Blade Of Immortal Cry Of The Worm [Paperback]

In the first episode ('The Fanatic'), Rin sees Magatsu Taito, one of the assassins, having her dead father's sword sharpened. When she voices her outrage, she catapults Manji into another fight sequence, this time to recover the weapon. Manji's method of regaining the sword is painful (to say the least), and young Rin begins to understand that her desire for vengeance has a price.

Manji's immortality depends on a type of bloodworm that cares for its host by healing all wounds. Manji has yet to deal with the long-term effects of gift, and is not completely prepared when he meets Erika Shizuma, another Itto-Ryu at a way station inn. Shizuma tries to involve Manji in a plot to overthrow the leader of the Itto-Ryu. Properly suspicious, Manji refuses, and in the following scuffle discovers that Shizuma is also infected with the worms.

The conflict between Manji and Shizuma become an inquest into the realities of immortal life. He is a mirror that forces Manji to look at own commitments. In addition, he provides a somewhat different insight into the Itto-Ryu than we have had so far. If their tactics are grim, their motives are not completely selfish. They are a natural reaction to the excessive complexities of the sword school system and the excesses of the samurai class, which is more about show and politics than it is about the disciplines of fighting.

In this second volume of the series, we are not so much asked to resolve the questions as to take note of them. As this series builds, the violence of the quest will play in counterpoint to these musings about meaning. Gradually the inner dialog will play a more and more vital part.

WARNING Blade of the Immortal is about a guy that is....umm....immortal. That means he won't die. That means the bad guys are gonna do all in their power to kill him, slash him, decapitate him, stab him and so forth. VERY GORY is what I'm getting at.

The story is basically about Manji who had these worms put in him that make you immortal. They won't go away until he atones for his sins of killing 100 of the good guys (self defense I swear) by killing a thousand bad guys. He meets Rin who needs his help to avenge her parents who were murdered right before her eyes.

The thing that really holds this series together are the characters. Even the ones that are supposedly evil u find are not really evil but human. You almost don't want them to fight and get killed by the main guy, but then again u do because they are responsible for something horrible. You also feel immediately at home with nearly every other character introduced even after only a couple of pages.

This book Volume two, Cry of the Worm is my personal favorite. It was at my public library and the first I ever read of this great series. Rin finds a sword that once belonged to her father being owned by some (really cool, kinda looks like Vagita from DBZ only more realistic looking) samurai and she'll do anything to get it back. Later on they meet up with another immortal guy who wants Manji dead and being immortal himself he knows just the thing to do Manji in.