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Directed by Yoshiaki Kawiki
Produced by Madhouse
Feudal Japan – a time of danger, intrigue and deception. Jubei is a masterless samurai who travels the land alone, hiring his services to those with gold… or a worthy cause. It just so happens that the worthy cause in question is his own life for he only has a few days to live. The only way of saving himself is to engage in sexual intercourse with a beautiful female ninja. On his way he encounters friend and foe and must keep all his wits about him if he is to survive. He slowly uncovers a conspiracy that leads all the way to the top.
To be honest I’d choose to review any other anime movie in the world over Ninja Scroll. Don’t get me wrong this is not because it is a bad movie. On the contrary Ninja Scroll is a brilliant example of the anime art form and is an excellent introduction for newbies and a firm favourite of veterans alike. This is where a problem arises in order to do a review of something you must find something to criticise in order to justify the movie not getting a 10 at the foot of this page. Unfortunately for reviewers the world over Madhouse decided to construct a delightful work of cinema therefore making my job a lot harder.
Let’s start with the visuals [as these are generally the best place to start] the animation is by no means low budget and at all times Madhouse show this fact off by throwing a lot of movement at us the only static moments in this movie are those that build up tension in the viewer. The characters are appealing and often eccentric in design [especially the bad guys]. The main character [Jubei] is a wandering samurai and resembles Ogami Itto from Lone Wolf and Cub in both personality and design in general in fact a lot of the scenes in this movie are reminiscent of Kojima’s classic manga. His personality is mysterious however he seems eager to help when his own safety and well being is concerned. The aforementioned bad guys are odd to say the least ranging from blind rónin to small plump men with wasps concealed in their body. Jubei most dispatch of each impeccably designed bad guy one after another in order to follow the [blood soaked] paper trail right to the end.
In fact blood soaked doesn’t even cut it when describing the violence and gore in Ninja Scroll however it doesn’t take any charm away from the movie because it is often humorous [in a way] and fitting to the situations depicted. With all the violence and action on display one may be fooled into thinking that the movie is purely style over substance [a la Kill Bill] however on closer inspection character interaction and a good screenplay place Ninja Scroll next to Ghost in the Shell and AKIRA in terms of narrative within an anime. The plot flows perfectly and is well paced [most of the time]. I say this because in some instances the battles appear to be too short and somewhat of a let down in a way this makes the movie seem more realistic however I doubt that this really suffices as an excuse when we encounter men made from rock and fat guys with wasps living inside them.
I watched the Manga Entertainment dub of this movie for the review and found it more than acceptable. The sound is clear and crisp as well however some of the actors are a bit hard to understand but this doesn’t cause too much of a problem because they are mainly minor characters. The music is passable as well it never really moves the viewer though and for the most part remains one of the most unmemorable elements of the film.
So if you decide to see Ninja Scroll based on this review you should expect to see some frantic and fantastic [but brief] action scenes throughout, some fan service wherever the director sees fit, a man made of rock, gallons of blood, swords, wasps, more swords, more blood and the mother of all final boss battles. To conclude Ninja Scroll rocks end of story.
Eight out of Ten
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