Most everything about Katanagatari is experimental, but in a good way: the experiment almost unilaterally pays off. And the swords they find more often than not aren't swords as we've come to know them. Neither of the two heroes wields a weapon: for one, her weapon is her mind for the other, it's his body.
![anime basilisk fight scene anime basilisk fight scene](https://t05.deviantart.net/Qh7b8gPPOIdAaUOrbt9Pj5-A49I=/fit-in/150x150/filters:no_upscale():origin()/pre00/bc02/th/pre/f/2016/219/8/a/blade_under_mask___47_by_white_mantis-dad0ykd.jpg)
In the details, most everything about Katanagatari is unusual. In the abstract, this is your standard quest story: a mismatched pair of adventurers go on a search for twelve swords of legend. © NISIOISIN, Kodansha / Katanagatari Committee. The show makes a valiant attempt to preserve both Samura's trademark art styles and does capture some of the original's mordant black humor, but it's best if not compared too closely to the original and just enjoyed on its own as a darkly stylish samurai-themed revenge story.
![anime basilisk fight scene anime basilisk fight scene](https://nixpicks.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/651226.jpg)
Hiroaki Samura's original comic is regarded as being one of the best in print in any language or genre, which makes it a tough act to follow. (Just because he can't be killed doesn't mean he can't be hurt, which makes this particular brand of immortality a mixed bag.) When he's enlisted by the waifish Rin to help her seek revenge on her father's murderer, at first he's indifferent - but then he learns his opponent might be just the battle he's been looking for his whole life. Scarred swordsman Manji is virtually unkillable thanks to a curse placed on him by a mysterious old hag: he must slay one thousand evil men before he can once again have the privilege of dying.