To me, producing an anime adaptation to Blade of the Immortal in 2019 is like producing an anime adaptation of Jurassic Park or Schindler’s list. I enjoyed all three when they were originally released in 1993 but, and this is debatable, it feels like my taste has moved on a bit since 8th grade…
If you are not familiar with the source material, BotI is a beautiful manga about a swordsman who is held together by magic worms and a teenage girl who’s family was killed by some prick anti-samurais. The illustrations are mostly un-inked pencil. The anti-hero’s clothes are filled with an unreasonable number of knives and swords, and they are often spinning. It’s freakishly dark, violent, yet slow paced and often introspective. I stopped reading about 1,600 pages in.
These first two episodes faithfully adapt the source material, in a knock-off Afro Samurai sort of way. The story telling does not lend itself to animation, nor has the lovely pencil style been kept. Dear lord that processed video effect for the moving trees made me want to vomit and a few strobing effects may kill someone with epilepsy. It’s not terrible but it’s also intentionally unattractive, lacking color, and murkily hard to see.
TLDR? It’s a little pretentious.
If you are not familiar with the source material, you may enjoy the graphic violence and somber tones. Rin and her Yojimbo have a curious sister x brother relationship that develops over time, and a small number of the enemies reveal interesting motivations.
Don’t expect resolution or a coherent place for this story to end. Certainly not a happy one, unless eating peoples pets to get stronger, headless moms grafted onto peoples’ shoulders, and the short lives of prostitutes is your happy thing?
Personally, I’m happy for my Blade of the Immortal memories. I’m just gonna leave them where I made them, back in 1993.
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