Hiroaki Samura’s Eisner Award-winning, seminal samurai manga Blade of the Immortal will be getting a new, ‘complete’ anime adaptation, as the anime project’s official website has revealed.
The announcement of a Blade of the Immortal anime adaptation comes hot on the heels of the launch of a new sequel manga series, Blade of the Immortal – Bakumatsu Arc, which original author Hiroaki Samura is consulting on in collaboration with illustrator Ryu Suenobu and writer Kenji Takigawa.
The original Blade of the Immortal manga ran from 1994 to 2013 in Kodansha’s Monthly Afternoon and follows the story of an immortal samurai named Manji as he sets off on a quest to defeat ‘one thousand evil men’ in order to rid himself of immortality. Dark Horse has translated and published all of the manga in English.
This new Blade of the Immortal anime too promises to cover the full breadth of the series in its adaptation. The anime’s official website very clearly states that this adaptation will be a “complete” one, meaning that it will adapt the entirety of the nearly 20 year-long saga. No release date or studio have been shared as of the time of writing however, so fans are encouraged to wait for further information.
This new anime will not be the first time Blade of the Immortal has been adapted to other mediums. Owing to its incredible popularity in Japan, it received a live-action TV show in 2008 and then a 2017 film from the prolific Takashi Miike featuring SMAP’s Takuya Kimura as protagonist Manji.
Perhaps to avoid confusing this new Blade of the Immortal anime with previous adaptations, it has the new subtitle IMMORTAL, making the Japanese title of this new anime Mugen no Jyuunin -IMMORTAL- (The Inhabitant of Infinity -IMMORTAL-).
Regardless, this Blade of the Immortal anime will be the first time that Samura’s seminal manga has ever been adapted to animation. While we’re light on details at this point in time, this fact alone is something to get excited about.
You can check out the Blade of the Immortal anime’s official website for more information, and the original manga in English via Dark Horse.