is an anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 series based on the manga series created by Hiroaki Samura

Hiroaki Samura

is a Japanese writer/illustrator and creator of Blade of the Immortal, as well as several other short works. He has also done various illustrations for magazines and ero guro work. He has an ero guro book out that is mostly a compilation of some of the work he has created.His favourite bands are...

. Blade of the Immortal was directed by Koichi Mashimo

Koichi Mashimo

is a well-known Japanese anime director and the founder of the animation studio Bee Train. Since the creation of the studio, Mashimo directed or otherwise participated in all its works, for example, as a member of art or sound department...

 and produced by Bee Train

Bee Train

, commonly referred simply as Bee Train, is a Japanese animation studio founded by Kōichi Mashimo in 1997. Since their involvement with Noir, .hack//Sign, and Madlax they have a strong following in the yuri fandom for being involved in series portraying strong female leads with speculatively...

, with production support by Production I.G, and Pony Canyon

Pony Canyon

is a Japanese company, established on October 1, 1966 , which publishes music, DVD and VHS videos, movies and video games. It is a subsidiary of Japanese Media Group, Fujisankei Communications Group.-History:...

. Bee Train was responsible for the animation production, Pony Canyon produced the music for the series, and Yoshimitsu Yamashita designed the characters. The story follows the adventures of Manji, a samurai cursed with immortality due to killing one hundred men. Weary of his immortal life, Manji seeks to repent for sins and lift the curse of immortality by killing 1,000 evil men.

The first announcement of the Blade of the Immortal anime was in Kodansha

Kodansha

, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...

's Afternoon

Afternoon (magazine)

is a Japanese seinen manga magazine published by Kodansha. It is a monthly anthology, and each issue typically has around thirty ongoing stories by various authors and runs about 800 pages...

magazine. The episodes began airing on July 13, 2008 on AT-X

AT-X (company)

is a Japanese anime television network owned by . AT-X, Inc. was founded on June 26, 2000 as a subsidiary of TV Tokyo Medianet, which, in turn, is a subsidiary of TV Tokyo. Its headquarters are in Minato, Tokyo. AT-X network broadcasts anime via satellite and cable since December 24, 1997.AT-X is...

.

Two pieces of theme music

Theme music

Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...

 are used for the episodes: one opening theme and one closing theme. The opening theme is by The Pillow Book, and the closing theme is "wants" by GRAPEVINE. A single for "Red Rabbit" was released on July 16, 2008, and a single for "wants" was released on May 21, 2009.

Seven DVD compilations were announced for release by Pony Canyon. The first compilation was released on August 29, 2008, and contains the first two episodes of the series. The other six compilations were between September 17, 2008 and February 27, 2009.

Episode list

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#	Episode title	Original air date