Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal manga will be getting a new anime adaptation, announced on the official website of Kodansha’s monthly Afternoon magazine.
Announced today on the official website. The manga series by Hiroaki Samura has already inspired an anime adaptation which aired from July 14, 2008, to December 29, 2008. the anime had a total of 13 episodes and was produced by Production I.G. and directed by Kouichi Mashimo.
The June issue of the magazine had also teased an important announcement for the manga in the July issue. The official sequel manga for Blade of the Immortal starting from May was announced in the June issue of the magazine.
Anime Adaptation for Blade of the Immortal Sequel Announced
For those who are not familiar with the title, MAL describes the manga as,
Manji is an immortal swordsman, who has been cursed with eternal life. He has grown tired of living with all the death he has created. He has no skills other than those of killing, thus he forms a plan to regain his mortality: he shall kill one hundred evil men for each good one he has killed. The old witch who afflicted Manji with immortality agrees to Manji’s proposition and Manji is set on his path to kill one thousand evil men. On his journey he meets a young girl, Rin, who has her own vengeance to seek against the sword school whose members slaughtered Rin’s family. Rin and Manji journey together, each hoping to find some kind of peace. In their way are many varied enemies. Rin and Manji are almost constantly under attack and must learn to live their lives, avoiding being consumed by revenge.
The sequel of the manga will be launched in July issue with Kenji Takigawa as the writer of the story, and Ryū Suenobu is credited for drawing the art, Samura will also be collaborating for the manga. The prequel of the manga was published from June 25, 1993, to December 25, 2012. The manga has an average rating of 8.47 on MAL and overall the 50 volumes of the manga have sold over 5 million prints and were published in 22 countries. The manga has also won the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material in 2000 and 1st Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 1997.