Happiness is...two sleeves full of sharp lethal blades!!!

[EXO]

Blade of the Immortal TV Anime Confirmed for Summer

The May issue (on sale on March 25) of Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine will confirm that a television anime version of Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal manga will premiere this summer in Japan. Tomokazu Seki (Escaflowne's Van, Gungrave's Beyond the Grave) will voice the main character Manji — a rōnin swordsman condemned to immortality unless he kills a thousand evil men for all the good men he killed. Rina Satou (Negima!'s Negi, Bamboo Blade's Satori) will play Manji's fellow traveler Rin. Hirofumi Nojima (Kagehisa Anotsu), Kazuya Nakai (Taito Magatsu), Masashi Ebara (Sabato Kurui), Katsuyuki Konishi (Eikū Shizuma), Daisuke Namikawa (Araya Kawakami), Mamiko Noto (Makie), Megumi Toyoguchi (Hyakurin), Toshiyuki Morikawa (Giichi), Shinichiro Miki (Shira), and Maaya Sakamoto (Machi) complete the cast.

Koichi Mashimo will direct the animators on Bee Train as he did for the .hack// franchise and Noir. Hiroyuki Kawasaki (The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Sorcerer Hunters) will oversee the scripts, and Yoshimitsu Yamashita (Murder Princess, Samurai Champloo animation director) will design the characters. Kō Ōtani (Ayakashi Ayashi, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing) will compose the music.

Dark Horse Comics publishes the manga in North America.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-...rmed-for-summer

http://mugen.kc.kodansha.co.jp/eizou.html

[EXO]

[David Hingtgen]

Semi-related question: What's the term for a sword with a "ring" in the middle, like in the first pic?

[wolfx]

Dunno...probably just an exotic weapon....a kind of "sai"?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sai_%28weapon%29

Or maybe its fictional since the wiki says weapons are mostly fictional.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_of_the_Immortal

Edited May 19, 2008 by wolfx

[azrael]

Semi-related question: What's the term for a sword with a "ring" in the middle, like in the first pic?

A "sword with a funky ring guard"? His weapons are pretty exotic to have any real term for them...

[EXO]

There's no real term for it, but in the manga it's called "The Shido" The four paths.

[yellowlightman]

Would have been cool if the anime designs had stayed a bit truer to the manga's art.

[David Hingtgen]

I asked because that's only the second time I've seen swords like that, but the function is so similar I imagined there must be a real design. Or maybe they just copied hers:

http://sakasagami.deviantart.com/art/Shiki...pirits-60415070

(fan-art, but shows her swords better than anything official I could find)

[ruskiiVFaussie]

I always thought the sai has two mini bull horn blades and the "Jitte" is the 1 bull blade.

[MilSpex]

Would have been cool if the anime designs had stayed a bit truer to the manga's art.

Yes. The manga`s style is almost messy and ads a lot of energy to the action. I don`t get that from the character designs here. Look very generic.

[Beware of Blast]

Interesting news.

Has Hiroaki Samura finished his manga yet? I haven't been following lately but it seems like he's taking forever to do it.

[EXO]

I'm really happy with the designs. Aside from the flatness of the colors the lineart is almost spot on. And the action from the trailer look to be dynamic. This is truer to the original than say the Appleseed and GITS movies are to the mangas.

Also, from looking at the trailer it looks like it follows the manga storyline really closely. I think any Blade of the Immortal fan will be happy... hopefully.

BoB... the manga hit a wall with the whole captivity story line... It's always a bad idea to keep your main character in a prison cell for a long time.

[eugimon]

I'm very happy as well. The characters look like their manga counterparts... I don't know how someone could expect an animated series to retain the sketchy look of the manga.

[yellowlightman]

I'm very happy as well. The characters look like their manga counterparts... I don't know how someone could expect an animated series to retain the sketchy look of the manga.

They can do amazing things with computers these days.

[danth]

Damn, this manga is finally getting a show? Seems like it's been around forever.

[eugimon]

They can do amazing things with computers these days.

true, given enough money and time, nearly anything is possible. ... I think people just have unreasonable expectations, frankly.

[EXO]

Damn, this manga is finally getting a show? Seems like it's been around forever.

I never thought it would... it's so violent and intricate. I always thought Samurai Champloo was BOTI lite. Another thing was the big Suvastika on his back... probably not a big deal in Japan, but the distribution would be murder... any fan knows that it has nothing to do with anything nazi, but you know how much ignorant people there are.

