Blade of the Phantom Master (Japanese: 新暗行御史, Hepburn: Shin Angyō Onshi, "New Secret Royal Agent")/(Korean: 신암행어사; RR: Sin Amhaeng-eosa) is a South Korean-Japanese manga series created by Youn In-wan and illustrated by Yang Kyung-il.
The story takes place in a world reminiscent of ancient Korea, and follows the Korean-folktale-inspired adventures of Munsu, one of the few remaining guardians against corruption and tyranny, as he seeks to find those responsible for the destruction of his country.
In Jushin, there once lived secret government agents called the amheng osa (or angyō onshi in the Japanese version), who traveled the countryside in disguise.
Blade of the Phantom Master follows the adventures of one of the remaining amheng osa, Munsu, as he continues to wander the countryside and deals with the chaos caused by Jushin's fall.
Amheng osa of first mahai rank have one horse emblazoned onto their medallions, which allows them to wield basic magic to fight ordinary soldiers.
The most powerful medallions feature three horses, and allow the bearers, third mahai (Korean: 삼마패, 三馬牌), to perform summonings and regenerate injuries.
Despite being made for use by amheng osa, the mahai medallions will also work for normal people, so long as their convictions and willpower in executing justice are sufficiently strong.
[11] Youn also drew upon other classic Korean stories, such as Amhaengeosa (Secret royal inspector), and historical figures like Heo Jun for inspiration.
However, his legacy was considerable, including not only seeking and punishing corrupt officials, but also stopping the invasion of the Korean peninsula by foreigners and saving the king from a coup d'état.
He felt this universality of such heroes who seek out and report corrupt government officials showed that good and evil do not differentiate between countries, races, or cultures.
[15] Youn admits to being influenced his portrayal of amen osa by Richō Angyōki (李朝暗行記), a Japanese manga by Natsuki Sumeragi.
[16] The Blade of the Phantom Master comic was serialized in Japan in Shogakukan's seinen manga magazine Monthly Sunday Gene-X from March 19, 2001,[a] to August 18, 2007.
Youn and Yang maintained their residences in Incheon, South Korea throughout most of the writing and publication of the series,[23] often requiring the services of translators for dealings with their Japanese editor, Akinobu Natsume, especially early on, and necessitating multiple business trips to Japan.
[12] Character Plan president Yang Jee-hye said his company was able to learn new skills and technologies, both of which have been maintained during Japan's long history of film-making, from Oriental Light and Magic, who completed about 70% of the work on the film.
[39] It was released into theaters simultaneously in Japan and Korea on November 26, 2004,[12][40] and had an encore run at the Seoul Ani Cinema for three weeks beginning February 17, 2005.
The movie has also been locally released in Poland as Ostatni Strażnik Magii by Vision Film's Anime Gate imprint[41] and in Russia as Povelitel' Prizrakov (Russian: Повелитель призраков, lit.