First and foremost I want to say that Ninja Scroll was the first japanese anime that I ever watched and got me interested in the genre.
Usually when martial arts action flicks are made, things like character development and a decent plot are placed on the backburner. It's refreshing to see a martial arts anime that delivers on all counts.
The first thing you'll notice are the incredible visuals. The artwork and animation are superb, with a realistic style seen too rarely in anime. The voice acting was also pretty good.
The plot in Ninja Scroll is fairly straightforward. Jubei, a lone ninja for hire, gets involved in a web of events surrounding a nemesis from his past. He must do battle with the Eight Devils of Kimon, uncover the secret behind the mysterious Lord Gemma, and try to stay alive in the process.
While the premise (lone ninja takes on various bad guys) sounds typical of this genre, the plot actually has some depth to it. It even gets somewhat confusing at times, and has enough intrigue and plot twists to keep things interesting.
The characters are another strong point. The hero, Jubei, is your typical lone-wolf tough guy, but he has enough charisma to get by. He is supported by Kagaro, a female ninja, and Dakuwan, a short fellow who reminds me a little of Yoda.
The villains featured are simply excellent. Each of the Eight Devils of Kimon are unique in appearance, style, and personality (or lack of it). They also (thankfully) do not appear in successive order of strength (a cliche which I've seen far too many times).
Ninja Scroll is defeintly unique amongst anime movies and should be a great viewing to those that don't even particularly like the genre.
Rating...
10/10
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