely equivalent to the seventeenth Japanese volume except that The Sparrow Net includes one additional chapter. Also because of Dark Horse’s tendency to compile the volumes by story arc, The Sparrow Net ends up being on of the longest books in the series. Blade of the Immortal is one of my personal favorites. I’ve been enjoying the manga’s mix of historical fiction, martial arts, and the supernatural along with Samura’s complex characters and great artwork.

After the Ittō-ryū was betrayed and nearly wiped out by the bakufu, the surviving members of the rogue sword school have been quietly working in the background, biding their time and preparing a return assault against the government. Although they are supposed to be in hiding and keeping a low profile while in Edo, two of the Ittō-ryū’s most recent members, Dōa and Isaku, can’t seem to help but draw attention to themselves. After a confrontation with the police force, Isaku goes missing and Dōa is left behind with Rin who in a strange twist of fate has been helping to hide them (her parents were killed by the Ittō-ryū.) Although their relationship is less than ideal, the two young women must work together in order to find both Isaku and Manji, Rin’s bodyguard who has also disappeared under troubling circumstances.

Dōa and Isaku are relatively new characters in Blade of the Immortal having first been introduced towards the end of the fifteenth volume, Trickster. Although Dōa in particular has been shown to be violent and easily provoked, The Sparrow Net is the first time that she and Isaku are seen to really fight. With Isaku’s size and strength and Dōa’s speed and viciousness they make an incredibly effective and formidable team. The Sparrow Net is also the first volume in Blade of the Immortal to delve into the pair’s backstory. Previously, there have been some hints as to their pasts and who they really are, but until now their history has largely remained a mystery. I am still very curious to learn how they joined up with the Ittō-ryū.

While chaos surrounds Dōa and Isaku, Rin continues her search for Manji. Eventually she hears rumor of a bizarre immortality experiment. The procedures being performed on Manji and the other felons have reached disturbing new heights of cruelty. However, this escalation means that more people are involved and it is increasingly difficult to hide. Even those who are only tangentially involved suspect that something horribly wrong is going on. And those who are at the heart of the investigation—the doctors and their assistants, not to mention their human guinea pigs—have all been affected in terrible ways. The change in Ayame Burando, one of the head doctors on the case who himself is on death row, and what that brings about is particularly horrifying. I’m almost afraid to see what is in store in the next volume, Badger Hole.

Creator: Hiroaki Samura
U.S. publisher: Dark Horse
ISBN: 9781593077822
Released: June 2007
Original release: 2004
Awards: Eisner Award, Japan Media Arts Award

On the Perfection of Anatomy is the seventeenth volume of Hiroaki Samura’s manga series Blade of the Immortal as published in English. Although the Japanese and English volumes collect slightly differently chapters, On the Perfection of Anatomy is most closely equivalent to the sixteenth volume of the Japanese release of the series, published in 2004. (The Japanese volume includes one additional chapter.) On the Perfection of Anatomy was released by Dark Horse in 2007. Blade of the Immortal has won several awards and honors, including a Japan Media Arts Award in 1998 and an Eisner Award in 2000. The series is also one my personal favorites. There were some fairly dramatic developments in the previous volume, Shortcut, so I was particularly interested in seeing where Samura would take things in On the Perfection of Anatomy.

Manji’s life has gotten more complicated ever since he became a near immortal. Even more so now that he has been captured and imprisoned in a hidden underground cell where he is the primary subject of an investigation into immortality. Manji and other felons are being experimented upon in an effort to transfer Manji’s bizarre regenerative powers to another person. Initially, the shogunate’s doctor Mozen was in charge of the investigation, but he was removed from the case after he was unable to produce results. Now the responsibility of finding the secrets behind Manji’s immortality has fallen to Ayame Burando, a young doctor who, due to his pursuit of Western medicine, is also considered a criminal. Burando sees the investigation not only as a way to redeem himself, but as an opportunity to advance the state of Japanese medicine.

