Blade Of The Immortal Volume 12: Fall Frost [Paperback]

Manji has teamed up with another fighter, Magatsu, and the story starts with them swapping adventures on the road. Suddenly an old enemy of both, Shira, appears. Shira is a psychotic with a taste for killing women and the girl Magatsu loved was among his victims. This triggers a free for all battle that occupies the majority of this manga, pitting Manji and Magatsu against Shira and a set of hired killers. As is normal for Samura, the fighting is imaginative and beautifully choreographed, as well as full of Manji's wry sarcasm.

We get a short glimpse of Rin before the focus shifts to Anotsu himself, focusing on his decision to accept Hisoka's hand in marriage. This exacerbates the tension over Anotsu's take-over of the sword school where she resides. While this has yet to break out into decisive action, the note of violence hangs over the wedding like a promise, and it is only a matter of time before Anotsu's mettle is tested again.

It is interesting that Anotsu, originally introduced as a villain, is gradually being shifted into a more sympathetic role. Samura has spent the time to develop him as a character, and it is impossible not to feel some sympathy for his goals, even if his methods are often cruel. What this will mean in the long run is difficult to foresee, but clearly there are more surprises planned.

'Blade of the Immortal' has been a series as exceptional in its way as 'Battle Angel Alita' is in its. In each case, the hero gradually develops from cold fighter to a brilliantly alive human being, dedicated to his companions. Of course, Alita's appeal is more universal, while Manji remains focused on his local problems. Hiroaki Samura uses the vehicle of the story to bring to life the Japan of his times, touching not just on the Samurai class but a wide swath of society. While the extreme violence makes this a story that is not for everyone it is an exemplar of its genre.

This, the twelfth compilation released overseas, features the return of Blade's most vicious scoundrel, Shira, a cold-eyed killer capable of unspeakable depravities. At the climax of *Heart of Darkness* (BotI vol. 7), Manji cut off Shira's right arm, putting a kink in the assassin's typical routine of butchery, whoring and all-around reprobate-behavior. Upset but unruffled, Shira has decided that an 'eye for an eye' is an adequate reparation for the loss of his arm; he intends on taking Manji's right appendage in payment and enlists three dim-witted stooges to help him ambush the lazy immortal. But unbeknownst to Shira's death-lust maneuverings, Manji is traveling with Magatsu Taito - a former top-blade warrior of the rogue Itto-ryo sword school - who has a grudge to settle with the serial-killer. . .

This 'love/hate-triangle' is perhaps the most desperate fight of the series so far, as Magatsu and Shira cannot resuscitate themselves a la wound-healing bloodworms. With Manji, one always _knows_ he can survive just about any blow short of having his head chopped off; and after the violence-orgy of *The Gathering*, wherein the ronin's immorality was tested to an almost ridiculous limit, Hiroaki Samura decided to shift the conflict-emphasis to the other, 'normal' characters. In *Autumn Frost*, the duel between Magatsu and Shira quickly reaches a dangerous level of piercing-threshold and pain: the tension of the close-quarter combat, coupled with the feverish passions of both hero and antagonist, give the story as a whole a much-needed jolt of unpredictability and potential mortality.

I was initially surprised to find that Dark Horse included two issues after *Autumn Frost's* harrowing conclusion, the one-shots 'The Wind and the Heron' and 'Petals on the Wind', which detail the growing relationship of Anotsu and Hisoka Shingyoto. In hindsight, though, I can see why, as this profoundly brief romantic interlude offers a telling contrast to the stonehearted feud of the previous storyarc. . . and when I say brief, I mean brief - events are already transpiring to doom the dreams of these star-crossed lovers.

A note on the artwork: Hiroaki Samura's technique can almost be considered the antithesis of mainstream Manga. Instead of the ultra-clean ink-lines and the large eyes/small mouth stereotypes perpetuated in most Japanese comics, Samura favors a sketch-technique to his backgrounds and action sequences, along with [fairly] proportional humanistic characteristics (the ears are a bit large). The detail and craftsmanship are, as always, superb, particularly in the pencil-work and frame-perspective. More importantly, Samura has evolved in his plotting and drafting of combat: no over-reliance of hacked limbs and death-murals here! Instead, the fight-scenes are so visceral and tension-laden that one can almost smell the coppery stench of intermingled blood, dust and sweat; feel the kicks, blows and (multiple) stabbings as our heroes struggle toward their long-awaited culmination. It's a welcome change from *Beasts*' grim assortment of decapitations and limb-loss.

Five stars.