Blade of the Immortal, Vol. 1: Blood of a Thousand
Registered by 
GoryDetails
of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 10/8/2014
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
GoryDetails of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 10/8/2014 This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
I found this fair-condition softcover at Savers, and as it's a series I hadn't read before, I decided to pick it up. It's about a ronin (masterless samurai) warrior who's been cursed with immortality, and wants to find a way to end it all. But to do that he must slay a thousand evil men - and when he meets a young girl who seeks vengeance for her parents' deaths, he decides to start with the killers.
I can see now why this is a landmark series; the artwork's spectacular, the characters complex and memorable, the gore and action considerable - and there's some surprising humor here and there as well!
Early on we see just how Manji's immortality works - when he's wounded, the kessen-chu (sacred bloodworms) get to work knitting him back together. (This can slow him down, though; later in the book, after an especially bloody battle, he tells his new ward/employer to stop yelling at him and go look for his legs.)
Once Manji gets involved with Rin, he finds that at least one of the men she hopes to avenge herself on has been sending her love-poems - and that she's replied, to lure him into what she hopes will be a trap. [She does have some training in sword-use, and is a better fighter than one might expect to look at her, but she's not in the same league as the villains - yet.] This particular villain is grotesque to look upon, wearing an elaborate robe and mask, but when the fight strips his costume away and we see what's really under there - well, it was one of the most shocking scenes I've come across, and that's saying something.
In a later chapter, we meet Master Sori, a man who's gazing earnestly, sweat dripping from his brow, at a partially-finished canvas - as he wields a paintbrush tied to the tip of a sword! The image is striking - but then he tries whipping the brush/sword around and gets paint *everywhere*, making it all pretty funny. Turns out he's a very talented ninja, but now only wants to live quietly and work on his art - so when the bad guys attack Manji and Rin in his house, he sits, oblivious, musing on just the right color to complete his latest work, as the battle rages back and forth through the doorway behind him. (The color he wants is some shade of red, something primal, something he's seen before but can't put his finger on; oh, for a sign! The reader will have anticipated both the color and the sign, and it's very satisfying when it turns up.) We also see what it takes to make him angry - and you do NOT want to make him angry!
One of the many aspects of the book that impressed me: after each major battle, there's a full-page (and sometimes a full two-page) illustration, showing a key character from an unusual angle, with lavish ornamentation highlighting the image. Wonderful!
[There's an extensive TV Tropes page on the series. And there's a 2008 animated film adaptation.]
I can see now why this is a landmark series; the artwork's spectacular, the characters complex and memorable, the gore and action considerable - and there's some surprising humor here and there as well!
Early on we see just how Manji's immortality works - when he's wounded, the kessen-chu (sacred bloodworms) get to work knitting him back together. (This can slow him down, though; later in the book, after an especially bloody battle, he tells his new ward/employer to stop yelling at him and go look for his legs.)
Once Manji gets involved with Rin, he finds that at least one of the men she hopes to avenge herself on has been sending her love-poems - and that she's replied, to lure him into what she hopes will be a trap. [She does have some training in sword-use, and is a better fighter than one might expect to look at her, but she's not in the same league as the villains - yet.] This particular villain is grotesque to look upon, wearing an elaborate robe and mask, but when the fight strips his costume away and we see what's really under there - well, it was one of the most shocking scenes I've come across, and that's saying something.
In a later chapter, we meet Master Sori, a man who's gazing earnestly, sweat dripping from his brow, at a partially-finished canvas - as he wields a paintbrush tied to the tip of a sword! The image is striking - but then he tries whipping the brush/sword around and gets paint *everywhere*, making it all pretty funny. Turns out he's a very talented ninja, but now only wants to live quietly and work on his art - so when the bad guys attack Manji and Rin in his house, he sits, oblivious, musing on just the right color to complete his latest work, as the battle rages back and forth through the doorway behind him. (The color he wants is some shade of red, something primal, something he's seen before but can't put his finger on; oh, for a sign! The reader will have anticipated both the color and the sign, and it's very satisfying when it turns up.) We also see what it takes to make him angry - and you do NOT want to make him angry!
One of the many aspects of the book that impressed me: after each major battle, there's a full-page (and sometimes a full two-page) illustration, showing a key character from an unusual angle, with lavish ornamentation highlighting the image. Wonderful!
[There's an extensive TV Tropes page on the series. And there's a 2008 animated film adaptation.]
Journal Entry 2 by GoryDetails at Little Free Library - Harvard University (Outside Science Center) in Cambridge, Massachusetts USA on Monday, October 27, 2014
GoryDetails at Little Free Library - Harvard University (Outside Science Center) in Cambridge, Massachusetts USA on Monday, October 27, 2014
Released 9 yrs ago (10/27/2014 UTC) at Little Free Library - Harvard University (Outside Science Center) in Cambridge, Massachusetts USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I left this and several other books in the Little Free Library in front of Harvard's Science Center at around 2:45 or so; hope the finders enjoy them!*** Released for the 2014 Spook-tacular Halloween Challenge, for the blood on the cover. ***
*** Released for the 2014 TICK TOCK release challenge, for "immortal". ***
*** Released as part of the 2014 Movie release challenge. ***