Most of On the Perfection of Anatomy is devoted to Burando and the experiments he is conducting in the prison. Burando was first introduced in the previous volume, Shortcut. He goes through some very significant changes as a person by the end of On the Perfection of Anatomy. Burando was originally so devoted to advancing his own knowledge of medicine that he was willing to risk his own life. He tried to leave Japan in order to study Western medicine, inviting execution should he be caught or try to return. Ultimately he was found out which is how he became involved with the immortality experiments. At first things go astonishing well, but then Burando is confronted by failure after failure. Faced with this, his struggle as he tries to justify himself as both a scientist and doctor changes him.

Some of the experiments carried out in Shortcut and On the Perfection of Anatomy and their results are truly horrifying. Samura’s artwork captures the grotesqueness, terror, and despair as bodies fall apart and waste away. The experiments are not only physically damaging, they also take a huge mental toll on most of the people who are even remotely involved with them. Of course, there are also those who don’t appear to be affected much at all, which is a little terrifying in its own right. On the Perfection of Anatomy doesn’t actually advance the plot of Blade of the Immortal much, but it is a critical volume in the characters’ development, particularly Burando’s evolution. And, as usual, I’m very interested in reading the next volume in the series, The Sparrow Net.

Creator: Hiroaki Samura
U.S. publisher: Dark Horse
ISBN: 9781593077235
Released: January 2007
Original release: 2004
Awards: Eisner Award, Japan Media Arts Award

Shortcut is the sixteenth volume in Dark Horse’s release of Hiroaki Samura’s manga series Blade of the Immortal. Due to the differences between the Japanese and English releases of the series, Shortcut is actually equivalent to the fifteenth volume published in Japan in 2004. Shortcut itself was released in 2006. Blade of the Immortal has won several awards, including a Japan Media Arts Award and and Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material. I myself have been quite fond of Blade of the Immortal since its beginning. I enjoy the series’ morally ambiguous characters, anachronistic style, and dynamic artwork. Shortcut picks up the story immediately where the previous volume, Trickster, leaves off. Things weren’t looking particularly good for Manji in Trickster, so I definitely wanted to see how the events in Shortcut would unfold.

Rin hasn’t seen her bodyguard Manji since he was invited into the residence of Habaki Kagimura, the leader of the shogunate’s banshū samurai as well as the head of the Mugai-ryū assassins. Fearing the worst, Rin does her best to try to find him but she is unable to make much progress. She is right to worry. Manji’s disappearance has nothing to do with being forced to join the Mugai-ryū. Instead, Kagimura is very interested in Manji and his apparent immortality, something that Kagimura has personally been witness to. On top of Manji being missing, Rin suddenly has a couple of uninvited house guests to deal with, too. Isaku Yasonokami and Dōa Yoshino make a strange pair—he’s a hulk of a man while she’s a petite young woman who orders him around. Little does Rin know that she is helping to hide two members of the Ittō-ryū, the group responsible for the death of her parents.

I find Isaku and Dōa to be very intriguing characters. Not much is really known yet about either of them. Except for their apparent devotion to each other and their association with the Ittō-ryū, they largely remain a mystery. From the far northern reaches of Japan, they are out of place in Edo society. I’m curious to find out how they became involved with the Ittō-ryū, but it does go to show how accepting the sword school is of outsiders. This is in direct contrast to the majority of Japanese society during this time period. The shogunate’s isolationist policies made it extremely dangerous for anyone to even leave the country and hierarchical social classes were rigidly enforced. In part, this is what the Ittō-ryū is fighting against, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that social outcasts and criminals are to be counted among their number.

On the opposite end of the spectrum of power is Kagimura. He is very in control of himself and those around him, using his position as the bangashira to his advantage. Blade of the Immortal has shown Kagimura to be cunning and manipulative and not above using unsavory methods to reach his goals. This is very unfortunate for Manji in Shortcut. Simply put, being immortal can really suck. This certainly isn’t new to Manji who has repeatedly, and literally, been hacked to pieces in the past. But Shortcut is the first time in Blade of the Immortal that the extent of his immortality has deliberately, thoroughly, and methodically been put to the test. If things weren’t looking good for Manji in Trickster, they’re looking even worse for him in Shortcut. What else is in store for Manji will be revealed in the next volume, On the Perfection of Anatomy.