Review: Blade of the Immortal – Vol. 24 – Massacre

Blade of the Immortalis one of the few long running Manga’s that I’ve followed. I was heartbrokenwhen Dark Horse stopped publishing the series monthly and opted for thecollected trade paper backs, but I understand that the alternative would morethan likely have been its cancellation. Because of this though I miss itsreleases quite often since most comic fans don’t understand just how awesome Blade of the Immortal is; due to thatfact I was very excited when I received a copy of volume 24 “Massacre” fromDark Horse comics. Admittedly I sat on reading it for a while until I knew I’dhave enough time to read it uninterrupted and I’m glad that I did.

One of the strongest elements of Blade of the Immortal is that it’s like a long running soap opera.There is several characters always in play in the story and due to theextremely detailed art the story moves slower than an average comic. This givesnew readers the chance to kind of jump on at any volume and frankly I found thestory recaps in this volume to be very detailed considering how far along inthe series it is. It recapped Manji and the Itto-Ryu, but in a way that wasinteresting. It also hinted at previous storylines but in a way that made youwant to read them rather than have them explained at detail.

This volume is basically all about the Itto-Ryu storming theEdo castle. The group lead by its leader Anotsu storm the castle with just fourtotal Itto-Ryu. It’s unclear at first what their goal is as they begin cuttingdown wave after wave of men. The crazy part is that this is the gate under theheaviest guard. What follows is a display of the Itto-Ryu’s true strength asthey literally massacre everything in their way to get to the main floor of thecastle. Along the way they meet what I can only describe as special guards onduty at the castle and they two are taken down like lowly dogs. There are alsoseveral scenes outside of the massacre that play to the overall storydeveloping in the series and one particularly messed up scene with a characternamed Shira. It is one of the most messed up things I’ve read in the seriesthus far and that’s saying a lot.

The story and art are always amazing in Blade of the Immortal. Creator, writer and artist Hiroaki Samura isa rare talent as each page is filled with story, history and extremely detailedart. Hiroaki’s art is some of the most detailed in all of comics. Everything isin black and white which is really the only way you can present his detailedart style. You really need to read Bladeof the Immortal to get the full experience of his art and see the detail oneach character, each facial expression and even more surprisingly thebackgrounds and architecture on every single page. There is never a doubt thatthe Itto-Ruy are storming a castle because the setting is so detailed andhistorically accurate that it takes you there and makes you a believe it.

I think it’s worth mentioning that Blade of the Immortal is a very mature title; meaning that if you’rethinking about picking it up for a kid you should probably read it first. That doesn’tstop it from being one of the best comic series ever. I know that’s prettybold, but once you read it for yourself you’ll see why this book has won fiveawards in the industry and is critically acclaimed. If you’ve ever read Blade of the Immortal then picking upthis volume is a no-brainer and if you’ve never read the series before you caneither start at the beginning or just dive in and follow it from here on out.

Score: 5/5 (It’s aclassic so it doesn’t really need a score so don’t expect future volumes to getone)