The  excellent series Blade of the Immortal (Mugen no Juunin - literally: "inhabitant of infinity" ) by Hiroaki Samura gathers more and more fans throughout the world, thanks to its exceptional art, a coherent plot full of action and, mainly, to its charismatic characters. Both the protagonists Manji and Rin as well as their friends and several antagonists (starting with cold Anotsu and extending to a gallery that includes both sanguinary villains and poor peasants trying to escape a miserable life under some tyrant) are extremely well built and, most important, very plausible. Even crazy psychopaths like Kuroi Sabato or Shira make us believe that they could exist in the real world and that make us pray that we never meet someone like them...

One of the strongest features in Samura's work is the way he exposes Japanese feudal society without the aura of mystery and extreme sense of honor that we usually have in similar works. In Blade we can see very well how hunger, despair, greed and conflicts of honor throw people in extreme situations in which they can't always act as they should or would like to. It is exactly this weakness and frankness displayed all the time by the characters that brings them nearer to us, instead of putting them in a superior plane as it is usual with the superheroes. Even Manji being an immortal, he is often plagued by physical or emotional pain and gets afraid to die; Rin frequently questions herself about the justice of her quest for revenge. The verossimilance between Samura's and our interior world, our anguishes and feelings makes his universe plausible even throughout magic touches and sensational fights.

However, something that just recently has caught my attention is the fact that I haven't yet seen, in any similar work, female characters so strong, honorable and active as the women in Blade. I find it even more impressive that such great women were created by a male author for a manga series destined to a male audience, where I wouldn't have expected to find such a touching and deep representation of relationships involving both sexes. Hiroaki Samura show himself as a master in character development as well as a genius artist, in the way he presents with great dignity his characters' inner depths, be they men or women.

Many other pages in this site of mine are dedicated to displaying relationships between women and manga series, which seems to me to be much stronger than between women and traditional Western comics. However, it is the first time I see a male author pay so much attention to the development and participation of female characters in the plot of a samurai story. Usually the female characters we find in this genre are "the crying bride" that fears for her lover's life, the "dangerous courtesan", always ready to seduce and betray, the "hopeless peasant girl", that only has her body to trade and the "intriguing old hag", that poses as helpless but weaves her schemes all around to achieve her goals. Of course, now and again there is also a "meatloaf warrior-woman", usually defeated by the protagonist to learn how to behave "like a real woman".

All of them usually play a very small part in the plots and are little less than methaphoric obstacles to make the protagonist evolve in the warrior's path. Thus, we seldon even remember their names, they are just like icones and their mission in the plot could have been as well fulfilled by children or animals. The fact that they are women is often irrelevant, except for the sake of adding a sexual component to the story. They are usually portraied as passive beings completely impotent in a society in which only men (that is, male warriors) have some power about their destinies.

In Blade, however, that is not the way it is. If we look closely, all those stereotypes are there, but presented in a completely different way. Samura's  women are not hollow, impotent puppets lost in a men's world, but human beings as lost and tortured as men in a world that is hard on everybody, a world in which people are forced to act in the best way they can while balancing between the circumstances and the pressure of rigid social codes. In this context, the women in Blade have strong, unique personalities and are very active in the plot, according to their possibilities. Let's take a closer look at it using some examples.

Warriors

Let's start with the female protagonist: Rin is the daughter of a samurai swordmaster that saw his dojo being decimated and her mother being cruelly raped by her father's murderers. Rin does not stay at her relatives' home crying out her misery, but claims her rights as a samurai woman and tries to register an official vendetta. Even the sabotage of the authorities can't stop her and thus she goes after her revenge herself. Instead of just hiring mercenaries from the beginning, Rin trains hard to improve her fight skills in order not to be at other's mercy.

