The Brutality and Beauty of Blade of the Immortal - Comic Tropes (Episode 77)

[@liah1327]

I'm 2 years late, but thank you so much for this review. I first started reading this series in jr. high and stuck with it till the end, it had such a great ending to such a long series. You're also the only person I know that has pointed out the use of language in Blade of the Immortal! How that modern casual slang of language against the traditional, grotesque, beautiful art makes a pretty crazy juxtaposition.

[@HovektheArtist]

How did i not know he did a comic tropes on blade of the immortal, thats one that i love and barely anyone has heard of when i talk about it

[@truefanforum3273]

I would call that spinning bladed weapon the Fidget Spinner of Death.

[@ComicTropes]

I came very close to using a fidget spinner in that scene.

[@JohnAquariusPodcast]

OR" the DEATH SPINNER "

[@r0kus]

Heh, I was about to make the same sort of comment. But, being a defensive weapon, it should be something like the "Fidget Spinner of Life, Glorious".

[@HarbingerOfDeath0]

Honestly I thought it was just fancy shuriken improvised for defense, because of absurd skill. But, yeah fidget spinners comes to mind.

[@brendanjoyce645]

Ahhh back when those where a thing

[@Tine_of_Nice_Dreams]

I wasn't expecting your ending skit to get the laugh out of me it did. I had to stop reading boti around the arc when manji is tortured, both because the content got so vile it was difficult to get through and also because the books were quite expensive - around 20$usd per tankobon (most tankobon these days are closer to 7$ average). Samura's pencil drawings were such an enormous inspiration to me because I was always drawing with pencil during school and it was so rare to see finished published work that wasn't ink. It's another way the publishing method was special. Despite the cost I'm grateful dark horse went through the pains it did to bring this series over with such respect. I don't think violence is as cool and fun as I did as a teen but if only out of respect for the artwork and how much it inspired me, It would mean a lot to finally sit down and finish the story someday. I truly want to know what happened to these characters. It's a rare kind of story that starts so simple black and white, good and evil, but there's no way to guess how it will actually resolve. Ps- their clothing and costumes are also fashionably anachronistic like their speech. Manji's kimono is truly iconic!

[@dondayelbano3262]

Im so glad you of all people have a video on this. I'm more of a superhero comic guy, but Blade of the Immortal is my favorite comic series of all time. I remember Starting within the first 10 issues, when Darkhorse still put this out in floppies when I was a kid, then reading it over a decade right up until that last volume. So many cool characters in here. Shira is my favorite villain ever. :)

[@HunterLyonIsAPerson]

I've been tearing through a lot of your content after discovering it a few months ago and this is now my favorite episode.

[@demgutts]

Love this manga, the art is amazing. Still have the original run but not all of them

[@jonashermes]

One of the best stories I've experienced. The ending is so touching. The characters are amazing.

[@mrmanjumac3454]

Wow getting me excited. I picked it partly bc it was complete. I'm only on the 4th omnibus, but man it has been a fuxking amazing ride so far

[@mygamecrashed]

hahahahaha! that ending!!! loved the episode :D

[@Kantohammer]

The image flipping used to cause translation issues as well. I remember one saying “right hand” in the speech balloon but flipping the image made it the left hand.

[@quocanhnguyen7275]

One of the best of the best

[@sloansabbath7117]

Not even gon lie I ALMOST skipped the ending now I’m in tears like yoooo I wasn’t ready

[@ifievertakeaselfiepleaseki8372]

Would love to see a tropes episode on the manga of Berserk. Think I read 100 or so issues of it a few yrs back and while the orginal anime series holds a special place in my memories, reading what I did of the manga almost a decade later blew me away with how much more I enjoyed it.

[@dsandoval9396]

I've seen the original series and I friggin loved it! Then the CG instalment came out and besides the whole "changing Casca's color" thing that seemed stupid, I kept hearing how bad that instalment was because of the way it looked in CG but mostly because the guy who directed it was used to do pastel color pallet slice-of-life comedy animes who's technique didn't translate well to the hyper-violent world of Berserk. Too bad, I really wanted to see more Guts, I really dig his beating impossible odds with your own will type of story.

