NINJA SCROLL (SUB) Review
A lone swordsman. A beautiful and mysterious female ninja. A conniving and shape-shifting government spy. And a band of eight fearsome and supernatural powered assassins hell-bent on world domination. Throughout director/writer Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s frenetic and hyper-violent NINJA SCROLL, these characters will partake in awe-inducing spectacles of combat with a standard story of good vs. evil at play in the background.
Not that simple stories are ever a bad thing, especially when utilized with the color and art of Kawajiri’s team of animators. Nevertheless, the story of NINJA SCROLL concerns itself with the journey of your typical good-natured if gruff lone wolf, Jubei Kibagami (Koichi Yamadera), a mercenary skilled in the art of blade combat. As he travels through Edo-era Japan busting heads and looking for his next payday, Jubei soon finds himself embedded in a conspiracy involving secret gold after he rescues Kagero (Emi Shinohara), a ninja whose skin is tainted with poison, from the clutches of the very evil Eight Devils of Kimon. With the Devil’s aspirations for world domination (and brutal dismemberment of all who cross them), Jubei must band together with Kagero and an elderly government spy (Takeshi Aono) to rid the land of pure evil.
With little time or concern for things like “deep characters” or “involving storylines”, Kawajiri and co.’s animated film focuses more intently on animating lively fight scenes between one-note heroes and villainous monsters. And just by doing that, and doing a rather damn good job at it, NINJA SCROLL deserves praise. While the animation is a little aged, with some wonky character movements here and there in addition to some recycled animations and figures, Kawajiri and co. nevertheless create some exhilarating combat scenes that have its characters fly, thrash, glide, and swim with equal amounts of grace and brutality. True, NINJA SCROLL is a pretty damn brutal time at points (even dipping its toes into some unneeded accounts of sexual assault of its primary female protagonist) with scenes that will either satiate the blood-thirsty viewers out there or shock the more subdued ones as blood shoots out from severed limbs and crushed skulls with devilish glee. Even so, these action scenes, brutality and all, are clearly and even elegantly showcased contrasting interestingly against the film’s beautiful and serene backgrounds.
Additionally, throughout Jubei’s quest to take down the Eight Devils of Kimon, Kawajiri’s team of animators get to show off some intriguing character designs, ranging from gigantic monstrous men of rock to deadly women composed entirely of snakes. So it’s a shame when, in the film’s quest to stay at a lean 90 minutes, that each Devil isn’t given equal amounts of focus in regards to fight sequences and general personality outside of just being evil for the sake of being evil (granted, Kawajiri does give some intriguing if bare hints to an ambiguous love triangle festering within the Eight Devils). Even so, if you’re looking for some well-thought out and executed fight scenes, NINJA SCROLL has more than enough to offer.
Simply put, NINJA SCROLL is a violent thrill ride that more than rides on its appetite for highly-stylized combat and destruction. As with most other older Japanese animated movies of the early 90’s, the dialogue and performances here are over-the-top but endearingly so, as each performer delivers each bombastic threat of violence with over-exaggerated glee. And try as it might, especially in regards to its supposed central burgeoning “romance” that is hardly earned, NINJA SCROLL never becomes anything more than a well made rollercoaster ride of gratuitous and cool violence. And in this case, that’s not a bad thing.
3.5/5
