Blade of the Immortal #3

The "Dreamsong" volume of Hiroaki Samura's *Blade of the Immortal* arrives with one of the series' most hauntingly beautiful covers — a pale woman in a billowing violet kimono, eyes closed and arms drawn inward, surrounded by a sea of deep crimson fabric that suggests both splendor and violence. Two blades cross at her feet, and a grotesque masked figure lurks at the edge of the composition, lending the image an unsettling tension beneath its elegance. Samura's painterly artistry is on full display here, making this 1999 Dark Horse volume a striking showcase of manga at its most atmospherically ambitious.