Blade of the Immortal, Volume 15: Trickster Book

My great praise for this volume is base. The first five chapters, from which the Trickster name is derived, are a hundred pages of bloody massacres. Manji takes an unexpected ally into a pair of duels to the death that are almost painfully beautifully drawn and etched, and intricately plotted across panels. It's some of Samura's finest choreography, with clever choices left subtle but perceptible in the instants these panels zip by, while also being among the most chilling and brutal. I tore through the first half in twenty minutes; I couldn't slow myself down. It was too compulsive a read, even if it's certainly too violent for general audiences.

This volume also has a staggering frequency of Samura's most detailed art, in both quiet scenes and battles. The contrast of clothing, faces and backgrounds often drops both dot-pseudo-coloration and negative space to make image after image pop. There's such life in the wrinkles on an old man's face, and the same care to the wounds on Manji's chest. I had to go back and re-read several chapters just to catch up on appreciating the levels of detail. Though generally a prose guy, there's more beauty to the way he draws luggage than anyone's ever imbued into words describing it.