October 10, 2019 (2019-10-10) – March 25, 2020 (2020-03-25)
Blade of the Immortal (無限の住人-IMMORTAL-, Mugen no Jūnin: Immortal) is an anime television series based on the manga series of the same name created by Hiroaki Samura. The series is set in Japan during the mid-TokugawaShogunate period and follows the cursed samurai Manji, who has to kill 1000 evil men in order to regain his mortality.
The series is animated by Liden Films and directed by Hiroshi Hamasaki, with Makoto Fukami handling series composition, Shingo Ogiso designing the characters, and Eiko Ishibashi composing the music. It premiered on October 10, 2019, on Amazon Prime Video.[1] On October 15, 2020, it was announced that Sentai Filmworks had licensed the anime for home video release in winter 2021.[2] The anime was released on Blu-ray on January 19, 2021.[3]
The opening theme is "Survive of Vision" is Kiyoharu.[4]
A recap of events at the beginning of the series produced in 2008. It shows the death of Manji's sister Machi, and Manji killing the entire band of ronin responsible; the slaughter of the Asano family; Rin Asano meeting Yaobikuni for the first time and then seeking Manji; Manji's decision to help Rin; and Rin's encounter with Sabato Kuroi and his slaying by Manji.
Manji and Rin visit the famous swordsman and artist Master Sori to enlist his aid for revenge on the Ittō-ryū. Rin tries to convince him to join her, revealing that she is aware that he is a spy for the shogunate. Manji storms out of the house, but Rin stays, and wakes to find herself attacked by followers of the Ittō-ryū. Manji returns and slays many of them but is trapped against spikes on a tree. Rin unsuccessfully tries to fight off their leader, but just as he is about to kill her, Sori awakens from his artistic reverie when blood spatters on his face, and he stabs the leader through the throat. Later, Sori gives Rin some money as payment for providing the right color to complete his masterpiece. When Rin takes Manji's unusual weapons to a blacksmith for sharpening, she sees her father's sword. When its owner Magatsu arrives, she asks him to sell it to her. He agrees only if she tells him where to find the daughter of the Asano dojo, suspecting that she is that girl. That night, while Rin sleeps, Manji seeks out Magatsu. They have a fierce fight, both sustaining severe injuries, but Manji returns with Rin's father's sword.
3
"Act Three – Dream Pangs" (Japanese: 三幕 夢弾 ─ゆめびき─)
Makoto Fukami
October 17, 2019 (2019-10-17)
Makie approaches Manji in an alleyway and tries to seduce him, but he realizes it is a trap and they fight. She reveals that she is from Ittō-ryū, but Manji easily defeats her. Later, In a quiet moment on a bridge, Makie meets Anotsu and asserts that he only interested in her fighting ability, but Anotsu says he also desires her as a woman and kisses her. After Anotsu leaves, three swordsmen who have been sent by her former employer attempt to take Makie back by force, but she cuts her hair short then easily cuts them to pieces. Makie then seeks out Manji again, and this time she does not hold back and they fight viciously in the narrow laneways. Manji tries to ambush Makie, but she dodges him, slashing off an arm and leg, then impaling him with his own sword. Makie hesitates, shocked by her own brutality, but Manji convinces her to keep fighting and she defeats him. Rin arrives to defend Manji and Makie questions her about how much blood will be shed to satisfy her revenge. Rin responds by saying that shedding blood for her family is better shedding blood to justify oneself. Makie departs and encounters her "sister" O-Hatsu who is returning to the red light district, but Mackie declines to join her. Makie departs the Ittō-ryū, only leaving a note for Anotsu saying that she has gone.
When Kagehisa Anotsu was a child, Makie saved him from wild dogs, but his grandfather Saburō Anotsu berated him for cowardice. He beat Makie and tied her to a tree because she was the daughter of a rival clan even though she displayed great fighting skills. In the present, Rin encounters Kagehisa Anotsu training with an axe in the nearby forest. Realizing that she has been detected, she throws all of her knives, but only one lands in his shoulder and she realizes how poor her skills are. He then tells her the reason for the animosity between their families was their opposing views of the importance of traditional swordsmanship versus the ability to win a contest between two opponents using whatever means possible. Anotsu releases Rin and returns her weapons to her, explaining that by using her knives, she has already departed from the Mutenichi-ryū tradition. When Anotsu leaves, Rin cries in confusion and despair. Later, Kagehisa Anotsu recalls the time when he inherited the Ittō-ryū after his grandfather's faithful companion killed him so that Kagehisa could become his successor and pursue his own fighting style.
