‘Ninja Scroll' Blu-Ray Review: Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Brutal Masterpiece

Forbes

4 days ago

Back in the 90s, during the first anime boom, Ninja Scroll stood out as a big gory hit, but there's more to it than that, as this Blu-ray release shows.
Written and directed by veteran animator Yoshiaki Kawajiri, who also did the anime's striking character designs, the Japanese title was the less catchy Jubei's Ninja Chronicles.
This is because the main character of Ninja Scroll, Kibagami Jubei, was meant to be a reference to the Japanese folk hero Yagyu Jubei Mitsuyoshi from the 17th century.
Born in 1607, this Jubei was the son of a famous swordsman who helped the Tokugawa family seize power over Japan. Jubei was also a fiercely good swordsman himself and spent 12 years wandering Japan with little known of his deeds.
It's this blank period where Kawajiri concocted his own series of events where Jubei is pulled in to help the Tokugawa shogunate to investigate reports of a 'Dark Shogun' and his various demonic warriors that have laid a village to ruin.
From the off, Ninja Scroll is a very distinctive and visually stylish film. It's also gory and has ninjas getting eviscerated with very large and probably quite impractical weaponry. The important thing about this was that Ninja Scroll is just cool.
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When this movie hit the US and Europe in the 90s, Ninja Scroll was a massive hit and fed directly into the misguided narrative at the time that anime was just a new wave of 'cartoon nasties', with too much blood and gore.
Unfortunately, in the case of Ninja Scroll, this accusation was partially valid, but only so far as the visual aspect of the movie went. The story, setting, and characters were all inspired by actual historical figures, obviously, except for some of the more demonic ones.
You also had an amazing voice cast in Japanese, with Koichi Yamadera bringing Jubei to life in his typical carefree style, something that would work wonderfully as his depiction of Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop some years later.
In any case, Ninja Scroll etched its place into anime history, both in Japan and abroad, and this Blu-ray release certainly does justice to that.
To put it simply, the visual and aural fidelity of this movie have been retained almost perfectly. In short, it looks and sounds stunning throughout. In terms of extras, there aren't really many to speak of, apart from a commentary for the movie by Kawajiri and Minowa, which makes for a fun listen.
While I prefer The Dagger of Kamui in terms of ninja anime, a movie that Kawajiri also worked on as an animator, I cannot deny the visceral pull that Ninja Scroll had over many teenagers in the 90s, and has remained similarly impactful in the decades since.
Overall, Ninja Scroll is the definitive gory ninja anime, with equally impressive and shocking action. However, beneath the stylish surface lies some interesting Japanese history and notable figures, although I wonder what the original Jubei would have thought of it all.
Ninja Scroll on Blu-ray is available from Crunchyroll's online store for $19.98.
Disclosure: This Blu-ray was sent to me by Crunchyroll for the purposes of this review.
Follow me on X, Facebook and YouTube. I also manage Mecha Damashii and am currently featured in the Giant Robots exhibition currently touring Japan.