Ninja Scroll

Viewed: DVD

The people calling themselves and each other “ninjas” seem more like samurai than any kind of stealthy spies or assassins. The only thing particularly “ninja-esque” was the leaping from tree to tree. And there was no scroll at all in the movie. It was a good movie, but why do so many Japanese animation movies have names that seem so unrelated to the story or characters?

The story surprised me by being a political plot as much as anything. There’s plenty of fighting, supernatural powers and stunts, and all the normal badass attitude typical of anime. And there’s also two graphic rape scenes which I didn’t expect.

The animation is decent, but not great. The story gets a little complicated, but not too much so. The action and gore is often over-the-top, but that’s what one expects from an animated film, especially Japanese animation—the medium allows for it, so the story-tellers and artists use it, fully.

Fortunately the dialogue is dubbed so you don’t miss the action trying to read the banter. I know some people dislike dubbed anime, but I prefer it; it’s hard to read and watch at the same time, and I go to and get movies to watch, not to read.

Overall, Ninja Scroll is a good flick. If you’ve never seen anime, this is a good one to start with. It has all the typical and expected aspects of anime, so you’ll get a good feel for what the genre is like by watching this movie.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com