Ninja Scroll (獣兵衛忍風帖) is an 1993 anime film out of Japan. The movie was brought over the US in 1995. During the 1990s, many people consider this film as one of the most influential anime films of its time. The film is directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri.
Jubei is a traveling mercenary ninja. Jubei helps the less fortunate for scraps. When a plague hits a particular region, the local clan sends their ninja to investigate. But they all but get wiped out. A spy from the larger shogun leadership goes to investigate and enlist the help of Jubei through some trickery. Can these three strangers band together long enough to stay alive and get what they all want?
I got to see this via rental back n 1995 from a local comic book store called Angel Comics. At the time, they started to rent out anime and Ninja Scroll came up. The selection wasn't big so I pretty much rental everything they had. I wasn't a stranger to anime, but this film was so different than anything out there. Kawajiri was also the director of a bunch of other non kid friendly anime from the 1980s. This one took it to another level.
A couple of years back, I really wanted to watch this again. When a deal for it came up on Amazon, I purchased it. I recently re-watched it. Man, does it hold up. The production value is high and seems like an anime that you can play today. But its from 1993. The story also is very 1990s/1980s in its sensual aspects that you don't see in today's anime. So, it may definitely turn lots of people off there.
The movie was so popular that an series was created for it. I can't remember much as I didn't like the series nearly as much as the movie. Still a classic in 2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment