Blade of the Immortal Anime (Airs 13.07.08)

T

Takanome

Completely Average High School Student
"Tomokazu Seki to play lead; Noir's director Mashimo & Bee Train studio to animate

The May issue (on sale on March 25) of Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine will confirm that a television anime version of Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal manga will premiere this summer in Japan. Tomokazu Seki (Escaflowne's Van, Gungrave's Beyond the Grave) will voice the main character Manji, a rōnin swordsman condemned to immortality unless he kills a thousand evil men for all the good men he killed. Rina Satou (Negima!'s Negi, Bamboo Blade's Satori) will play Manji's fellow traveller Rin. Hirofumi Nojima (Kagehisa Anotsu), Kazuya Nakai (Taito Magatsu), Masashi Ebara (Sabato Kurui), Katsuyuki Konishi (Eikū Shizuma), Daisuke Namikawa (Araya Kawakami), Mamiko Noto (Makie), Megumi Toyoguchi (Hyakurin), Toshiyuki Morikawa (Giichi), Shinichiro Miki (Shira), and Maaya Sakamoto (Machi) complete the cast.

Koichi Mashimo will direct the animators on Bee Train as he did for the .hack// franchise and Noir. Hiroyuki Kawasaki (The Irresponsible Captain Tylor, Sorcerer Hunters) will oversee the scripts, and Yoshimitsu Yamashita (Murder Princess, Samurai Champloo animation director) will design the characters. Kō Ōtani (Ayakashi Ayashi, Mobile Suit Gundam Wing) will compose the music.

Dark Horse Comics publishes the manga in North America.

Source: Earl.Box" (ANN)

I really hope they'll follow Hiroaki Samura art closely instead of some generic style
 
I must admit, I'm disappointed they'll be using Bee Train and the whole Noir/Madlax team to create this. I always had Blade of the Immortal pegged as a highly stylish, violent story much more suited to the likes of Madhouse. Oh well, I'll still be checking this out. The art in the manga is awesome.
 
Paul said:
I must admit, I'm disappointed they'll be using Bee Train and the whole Noir/Madlax team to create this. I always had Blade of the Immortal pegged as a highly stylish, violent story much more suited to the likes of Madhouse. Oh well, I'll still be checking this out. The art in the manga is awesome.
Click to expand...

Maybe they'll change their normal style into something else for the project?
 
Blade of the Immortal anime!? I've been wanting to read the manga for a long time. DO WANT. Tomozaku Seki? BAH! Oh well, at least some of the seiyuu named I love.
 
I've read the manga back home, then it caught up with japanese releases. And got suspended for a while ... maybe I should start reading it again... Just checked wikipedia and it'still going on... :(
 
Somehow the thought of Hiroaki Samura's elegant, detailed artwork rendered in cheap TV animation with minimal frames is not too enticing. But it should be interesting nonetheless.
 
The staff list makes me worry, I hope they're planning to break with their style and try something experimental (and good) for this.

I do like the seiyuu/composer choices though, sounds interesting. If the animation sucks I'll close my eyes and imagine better ;p

R
 
Blade of the Immortal Anime (Summer Premiere)

melonpan said:
Takanome said:
I wanted Madhouse to get this considering what they did with Shigurui

EDIT:
Heres the home page for the anime:
http://mugen.kc.kodansha.co.jp/
Click to expand...

I was just about to post that link, because they've broken the mould! That style looks absolutely stunning. I'm really excited now!
Click to expand...

Got to agree looks really good, I've been waiting for this to be made for ages. Don't know much about it to be honest but I downloaded a few backgrounds for it as they caught my eye.

Roll on the trailer.
 
This is genuinely upsetting.

I love the manga and it's always been a bit of a relief that no one's attempted to animate it. The art style just doesn't lend itself well to the medium, and it would take some serious talent (like Madhouse, like people have said, or better yet Production I.G.) to do it any justice.

But no. We get Bee Train. God.
 
Yep, they might as well have punted it to some random Korean studio.

Hell, it might actauly be accurate to the source material then.

Cuz we all know what a **** job they did to Tsubassa: RC.
 
I was close to writing a full-on rant about Bee Train after this news. It's such a shame this will probably be low-budget, because even if you do a quick Google Image search on 'Blade of the Immortal', you'll uncover some amazing art. I'll just be hoping, really, really hoping, that I'm wrong to be so pessimistic. I've always wanted to see this animated.
 
BOTI has been a top ten favorite of mine so this sounds a bit scary.

Tomokazu Seki as Manji o_O he's a riot as many voices, but but but Manji? Well, he did say in some interview he wanted to try something different, lets hope it goes for beeetrain from the usual for the better aswell. Low ambivalent expectations.
 
Looks a lot better than I expected. Would have checked this out regardless, but now I'm quite excited too.
 
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