5
"Act Five – Song of the Bugs" (Japanese: 五幕 蟲の唄 ─むしのうた─)
Makoto Fukami
October 31, 2019 (2019-10-31)
Manji and Rin stop at an inn to rest and Manji encounters Eiku Shizuma disguised as a monk, who offers to help Manji to find Anotsu, as he is also seeking him for his own purposes. After Manji declines, Shizuma suddenly attacks Manji and they fatally stab each other. Shizuma reveals that he is also immortal and leaves, but that night Manji cries out in pain as blood spews from fissures his body from his old wounds. Manji realizes that Shizuma's dagger was poisoned and is killing his sacred bloodworms. Rin gives Manji some Asano family antitoxin pills to help neutralize the poison and leaves to find a doctor. She meets an old woman disguised as Yaobikuni who offers to aid her, but it is a trap set up by Shizuma to kidnap Rin and draw out Manji. Shizuma tells Rin that he served under a military commander two hundred years ago during the Sengoku period and became immortal but still lost everything important to him. Shizuma offers Rin some of his blood, which could make her immortal, but Manji interrupts them, having partially recovered. He and Shizuma fight mercilessly, but Rin creates a distraction enabling Manji to attack again, impaling Shizuma on his own poisoned sword and finally releasing him from his sad life. With his last breath, Shizuma tells Manji that Anotsu is heading to Kaga. Rin asks Manji if immortality only prolongs the pain of never achieving one's goals.
Rin has frustrating encounter at a food stand where young boy named Renzo Kawakami tests her patience, however she recalls what he grandfather said about the futility of revenge and ignores his rude behaviour. Meanwhile, Manji encounters Araya Kawakami at a mask shop who reveals that he was a member of the Ittō-ryū. Later, an arrogant samurai unfairly blames Renzo for breaking one of his sandals, but Rin defends the boy and offers to fix the sandal. She mentions she is from the Asano dojo and the man mocks her family's name and rudely begins to sneak his foot into her kimono. Rin humbly fixes the sandal and accepts Renzo's invitation to his family house for tea and purposely goes without her sword. She meets his father Araya Kawakami, and tells him about the murder of her parents two years earlier. Kawakami realizes that Rin is the daughter of the couple he killed and sends Renzo away to fetch more tea. Rin says she does not want vengeance, just an apology. He refuses her request and attacks her but Manji arrives as Kawakami is about to strangle her. The two men duel in the room, and Manji stabs and then kills Kawakami. Renzo returns, and seeing his father dead, spears Manji who pretends to die. To dissuade Renzo from pursuing Manji for revenge, Rin convinces the boy that he is dead by showing his arm buried in the ground. Manji later re-attaches the arm to his body.
While being carried in a Kago, Magatsu is ambushed, but he kills his two attackers, although not before one reveals his employer was Akagi. Magatsu arrives at the Ittō-ryū dojo by foot just as Kagimura Habaki, a member of Daimyo's guard, is leaving. Anotsu reveals that soon the Ittō-ryū will be retained by the Shogunate, so Magatsu decides to leave Ittō-ryū because of his hatred of the samurai. Meanwhile, Chogo Morozumi of the Ittō-ryū is attacked by Giichi who extracts from him number of masters within the dojo before killing Morozumi with his chained double blade. Elsewhere, the Ittō-ryū vice-captain, Ken'ei Fusano is poisoned by Hyakurin posing as a geisha. Magatsu returns to O-Ren who entreats him to stay with her, but he decides to leave. Shira arrives later looking for Magatsu on Hyakurin's orders, and in frustration, cruelly kills O-Ren. Later, Shira arrives at Rin and Manji's hut, looking for Manji. He rudely assaults Rin, and later explains that he is from Mugai-ryū which is trying to annihilate the Ittō-ryū. When Manji leaves to pick up his sword from sharpening, Shira offers Rin some meat telling her it is wild boar. While eating, he reveals that he killed and cooked her dog, leaving her sickened by his methods.
