On the surface, the samurai epic Blade of the Immortal is all about the violence, with its gorgeous splash pages of kaleidoscopic dismemberment. Created by Hiroaki Samura, a manga artist about whom very little is known, Blade of the Immortal follows a familiar outline: a young girl named Rin seeks to kill the group of swordsmen responsible for the murder of her family. But Samura's ambitions are greater, and as Rin and her hired hitman Manji make headway into her quest, her feelings about her vengeance grow more complicated. Blade of the Immortal is a 31-volume epic that ran from 1993-2012. In this episode, we'll scratch the surface and take a look at the first six volumes.