Ninja Scroll (獣兵衛忍風帖,) is an action movie from 1993 created by Kawajiri Yoshiaki. The movie was originally made available in North America in 1995.
Set in the 16th century, Kibagami Jubei is a wandering swordsman who finds himself wrapped up in a plot to over through the Tokugawa shogunate. He encounters a beastly man in the middle of 'assaulting' a woman. He doesn't enjoy the idea of forced anything and does what he can to help the woman out. She however was helping herself out as well and with some quick thinking on both their part the monster is distracted enough for them to escape. The woman introduces herself as Kagero, the sole survivor of a team of ninja's from the Koga clan, sent to investigate a strange rumor around a port village. As the team came to investigate the stories of a plague wiping the village out the monstrous being attacked them, killing all of the men and kidnapping Kagero for some entertainment. She parts ways with Jubei to return and report the tragedy to her master. Jubei continues on his way only to be attacked by the same monster, a super naturally enhanced man going by the name Tessai. His body is made of stone he towers above mortal men, at perhaps 3 meters in height and weilds a massive double ended...sword? The battle seems lost to Jubei, he is a normal human with some tenacious abilities and sword handling. Tessai's stone body suddenly begins to crumble, allowing Jubei's sword to do damage leading to the creatures downfall through his own weapon being uncontrollable.
A wizened man appears and gives the swordsman some details about what he just faced. Tessai is a member of 8 demonic ninja's who are working for a shadow shogun, planning on over throwing the real shogun and restoring power to a different clan. The old man is a Tokugawa spy and forces Jubei into helping him in his current mission. A few years earlier Jubei was part of a ninja team who had uncovered an illegal gold mine. In a series of unfortunate actions he was forced to kill all of the members of his team due to an order to try and hide the gold mines information from being leaked. Jubei exacted revenge for his comrades by killing the man responsible for their death, a man named Gemma. The old man informs him that Gem,ma still lives, after Jubei cut off his head, and is the leader of the demon ninjas who are protecting the gold mine. The old man poisons Jubei and tells him he will receive the antidote once his investigation of the gold mine is completed, forcing the swordsman to face against the demon ninjas and a man he killed once before. Kagero returns to the area after informing her master of the failure and arrives in time to save Jubei from another of the demon ninja, deciding to join him and the old man on their mission, looking to learn more and for a chance at revenge for her teams destruction. The three venture into the heart of the beast, facing super naturally powered beings with their only goal being survival until the next day.
Ninja Scroll was one of the most important and influential anime for American otaku in the 90's. It was one movie that almost everyone who watched anime saw. I have been meaning to re-watch this for a while now, as I have not seen it since the 90's. I wanted to revisit it and see how my opinions of it have changed over the decades as anime and myself have changed drastically. I ended up finally watching it when we chose to do a side quest episode for the Otaku Network Podcast around it. I wanted to have David watch it and get his thoughts on it from the perspective of someone younger and much newer to anime fandom than myself. Listen to that episode here for his, mine and a guest opinion on this 30+ year old samurai film. I talked about it at length but wanted to also express that here with just my thoughts to focus on.
Ninja Scroll is absolutely a product of its time, coming at the end end of a decade of decadence in anime production. Through out the financial boom on the 80's a lot of risky anime was produced, stuff aimed for either direct to video or theatrical markets, unburdened by censorship. Ninja Scroll came to light from a mutual love of Japanese period drama's and American action films and it shows. There is a lot of visceral violence and degradation. The story is shallow and linear, being little more than an excuse to have the character fight a series of bad guys. My love for anime has fallen heavily into the slice of life and romance genres. I am not impressed by rippling muscles and ultra violence like I was as a teenager. I suspected for a while that I wouldn't have any lingering favorable opinions on this movie. I was quite surprised that I still held a somewhat favorable opinion on the movie. I have never been a fan of the character design and a lot of the artwork is simplistic, at least in its detail. There are some well directed fight sequences and some moments of amazing cinematography. The sexualization of its female characters is problematic and definitely a product of its time...even if there is still a problem with that in anime as a whole. Ninja Scroll really is the feudal Japan answer to the 80's American action film. Jubei, the stories hero, is an enviable and noble hero and strong man. Able to over come any physical injury and situation to win in the end. Yet he's also vulnerable, one aspect that's not present in 80's action films. Outside of that 'flaw' of masculinity, he is just another action hero to make the male audience swoon with envy. While it doesn't have a lot of merit as a piece of art, it is a well enough crafted action movie that it shouldn't really slip into the sands of time. It's still worth checking out for new and old anime fans, unlike a lot of the iconic titles from that time period. I don't plan on ever watching it again, ever. There is no need.
For a long time this was widely available streaming. But it's become scarce, I believe tied to a recent theatrical return and new blu ray release.
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