Rin and Manji meet with Shira and Hyakurin at the Mugai-ryū to discuss plans to defeat the Ittō-ryū, Meanwhile, Magatsu returns days later to find O-Ren dead. Hyakurin learns through Makoto, her spy at the Ittō-ryū, that Anotsu is dressing as a geisha to enter the Kobotoke gate. They keep watch and Rin helps them identify him, but after Shira and Rin follow the figure for some distance, they realize that they have been duped and led into a trap by a hired prostitute. They are attacked by the Ittō-ryū, Saikaya and Sei disguised as pharmacists, however Shira kills them both and begins to slash and rape the woman. Rin draws her sword, but as Shira disarms Rin, Manji arrives and severs Shira's hand and shocked, he runs off. Manji's act is witnessed by locals, and he suspects they will be blamed for the bloodbath and dead pharmacists.
Rin encounters a ronin carrying a severed head who only says he is from the Shingyoto-ryu, Ibane School, and to be beware. At the Ohara tea stop, Rin sees a wanted poster for her and Manji. Rin asks the Nakamaya couple living near the Kobotoke gate to help her pass as a member of their family. They refuse and tell her the story of a desperate prostitute they helped three years earlier who was caught and beheaded. Nevertheless, she convinces them to help her, and Nakamaya takes her to the gate. Rin is closely questioned by the suspicious commissioner Shamada. Fortunately, Nakamaya's wife fully briefed Rin with enough accurate facts to convince Shimada of her identity, including a fake cesarean scar on her stomach and they are both allowed to pass. Later, Rin realizes that Nakamaya's wife took half of her money as payment for the extreme risk they took to help her.
As Rin makes her way to Kaga, living off the land. Meanwhile, Manji encounters a man who offers to help him obtain a pass and at the same time comes across Magatsu. Shira returns to Hyakurin and Shinriji, saying that he is looking for Giichi, but soon leaves. Immediately, they are attacked by Kinuka and the Ittō-ryū who were led there by Shira. They capture Hyakurin and kill Shinriji when he comes to her aid. Later, they savagely beat, torture and rape Hyakurin, seeking information about the mugai-ryū. Giichi finds Shinriji dead and follows their trail. After dispatching Kinuka's men, Giichi catches Kinuka outside his headquarters and they engage in a vicious fight which leaves Kinuka dead. The swordsman guarding her runs outside and threatens to kill Hyakurin before Giichi can stop him. However, Hyakurin managed to remove a blade from her shoe and free herself, and she staggers outside and cuts him to pieces. Giichi reports the incident to his superiors, and cares for Hyakurin who dreams about her tragic past as she sleeps for three days. Later, she cuts her hair short and places the tied locks on Shinriji's grave.
11
"Act Eleven – Fall Frost" (Japanese: 十一幕 秋霜 ─しゅうそう─)
Makoto Fukami
December 12, 2019 (2019-12-12)
Manji and Magatsu approach Uenohara, and are attacked by Shina who has bleached his hair white and hired some swordsmen. Shira severs Manji's hand, but he reattaches it and then withdraws so that Magatsu can take his revenge for O-Ren's death. Shira cuts Magatsu with the bones of his right forearm which he has sharpened into points, so Manji decides to fight him, but Shira escapes again. While Manji deals with the swordsmen, Magatsu follows Shira to settle his debt. They fight a bloody battle, both sustaining major injuries, but when Shira hangs from a cliff by his remaining hand, Magatsu cuts it off and Shira falls into the river far below. Manji gives Magatsu half of the money he took from the swordsmen and leaves for Kaga. Meanwhile, Rin collapses from fatigue and lack of food, but to her horror, she is found by Anotsu.
