I’m heartily glad Mugen no Juunin: Immortal exists, for a few reasons.  It’s entirely possible I’d never have had any exposure to the series if it hadn’t been remade, and there’s a lot in here that’s genuinely interesting.  Hamasaki Hiroshi has delivered some of the most exquisite direction we’ve seen in anime for a long time, and it would have been a shame if we’d never gotten to experience it.  This is a series with a sizable following and a following to match, and it’s only right that it should have the chance to finish its story in anime form.

I am rather glum, though, that it seems to be concluding in very conventional battle mode, with the too-large cast systematically cutting each other down in a seemingly endless montage of brutality.  Frankly what we saw in the first part of the series, episodic and character-driven, was a lot more interesting than what’s happening now.  It’s a seinen that seemingly has a shounen ending, and I rather prefer the other way around.  If you look at the way Watsuki Nobuhiro brought the epic Kyoto Arc to an end, as an example, the action never drowned out the character drama – and in fact it was the latter that drove the former.  That’s a high bar I know, but the difference in artfulness and subtlety really is striking.

I know Samura is capable of more, because he’s demonstrated that in this series already.  And I’m assuming the ending we’re getting here is more or less in-line with his.  Somehow in a series like Rurouni Kenshin, even with its huge cast every conflict, every battle feels crystal-clear and distinct.  With Immortal things just tend to get muddled together, and that reduces the buy-in factor by an awful lot.  Can you imagine someone like Arashino (the wonderful Kusonoki Taiten) just showing up in the penultimate episode of the Kyoto Arc and dueling Kenshin?

It’s obvious that some of this comes down to so much backstory having been lost in cramming too much manga into too little anime.  Even allowing for that, though, there’s a monotony to this final battle that I think would still be an issue even if we had a firmer grounding with all the participants.  And there are a lot of human stories here that can’t possibly have justice done for them in the finale – there simply isn’t enough time.  Was Arashino and Manji a good battle?  Sure – it was interesting and as you’d expect, beautifully staged.  So was the final showdown between Habaki and Kagehisa.  But is the most important question hanging over Immortal as it reaches a conclusion really which of those two is the superior fighter (especially since Makie is obviously stronger than anybody)?

Ah, well – we can’t control the things we can’t control.  I’ll take what I can get next week when it comes to the conclusion to Rin’s revenge quest, how she reconciles her feelings about Kagehisa, which couples limp into the future and which ones’ future dies here.  And that’s not even touching on Manji’s own personal journey, which has been almost entirely ignored in the second half of the series (longer than that, actually).  It’s too much to ask of one episode, but one is all we have to ask it from.  I can’t imagine Immortal is going to be able to deliver a really satisfying ending, but I’ll settle for one with a bit of reflection and grace.