In 1998, artist Hiroaki Samura won Japan's prestigious Media Arts Award for this ambitious manga. The series blends sophisticated illustration and paneling to tell the tale of a young swordswoman, devoted to avenging her parents' death, and a sly, unsentimental warrior, cursed with immortality. Intelligent and cinematic, Blade of the Immortal takes the classic samurai story and turns it on its ear.

Molly McCall