12
"Act Twelve – Blood of Finality" (Japanese: 十二幕 終血 ─しゅうけつ─)
Makoto Fukami
December 19, 2019 (2019-12-19)
Rin and Anotsu are found by members of the Shingyoyo-ryu dojo, who challenge him, but he easily disposes of them with his axe. He walks off with Rin vainly trying to follow behind. As they shelter in a cave he explains that was travelling to Kaga at the request of the Shingyoyo-ryu dojo who were seeking to join him. However, they were trampled by the Shogunate and after the leaders suicided, their followers blamed Anotsu for their misfortune. They continue on to a village where Anotsu seeks out Makie who is barely surviving and suffering from a badly injured hand. He consoles her and spends the night with her, then leaves for Takayama the next morning with Rin in tow. He soon realizes that he has contracted tetanus from the fight days earlier. They are found by more Shingyoyo-ryu swordsmen, and Rin helps the weakened Anotsu defeat them. Back in Edo, the new leader of the Shogun's Banshu samurai, Kagimura Habaki, welcomes members of the Ittō-ryū to a banquet. Meanwhile, some Shingyoyo-ryu swordsmen catch Rin and force her to take them to Anotsu. However, Manji arrives on the scene, shortly followed by Magatsu and Makie. The Shingyoyo-ryu attack, but Makie cuts a bloody swathe through the group. When only the Shingyoyo-ryu leader remains, he challenges Anotsu who takes a sword thrust through his body enabling him to kill the swordsman. As Rin departs with Manji she swears she will still kill Anotsu.
At the Mugai-ryū banquet held for ten dojo leaders of the Ittō-ryū by Kagimura Habaki, nine of them are slaughtered and only Sosuke Abayama survives because he was outside relieving himself. Later, Giichi accepts payment from Habaki for the killings at the banquet, and asks that Hyakurin be extracted from the Mugai-ryū, but Habaki refuses. After hearing about the massacre, Anotsu plans his revenge on Habaki, but he blames himself for becoming complacent. The remaining Ittō-ryū leaders still support him so he decides they should separate and go into hiding, to re-emerge in winter and continue their campaign. Elsewhere, Abayama finds and kills Makoto for leaking information to the Mugai-ryū. Meanwhile, Giichi finds Rin and Manji, and brings an offer from Habaki to join the Mugai-ryū. Manji refuses so they prepare to fight to the death. Both are fast, strong and cunning, but Manji emerges as the victor and surprisingly agrees to meet Habaki. During the meeting, Hyakurin finds Rin waiting outside and takes her away for some food. Habaki painfully tests Manji's immortality by stabbing him in the chest. After confirming Manji's immortality, Habaki has him captured and Manji awakes later to find himself chained in a dungeon before a bloodstained stone table. Back at their hut, Rin is awakened by the arrival of the Ittō-ryū fighters Doa Yoshino and Isaku Yasonokami who are seeking shelter.
Habaki assigns the surgeon Ayame Burando to examine and test Manji's immortal qualities within 8 days. He plans to use Manji's organs and bones to create another immortal the prisoner Dewanosuke. Meanwhile, Rin agrees to let the Ittō-ryū fighters Doa Yoshino and Isaku Yasonokami stay with her in the hut, although tensions are high. She then goes in search of Manji and finds Hyakurin who tells her that Habaki has disbanded the Mugai-ryū. Back at the prison, Burando attempts a live dissection of Manji but his hand is almost caught inside Manji's body as it heals itself, which gives him an idea. Manji and Dewanosuke plan an escape, but Habaki appears and severs the right hands of both prisoners. He then has Burando stitch Manji's hand onto Dewanosuke which heals quickly indicating some of Manji's immortal powers have been transferred to Dewanosuke. Habaki then plans an even more daring experiment by switching a larger part of their bodies and calls for Yamada Asaemon, the beheader.
