That too much is going to be happening in any given episode of Mugen no Juunin: Immortal is itself a given at this point, so it probably makes sense to just hope it’s too much of a good thing. That certainly wasn’t the case during the Burando arc but it has been with the episodes on either side of it. All you can really do is dive into the swift current of the narrative and let it carry you along, with a rare reflective moment of Hamasaki brilliance showing up every so often like a calm eddy. Every time it happens breathe deeply, and dive back in.
It may in fact be a reflection of the breakneck pacing but if I were flying blind, I’d guess we had less than six episodes left. It really feels like everything is coming to a head, but the denouement is obviously going to be a lot more complicated than it appears on the surface. That most certainly applies to Rin and her feelings about the Ittou-ryuu. Here, she even goes to far as to hide Kagehisa from the Rokki-dan. And not only that, she insists that she’s going to follow them when they leave Edo (if any of them survive long enough, anyway).
Rin’s revenge is obviously not going to be the centerpiece of the final act – I think that ship has sailed. And with it, Rin’s philosophical journey is more or less settled too – she’s outgrown her lust for revenge already, unless the past several eps have been a huge head-fake. Neither is the final battle between the Ittou-ryuu and Habaki, seemingly, as that seems sure to be upon us in the next couple of episodes. Will that perhaps leave time for Manji himself – who despite the title and the premiere episode, has rarely been at the center of the narrative – to be the focus of that final arc?
As it happens, Kagehisa’s promise to Hanabusa to leave Edo seems not in itself to have been a lie. That’s still the plan, but Kagehisa intends to make a statement before he goes – to leave the imprint of the Ittou-ryuu on the shogunate in a manner they’ll never forget. As a contingent of newbies led by Abayama-san (who strikes me as someone who was a much more important character in the manga) heads for Hitachi, their job is to lure the Rokki-dan after them and leave Kagehisa’s small but elite task force free rein to make their statement. And what a statement it is.
I have no idea if we’ve even met Ozuhan before – or why he costumes himself the way he does – but he’s one of the trio who joins Kegehisa for the massacre at Edo Castle. Magatsu is there too, and so is Baro (likewise barely a presence in the anime but with the whiff of a more important character). Together they wipe out two entire squads of Hanabusa’s guards before confronting the man himself. The reason behind all this seems to have been to make sure the Ittou-ryuu are never forgotten, nothing more. Kagehisa has obviously realized there’s no way the Ittou-ryuu can remain in Edo at this point anyway, so I suppose from his perspective he had nothing to lose.
So one side of the drama will be whether Abayama and his troop survive long enough to meet up with Kagehisa and flee. As to the matter of Rin and Manji, they’re likely to be a part of the final showdown with Habaki and his men – that’s what Kagehisa wants, anyway. Burando’s (that redemption came way too easily for my taste) assessment of Manji implies that he’s going to come face to face with his destiny soon – to understand why he’s been cursed with immortality and what the purpose of his unnaturally long life has been. And that seems as likely as anything to be the note on which Immortal brings this performance to a close.
