Exploring How English Manga Gets Made with Blade of the Immortal’s Editor

This article was provided by Dark Horse and is written by Senior Editor Philip R. Simon.

  With the announcement of Dark Horse Manga’s new Blade of the Immortal Deluxe hardcover series and also the recent conclusion of Amazon Prime’s Blade of the Immortal anime adaptation (deliciously adapting Hiroaki Samura’s entire manga series with care!), it’s certainly time to preach the “Gospel of Rin” again. 

  If this is your first time being exposed to either the complete animated adaptation that Amazon Prime offers or even the original epic manga series by Hiroaki Samura that spawned it, here are some basics to consider as you start down Rin’s road of revenge ... 

  The original manga series debuted as Mugen no Jünin in Japan in 1993 and ended with its final chapter on December 25, 2012. The original Japanese title roughly translates to “Wanderer into Infinity.” When original translator and English-language editor Toren Smith — of the now-defunct but pioneering Studio Proteus manga translating and packaging company — first negotiated the publishing deal for this series between Japanese publisher Kodansha and Dark Horse Comics, Toren suggested using the Blade of the Immortal title for English-reading markets. The title stuck! That title has even become just as common as — and more distinctive than — the original title. 

    Dark Horse Comics published a monthly “pamphlet-style” Blade of the Immortal translation which ran for 131 comic issues, from June 1996 to November 2007, then Dark Horse moved to a trade-only collection format which lasted for thirty-one volumes. Some of those 131 comic-book style issues included fan art by professional Blade fans Becky Cloonan, the Luna Brothers, Guy Davis, Dan Hipp, Vasilis Lolos, Nathan Fox, Rob Guillory, and Farel Dalrymple! All of the smaller collections have been collected into the mostly three-in-one “omnibus” trade paperback collections — and now those “three-in-one” trade paperback collections are getting hardcover collections at the larger, “Deluxe” 7-inch-by-10-inch size, with faux leather covers and a bookmark ribbon.

  Something new readers tend to also ask about is the approach Dark Horse took in presenting the Blade of the Immortal manga in a left-to-right (English reading style) but also a cut-and-paste (original Japanese orientation) style. I found a statement from Toren Smith that he sent to me to run in one of the final Blade of the Immortal monthly comic letters columns about this process. Here’s what Toren wrote in 2007 about how Blade pages were laid out in the English-language adaptations:

Speaking to Samura, he was dubious about flopping his art. Since this was back in the Dark Ages, when retailers and distributors were wary of unflopped manga, we didn't have much choice. Still, initially he refused. Later, after the first tankoubon had come out, I sat down with it and partway through made a realization. As his layout and storytelling skills had matured, he had moved to an unusual style—almost all of his panels were rectangular. For an idea how odd this is, grab any manga off your shelf and compare. I made a few photocopies of his pages and pasted them up with the panels unreversed, but the order of the panels reversed. It worked. Studio Proteus put together a sequence of about ten pages and sent them off to Samura, and he was intrigued. While he had done some work early on that was not amenable to this technique, he suggested that he'd redraw a few panels here and there as needed. I knew we could trim bleeds, and if I kept sharp while doing the rewrite I could move the readers along correctly with strategic repositioning of the word balloons and tweaking the dialog. I think it worked pretty well. Hey, it's tough to read each panel knowing it will be unflopped ... and yet reordered on the page! For the first couple volumes I actually cut and pasted each page, but eventually I was able to do it in my head, on the fly. All of my mistakes were corrected in the TPBs, and after Tomoko came on board, there were essentially none, since she kept an eagle eye on this.

  That process changed drastically by 2004, with digital technology making production so much easier. Dark Horse used to receive large film sheets from Kodansha for our Blade of the Immortal production process. We used to print physical, high-quality sheets of both unflopped and flopped manga pages and send those to Toren Smith and Tomoko Saito so they could work with the large printed sheets and cut every panel out — flopped and unflopped — for flexibility in reassembling everything onto Dark Horse artboards, which would then get scanned. We’d get the book in chapter by chapter from Studio Proteus, to produce the comic books on a monthly basis, and those “raw” paste-up boards would get scanned and then digitally art corrected to remove any small glitches and correct any lettering issues. The process changed in 2004, though, when Tomoko Saito started using print-ready digital files from Japan, her own physically drawn and scanned sound effects, and a digital process to rearrange and flip the panels on a page and letter everything up. That’s why Blade of the Immortal runs the way it does and has a unique, one-of-a-kind “flopping” process.