15
"Act Fifteen – Acquisition of Guts" (Japanese: 十五幕 臓承 ─ぞうしょう─)
Kenzen
January 16, 2020 (2020-01-16)
Asaemon Yoshihiro Yamada is engaged to sever the limbs and organs of Manji and Dewanosuke so they can be exchanged. After eight days, it appears that Dewanosuke is acquiring some level of immortality, and Kagimura grants Burando a stay of execution. However, Kagimura demands a final test and runs his sword through Dewanosuke's heart. Dewanosuke, dies, but Kagimura insists that Burando commence the immortality experiment with another prisoner. Burando, tries again with more subjects, but he cannot repeat his success with Dewanosuke and all of his patients die. Burando becomes desolate and Kagimura gives him ten days to succeed, while Burando begins to descend into insanity. While Kagimura's men are searching for more victims for the experiment, they encounter Doa Yoshino and Isaku Yasonokami who are travelling with Rin. A fight ensues and Doa kills most of the men but reinforcements arrive. Isaku throws the two women into the river and confronts them alone, but is captured because of his Christian refusal to kill anyone. Burando recommences his experiments renewed vigour, horrifying his assistant Toraeman, so he covers the victim's heads with animal masks. By day 65, Burando has gathered more data about blood affinities and immortality.
Rin takes Doa to the prison in an effort to locate Iasku, and while watching, Doa recalls how she met Isaku and they became travelling companions. Doa manages to learn about the experiments and prepares to infiltrate the secret Fukiage facility. Meanwhile. Burando informs Kagimura that his experiments have been successful. Elsewhere, Hyaku tries to abort the child that she is having with Giichi, but he stops her insisting that she will eventually regret her decision. Doa leads Rin in a murderous assault into the underground facility of the prison while the local women gather outside the gates demanding to know the fate of their incarcerated husbands. Suddenly, Rin and Doa are caught in a hidden trap laid by Lord Sakura who guards the passageways. Rin claims she killed the guards and that Doa is only her assistant and insists that she take the punishment for both of them. Sakura commences whipping Rin, but Doa soon manages to cut herself free and kills the guards then stabs Sakura to death in an angry frenzy. Rin sets of an explosion, blocking the entrance behind them, but also alerting everyone that there is trouble within the prison. The two women soon encounter a number of zombie-like immortals and see the discarded bodies of the other men sacrificed in Burando's cruel experiment. Doa sadly finds the upper half of Isaku's severed body.
Rin finds Manji in the underground prison, but she is caught by Burando. Using her new fighting skills, she savagely beats him and frees Manji. Meanwhile, Toraeman allows the anxious wives and mothers to enter the prison gates to find their loved ones. As Rin begins to free Manji from his shackles, Kagimura arrives at the cell. Rin momentarily distracts him while Manji throws a hairpin into Kagimura's eye which has been contaminated by his bodily fluids and shortly poisons Kagimura to death. Yamada also arrives, but he is followed by Doa and Isaku who is alive after Doa reconnected the parts of his severed body. When Yamada admits he cut Isaku Doa attacks him but he is a match for her and almost cuts through the iron plate insert in her hat. The scene is interrupted by water flooding through the passageway and Manji uses the distraction to kill Yamada and escape with Rin. Above ground, there is dissent within the guards, but some eventually allow the women into the prison compound, defusing a potentially dangerous confrontation. Later, Burando destroys his notes, realizing that the search for immortality is futile. Rin and Manji recover from their ordeal and part ways with Isaku and Doa who gives Rin a memento in the Ainu tradition.
Following the Fukiage incident, Habaki Kagimura is ordered to take his own life, but as leader of the Rokki-dan and in the Bushido way, intends to follow the and eliminate the Ittō-ryū within 30 days. His illegitimate daughter Ryo recalls how her father became an assassin for the Shogunate to elevate his status. Hanabusa Ugen is appointed to Kagimura's former position and meets Anotsu, giving the Ittō-ryū seven days to leave Edo or be eliminated. Anotsu surprisingly agrees. To cover himself for Kagimura's behaviour, Hanabusa takes hostages, but Kagimura's wife Shima sees it as a discourtesy. Ryo recklessly attacks Hanabusa's men, but Shima intercedes and agrees to be taken with her son Sakutaro into Hanabusa's custody. Kagimura ruthlessly continues to track down the Ittō-ryū and finally finds their burned-out dojo. However, it has been booby-trapped and many of his men are killed before the remaining Ittō-ryū depart. Ryo pursues them, but she is easily defeated by Magatsu. Later, Hanabusa orders Kagimura to surrender the Rokki-dan, but Shima surprisingly intervenes. Their son Sakutaro apologises to his father for his lack of sword skills before Shima kills him and then herself. Hanabusa is horrified by the bloodshed, but Kagimura demands twenty days to pursue the Ittō-ryū and return with Anotsu's head. He offers his own and those of the Rokki-dan if he fails, but also threatens Hanabusa's life if he dares to interfere in Kagimura's quest.
