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Afternoon Magazine Lists New Anime for Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal Manga
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
The official website for Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine is listing the cover of the magazine's July issue, which lists a new anime adaptation for Hiroaki Samura's Blade of the Immortal manga. The magazine will officially ship on May 25.
The June issue had teased an "important announcement" for the manga in the July issue.
The official sequel manga Mugen no Jūnin: Bakumatsu no Shō (Blade of the Immortal - Bakumatsu Arc) will launch in the July issue. Kenji Takigawa is writing the story, and Ryū Suenobu is drawing the art, with Samura credited for collaboration.
Samura launched the Blade of the Immortal manga in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine in December 1993, and he completed the series in 2012. The manga's 30 volumes have more than 5 million copies in print, and the series has been published in 22 countries and territories. The manga earned an Excellence Prize in the manga category of the 1st Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 1997, and it won the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of Foreign Material in 2000. Since ending Blade of the Immortal, Samura has published the historical manga Harukaze no Snegurochka (The Spring Breeze Snow Maiden) and the romance manga Nami yo Kiite Kure (Waves, Listen to Me).
Dark Horse Comics published the Blade of the Immortal manga in North America, and is rereleasing it in omnibus form. The manga already inspired a television anime in 2008, and Media Blasters released it in English.
Takashi Miike's live-action film adaptation of the manga premiered in Japan in April 2017. The film premiered in North America at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas in September 2017. The film then had a wider theatrical release in November 2017.
