Blade of the Immortal, Volume 14: Last Blood Book

Last Blood is the least accomplished volume in the series to date, mostly a victim of failing to meet Samura's incredible standards. It focuses for too long on a physical showdown between assassins and the crippled Anotsu, dragging the series almost to a pause. The fight scenes have little choreography, and multiple executions are drawn in extreme close-up or slightly off-panel, which renders their conclusions confusing rather than artful. The volume also suffers from a surprising number of "surprise" returns, with so-and-so appearing just at the right moment. At one point, a character who has just appeared at the right moment is rescued by another character just appearing at the right moment. Perhaps for the first time, the general lack of humor hinders the series, as it's unable to grasp self-parody to cover those clunky instances.

There's still good work. There are some gorgeous and disgusting splash pages, like a highly detailed nigh-painting of a woman as she remembers what once brought awe to her heart, or the interior of a house that was the scene of a grisly family-wide execution. There's an unsettlingly effective sequence where the narration invites Manji to a new gang of killers while Rin washes off weeks of dirt from herself.

Hell, there's still excellent work here. The series resists typical temptations. Manji is not the greatest swordsman in the land; Anotsu can be out-maneuvered politically; Rin's earlier fundamental certainties are shaken. Relationships are ending or progressing. Blade of the Immortal is itself an amazing series; Last Blood is just a weaker volume.