Anotsu is pursued by the Rokki-dan and again encounters Rin who helps him to escape them. Anotsu had told the officials that he would go to Satsuma, but it was a ruse. He offers to take Rin with him, but only if Manji accompanies him as he prepares for a showdown. Meanwhile, Sōsuke Abayama leads a band of Ittō-ryū recruits on a mission to lead the Rokki-dan away from Anotsu. Rokki-dan spies, Meguro and Tanpopo, encounter a group of Shogunate troops and Tanpopo is wounded by a poisoned shuriken. They are found by Rin who takes them to a doctor, where they all discover each other's identities, including that the doctor is a former assistant to Burando. Anotsu then launches a surprise attack on Hanabusa's castle with the elite Ittō-ryū accompanied by Manji. They cut a bloody path through the poorly prepared defenders, including the Captains of the Oban and Kosho squads. Anotsu's small group finally seize Hanabusa and force him to agree that swordsmanship will now be taught in the Shogunate under the direction of the Ittō-ryū, before throwing him into the moat.
As Meguro and Tanpopo return to Lord Habaki they are confronted by Shira who is searching for Manji, and they divulge his location. Shira attacks the palanquin carrying Rin and carries her off and ties her to a wharf, half-submerged in a freezing lake. He then challenges Manji, to a duel to the death. As they fight, Manji realizes that Shira has attached his severed forearm, giving Shira a degree of immortality. When Manji sees Rin in the water being guarded by Renzo, Manji breaks off the fight to free her. However, she sinks to the bottom, tied to a heavy stone. Meanwhile, Anotsu and Magatsu find the wounded Shira. Anotsu leaves, but Shira recovers and attacks Magatsu, pinning him to the snow-covered ground with blades. Tanpopo leaps into the water to save Rin while Meguro attacks Shira, He defeats her, but he is impaled with a sword by Magatsu. Manji emerges from the lake and attacks Shira again. They viciously cut each other to pieces and Shira discovers that his wounds cease to recover because the sacred bloodworms cannot repair his body at the same rate as those inhabiting Manji. Magatsu finally aids Manji to deal a final blow to Shira. Later, Shira is attacked and ripped apart by wild dogs while he warns Renzo against seeking vengeance.
Meguro, Tanpopo and Magatsu shelter from the snow in a hut while Rin and Manji recover from their ordeals. However Renzo still seeks revenge against Manji and proposes to sever both of his arms. Both Rin and Magatsu stop him, and Magatsu suggests that Renzo find out more about his father before blindly seeking revenge for his death. Meanwhile, Ryo volunteers to accompany Lord Habaki's man Ban in a dangerous pursuit of a small band of Ittō-ryū led by Koji. Ryo realizes that Ban is preparing to desert, but they are attacked by the Ittō-ryū who have laid a series of booby traps. Fighting together, they survive the attack but Ban is overcome by carbon dioxide fumes in the thin mountain air which is emanating from multiple jars of carbonic acid that Koji had placed in the woods. Koji kills the hallucinating Ban, and pursues Ryo who is also succumbing to the fumes. He finds her semi-conscious, but as he is about to kill her, she springs a trap of her own and kills him. Later, she is found by Lord Mitake and taken to Giichi for protection as she is the last person carrying Kagimura's blood. Meanwhile, Kagimura plans to eliminate the remaining Ittō-ryū before they reunite.