[@matthinton19]

That's what it's like seeing the akira film then reading it. Yes it a massive read but it's fantastic

[@rockmanx6857]

Spectacular series😎👍

[@freaknr1]

Blade of the Immortal was one of the first manga I read (I think Ranma 1/2 or Battle Angel Alita might have been the first), and it's still one of my favourites. A fantastic blend of great art, interesting characters with depth and moral complexity and tons of sick-ass violence! And it had a pretty great ending as well. Definitly highly recommended if one has the stomach for its level of violence, especially when Shira shows up. What's really cool is that it's getting a second anime-adaptation soon! The first adaptation only cover like 1/4 of the story and was pretty dull. Not bad, but compared to the manga it felt slow and lifeless and didn't do the manga justice. The choice to make the colors washed out and brown-ish (probably trying to emulate the covers I guess?) somehow made the anime feel less colorful than the black-and-white manga. The live-action adaptation by Takashi Miike went the other way and was loud, colorful and bloody, but parts of the production flet like a B-movie. It also crammed pretty much the same story as the anime into a 2-hour movie + a new ending, but I still feel it managed to capture the spirit of the manga better than the anime. Either way, hopefully the new anime will be the ultimate adaptation. Samura's new manga, Die Wergelder, is also worth checking out. It's somehow even more fucked up than BotI, but still beautiful and entertaining as hell.

[@tetfol3315]

I'm watching now the second anime adaptation of Blade of The Immortal, it was done by creator of Shigurui anime.

[@thomasmacmanus9913]

Thanks for covering this one!

[@startrekfanman]

That ending was amazing!!!

[@1mDozer]

Top 5 Manga's of mine - great review of the Manga

[@turtleanton6539]

Very awesome manga😊

[@williampressley1162]

The way you describe this manga I'm definitely going to purchase it to see what this is all about

[@ComicTropes]

It’s awesome.

[@turtleanton6539]

Fully agreed😊

[@cassandracastro2759]

To be fair, saying the name of your special move is a general trope of most fighting manga.

[@matthinton19]

I went and purchased what I could of the manga after watching your video. Absolutely fantastic read and one of my top 5 manga now. Very entertaining anime too, my one main criticism like a lot of manga is the casual use of sexual violence. We know it happened a lot and people can be horrific but we don’t need to see it so much

[@zpettigrew]

This is my favorite book by far. The art is superb.

[@jonanjello]

Dude, Skunkape! BotI is one of my all-time favorite manga comics. Your comic channel is my absolute favorite. Keep up the great episodes!

[@ComicTropes]

Glad to hear you like it. Thanks for the kind words.

[@egoborder3203]

Love this series, definitely my favorite manga!

[@romaindanze1512]

If some of you dig the themes around immortality and its implications, I reccomend reading another manga, Mermaid Forest, written in the same period. And it's only a one shot, so quick to get through.

[@Changetheling]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH for explaining the Manji/Swastika issue.

[@mrmanjumac3454]

Funny how ignorant our current society is. There are a 1000 versions of the swastika and only 1 of them is "the bad one."

[@keiththomas8957]

informative as always! Another new artist and style. Haven't followed manga, maybe this will kickstart it for me.

[@ComicTropes]

Well, there's a lot of it out there and like any art there is good and there is crap. Just offering my opinions but I think this one is pretty engaging.

[@sptony2718]

Have you reviewed Biomega/Blame, Eden: It's An Endless World yet? If not, I highly recommend them. BotI is among my favourite mangas, along with the above mentioned series'.

[@shirleydowning4798]

Great ending too!

[@georgeristo]

The worms sound like the episode of Futurama with the gas station egg salad!

[@watchforever1724]

This was cool to see this

[@havyn88]

Swastika is a Sanskrit/Buddhist symbol, the German one is called a Hakenkreuz.

[@Rafferty1968]

Great manga. The recent live action movie was really good. Well worth a watch.

[@HarbingerOfDeath0]

I don't think I'll ever get tired of a ragdoll dummy flying off a balcony lol

[@oldfan4049]

That's a hell of an ending, jajajaja)

[@shirleydowning4798]

I can see your enjoyment of this. I'm gonna check it out.

[@jacobstaten2366]

Only go for the omnibus volumes or you'll be collecting forever. There's even a movie, but I haven't seen it.