However, Rin is not a superhero enhanced with super powers, but a plain 16 year-old girl. She is but a passable swordswoman, is hungry all the time, throws temper tantrums and suffers of diarrhea, she is jealous of Manji and is tormented incessantly by her fears and doubts about the right thing to do. Rin must face her limits all the time, as well as her weakness before the task she imposed upon herself, but even thus she keeps on trying to get stronger and, when things get really nasty, she shows that her strong determination does not supersede her compassionate personality. Besides that, she is waking up to love and we laugh a lot when we see her attempts to show Manji that she is no longer just a child, or the image of his dead sister, but a young woman that wants to be at his side through all things.

After Rin, the more striking female characters are probably Makie and Hyakurin, the two great female warriors in Blade.

Makie is the prototype of the perfect warrior, strong, nimble, quick and mortal. Ever since her childhood there was nobody that could defeat her. However, what seems to be heaven for the other bushi (warriors) only brings Makie pain and suffering: she never wanted to become a bushi, but she is a born one and can't understand why her skills are so coveted. Her mother foresaw Makie's difficulties in a society in which men do not admit to loose to a woman and counseled her to become a courtesan rather than live by the sword. Makie oscillates between this two poles, since she can't decide which one brings her more distress, but the most important thing is that she decides her destiny. Makie is the only one able to defeat both Manji and Anotsu, but she finds no satisfaction in taking human lives. She decides to get away from everything, so that she does not have to kill any longer. In Makie's world, men do not stand for love or protection, they just covet her for her skills or her body, thus, she follows her own way without them.

Hyakurin, the other lady-warrior, is a kind of ninja and her strength is in disguises and poison, but this does not make her weaker than Makie. Hyakurin is the leader of the secret Mugairyuu gang and makes it perfectly clear who is the boss. Her subordinates respect her for her strong personality and leadership without her having to engage in demonstrations of strength or power. However, Hyakurin does not lead this life by her choice either. She was once a lovingly and dedicated housewife, but her son's death turned her into a convicted that had her life spared so that she could act as an assassin. Hyakurin and all other Mugairyuu members share this destiny and are constantly under surveillance and the risk of either summary execution or death in battle. Thus they follow their destiny together, trying to give each other the support they couldn't get from the society.

Both Makie and Hyakurin are extremely active and very respected by men and women around them, living in equality with both of them. However, they remain intensely "feminine". Their bodies are small and fragile and their strength in combat comes from their agility and skill with their weapons, which were specially chosen to be used by women. They are light, easily maneuvered weapons that do not marrow their masters' velocity, so that they do not need to become irrationally muscular nor to behave like men to be winners. As I have already said in another occasion, it annoys me desperately to see the "masculinization" of heroines in Western comics, which seem to tell the female audience: "if you want to have any chance in life without the luck of having been born a male, walk like a man, talk like a man, punch and swear like a man"... Samura's lady warriors are strong and powerful, but they also are sensitive and very centered, conscious of their strength and weaknesses, desires and limits and, even so, masters of their destinies.

Courtesans

I don't know how it is in the Japanese original, but in the English version they are called working girls, since in feudal Japan prostitution was the only "profession" allowed to a woman, although it was not so badly looked upon as in the West. It was in fact the only option for female samurai that did not want to marry or become a nun to live without the family's support.

During the series we have many courtesans and inn attendants (which also usually warmed the customers' beds) that are fairly conscious of their work and see it in a extremely professional way. There is no reason to try and make it glamorous, since hardly anybody would become a courtesan because it is fun, but it was at least a way for women to survive without a husband in a society completely closed to them apart from marriage. None of them poses as a victim for leading such a life or making sex for money. For them this is part of the job description, just as sweeping the room or cooking... Thus, they do not see themselves as "objects" or property of men, they just do they work and use men to get their money just as men use them to get pleasure. Of course they do not like that way of living and their goal is always to get enough money to pay the brothel owner and settle themselves quietly in some other place, preferentially with some man they like and that can give them the protection needed in those violent times.

