This year has seen a mini-revival of the old school anime director.  I don’t just mean old (no offense) but old-school in the sense that they employ a style which is singularly out of favor in anime these days.  Both Hamasaki Hiroshi and Furuhashi Kazuhiro fit the bill, and both have put their stamp on 2019 with gorgeous, impossibly stylish historical fantasy sword epics.  Dororo is a candidate for anime of the year and while I doubt Mugen no Juunin: Immortal will be in 2020 (when it’s eligible under my rules), it’s a visual feast the likes of which we rarely see in anime.  In terms of getting the most impact out of a budget, it’s hard to imagine a show doing more than Immortal.

That said, this episode was almost lavish by this series’ standards.  To try and describe what Hamasaki is doing here visually is such a futile endeavor – you just have to see it and experience it.  But he’s also applying a great sense of style to the storytelling, and the cinematography is a huge part of that.  The atmosphere created with each interconnected yet stand-alone serial is unique, but they all draw you in and make you feel like you’re a part of the landscape.  When I think about what would happen in the unlikely event Vagabond ever got an adaptation – how nearly impossible it would be on its likely budget to do Inoue Takahiko’s work any justice – I’m convinced Hamasaki is the man I’d want directing it.

While Manji is at the center of  Mugen no Juunin’s story, it’s clear that the story itself is less about him than the winding course of his existence and the people it impacts.  An origin story for Anotsu Kagehisa wasn’t necessarily what I was expecting here, but damn, dit it work.  The presence of great seiyuu certainly helps, and Immortal added two more (and Kaji Yuuki) to the roster this week in Akimoto Yousuke (as Ittou-ryuu founder – and Kagehisa’s grandfather – Saburou) and Fukumatsu Shinya (as Abayama Sousuke, the man who eventually killed him).

Kagehisa’s grandfather was a right bastard, and it’s no wonder Kagehisa turned into the hard man he did – but the both of them come off as very interesting here.  Take Saburou’s decision to let a young Makie survive (even as a kid, she left 52 corpses behind her) after seeing something in her eyes.  All of the revenge plot stems back to the moment when Rin’s grandfather was given control of the Mutenchi-ryuu rather than Saburou-san.  As much as Kagehisa resented his grandfather he’s dedicates his life to vindicating the man, and his views on the nature of a samurai are fascinating (even for Rin).

As demented as Kuroi was, Kagehisa seems basically sane and not very sociopathic.  He lets Rin live after her futile attack, sure, and even displays a grudging respect for her determination.  You get the feeling that the past is as much a burden to Kagehisa as it is to Rin, yet it’s governed his life for so long that he wouldn’t know how to live for the present (never mind the future).  Kagehisa is obviously very, very strong – strong enough that his grandfather considered him a threat at ten years old – but we haven’t seen even a whisper of his true strength yet (though in the literal sense, he has to be a brute to wield that axe the way he did).

I continue to have concerns about Mugen no Juunin: Immortal that keep me from being completely sold yet.  There’s the budget, sure, though Hamasaki-sensei has demonstrated that he’s able to rise above that (and this ep seemed less frugal than the one before).  A bigger concern is just how much story this show intends to tell in how little time – that’s going to be a massive challenge, even for a director as skilled as he is.  But for now this remains the biggest surprise of the season for me, one of the most artistically accomplished anime I’ve seen in a very long time.