Forum - View topicNEWS: Blade of the Immortal Anime's Promo Video Streamed
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2 Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | ||
|---|---|---|---|
TheTrueUndead
 Posts: 17 Location: Hot as hell Phoenix, AZ |
|
||
Since I just explained this over on IGN... Taken directly from the manga/graphic novels... The main character in Blade of the Immortal, Manji, has taken the "crux gammmata" as both his name and his personal symbol. This symbol is also known as the swastika, a name derived from the Sanskrit svastika (meaning "welfare," from su- "well" + asti "he is"). As a symbol of prosperity and good fortune, the swastika was widely used throughout the ancient world (for example, appearing often on Mesopotamian coinage), including North and South America and has been used in Japan as a symbol of Buddhism since ancient times. To be precise, the symbol generally used by Japanese Buddhists is the sauvastika, which moves in a counterclockwise direction, and is called the manji in Japanese. The arms of the swastika, which point in a clockwise direction, are generally considered a solar symbol. It was this version (the hakenkreuz) that was perverted by the Nazis. The sauvastika generally stands for night and often for magical practices. It is important that readers understand that the swastika has ancient and honorable origins, and it is those that apply to this story, which takes place in the 18th century [ca. 1782-3]. There is no anti-Semitic or pro-Nazi meaning behind the use of the symbol in this story. Those meanings did not exist until after 1910. ...there you go. |
|||
|
|||
Leebo
 Posts: 660 Location: Somerville, MA |
|
||
To add to what TheTrueUndead said, it's not even a right-facing swastika, which is what the Nazis used. It's a left-facing swastika. In Buddhism, the left-facing swastika is referred to as omote manji and represents love and mercy. It was a common family coat of arms in Japan. It makes perfect sense for him to have it on his back like that. EDIT: also note that... his name is Manji. Makes sense, huh? Last edited by Leebo on Thu Apr 24, 2008 10:46 pm; edited 1 time in total |
|||
|
|||
|
Alucalb
Posts: 171 |
|
||
|
You've gotta hand it for Bee Train for not holding back on the bloodshed, at least.
|
|||
|
|||
abynormal
 Posts: 427 Location: Louisiana |
|
||
|
I'm glad one of my favorite manga is finally being adapted, but that left me with mixed feelings. The characters were really well-drawn, but they seemed to be lacking character. It seems there's no shortage of blood, though that music was terrible. It sounded like it couldn't decide whether it wanted to be rock, pop, hip-hop or jazz.
|
|||
|
|||
Lix
 Posts: 31 Location: All the wrong places... |
|
||
|
Sounds as if you're describing the Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo soundtrack. :/
As a J-pop fan, I can assure you that the music was certifiably not J-pop, though I really fail to see how, as background music, it was anything less than tolerable. As for the anime itself, well, I can abide Bee Train their cash cows as long as they eventually give us a girls-with-guns show that has a semblance of a budget and animation quality to enliven Mashimo's usual crystalline directing competence. |
|||
|
|||
shenlongmizuno
 Posts: 51 |
|
||
Go look it up on wikipedia before you look even more foolish |
|||
|
|||
|
LostPhrack
Posts: 40 Location: Mass. |
|
||
|
Nice to finally be able to see it properly. Doesn't look as bad as I had feared. Wish it had better music and some of the characters voices though. Still, I'm looking forward to it.
Ooo.. and the whole site's been updated! More character artwork and other stuff. Neat! |
|||
|
|||
|
abynormal
Posts: 427 Location: Louisiana |
|
||
But all in one song? J-pop or no, I guess we can just say it was nothing special. |
|||
|
|||
Kyo
 Posts: 245 Location: OH, USA |
|
||
|
About time there's an anime!
|
|||
|
|||
|
centzontotochtin
Posts: 13 |
|
||
|
I'd always assumed the author of this would wait until it was finished before allowing it to be licensed as an anime (It's a revenge story, and she hasn't got her revenge yet in the manga, so how do you solve the ending problem...) But the genius of the manga is in wandering around using this as an excuse for ridiculously stylised violence, awesome side characters, no right/wrong sides whatsoever, whatever compellingly sick ideas occured to the author that week, and general sketchy, dirty atmosphere, so a decent ending might not matter.
I'd have preferred sketchier character designs though. Or at least more hard edges/ ink bits, like the style they used for Samurai Champloo/ Requiem from the Darkness, even Kemonodzume etc. I agree they looked too bland and seemed to have lost the personality of the manga. I know you can never reproduce pencil shading in an anime, but they could have adapted the look of it way better than this. The animation also isn't a spot on Champloo or Seirei No Moribito. Pity really.. although you cant tell from a preview. looks like hopefully they have kept as much of the gore as they can get away with and (Im assuming this from seeing that spoiler[the guy with the stuffed women sewed onto his shoulders] is one of the characters) some of the wrongness of the manga, so it might be ok to watch.. Plus they kept the reverse swastika, scaring off a lot of foreign sponsors/licensors in the process, so fair play to them. about the music, the composer for the soundtrack proper has done some badass music in the past (the soundtrack for the game Shadow of the Colossus for one) so Im not worried there.... Heh wrote an drunk essay for my first post sorry guys I hope its good... x |
|||
|
|||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group