[@kestral63]

I'd say BotI falls under exploitation, but that doesn't stop it from being good enough to stand on its own. Kind of like the Evil Dead movies, where you can sum up most of the stories as "people in a cabin get tortured by ghosts," but it's still largely enjoyable because it's done with enough personality and visual flair. Both series are ultimately pretty shallow (for all of BotI's meticulous world building that doesn't really go anywhere), but since the creators poured in actual work and passion instead of phoning it in, there's still plenty to enjoy and they've earned their spots as pop culture staples.

[@ShotDownInFlames2]

Great review, worth checking out, thanks.

[@lookatthebatbaby]

14:28 i think there's an error in there it's supposed to be Grrr as mangas often have characters saying it when in pain or hurt, instead it changed it to Girl lol.😂😂😂

[@RSK412]

One of my fav manga. Remember kids eat your worms for long life.

[@efrains2538]

I know i'm late but I want my comment to mean something, so while looking at Blade of The Imortal panels I realized Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto took all the wrong lessons. The line work is something he took advantage of so he could ink less of his work. And folds and shading took a deep dive in quality, as Kishimoto was copying the artstyle without understanding what made it work.

[@poloshirtsamurai]

Yeah, Kishimoto is a huge fan of Blade of the Immortal. Some of his characters are even inspired by BotI. He even said he did ninja only because a story about samurai was already brilliantly done.

[@ManBatz]

That comic at the end Is the first issue of a TMNT that i was introduced to. My friends were talking about ninja turtles and it sounded idiotic to me. lol

[@banquetoftheleviathan1404]

Did anyone finish the anime? Was it good?

[@TheArchersTungsten]

Great video 👍

[@acerpag-asa2686]

rin's predicament... hating, seeking revenge and eventually the question..I know that situation, how hatred drove me to that sphere i destroyed my inner self because of one ultimate enemy who radically hurt the person i loved. Losing my loved in the whole process made me question the reality of Life and hated myself even more. But one day, news traveled and reached me that the person died without me exacting my revenge. I felt #no joy, neither satisfaction just a huge emptiness. Hating and reliving such pain against someone and reaching Dead end... is like a continuous cycle where emotions tilted to a vortex of despair for not having the satisfaction of avenging... of hate with Time and Death snatching away the person depriving me that moment to hear that person beg forgiveness. Such sense entombed with emptiness.

[@sd-wc9ep]

He killed 100 policemen? I like that guy

[@drpretzel2086]

I’m currently reading this manga now

[@jamiemcneil9682]

That is a funny way to end a video, i like it 😁

[@JohnAquariusPodcast]

the reverse swastika is the ancient symbol used by mystics in various dif cultures =. if you have already mentioned this i didn't catch it

[@EvelynDayless]

He does mention it. The same holds for the regular swastika too though. Nazis didn't invent it and it was used in some form in most cultures, but especially Hindu/Buddhism. People wring their hands too much over the direction and angle when any way you do it is going to have history because it's kind of a universal simplification of the sun.

[@LupineShadowOmega]

@@EvelynDayless actually the Nazis went out of their way to make those changes, so people aren't wringing their hands so much as pointing out that it was intentional on their part.

[@stray_cat2922]

I watched the netflix version, it's amazing

[@_Half-A-Beas.T333]

I read this when Dark Horse was coming out with single issues every month.

[@rorybarker710]

Thanks.. The movie is awesome

[@jacobstaten2366]

Glad to hear that. Haven't seen it.

[@jacobstaten2366]

Saw it. Wasn't impressed. I posted a new comment explaining why.

[@deathdoor]

It's a succinct and good summary of what's good about this series, but maybe it failed to add that it's also praised for having "good/strong" female characters. According to some at least. Personally I recommend "Wave, Listen to Me", his current series. It's the best, just the best, and without violence. Not that violence is bad, but seeing that this "sicko" can make something so entertaining without resorting to horrific mutilations makes me glad.

[@Tine_of_Nice_Dreams]

Im so excited to hear of this, thank you for sharing the recommendation!

[@JohnAquariusPodcast]

one of my top fav Manga, wonder if your going to do Appleseed

[@ComicTropes]

John Aquarius Maybe some day. I do have an episode about Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell.

