If Eureka Seven is the anime that had the most effect on me, then Immortal Rain is the manga I am most unlikely to ever forget. This is another cult classic, often hailed as a masterpiece but generally unknown and under-appreciated, and a genuine cross-genre treasure. Superficially it can be called a romance or a shoujo, but Immortal Rain boldly defies such simple categories. It has the action of a battle manga, the drama and characters of a thriller, the emotional complexity of a tragedy, and the simple earnestness of a love story.
Immortal Rain has an easy enough premise to understand. Machika Balfaltin is a fourteen year old assassin by inheritance, the granddaughter of an infamous assassin who only ever failed to capture one bounty: the immortal man Methuselah. Hoping to redeem her deceased grandfather's name, Machika takes up her scythe and sets out to find and catch this bounty, only to find a ditzy and kind young man who won't die no matter how badly he's injured. Somehow she's caught up in the frenzy to catch him, and they end up working together to escape the mob of assassins who are after the reward money for his head. Finding herself attracted to him (and the bounty somewhat forgotten), she follows him when he leaves her town, discovering that Methuselah has a name, Rain Jewlitt, and that he's been living for 600 painful years in order to meet someone who cruelly betrayed him.
There's so much to be said about this series that makes it special, but the characters certainly are a large part of that. Everyone is interesting and likeable, even the villains, and no one is quite black or white. Rain is a conflicted person who wants to believe in the best in people but is often disappointed by those he trusts; Machika is a lonely girl who only ever had her grandfather for company, and she easily finds a kindred soul in Rain; the first antagonist, Sharem, is a cruel beauty tormented by the loss of her son and hardened by her husband's indifference to his death; the main antagonist, Yuca Collabel, seems to be the devil incarnate but in reality holds far more pain and torment than anyone else alive.
Rain's backstory is multilayered and tragic, made even more so when it's told through Yuca's eyes. The implications of immortality isn't an unpopular subject, and there's plenty of popular media that depicts it in a negative light. What Immortal Rain does differently, however, is depict immortality in two forms; the kind where the immortal cannot die physically, and the kind where the soul is immortal and reborn endlessly. The latter sounds like a romantic idea in theory, never truly dying and carrying one's memories for eternity, but in this world it's a much lonelier and excruciating existence than being unable to physically put a bullet through your skull. It's not hard to understand Yuca's motivations once that's made clear, and it's impossible not to want an ending where he can finally end it all, one way or another. It's simply a complex story with complex characters, and it's good storytelling done right.
I've always hoped that some studio would pick this series up for an anime adaptation, but it's unlikely considering the niche audience. That's unfortunate because I'm of the opinion that this manga would come to life in an animated format, and that more people would appreciate the work if it were released as visual media. It's a beautiful story written over more than ten years, and the quality shows. It's impossible to give this series justice in words, so I cannot stress enough that this is a manga every anime fan should try at least once. There's never a dull moment in Rain and Machika's world, and whether it be fighting off biological monsters, destroying and saving the world, or watching a turbulent romance develop between a 600 year old man and a 14 year old girl, Immortal Rain is a wonderful work of suspense, tragedy, comedy, romance, action, philosophy, and best of all, art.
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