Among the working girls in Blade, the one that sticks to our memory is O-Ren, a courtesan in the Hittouryuu brothel (Anotsu's faction) that falls in love with young Magatsu (who, although he loves her, never touched her). She knows she can only have him at her side for a few days at a time, but even so she understands he has his duties, just like she has hers. In two years O-Ren expected to have enough money to get free and buy a house, where she wanted to live with him, but, as she knows very well, Magatsu is a bushi and will not abandon his sword to get tied to a woman, thus she lets him free to come and visit her when he can. Unfortunately, just after Magatsu's departure, an enemy of the Hittouryuu comes and try to discover his whereabouts. Despite the torture, O-Ren prefers to give his life away instead of giving any information about Magatsu. When he comes back and sees what had happened, Magatsu leaves everything behind to avenge her and regrets not having enjoyed her presence better, but it is too late then...

O-Ren is the typical figure of a tragic woman that loves unconditionally without suffocating her loved one. She tries to make Magatsu leave his dangerous life, but when he refuses, she tries to get the better of their moments together. Despite all, she is always jovial and, even sometimes not being able to restrain her tears, she is no "abandoned, suffering victim". She can impose herself pretty well before Magatsu (as we can see from the "lovingly" stranglehold she gives him at a time) and receives gladly the perspective of a "costumer" without knowing that would be her last. Even under torture she keeps firm in order to protect the one she loves and shows her dignity through that. In her own way, she is also a heroine, and stays at the same level as the lady warriors.

Wives

It is even funny, but after the feminist revolution the notion of "wife" became almost a pejorative word. I can understand that after centuries of "oppression" in which wives were really seen as their husbands' properties and had no rights or decisive power whatsoever, women have wanted to forget about it and stress their equality and independence. However, when modern men and  women decide to marry, I imagine that they should come to terms to determine their share in the relationship and, well, if they reach the conclusion that one of them is going to be responsible for the house and children while the other goes and gets the money, I think this is as good an option as any other.

I know at least one couple in which the man opted for staying at home and taking care of the kids while his wife went on with her profession, but such cases are still very rare. In the times and society where Blade plays it was just plain impossible, so that women that do not wanted to become courtesans or nuns had to get themselves a husband that guaranteed them food and protection. However, Samura presents us several women that have assumed their roles as wives and stand for an important element in their homes. They usually do not have their names mentioned (in Japan it is usual that married people refer to themselves as "mother"/"father" instead of using their names) and their husbands refer to them just as "my wife" or "the old lady", but even this "lady" is a hint that many times the husbands aren't able to take a single step without asking their wives' advice first (as in the old joke in which the husband always has the last word: "yes, darling"!).

Many characters of wives are fundamental in Rin's journey, especially the lady that helps her, in a most surprising way, to cross the checkpoint at the road to Kaga (I consider Rin's questioning at the checkpoint one of the most thrilling scenes in the manga so far), but here I will mention specially Hisoka, Anotsu's fiancée / wife.

Hisoka is the only woman in an isolated dojo in the mountains, but everybody there respect her immensely. Despite her extremely fragile health, her manners and bearing make even Anotsu admire and respect her. Maybe even more than O-Ren, Hisoka is the perfect classic tragic heroine, be it from a Greek or a Japanese tragedy: the noble woman that gives up her life for her husband's sake. For us that live in these cynical days, that seems to be plain stupidity, but if we think about how life should be in those times, we can even understand that choice when the only other option would be dying or living miserably. When Hisoka says to Anotsu: "I am a samurai, and your wife. What wife of honor would not surrender everything for her husband?", she is not lamenting her destiny but making her own free choice, and Anotsu is man enough to acknowledge the gift he has been given.

All women in Samura's work have in common a clear understanding of their situation and possibilities (or lack of them), as well as an attitude that, if it usually ends up turning against themselves (following the Eastern ideal of feminine passive resistance and self-sacrifice), shows us an amazing confidence and determination that turns them into independent, strong and self-sufficient women, even without the masculine aggressivity we women are often lead to imitate in order to impose ourselves in our present-day world. It came to me as a surprise, but I had already written most of this page when I got the issue #85 of the Dark Horse edition of Blade and saw my own thoughts being voiced by Makie, when Anotsu finds her in a pitiful situation:

"I am not as weak or tragic a woman as you think. I simply found a way to survive without depending on anyone else."