22
"Act Twenty Two – Ten Final Pushes" (Japanese: 十掉尾 ─じゅっとうび─)
Makoto Fukami
March 11, 2020 (2020-03-11)
The Rokki-dan fighters, Shishiya Arashino, Tarieshin Hasshu, and Shozo Murasaki arrive at Sōsuke Abayama's Ittō-ryū camp in Mitoji with the severed head of the new recruit Yatsushiba. Abayama prepares to fight him, but Giichi arrives on horseback with Hyakurin, and draws out Abayama himself. Amon sends the three stronger swordsmen Arisus, Koda and Yatoin to back up Abayama. The fight commences and the one-armed Abayama manages to sever one of Giichi's ears. Hyakurin causes a distraction by attacking the three supporting Ittō-ryū, causing Abayama to lose concentration. Giichi finds an opening, allowing him to savagely beat Abayama almost to death. Meanwhile back at the Ittō-ryū camp, the Rokki-dan fighters easily defeat the inexperienced fighters. However, Kunimitsu Amon manages to catch Shozo Murasaki in his own blast of deadly acid, killing them both. Later, Kagimura meets the Rokki-dan fighters and turns his attention to Anotsu and the remaining Ittō-ryū. He believes they will leave by boat from Nakaminato at the mouth of the Naka River (Tochigi Ibaraki), and as a precaution, he has the Rokki-dan slaughter all of the sailors on the wharves and begin sinking the boats. However, on the last boat they encounter Makie. After an initial skirmish, Makie falls, coughing up blood. Kagimura prepares to kill her, but Manji appears and saves her. The pending confrontation is interrupted by a volley of arrows fired from ships which have just sailed into the port.
23
"Act Twenty Three – 100 Spectacular Dances" (Japanese: 焉舞百景 ─えんぶひゃっけい─)
Kenzen
March 18, 2020 (2020-03-18)
Arrows are fired from ships offshore which shower everyone on the wharves and they run for cover. Rin slips and falls behind, but Anotsu appears and saves her, instructing her to follow him. Kagimura assigns some of his fighters to target Manji and Rin, others to attack Makie, while he prepares to fight Anotsu Kagehisa alone. Meanwhile, Magatsu finds the badly wounded Ryo in the snow and rescues her. Arashino cuts Manji to pieces, but Rin pleads for his life. This provides enough time for Manji to partially repair himself and he attacks and kills Arashino. Anotsu and Kagimura fight each other to a standstill and Ryo intercedes on behalf of her father, but he insists on fighting without her aid. Makie approaches them having defeated her opponents, but she is suddenly felled by a volley of gunshots.
24
"Final Act – Blade of the Immortal" (Japanese: 無限の住人)
Makoto Fukami
March 25, 2020 (2020-03-25)
The people shooting at the group on the wharves are revealed to be working for Hanabusa, including the shinobi Meguro and Tanpopo. Although, badly wounded and dying, Makie attacks Hanabusa's small force, killing them all. Hanabusa flees through the snow, but is captured by Anotsu and sliced in two, with the tacit approval of Kagimura. Anotsu and Kagimura then face off to continue their duel, but Kagimura is killed in Anotsu's first attack. Manji then attacks Anotsu to fulfill his promise to Rin who watches on with Hyakurin. Manji, defeats Anotsu, severing his right arm but allowing him to live. Manji tells Rin that Anotsu is dead, but allows him to leave and never return. However, as Anotsu boards a ship to depart, Rin rushes forward and stabs him to death. In the aftermath of these events, Magatsu settles down to farming and Renzo goes back to painting under master Sori, much to the annoyance of Sori's daughter Tatsubo. Far away, in the Shimbara region, Isaku and Doa settle down and also begin farming, joined later by Ozuhan, while Manji is banished from Edo. After paying her respects at her family's grave, Rin decides to apologize to the family members of the Ittō-ryū that she and Manji killed, and the heavily pregnant Hyakurin offers to accompany her. Eighty years later, in the city of Tokyo, Manji buries his weapons watched by Yaobikuni and he recalls his encounter with the Ittō-ryū only as a vague memory. Yaobikuni asks him to protect Fuyu, the grandchild of an old friend whose family is engaged in a dispute over leadership. After the young girl hands him a sheathed knife and drawing, he realizes that she is Rin's great-great-granddaughter and he agrees.
