Blade of the Immortal Volume 3: Dreamsong

I love this series! I anxiously await ever collection. Dreamsong is one of my favorites volumes. The story seems to depart a little from Rin & Manji to focus on Makie. Makie is quite possibly the finest combatant among the vast array of fighters in 'Immortal'. It's great to find out a woman character could quite easily take out all these posturing, big-headed male characters (Manji included). She's ultra-cool and a nice counterpart to the female character of Rin.The artwork and pace of storytelling is what initially drew me to this series. It's samurai western at it's finest. Some of the kills i find kind of stoopid - Manji carves up an opponent's head with the stroke-shapes of a swastika (volume 1), but overall, this stuff is high intensity action. My highest praise. Definitely buy these books. It's best to start at the beginning to keep track of every character and event. awesome.....

In many ways Samura's manga series Blade of the Immortal tops all other manga series. His artwork is awestriking, the action is exciting, the characters are more intricate and interesting then most I've seen, and the drama is unmatched, but in all of these aspects Samura has outdone himself in Dreamsong.Lover to Kagehisa Anotsu, Makie sets out to proove her love by killing Manji, the immortal ronin who protects Rin. Though her love from Anotsu is strong, Makie's conscience gets in the way, and she is forced to choose between her love for Anotsu, or killing a human being.For a while I thought Cry of the Worm was the best TPB of Blade of the Immortal, but Dreamsong has complicated things. The fights are, as usual, bloody, and the characters are amazing complex. If you are a fan of any manga, GET DREAMSONG!

Of all of the 'Blade of the Immortal' series that I've read, this one is still the most beatiful, still the one that illustrates in a nutshell what Samura's series is about. When I first saw this book, I was in a bookstore, browsing the shelves. Then I saw this amazing cover, Makie, holding her blood covered "sword" surrounded by dead bodies. I picked it up and read the whole thing right there in the store. That's when I knew their was no turning back. I bought it then and there, and set out the buy the rest of them. The most interesting thing about that experience was that even after reading the entire thing, I had no idea who was the hero and who was the villan, to use clichéd terms. That is what takes my breath away about this series -- it continually asks the questions, "Who is good? Who is evil?" And I haven't even gotten to the artwork yet. 'Dreamsong' has the most beatiful artwork in the series to date. The gorgeous pictures of Makie, slicing a man in half "like a fish prepared for grilling" are not to be missed. Samura manages to make his 'death' scenes both poetic and painful, yet in no way abhorrent to the senses.My recomendations: First off, remember that this series is not for children. Not only because of the extreme violence, but also due to the vulgarity of the characters, sexual innuendo, and some very disturbing scenes that come in later in the series. I'd say this book should only be read by adults 18 and older. That said, even despite all of these things, this is one of the greatest and most original manga I've ever read. If you are an adult, Blade of the Immortal: Dreamsong is the perfect place to start reading manga. It's worth the cover price many times over.

Of the 4 currently published books of this series, this third installment is the best of the lot. It introduces one of the most intriguing characters of the series, the female character on the cover who tries to identify the path of her destiny through lost love, lost family and her great natural ability at using the blade. Actually the whole series is very good compared to any other Japanese manga, on a par with evangelion for depth, dragonball for gripping interest, and a level of care and detail for art that rivals the sketches of any professional artist. Dreamsong is alike the Illiard even, in that both deliever a powerful storyline that is also poetic. Buy, read and enjoy!