[bandit29]

About damn time. I heard about this a few weeks ago. Glad its been confirmed

[Beware of Blast]

Anyone have this figure? http://www.figures.com/databases/action.cg...;show_article=9

If yes, how is the quality and poseability?

I missed out on this. Now it's going for $500 thereabout over at Evilbay and it's a rare occasion that it pops up as well. Let's hope the anime is popular enough to make them reissue it or make a better one.

[Fortress_Maximus]

It is about fracking time!! BOTI is long overdue for anime. Excellent art and storylines. I hope they stay true to the awesome battles which can be quite graphic but lovely.

Anyone looking for the English translated mangas? If so, pm got a new set.

[EXO]

Anyone have this figure? http://www.figures.com/databases/action.cg...;show_article=9

If yes, how is the quality and poseability?

I missed out on this. Now it's going for $500 thereabout over at Evilbay and it's a rare occasion that it pops up as well. Let's hope the anime is popular enough to make them reissue it or make a better one.

I remember when that came out. I never got it because I didn't like the sculpt of the head. They recently came out 1/6 weapons and I have an old sculpt that I did.... Now I just need the kimono's and I got me a pretty good figure.

[darkrealmbahamut]

Does anyone know who is going to fansub for the series?

[darkrealmbahamut]

Semi-related question: What's the term for a sword with a "ring" in the middle, like in the first pic?

I asked because that's only the second time I've seen swords like that, but the function is so similar I imagined there must be a real design. Or maybe they just copied hers:

http://sakasagami.deviantart.com/art/Shiki...pirits-60415070

(fan-art, but shows her swords better than anything official I could find)

Hiroaki has admitted he really doesn't know anything about weapons and martial arts he just picked what looked cool. It was in one of the manga that had an interview about him.

[dreamweaver13]

FINALLY!!!! took long enough (just like this post. hehe)

[darkrealmbahamut]

I like it but something is missing without the full art flurish in the death scenes.

[bandit29]

So I guess the first episode has aired?

TV CM says 7-13-08

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5y8y4_bl...-cm2_shortfilms

The character designs look a little flat but I don't think they could go wrong with such great source material.

[EXO]

I like it but something is missing without the full art flurish in the death scenes.

he only did that for the first few books.

Dammit, must see this. Soon I hope.

[darkrealmbahamut]

he only did that for the first few books.

Dammit, must see this. Soon I hope.

It is still a nice touch because it is so graphic. The raw was tasty though I must say.

[azrael]

Dammit, must see this. Soon I hope.

Raws have been out since late Sunday/Monday morning. It airs on Sundays at 24:00 JST.

[Warmaker]

I've been a HUGE fan of the manga since I first saw Vol.1 when I was in Okinawa back in 1996. Hoping this turns out good. I'm curious to see how well the violence transfers over. Yes, there's lots of slicing and dicing, but along with other things too.

As for Manji's weapons, Hiroaki Samura takes alot of creative liberties for weapon designs, esp for special characters.

Lastly, one of my favorite characters I'd like to see soon in this anime is Makie She pops up not too long after the manga series starts, so it's a good thing.

Edited July 16, 2008 by Warmaker

[darkrealmbahamut]

Raws have been out since late Sunday/Monday morning. It airs on Sundays at 24:00 JST.

Azrael do you know anyone who is potentially fansubbing?

[darkrealmbahamut]

Nevermind to my last question I found out Kesenai fansubs is working on the series. From what I have watched they are pretty solid.

[EXO]

Kinda underwhelmed. Everything was fine except for the fact that there wasn't any fighting... all the fight scenes were the old "let's move in on each other" and cut to dramatic poses at the end. Hopefully this isn't how the entire series is gonna be, but if so... I can't watch. It seem that they did it more to censor violence than as an artistic thing.

Manji's sister was cut in half in the comic book but here she just falls to his arms.

[darkrealmbahamut]

Kinda underwhelmed. Everything was fine except for the fact that there wasn't any fighting... all the fight scenes were the old "let's move in on each other" and cut to dramatic poses at the end. Hopefully this isn't how the entire series is gonna be, but if so... I can't watch. It seem that they did it more to censor violence than as an artistic thing.

Manji's sister was cut in half in the comic book but here she just falls to his arms.

That was my big prob it was cool but some of that punch was missing. Then again I wonder if they will do like the did with witchblade and have like a secondary dvd cut that is more violent.

[EXO]

Big fat YAAAAWN to the second episode... yeah... this anime is a way censored version of the story, plus all the fight scenes are cut down to a few quick slashes... where they airing this in Japan? The Japanese Nickelodeon?