  Readers who have only skimmed the start of the series will also find that the stubborn, cursing Manji appears to be the main character of this epic series at first, but this is mainly Rin Asano’s story of revenge and growth. The foundation that Samura lays down in the early Blade of the Immortal volumes is an insane plot tool, but fairly simple: In a nutshell, young survivor Rin seeks revenge against the renegade sword school led by Anotsu, because Anotsu and his group of thugs crudely and callously murdered Rin’s parents on her fourteenth birthday. Rin is paired with the powerful and sullen ronin called Manji — who is immortal due to the mystical, regenerative kessen-chu bloodworms in his system — and Manji vows to protect and aid her in her quest for vengeance as she is set on murdering each of Anotsu’s thugs before murdering Anotsu himself.

Manji steals the show right away, and his anachronistic speech and ungentlemanly behavior make him the perfect foil to the proper, driven, serious Rin. “Little Rin” tracks and identifies most of the members of Anotsu’s gang who are responsible for her pain, and Manji sloppily disposes of them. He’s a resilient, charming rogue. Along the way, though, brilliant writer/artist Samura has shown us that this monster of a manga series is just as much Rin’s show as it is tough-guy Manji’s.

  After establishing story arcs in the first dozen or so volumes that show a pattern of Manji and Rin taking down villain after villain, some readers are taken aback by Samura’s “Demon Lair” storyline, which runs through Blade of the Immortal Volumes 16-21. Manji is chained, drugged, and subjected to horrific experiments throughout most of his scenes, and the point of this long divergence seems to be to focus readers on Rin and the strength of Samura’s female characters. Rin’s persistence, intelligence, and willpower wind up matching Manji’s, even if Rin continues to struggle with believing that about herself. Rin shows the most growth through a manga series that’s packed with multiple, satisfying character arcs and perfectly-dovetailing plots.

  I hope you find all of that out for yourself, without giving more details on Rin. My personal favorite character in this series is Giichi — the bald and spectacled warrior who seems defined by his distinctive, head-lopping weapons. Only when you get to the end of this tale do you realize exactly what his motivations are, and Hiroaki Samura seeds and nurtures Giichi’s own character transformation perfectly. But that’s for another article!

  I also have immensely enjoyed the Amazon Prime adaptation, which I highly recommend after you finish reading the original manga series. The story unfolds almost arc-for-arc exactly as the original manga series runs, with some lines translated differently. An example of this is toward the very end when Itto-ryu warrior Ozuhan manages to find fellow students Doa and Isaku. In the manga, Doa asks Ozuhan about all the fishbones in his boat and why he stinks of fish. (That’s all he had to eat on his voyage to find his friends.) But in the newer anime series, Doa comments on how Ozuhan has figured out how to now speak English. (Instead of his usual grunting and whistling.) That’s a slight change that works to build a possible familial conclusion there at the end of the epic with some characters, with Ozuhan now seen as able to communicate with the other “redeemable” members of the Itto-ryu. A small but fun change — and also material for another article!

  If you find yourself enjoying the core Blade of the Immortal series, Dark Horse also has more Samura projects available. The Art of Blade of the Immortal hardcover, with thirty-two extra pages exclusive to the Dark Horse edition, and the Blade of the Immortal: Legend of the Sword Demon “alternate reality” novel are excellent additions to his core series. Dark Horse Manga also collects Samura’s existing short story work in two collections: Ohikkoshi (Takeiteasy Comics Complete Works) and Emerald and Other Stories!

  -Philip R. Simon 

Senior Editor, Dark Horse Manga

By: [email protected]

INTERVIEW: Takashi Miike on “Blade of the Immortal”, the Magic of Manga, and Directing 100 Films

Celebrated Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike arrived in San Francisco recently for a screening of “Blade of the Immortal”, his 100th title as director, based on the manga of the same name by Hiroaki Samura. Here’s an excerpt from a longer chat we got to have with him...

  Crunchyroll News: I’ve heard that the film Blade of the Immortal is your 100th movie as a director. Do you have any special feeling for this film?

