Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Michelle Ridley The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Wyatt There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Donald F First of all, the fact that this has a 7.9 on IMDb is freaking retarded. This isn't an action anime masterpiece. Its dumb, its shallow, its exploitative. If anything, it takes itself too seriously, taking time away from the action in an embarrassing attempt to develop the plot, characters and romance. Ninja Scroll is not an anime you wear proudly on your shoulder.But it is one of the better bad anime out there. Its so over-the-top in its gore and sleaze, its impossible to not laugh. The eight evil villains are a blast - they're less ninjas, and more X-men. They're very powerful and unique, but our hero always manages to survive. The action is pretty sweet. I had to rewind because the first scene was so fast, yet so busy! Add some good animation, and you've got action that never gets old.Do not expect a great anime going in, or you'll cringe at the awful dialog and rape scenes. Watch it when you have no dignity to lose. Then you can appreciate Ninja Scroll's bloody insanity.

chribren "Ninja Scroll" is an action/anime made in 1993 by Yoshiyaki Kawajiri. This film is set in the feudal Japan.Basic plot: A wandering samurai named Jubei Kipagami, who originally served the Yamashiro clan for years ago, is traveling on the land alone. People in a small village have died by a mystical plague, so a team of ninjas is sent to investigate the case, only to get brutally killed one by one by a rock creature named Tessai. The only survivor, the beautiful Kagero, gets raped and blood poisoned by Tessai. But Jubei saves her and kills Tessai, and sets out to annihilate a group called the Eight Devils of Kimon lead by the demonic Gemma Himuro.Throughout this film, there are lots of sword violence and several supernatural violence, which often get bloody result. This is enough to keep the mature fans of Japanese animation and ninjas interested. The soundtrack fits well in many of these scenes, especially during Tessai's attack and the ending scenes. The animation and the graphics itself are beautifully made, and so are the scenes with Jubei and Kagero together.This film is the fourth 18-rated anime I've seen after "Shadow Skill", "Venus Wars" and "Akira", well this film was at least rated 18 in Norway when released on VHS by Polygram Video. Like the other three anime movies I mentioned, this film was also English dubbed, but not subbed in Norwegian. On the Norwegian DVD copy I have, this film has been heavily toned down from being 18 to being rated 10 (!), something I just didn't like because of the fact all the nudity and the gory violence are intact on this DVD edition. In my opinion this film should have gotten at least a 15-rating.Are you a fan of ninjas and anime in general but haven't seen "Ninja Scroll", I suggest you to check out this film at least once. Honestly, this have to be one of the better ninja anime I've seen, together with the "Naruto" franchise. My overall rating for this film is therefore 9/10.Some of the other movies from Yoshiyaki Kawajiri to be mentioned include: "Wicked City" (1987), "Demon City Shinjuku" (1988) and "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" (2000).

david-sarkies The first time I saw this manga movie I wasn't all that impressed with it because of the amount of degrading sex scenes and rape in it. At that time I was pretty close minded about the whole thing, and I guess that is a bit degrading but there is more to this movie than just that.Basically a village is infected with a plague and a group of ninja are sent to investigate and are all killed by a huge demon. Slowly the plot untwists to reveal what was going on but I really cannot go too deep into this because I really do not want to spoil it for you. Though it turns out to be pretty ordinary, there are only a limited amount of secret conspiracies that one can do so it comes down to how it is executed as opposed to what it is, and I think the execution is actually quite well done.I guess the thing that makes Manga stand out is the freedom that one has when creating animated features as opposed to normal features. Here we have some rather horrific looking creatures that the heroes confront, including a ninja that strikes from the shadows and a huge rocklike creature that could easily crush a normal human in one of its hands. The animation is also very smooth and a lot of effort has gone into it.The main aspect that stands out is the tragic element to this movie. The main characters slowly become attracted to each other but the problem is that the woman is poisoned. She is immune to her own poison, but if she has sex with anybody else they will be killed by the poison. That literally creates a rift between her and the rest of humanity as she could never truly love anybody because everybody whom she comes close to will reach a point were they will die. As such she distances herself from everybody else, though the main character continues to try to worm his way into her life, not because he wants to sleep with her, but rather because he wants to work with her.Beyond the plot, the movie is well made and the story is very well constructed, creating a relationship that is ultimately terminal. There is only so far that they can go, but there is another hand that keeps on trying to manipulate it. In the end, this movie works out well, leaving us with an empty feeling regarding this lost relationship.

Darth-Helmet In 17th century Feudal Japan, a disease has caused deaths in a village as a masterful swordsman named Juebi is hired to investigate the happenings. He is joined by sexy but literally poisonous beauty Kagero as together with a wise old man they hunt down demons and the mysterious shogun of the dark that wants to overthrow the Japanese government. Could Juebi's old friend Genma came back from the dead as he could be the Shogun of the dark or is it someone else? One of the greatest animated movies of all time and one of anime's biggest hits! this fantasy/action anime feature is not for everyone. There is some sleaze and gore abound but what is unique about this movie is the creatures which are unlike no one has seen and the beautiful artwork this movie shows. Director Yoshiaka Kawajari proves to be one of anime's biggest masters with this, Wicked City, Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, Animatrix, and more as it's pure creativity at it's best here. Beautiful animated women, gore abound, battles, amazing sword fights, and outstanding animation makes this a winner for fans of animation, anime and fantasy alike.