Blade of the Immortal vol. 25: Snowfall at Dawn

Manji vs. Shira:  Round 1 — did it disappoint?  HELL NO!  This latest volume of “Blade of the Immortal” is one of the most intense reads in the series, and (as usual) one of the most captivating things I’ve read all year.  After a chapter where we find out the final, bloody fate of Baro Sukezane of the Itto-Ryu, the narrative starts gearing up for the inevitable conflict.  Now the thing about this series is that while Manji has always been portrayed as a resourceful and inventive fighter even before he had immortality thrust upon him, the man has never been “the best there is at what he does.”  This became more true after he lost an arm a few volumes back.  What’s more is that here he’s pitted against an opponent that, much like “Frank Castle written by Garth Ennis,” has considered all of the angles in his attack.

The end result is a conflict that had me consumed by the events on the page as I furiously hoped for some small bit of hope in this conflict.  Yet, mangaka Hiroaki Samura is pitiless in this regard and seeing the tide of the fight turn is going to be hard to take for anyone who has followed Manji or Rin’s journey since the beginning.  These fights are never as straightforward as they seem, and while I called the reveal of Shira’s big secret a while back (you’ll probably be able to do it too), there are a couple surprise encounters in this fight that left me effectively slackjawed.  All of you aspiring writers out there take note:  the last few story pages here are how you do a “power of friendship” moment without speechifying or calling it out.  It’s a well-done cliffhanger and my mind is still trying to figure out how the fight is going to play out as a result.

So while the core of this volume is immensely satisfying, it pains me to say that it comes with a bit of a catch.  Midway through we’re treated to a flashback sequence that shows what was going on with Shira while Manji was being experimented upon in Edo castle and also serves to set up their current encounter.  The purpose of this is to — after 24 volumes — finally explain the mechanics behind the kessen-chu immortality in this series.  Now, I’ve never felt a burning desire to understand how that works as it has been clear from the very beginning that it wasn’t going to be the focus of the series.  The “Prison Arc” would’ve been the best time to address this issue, but it ended with a note of ambiguity about how the kessen-chu work — that the person has to “need” immortality in order for it to work.  That description fit Manji to a “T” and I was willing to let it go at that.

However, it turns out that Samura wasn’t and the full explanation offered here pretty much contradicts what he wrote at the end of the “Prison Arc.”  The main weakness of the early volumes of “Blade of the Immortal” was that there were a lot of moments where it felt like the creator was making things up as he went along.  There were episodes where he’d shoehorn in a flashback detailing plot-critical information that the characters should’ve remembered much sooner.  Go back and read the first chapter of “On Silent Wings II” where Rin’s grandfather hints at the episode that led to the formation of the Itto-Ryu for the most glaring example of this.  My point is that I thought these days were long behind us, but it appears that they are not.

You can probably guess what I’m going to say now, but the short of it is that the rest of this volume is so damn good that I gritted my teeth, acknowledged the retcon, and moved on.  It’s a frustrating development, but one that only has bearing on a very specific point in the series.  More on my mind is anticipation for the next volume — how is this fight going to be resolved!  That will be the main thing on my mind for the next 7-8 months before vol. 26 arrives.  I’ve faced longer waits between volumes, but this one will be no less painful.

(In the meantime, it appears we’ll have new work from Samura before then.  The forthcoming release of “Emerald and Other Stories” is advertised in the back of this volume.  No word on when it’ll actually arrive — my money’s on early 2013 — but I can’t imagine that it won’t make for good reading when it does.)