Post by Heera on Feb 22, 2008 19:28:28 GMT -4
I've taken over as secretary, at least for now. I apologize for the lack of notes on previous meetings this quarter. We're currently reorganizing a couple things. I don't know anything about Blade of the Immortal aside from what was presented in this meeting, so bare with me.
Blade of the Immortal presented by Jessica
Note on the presentation: She stole all of the images
Note^2: SPOILERS
To briefly put things into perspective: Blade of the Immortal (henceforth BOIT) occurs in the 1780’s, 180 years after Samurai Deeper Kyo and before Kenshin. The 1700s in Japan were relatively boring in that they were peaceful and there weren’t very many noteworthy events. It was ruled by the Tokugawa and they had a very isolationist policy, outlawing foreigners and also Christianity.
Unlike many manga that have plain illustration, the Manga-Ka of BOIT has a distinct and realistically detailed style. This is part of what sets it apart from other manga. In particular, the Manga-Ka likes to draw full spread panels with intricate details.
---*There are also “swastikas” featured in this manga, there is no connection to Nazis, however, so don’t be offended.
The Manga-Ka employs interesting levels of detailing. The main characters, Geishas and prostitutes are the most detailed (I mean, guys like prostitutes, right? There was something said about Geisha and prostitutes being important to the plot, so maybe that’s the reason for detailing. I’m going to go ahead and say that the Manga-ka’s a no commitment, your money’s on the dresser, type of guy). Also, many of the main characters have symbols on their clothes. The “outcasts” however, commonly referred to as “non-humans” in Feudal Japan, are drawn in a cartoonish style. These techniques are likely to direct attention and also as social commentary (where the outcasts are concerned).
As in real life, where people from different areas have different vocabularies and different accents, characters in BOIT are differentiated by their speech as being from different areas.
There is also an effort in BOIT to retain some Japanese words.
Most of the characters in BOIT are Samurai. They are generally followers of Bushido in one way or another. It is important to note that it is often quoted that, “The Way of the Samurai is found in death,” (Quoted from Yamamoto Tsunetono, author of the Hagakure, pick it up; it’s pretty sweet.) As such, there is much death in BOIT. A main concept is the idea that Sword Schools have out-lived their purpose, aside from being a means of making money for the founders (since this is a peaceful period in Japanese history)
As a side note, while much of BOIT is realistic (weapons aside) a definite discrepancy from history is the fact that many of the characters have professions aside from being Samurai.
A central theme of BOIT is revenge. Nearly every character is caught up in a quest to get revenge on someone. The only character that is not interested in revenge is Rin’s grandfather (ironically, he’s actually the root of the majority of the things that the other characters want revenge for).
“Revenge is the only theme that transcends barriers of class, sex, and age”
This is a theme that everyone can relate to because we have all experienced something in our lives that we have either wished or made certain that someone “got theirs” for.
Asano Rin is the main character of BOIT. Her father was head of a sword school that was attacked. In order to save others he used a foreign sword (one that wasn’t issued or used by the school). The penalty of this was death; Rin happened to be in the room when her father was killed and her mother was raped afterwards. She was fourteen at the time.
Her weapons are special throwing knives called “Golden Wasps.”
Manji killed a hundred men in order to become immortal. One of those men was the husband of his sister. She witnessed this and it caused her to go crazy and subsequently to die. Life isn’t quite the picnic to him in anymore, but in order to die he has to kill a thousand evil men.
Without things called “blood worms,” the plot would not being able to progress. I could be incorrect, but they apparently open up a person’s old wounds. I think I missed something important about these, so maybe Jessica can supplement my post with stuff about the bloodworms.
There is one other Immortal in the story.
Jessica likes this character because he thinks that Seppuku is stupid. He’s also not a rapist, and that’s yay. He’s head of the Itto-Ryu (sword school). He’s not against involving the Shogunate and his weapon is an axe.
Makie’s father was the head of a sword school. When she was young, her older brother challenged her as a joke and she defeated him. Since he’s a sore loser, he killed himself. After this event, Makie and her mother were kicked out of the school. Her bother turned to prostitution and Makie followed suit. Afterwards she becomes a Geisha. Her weapon is sort of like nunchakus with blades on both wends. She hides the weapon in her Samisen (exactly how is under scrutiny).
