| Review by Jim |
| Plot: In feudal Japan, the practice of Chirstianity and anyone following the religion will be killed by the shogunate. Shiro is the young leader of a group of Christians that defy the shogunate and ultimately battle them. The shogunate then sends in a squad of top ninjas with Jubei enlisted as well. However, everything goes horribly awry and Shiro becomes an anti-christ. A battle between good and evil ensues and A.D. Vision make themselves look like jackasses. Review: A lot of people don't know about Yagyu Jubei, but I do (er, sort of). He's been the subject of many stories, some true and some mythological, throughout Japanese history. Movies, books, mangas, even video games, he's been there. No one knows for sure just how much of the legends are true, but he must've been pretty damn good with a sword. What I do know is that whatever the man did to gain his fame, he deserves better than this. This has to easily rank in the top three of my most hated animes, though, I'm not quite sure where Resurrection takes its place among the three. Everyone confused this as a sequel to Ninja Scroll (which I highly recommend you see) so a lot of people rented Resurrection with that expectation. Why the hell did ADV think they could make a cover that looks similar (even the fucking font is the same) to Ninja Scroll and then claim they didn't mean for it to look like a sequel? Bullshit if you ask me. In any case, we've been suckered into this and thank Christ there's only two episodes. But I'm not without a small streak of mercy in me, so I'm going to tell you the one and only reason you can possibly sit through this anime: blood. Yep, there's some giddily graphic moments of brutality here, the highlight being two decapitated kids. There's the anti-christ literally bursting out of a woman and some good old fashioned slashing action. See, am I not merciful? I rarely say this, but all the gooey goods in the world can't mask this anime's problems. Oh, don't get me wrong, I like gore just fine, but in this case the gore just didn't help the anime at all. Let's see, where do I start? My hopes that this anime would at least be decent weren't crushed near the end or even halfway through this movie, but at the very beginning of this anime. Case in point, at the very beginning the ninja squad is flying around in what appears to be a giant jellyfish-like airballon and one of the ninjas takes out a...rocket launcher?! Call me historically ignorant, but I don't recall such weaponry ever being used back then. Then again, there's a lot of shit that doesn't make sense in Ninja Resurrection. Another example is the Christian army. These aren't your ordinary limp-wristed sissy Christians that are concerned with collecting money for the poor, they're fire-ball throwin' followers of the Lord that'll kick your ass into the Meiji era with some dragon demon thingie. How the hell can they do all that magic crap seeing as how they're Christians? They can do all that and STILL they get their asses kicked by the shogunate! Okay, even though there is a lot of wacky shit going on that I can't possibly begin to explain, what of the plot? It's just as wacky if not wackier. There's some prophecy saying that Shiro can become a savior or become an anti-christ depending on the outcome of the battle, er, something to that effect. A group of satanists, er, something to that effect have secretly infiltrated Shiro's inner circle and one them becomes his best buddy. He betrays him during the battle, blaming Jubei for the children's death, and Shiro then becomes an anti-christ. Of course, this anti-christ looks a lot more like a pretty boy that would be more comfortable doing a shampoo commercial, but he's anti-christ nonetheless. The plot just falls off the wagon completely after that and there are no more answers to be had. As for the characters, I liked Shiro and I thought their portrayal of his fall from grace was pretty well done, but that aspect I liked was short-lived and once again all the problems mentioned above take over. There are more episodes on the way...someday, somewhere, somehow. But if you're like me and couldn't stomach the first two episodes, than there's no point in looking forward to the other episodes. Not only is Ninja Resurrection nonsensical with its plot and characters, it's just not interesting to watch and I'd be surprised if no one didn't fall asleep during this anime. Even if A.D. Vision hadn't marketed this as a sequel to Ninja Scroll, it still would've sucked. Skip it, just skip it. |
| Rating: 1/2 IT'S SHIT! |
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