So. What's the deal with this Blade of the Immortal thing? Blade of the Immortal is a manga (comic from Japan) that is currently being translated and released in the U.S. by Studio Proteus and Dark Horse Comics respectively. What's it about? Very succinctly, it's about Rin Asano, a sixteen-year-old girl, who is trying to get revenge for her parents' murders. The man responsible is Kagehisa Anotsu, who's family had a long-standing grudge against the Asano family. Rin turns to Manji, an outlawed fighter who carries the mysterious bloodworms (kessen-chu) in his blood, for help. What about all the other characters? I have summaries of the issues that have been released in America so far, but at some point you'll need to buy the compilation books because the plot gets very confusing very fast. When is Blade of the Immortal set? It takes place in Japan, in the middle of the Tokugawa Shogunate period (roughly 1760-1770). What exactly is a bloodworm? In Blade of the Immortal, a bloodworm is an unexplained little worm-like creature which lives in the bloodstream in a non-parasitic way. It heals all wounds aquired by its host, as well as reattaching limbs and regrowing organs. The only way to kill a bearer of the bloodworms is to cut off his or her head. Sounds like a Highlander rip-off to me... You're not the only one to say that. I don't think that that's what Samura had in mind, but I can't say anything else with any certainty. Who's Samura? Who's the author? Hiroaki Samura is the author and artist behind Blade of the Immortal. Is he a sicko? There's a lot of whackjobs in this manga. I have no idea. But dramatic tension is what keeps a story interesting, right? I've heard that he writes hard-core porn stuff as well. True. I don't have any of it, and I've only seen a few scans, but the artwork appears to be of the same high quality as in Blade of the Immortal. Do you have scans of it? Can you send me some of it? See above: I don't have any. If you can read Japanese, you should be able to find some on the internet. I'm not opposed to it, but it's just not my cup of Darjeeling. But you're into Nazi comics. No. The character on the back of Manji's kimono (robe) is not a swastika. It is a sauvstika. Adolf Hitler, in addition to being a mass-murdering f*&khead and a vegetarian painter, also had a slight tendency to steal other culture's well-known symbols and stick them onto Naziism. In the original Hindu religion, a swastika symbolised day and openness, while a sauvstika stood for night and secrets. The sauvstika is just a mirror image of the swastika. These symbols were widely known in Southeast and East Asia because of the popularity of Buddhism, and the fact that Buddhist monks had a tendency to travel and pick up bits of other religions, mostly Hinduism. Manji is actually the Japanese word for sauvstika. On a side note, Nazis did not yet exist during the time period in which Blade of the Immortal is set. Samura has really cool martial arts/weapons/ninja stuff/art techniques in Blade of the Immortal. Can you tell me more about it? No, for two very different reasons. Samura just makes up the weapons and styles in Blade of the Immortal. And I don't know anything about art, so all I can tell you is that he uses ink. I'd like to see the original Japanese version. Where can I get it? Blade of the Immortal is titled Mugen no Jyuunin (Wanderer of Infinity) in Japanese. The kanji at the top of the page is what you need to search in Japanese. To order Mugen no Jyuunin mangabons (tankabons/whatever), try either Sasuga Books or Nihongo Circle. Currently there are twelve mangabons. The most current one has Makie on the cover. You cannot order directly from Kodansha, the Japanese publisher of Mugen no Jyuunin. It is also serialised in Afternoon, published by Kodansha, if you wish to order it issue by issue, which I don't recommend. Kodansha also has a smaller website in English. You seem to speak Japanese well. Exactly how good are the English translations we're getting? *snort* Yeah, you go on thinking that. But seriously, Studio Proteus is basically the best of the best. Shirow and Miyazaki have both personally picked Studio Proteus to translate their stuff. Andy's wife Orie, who is native Japanese and very fluent in English, has remarked that they came up with fantastic vernacular phrases that she couldn't have thought of. Can I take stuff from your page to use on mine? You may use whatever I've scanned in as long as you properly credit it, which means clearly providing a link back to my page in reference to the scan. You cannot use any of the fanart without getting permission from the artists themselves. I'd prefer if my summaries were not used elsewhere, mostly becuase I will eventually update the old ones. Studio Proteus has a list of requirements for a Blade of the Immortal website in their FAQ as well. But your site doesn't comply with those requirements. Yes, but that's only because my site has been around longer than that list. And I'm too lazy to change stuff now. I'm an aspiring manga artist/translator/writer. Can you tell me how to get started in the industry? I'm a mathematician. Mathematician. Look at the FAQ on the Studio Proteus site. Is that it? Unless you can think of anything else, stick a fork in me, I'm done.