She is the strongest fighter in the manga because she uses her entire body while she fights. Someone even says that it looks like she’s dancing when she fights.
Also, her father might have had TB.
The terms Hara-kiri (belly cutting) and Seppuku both refer to the ritual suicide that made Samurai infamous. It involved disembowelment. The female version of this was Jigai, during which the woman would cut her jugular because it was believed that women couldn’t handle the pain of regular Seppuku. This was mostly voluntary but sometimes used as Capital Punishment until it was abolished in 1873.
Junji, Oibara and Tsuifuku are terms that refer to killing yourself to follow your master in death.
BOIT is set during the time of the Bakufu government of the Shogun. During this time, if you wanted to kill someone, such as to take revenge for your master, you could file papers and the government had to approve it before you could carry it out.
For the purposes of BOIT the class breakdown is roughly: Shogun, Daimyo, Samurai, preasants, and outcasts. (During the actual period it was something like this: Warrior class, which included Shogun at top, Farmers/Artisans, Merchants and outcasts). There are good Samurai as well as douches and perverts, depending on the character.
There is a lot of title abuse in BOIT and although many characters do horrible things that doesn’t necessarily make them evil characters or bad people.
Habaki Kogimura is head of the Mugai-Ryu. He hires criminals and basically turns a blind eye to everything that they do, as long as they kill the people that he wants them to. Of these criminals is a guy named Shira, who is completely nuts and evil (Incase you're wonderging, if you cut the women up while you're doing them, they tighten =D).
There are also several Immortality Experiments that are conducted in BOIT.
Everyone in BOIT (save Shira) has morals but they express them differently and sometimes strangely. Makie is the one with the best morals and is sometimes a motherly figure.
There really isn't any romance in BOIT, but if you're like Hillary, you can probably make up all you want.
Hopefully Jessica can host her powerpoint somewhere and everyone who missed the meeting can download it and view the pictures and everything.
Blade of the Immortal presented by Jessica
Note on the presentation: She stole all of the images
Note^2: SPOILERS
To briefly put things into perspective: Blade of the Immortal (henceforth BOIT) occurs in the 1780’s, 180 years after Samurai Deeper Kyo and before Kenshin. The 1700s in Japan were relatively boring in that they were peaceful and there weren’t very many noteworthy events. It was ruled by the Tokugawa and they had a very isolationist policy, outlawing foreigners and also Christianity.
Art
Unlike many manga that have plain illustration, the Manga-Ka of BOIT has a distinct and realistically detailed style. This is part of what sets it apart from other manga. In particular, the Manga-Ka likes to draw full spread panels with intricate details.
---*There are also “swastikas” featured in this manga, there is no connection to Nazis, however, so don’t be offended.
The Manga-Ka employs interesting levels of detailing. The main characters, Geishas and prostitutes are the most detailed (I mean, guys like prostitutes, right? There was something said about Geisha and prostitutes being important to the plot, so maybe that’s the reason for detailing. I’m going to go ahead and say that the Manga-ka’s a no commitment, your money’s on the dresser, type of guy). Also, many of the main characters have symbols on their clothes. The “outcasts” however, commonly referred to as “non-humans” in Feudal Japan, are drawn in a cartoonish style. These techniques are likely to direct attention and also as social commentary (where the outcasts are concerned).
Dialogue
As in real life, where people from different areas have different vocabularies and different accents, characters in BOIT are differentiated by their speech as being from different areas.
There is also an effort in BOIT to retain some Japanese words.
Bushido
Most of the characters in BOIT are Samurai. They are generally followers of Bushido in one way or another. It is important to note that it is often quoted that, “The Way of the Samurai is found in death,” (Quoted from Yamamoto Tsunetono, author of the Hagakure, pick it up; it’s pretty sweet.) As such, there is much death in BOIT. A main concept is the idea that Sword Schools have out-lived their purpose, aside from being a means of making money for the founders (since this is a peaceful period in Japanese history)
As a side note, while much of BOIT is realistic (weapons aside) a definite discrepancy from history is the fact that many of the characters have professions aside from being Samurai.
