Boy oh boy, Mugen no Juunin: Immortal really is better when it takes the space to breathe.  It’s understandable why that hasn’t too often been the case with as much material as it has to adapt (though that makes a couple of plot choices all the more galling).  But it’s only when the series really slows down that Hamasaki-sensei’s brilliance – and he really is brilliant – fully shines through.  That’s why the first run of episodes was the best.  And interestingly, I get the sense that the source material itself is probably better when it’s reflective rather than intense.

An episode like this one is an interesting illustration of that, because despite focusing on relatively minor characters it managed to be quite engaging.  One of them was Renzo, happily, which means that his return to the story did actually serve a narrative purpose.  As to Manji and Rin surviving that certainly won’t come as any surprise to anyone, though Renzo ending up sheltering in the same hut – with Habaki’s comic relief ninjas – might.

I totally get why Renzo is as ticked off as he is, really.  He’s had a rough go of it, been lied to at all turns, and even now still doesn’t know the truth about his father’s past.  He knows there are dark secrets hidden there, but Rin refuses to spill them – offering her arms in place of the ones the boy intends to claim from Manji.  I’m with Magatsu on this one – it’s not a kindness to leave Renzo in the dark about all this, because he can never get any closure in his life until he confronts the truth.  At least now he has the option to follow Magatsu’s advice and do that if he chooses, and decide for himself if revenge is worth dedicating his life to – and against whom if it is.

The other main focus of the story her is Kouji of the Ittou-ryuu, along with Habaki’s illegitimate daughter Ryou.  Kouji takes it on himself to use the home field advantage of the mountains to thin out the ranks of the Rokki before the final confrontation.  It’s Ryou who pursues him, along with the gunslinger Ban-san, though they know it’s a trap.  Ryou is desperate to prove herself to her father, though with his family dead and his own life about to end, she’s the only legacy he stands to leave behind and he’s clearly reluctant to let her go to battle.

It’s an interesting cat-and-mouse at work here, first between Ban – who intends to betray her and flee – and Ryou, and later with Kouji.  Kouji has laced the mountainside with pots of carbolic acid (I have no idea how realistic this is, but I’m skeptical) and bides his time waiting for his enemies to gradually weaken and collapse.  But while Ban meets his end, it’s Ryou who lays the final trap – leaving the Ittou-ryuu down yet another key member with the final battle on the horizon.

It’s increasingly looking as if the final battle between Habaki and Kagehisa is going to be the climactic action sequence of Immortal, which would certainly be ironic.  In effect this will end up doing Rin’s work for her if it ends the way I think it might, but by this stage I don’t think she’s even wishing for the destruction of the Ittou-ryuu.  The whole premise on which Rin lived her life was a false construct, but if in finding that out she gained more than she lost, I don’t think she’ll consider the journey a waste of time.