Blade of the Immortal

no subtitles or sub-? I am Deaf ;-)

I'd been looking forward to seeing an animated adaptation of Blade of the Immortal for a long time and I'm so disappointed to see it end up like this. It's not even the plot inconsistencies and translation that get to me so much as the shift in overall tone and pacing from the books.
In the same way that 17th century Japan was both culturally refined and brutally violent, Hiroaki Samura's books combine peaceful, daily-life scenes with copious bloodletting. The colors used in this series are muted and bland; the books weren't just black-and-white to save on printing costs like most manga; they're full of ink and pencil scenes that do in one panel what this show can't do with a whole episode. The editing choices convey absolutely no sense of the passage of time aside from day and night. So many reviewers point out the lack of action, but I don't think I've ever seen a show in such a rush to do nothing.
This show could've been so much. It could've been an existential, tense, series with fits of nihilistic violence. It could've been a black-and-white shout out to old Samurai films — except for the bright red blood (like Master Sori uses). Hiroaki Samura's affection for deathmetal* could've made this show to metal what Samurai Champloo is to hip hop! It could've been all those things.
Instead, it's just... meh.(* "Kuroi" means "black;" Kuroi Sabato is literally "Black Sabbath")PS: Is having a symbol for eternal life strapped on your back in black and white the most heavy-handed symbolism outside of Hollywood, or what?

The swastika’s meaning is “power” and it comes from Buddhism. The Nazis stole the symbol for that same reason. And in this anime it has no relation to the Nazis. The sole purpose of it, its original meaning. To say that the main character is the most powerful, or power it self.

I've watched a lot of anime (170 gbs and no 200+ episode shonen crap) and this one falls for the same flaws as others I've seen. Not a lot happens per episode and action is limited to seeing Manji get his butt handed to him before knifing the guy and saying 'by the way, I'm immortal!' I don't feel any good chemistry between characters (although to be fair, they are unique) and for the most part I didn't like or care about them. To top it all of, there's a major cliffhanger (I think the animators were just being lazy) that leaves every aspect of the show unsolved. For people complaining about the swastika, I believe it was originally either a Buddhist or Hinduism symbol before Nazi Germany adopted it, and the setting of the show pretty much dictates that the original meaning is intended for the character (too bad I forgot the original meaning...)

Don't put a swastika on your main character or the series will fail.