Type: Television Show
Episodes: 13
Rating: TV-14
Runtime Per Episode: 30 min
Director: Mashimo Koichi
Produced By Production I.G. and others
Year Produced: 2009
Otherwise known as Blade of the Immortal, Mugen no Juunin was originally a manga by the mangaka Samura Hiroaki, who is renown for his art style (kind of sketchy pencil looking drawings, very cool).
The anime follows the quest for revenge by Rin, the only surviving daughter of the Mutenichi-Ryuu dojo, and the last member of her family free.
Her father was murdered by a band of dojo-smashers (a term that I just made up, and since I don't have the patience to figure out the correct term, I'll just explain this one. Dojo Smashers are people who go around and slaughter members of a dojo or sword style and eventually destroy the dojo or style. The end.). Her mother also fell into the hands of these men and was taken away from Rin.
Two years later, Rin is on looking for her mother and for revenge on her father's murderer... only one problem. She can't beat her opponents by herself.
Okay, yeah, I know. It's not a swastika.
... Well, it is, but it started off as a symbol for any number of things in any number of more Eastern religions before it was adopted by the Nazi party.
Either way, Rin convinces Manji to go on this epic quest with her to hunt down all those who have done her wrong... a time-consuming and dangerous quest to say the least.
That's... a foot, right?
I liked the animation style. I was a fan of Samura Hiroaki after I read Mugen no Juunin, and I remember reading online forums discussing worries about the anime because people were afraid that the art wouldn't be true to Samura Hiroaki's style, but it didn't seem that weird.
Oh, and the reason that I like the animation was mostly for the battle scenes. They were a lot more... physically possible and accurate than normal samurai-sword slashers. It was cool to see the hero stumble around a little, and what's more was that the weight seemed to be in the right place.
You may or may not know what I'm talking about, but in a lot of fighting shows, the character's are like... anti-grav, it's kind of epic.
I've done a little bit of martial arts and... you could call it fencing, but you'd probably be wrong. Even though I'm pretty comfortable with my weight and balance and stuff, I can't do half of the normal shit that fighters pull out in those animes, it's just not humanly possible. If it is. then please make a video of yourself, post it, and send me the address... and tell me how to do it.
I strongly encourage you to watch the Japanese version only, but if you don't feel like dealing with subtitles, then I suppose the English version wasn't too bad, but in Japanese, it makes a lot more sense. I mean, you'd laugh your ass off at a white samurai, I know I would.
In my opinion... the music was bad. I don't care much for wailing, and the songs that were sung in the intro, outro, as well as those songs that geishas play with the shamisen were all like that, so I wasn't having a great time. I know this isn't technically music, but I also don't get haikus at all.
Even though the anime was decent, I'd still say you should just read the manga. It's an experience, not to mention freaking long. The anime doesn't even cover to the end of the first couple of books (roughly, I download mostly, since I'm too cheap to afford the bound books) as it is, but I understand that they will producing a second season, so that's good. Even though it wasn't the best, I'll be watch it.
Mugen no Juunin Minitheatre
Coming up next!
Ookami to Koushinryou
