Blade of the Immortal Episode 7

Blade of the Immortal Episode 7

Act 7 – Evil’s Shadow

Things have really started to get interesting in Blade of the Immortal with episode 7. I questioned the existence of the Itto-Ryu organization just last week, and this week it’s been confirmed to still exist. But more importantly, a new organization has also appeared — the Mugai-Ryu.

Today’s review is going to focus on both of those groups, so before we get into those, let’s catch up with Rin and Manji. The two of them are taking it fairly easily, not really going out of their way to track down members of the Itto-Ryu.

However, Rin does plan to become a stronger swordswomen (which I don’t think is necessary), and Manji has a plan to take down Kagehisa of the Itto-Ryu.

Starting with Rin, I get why she’s training — her goal is to kill Kagehisa. But, like I just mentioned, Manji already has a plan for defeating him, and it’s unlikely it involves Rin delivering the fatal blow. I kind of view Rin like Fuu from Samurai Champloo — she can have a sword, but she doesn’t really need one.

As for Manji’s plan, it involves fighting Kagehisa while he’s on his way to Kaga. It was probably mentioned and I just missed it, but I believe Kagehisa is traveling to Kaga to be awarded the title of samurai. This title would then make the Itto-Ryu an official samurai dojo.

For now though, it’s unclear exactly how Manji plans to meet up with Kagehisa. It was stated that as a criminal Manji can’t travel to Kaga, and there’s no real reason for Kagehisa to seek him out before leaving the region.

Mugai-Ryu

The Mugai-Ryu is the new organization which was created to take down the Itto-Ryu. We don’t know why they want to do this, but we do know that someone named Akage is probably in charge. Aside from Akage the only other named member of this group so far is Shira, the man who approaches Rin and Manji.

He claims to be looking for an alliance with them since they too plan to take down the Itto-Ryu, but it’s unclear if this is really true. Remember, Eiku Shizuma approached Rina and Manji claiming the same thing before he tried to assassinate the latter.

And this made me think, was Eiku a member of the Mugai-Ryu?

Shira of the Mugai-Ryu from the anime series Blade of the Immortal
Shira of the Mugai-Ryu

Shira, his female accomplice, and a few other members of the Mugai-Ryu have been traveling around and killing off members of the Itto-Ryu. This led Tai, who I’ll get to in the next section, to question whether there was a rat among the Itto-Ryu. Perhaps Eiku was that rat.

But regardless of how the Mugai-Ryu are getting their information about the Itto-Ryu, it’s clear that the two groups aren’t allies. However, as we learn, that doesn’t necessarily mean the Mugai-Ryu are the allies of Rin and Manji. Shira feeds Rin’s own dog to her, so he’s clearly not a good guy.

Also, looking at the sun pattern on Shira’s clothing, is that the symbol of the Mugai-Ryu? Are they actually the Sun Pirates from One Piece? Jinbe, is that you?

Tai, Formerly of the Itto-Ryu

Tai is the masked, blue-clothed, spiky-haired member of the Itto-Ryu we’ve seen in a couple of episodes by this point. He was attacked by two members of the Mugai-Ryu, but managed to kill them both and learn the name “Akage” from one of them before they died.

However, he then retires from the Itto-Ryu for an unrelated reason — he was planning to retire before he was attacked. Because the Itto-Ryu is going to become an official samurai dojo, Tai no longer wants to be a part of the organization. He still believes in what Kagehisa stands for, but he hates the samurai class.

So, will he end up joining the Mugai-Ryu even though they attempted to kill him? Probably not.

Tai and Ren from the anime series Blade of the Immortal
Tai and Ren

There are two main reasons for this. The first is that he doesn’t have any ill will towards the Itto-Ryu, and actually parted ways from Kagehisa on good terms. The second is that in an attempt to learn Tai’s whereabouts, Shira killed Ren, the prostitute who Tai may or may not have been in love with.

She was definitely in love with him.

Also why is it that the best girl of the series was killed in the same episode she was introduced? What is this, SAO: Alicization – War of Underworld? You’ll get that reference in a few months when I review that.

Anyway, because Shira killed Ren, my guess is that Tai will take up his sword against the Mugai-Ryu. We may even see him fight alongside Rina and Manji temporarily. But I do think he’s going to die by the end of the series. While Rin and Manji will likely get a happy ending, Tai seems like hes getting set up as the tragic hero of the series.

Conclusion

Now that the Mugai-Ryu organization has been introduced, how do you think the story is going to be affected? Is there going to be a three way fight between the Itto-Ryu, Mugai-Ryu, and the Manji/Rin ultimate combo? Is Tai going to be a fourth side in this struggle for power, or is he going to join one of the other sides? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

I think Kagehisa and the Itto-Ryu have to be the final boss of the series for Rin’s arc to get some real closure. But does that mean Manji and Rin will be fighting the Mugai-Ryu first? Or, will we get more Itto-Ryu vs. Mugai-Ryu action and Manji and Rin will have nothing to do with their power struggle? I’m interested to see where the series goes from here.

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My review of the next episode is available here.

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