Revenge
A central theme of BOIT is revenge. Nearly every character is caught up in a quest to get revenge on someone. The only character that is not interested in revenge is Rin’s grandfather (ironically, he’s actually the root of the majority of the things that the other characters want revenge for).
“Revenge is the only theme that transcends barriers of class, sex, and age”
This is a theme that everyone can relate to because we have all experienced something in our lives that we have either wished or made certain that someone “got theirs” for.
Rin’s Driving Force
Asano Rin is the main character of BOIT. Her father was head of a sword school that was attacked. In order to save others he used a foreign sword (one that wasn’t issued or used by the school). The penalty of this was death; Rin happened to be in the room when her father was killed and her mother was raped afterwards. She was fourteen at the time.
Her weapons are special throwing knives called “Golden Wasps.”
Manji: The Immortal
Manji killed a hundred men in order to become immortal. One of those men was the husband of his sister. She witnessed this and it caused her to go crazy and subsequently to die. Life isn’t quite the picnic to him in anymore, but in order to die he has to kill a thousand evil men.
Without things called “blood worms,” the plot would not being able to progress. I could be incorrect, but they apparently open up a person’s old wounds. I think I missed something important about these, so maybe Jessica can supplement my post with stuff about the bloodworms.
There is one other Immortal in the story.
Anotsu Kagehisa: The Itto-Ryu
Jessica likes this character because he thinks that Seppuku is stupid. He’s also not a rapist, and that’s yay. He’s head of the Itto-Ryu (sword school). He’s not against involving the Shogunate and his weapon is an axe.
Makie Otono-Tachibana
Makie’s father was the head of a sword school. When she was young, her older brother challenged her as a joke and she defeated him. Since he’s a sore loser, he killed himself. After this event, Makie and her mother were kicked out of the school. Her bother turned to prostitution and Makie followed suit. Afterwards she becomes a Geisha. Her weapon is sort of like nunchakus with blades on both wends. She hides the weapon in her Samisen (exactly how is under scrutiny).
She is the strongest fighter in the manga because she uses her entire body while she fights. Someone even says that it looks like she’s dancing when she fights.
Also, her father might have had TB.
Hara-kiri and Seppuku
The terms Hara-kiri (belly cutting) and Seppuku both refer to the ritual suicide that made Samurai infamous. It involved disembowelment. The female version of this was Jigai, during which the woman would cut her jugular because it was believed that women couldn’t handle the pain of regular Seppuku. This was mostly voluntary but sometimes used as Capital Punishment until it was abolished in 1873.
Junji, Oibara and Tsuifuku are terms that refer to killing yourself to follow your master in death.
Caste System
BOIT is set during the time of the Bakufu government of the Shogun. During this time, if you wanted to kill someone, such as to take revenge for your master, you could file papers and the government had to approve it before you could carry it out.
For the purposes of BOIT the class breakdown is roughly: Shogun, Daimyo, Samurai, preasants, and outcasts. (During the actual period it was something like this: Warrior class, which included Shogun at top, Farmers/Artisans, Merchants and outcasts). There are good Samurai as well as douches and perverts, depending on the character.
Government Corruption
There is a lot of title abuse in BOIT and although many characters do horrible things that doesn’t necessarily make them evil characters or bad people.
Habaki Kogimura is head of the Mugai-Ryu. He hires criminals and basically turns a blind eye to everything that they do, as long as they kill the people that he wants them to. Of these criminals is a guy named Shira, who is completely nuts and evil (Incase you're wonderging, if you cut the women up while you're doing them, they tighten =D).
There are also several Immortality Experiments that are conducted in BOIT.
Morals
Everyone in BOIT (save Shira) has morals but they express them differently and sometimes strangely. Makie is the one with the best morals and is sometimes a motherly figure.
There really isn't any romance in BOIT, but if you're like Hillary, you can probably make up all you want.
Hopefully Jessica can host her powerpoint somewhere and everyone who missed the meeting can download it and view the pictures and everything.