[@JohnAquariusPodcast]

i was big fan of Masamune Shirow. Appleseed was my fav of his work

[@JohnAquariusPodcast]

I am currently recollecting Akira mangas both single and compiled. i love the art work so much that i buy the single issues to stay in the bag while i use the compiled books to read. yeah Akira is my #1 fav . Each issue had some of the coolest artwork

[@HyperspacePictures]

LOL! Your ill - fated skit at the end..an end to a nice review of a maybe exploitative story with some insights as filler. I'll pick up a copy based on your recommendation at any rate. And please read and review Battle Angel Alita Last Order. That's one made to order because it's chock full of tropes. Hilarious ones.

[@ComicTropes]

I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

[@Eparker09]

I really enjoyed the Anime

[@randallflagg3700]

Sadly the anime ended the same episode we meet my favorite character: Shira,... At least he did pop up and was pretty fun in the Takashi Miike adaptation. That movie is a veeeery loose adaptation, but still enjoyable fot *BotI* fans, "for what it is" IMHO

[@jacobstaten2366]

Loved this comic but always had trouble collecting it. Saw the movie adaption recently. It wasn't great. I get changing the kanji to be PC. However the girl screams most of her lines, there are barely any of the weird weapons, they manage to cover most of the story but feeling rushed doing it so they can have fight scenes that drag. They mostly consist of crowdes of people screaming and flailing with blood spouting once in a while. It's mostly tedious. It could have been made 20 years ago and would still look the same. You could probably improve the movie by editing down the fights and making it's nearly three hour run time some place between 85-120minutes.

[@SaorCelt]

Agree, the movie might be for people who dont want to read the comic or to introduce some of the story´s big battles and main characters, but little else.

[@TheKazuluka]

Quality vid

[@letmebehonest3144]

Didn’t the Vikings have a symbol like the swastia ?

[@turtleanton6539]

I dont think so

[@afroahmed3989]

action packed for sure comparing to something like shigurui or even older samurai manga like lone wolf and cub , it's actually pretty tame .

[@ifievertakeaselfiepleaseki8372]

Lone Wolf and Cub is unreal when it comes to quick, ruthless, graphic violence. Had the 1st 10 collected english volumes and the writing was great, veered into the poetic at times but mostly very cynical and fatalistic but when violence happened (as it always did) there was pages of build up and tension then a few panels, sometimes even just one amd it was over and they were back on there way down the road again.......shit I'm gonna have to see if I can find a completed version to read so I can see how it ends

[@poloshirtsamurai]

Hated the art art style of Shigurui but impressed with the goriness. Kazuo Koike's works feels barren but I love the plot lines he gets into.

[@cdubbart]

The ending of this vid fell a little short for me. :D

[@MegaAedu]

Production I.G. produced a very well made anime series, which was excellently dubbed in English . Unfortunately it lasted only for one season.

[@poloshirtsamurai]

Liden Fillms did the anime and it only had 24 episodes because they finished the whole story.

[@rogeriomiranda779]

18:11

[@robertgray1365]

You should check out Berserk.

[@dagon99]

Nicee

[@kcvic]

no worries the blood worms will heal you

[@ComicTropes]

I almost added a scene with gummy blood worms but I was running late.

[@pmcgee003]

Hahahaha 🤣

[@r4d213ck1]

thorgal

[@MrJerichoPumpkin]

sorry to break this to you, but your first trope is not right. That's the handywork of the translator that, as often happens, is probably underpaid and bossed into doing a terrible job for the sake of sales.

[@RoboBoddicker]

The Japanese is in modern dialect too (at least, the main character talks like a standard manga tough guy). The translation stays true to that.

[@steveg7000]

"Anachronistic language"? LOL, Chris, how do you think people talked before "modern" times? You think casual language like "shit man...." is something new? Shit, man, think about it. :)

[@poloshirtsamurai]

The anachronisms were even mentioned in the editorials.

[@baz3184]

I guess it was OK. I skim read it but I couldn't fully invest because the lack of diversity and lgbtq representation. Literally everyone is white (Japanese) and honestly that even historically accurate?! The art is nice but the writing is dated

[@GeorgeSearsSolidusSnake]

LMAO