What Is the 2019 Blade of the Immortal Anime?

The whole manga, all 207 chapters, in twenty-four episodes: the complete adaptation the 2008 series could not be.

The second adaptation was announced on the cover of Monthly Afternoon's July 2019 issue with an unusual promise: this time it would be complete. Liden Films produced it, directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki, with series composition by Makoto Fukami, character designs by Shingo Ogiso and a score by Eiko Ishibashi. It streamed on Amazon Prime Video from October 10, 2019, to March 25, 2020, in twenty-four episodes, with Kenjiro Tsuda as Manji and Kiyoharu singing the opening, Survive of Vision.

Completeness at this compression is an editorial act as much as an animation one: thirty volumes in twenty-four episodes means the series moves at the speed of a reader who already knows the map, keeping the duels and the turning points and trusting the audience across the connective tissue. It remains the only screen version that reaches the manga's actual ending, Manji and Rin together at the close of the final chapter's road. Sentai Filmworks brought it to Blu-ray in North America on January 19, 2021.

Blade of the Immortal volume 13 Japanese cover, Afternoon KC — **VOLUME 13**Volume 13 of the Japanese tankobon, Afternoon KC. Samura painted all thirty covers himself, and they were never redesigned.

TWO ADAPTATIONS, ONE MANGA

2008 against 2019

The scope

2008: thirteen episodes, the opening movement. 2019: twenty-four episodes, the entire manga. Between them a reader can watch adaptation philosophy change in a decade.

The directors

Koichi Mashimo, a specialist in atmosphere, against Hiroshi Hamasaki, who had directed Texhnolyze and co-directed Steins;Gate: melancholy against momentum.

The voices

Manji passes from Tomokazu Seki (2008) to Kenjiro Tsuda (2019); Rin from Rina Sato to Ayane Sakura. The recasting is total, as the productions share no staff of consequence.

The distribution

A satellite channel run in 2008 against a global streaming premiere in 2019: the second series was made for the audience the manga's English editions had spent twenty years building.

What Is the 2019 Blade of the Immortal Anime?

TWO ADAPTATIONS, ONE MANGA

THE FIRST WORD