  Takashi Miike: No, I was not aware of that when I was making it. When I sent the film to Cannes, either the festival director or someone really into movies counted my films and realized that this was my 100th movie. Also, the film starts with killing100 people with a sword… but it was all a coincidence. That incident came from the original manga.

    Blade of the Immortal is based on a manga, and you’ve also made Yatterman (based on an anime) and Like a Dragon (based on SEGA’s Yakuza video games). Is making these kinds of adaptations different from making your own original works?

  Hmm… I guess it depends on the individual. But for my generation (Miike was born in 1960, so he’s 57 years old – ed.), manga represents a lot of dreams. After WWII, each family bought a small television for their home. There were also many movie theatres. However, manga was the best entertainment that children could afford with their pocket money.

  People in my generation have a lot of respect for manga artists. No matter which house I went to, including classmates’ houses, there was always a book called “How to Become a Manga Artist” (laughs). So becoming a manga artist was my childhood dream, and I have special feelings about manga.

  In Japan now, there are many movies are made based on manga. The producers are from our generation, and you can feel the love and unique emotions that are different from other countries’ culture. Compared to novels, manga feels closer and more intimate.

  It’s also very easy to make a film from manga. However, in terms of expression, manga is often looked down upon by some parts of society. But that’s also what makes manga good.

    Although manga has its own unique way of expression, the level of sophistication is not much different from that of Shakespeare.

  For us who grew up with manga, that’s what I feel. When I make films based on manga, I notice details that I was not aware of when I was reading the manga. So it is important that I do not disappoint or sadden the manga artist when he/she sees the film that I made. That’s the only thing I need to ensure, and the rest is actually quite easy.

  Once I meet and talk to the artist, I know his/her personality, and when I read his/her manga, I know what is important for him/her. However sometimes what the manga artists think is important can only be expressed in manga. When I try to show that in movies, the investors are not happy. It is important that the manga artist feels “This is interesting. This film is definitely based on my manga”.

  It is good that we have clear idea who will be the target audiences when making a film out of manga. When making my own movies, all I need to do is to find answers within myself, but also, I need to think “will the audiences like this film?” Although this is very important as a result, whether the audiences like the movie or not will be revealed after the movie is made. I do not want to compromise when making a movie. Maybe out of several films that I’ve made, audiences will like one of them, but that’s not my purpose. However this kind of mindset is very dangerous for investors (laughs).

  Megastar Takuya Kimura (from the group SMAP) played the main character Manji in Blade of the Immortal. How was he as an actor? 

  He is really special. He is a really super idol. I believe it was his fate to play the role of the main character Manji. They are very similar. They both have gifts that other people cannot have, such as the power of immortality…

  Takuya Kimura has been a major idol for the last 25 years, and it is a dream for a young people. The common ground for them is loneliness. For example, Kimura cannot go outside to shop. Of course, he cannot even go to convenience stores either. He has been living life like this for a long time now. But one thing that is very special and different about him is that, among other SMAP members, he is the only one who has family. His encounter with his wife must have been very significant. He also has two kids and he is sending them to study abroad. He is a father. But he doesn’t show that at all. His family saved him from loneliness. I feel he is very close to Manji.

  For me, Manji is immortal, and he lives on even after this movie. He survived World War II, and even now he is living in somewhere in Japan. I don’t know which part of the Japan, though. He must have gone through plastic surgery to change his face (laughs).
When I think “what is Manji doing now?” I think of Kimura. He healed his wounds, and playing the role of a super idol as if nothing had happened (laughs).

    In addition to the coincidence that this is your 100th movie, and the fact that Kimura played the role of Manji, many coincidences seem to have made this film a reality.

  Yes. But I don’t think that’s why I must be very careful or worried about failing. Although I am doing my best, this film has many imperfections, too. Perfect entertainment is not possible for movies. In the end, I just want audiences to like the movie, including its imperfections. Otherwise, my job just becomes about eliminating imperfections. When that happens, filmmaking itself becomes boring. So it is okay for the imperfections to stay imperfect.

    Blade of the Immortal is now in theaters and is available for on demand viewing.

  ---

  Patrick Macias is the Original Story author of the URAHARA anime, now streaming on Crunchyroll.

By: [email protected]