Reviewed by: Becca & Jeff

Spoken Languages: Japanese, English

Published by: Manga

Feudal Japan - A time of danger, intrigue and deception. Jubei is a masterless ninja who travels the land alone, hiring his services to those with gold...or a worthy cause. His fearsome abilities have served him well, but a hideous plot to overthrow the government threatens to end his wandering ways and possibly his life.

When a small village succumbs to a terrible plague, a team of ninjas are sent to investigate, and realize that all is not as it seems. Ambushed, they are wiped out by a fearsome man-monster with incredible powers, leaving only one alive - Kagero, a beautiful female ninja, whose touch can bring instant death. Jubei saves her from a fate worse than death, and unwittingly becomes drawn into the web of treachery. He is soon faced with his greatest challenge, an enemy for whom death holds no fear, with the power to destroy Jubei's world.

This is one of the few animes that I really enjoyed. The characters grew with eachother, and the entire story was orginal to most animes out there. Jubei doesn't want to be part of this, but the old monk forces him into it, by poisoning him, and telling him he won't give him the cure until he helps him. Jubei now has three days to live and help the monk.

Kagero was a fantastic character, and by the way I'd like to point out that in the description it says her touch will bring instant death. That is not true, but I won't spoil it for you, but it's awesome. There are I believe two rape scenes in this movie, both on Kagero and one sex scene, but they are pretty much done part of the story. So, if you are upset by these don't watch this movie. The first rape scene is very important to the movie in explaining Kagero, the other two scenes, could of gone without, but it shows an imporance to the characters involved.

What I enjoyed about this movie is that the demons that Jubei is fighting aren't introduced by how strong they are. The way he kills each one is different which really adds to the movie, he just doesn't slice them and is done with it. He has to think up special ways to destroy them, during the heat of the battle. This movie is fantastic, and I will watch it over and over to see what I have missed the first time through.

Perhaps one of the best Anime movies of all time. This by far is my personal favorite anime. It has everything that I could look for in a quality movie, great fight scenes, excellent characters, kick @$$ powers, and naked girls. This is a recipe for success in anime, and Ninja Scroll was one of the first to make it big. The demons in this are all very unique. They each have very distinct personalities that tend to match their abilities. The way Jubei dispatches them is very cool too, with very unique battle grounds. Jubei is a pretty humble protagonist, but I think that why I really liked him, he really didn't want to get involved, he was really forced to intervene. Kagero was a very strong female lead character, and not the typical submissive female that most animes introduce. She also had a specific reason for being there, and not just because they needed a girl so they wrote that character in. The old monk is very amusing, and is portrayed like the puppet master manipulating people to do his bidding. I liked this movie very much, and I am sure you will too.