Summary: >

In feudal Japan, lawlessness can be a fact of life. But there is order among the lords who rule, it's just a matter of whether or not they'll actually be able to save you. So when a village was mysteriously wiped out (among a few others), one of the lords sent a group of ninja out to investigate. All of them are killed except for the foxy girl named Kagero. Kagero was getting the bad end of the stick when a wanderer named Jubei managed to save her.

From there Jubei is unwillingly enlisted in helping to solve an ongoing mystery for which Kagero has similar goals. Unfortunate for them that in order to get to the bottom of the mystery they're going to have to face the Eight Devils of Kimon. Each of them is quite deadly, and each of them is unique in their bag of tricks. But who is really behind all of this and why. Eventually Jubei finds that the reason isn't really as important as settling an old score with someone who double crossed him years ago.

Thoughts: >

Ninja Scroll certainly has a target audience. If you're in that audience, you'll probably wet your pants with glee over this title. Outside of that sphere you will have people who still enjoy it a lot. Past that it's quite likely people will detest this title. So lets look at the core elements. First of all Ninja Scroll is totally a ninja / martial arts title. As such there is excessive violence. There is also a fair amount of sex. And aside from that there is more violence =) For the vast majority of people, you can draw the lines around where you sit based off of that pretty easy.

At the time I saw this I never really witnessed any of these uber-ninja type shows so it was pretty new to me. Being more familiar with them now, I'd say that Ninja Scroll very much follows the genre format. However it does so well enough that it's pretty much the definitive ninja action anime. The core plot of the anime is to follow around Jubei as he fights the Eight Devils of Kimon. In that way, you sort of watch each fight for the action and then wonder how Jubei is going to win. The story doesn't begin and end there however, so there are more than enough plot elements to score this title well. It's not groundbreaking in that way, but it is however entertaining.

In some ways I think this takes the martial arts ethic too far, but I guess if you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound. I mean would you bone some hot ninja chick? I would. Jubei apparently thinks that's not noble. Well more hot ninja chicks for me I guess.

And as far as anime goes, that's what Ninja Scroll delivers: action and entertainment. The plot isn't stupid, it just isn't complicated. My main warning will be to those who get squeamish over violence. There's a lot of it, and if you think that any Hollywood movie today has too much of it, you'll probably want to avoid Ninja Scroll. Aside from that I seem to have a nostalgic liking for this title, especially when I see any other uber ninja stuff. I'd recommend it for action fans, probably not for anyone else.

Screen Caps: >