Ninja Scroll

Rating:
Summary: pretty good except ending
Review: the movie is decent, but there seems to be too much gore and nudity which is superfluous, adding nothing to the plot. also leaves a lot of loose ends, not the cool kinds that make you think (like NGE and Serial Experiments Lain) but ones that make it look like the creators didnt wanna spend the full amount of time needed to make a classic. the end is pretty stupid, from jubei and kagero "making love" by just kissing (while the beginning goes ahead to show fondling and doggy style with complete sound effects; not saying they should have gone that far w/ jubei and kagero, but it just shows how dumb the other scenes are) and the stupid water-kills-evil ending which is equally horrible as in mel gibson's "signs." there is so much good anime out there these days, and i would only recommend this if youve already seen all the rest.

Rating:
Summary: A good anime movie
Review: The movie actually has a plot and the story is told masterfully, which is something you don't see very often in most anime movies nowadays. Unfortunately, had it not been for the distasteful sex scenes I'd have given the movie 5 stars, to be frank. Personally I'm not very concerned or offended by gratuitous sex scenes; however, the scenes involving Kagero at the beginning, then with the Daimyo and his concubine were totally unnecessary, and extremely witless. It kind of degrades the movie as a whole, in my humble opinion. The story was simple enough, Jubei - realizing although Kagero and other characters kept calling him "Ninja" but he's actually a masterless Samurai, a Ronin - was forced to join a Tokugawa government spy in his investigation to stop the Eight Demons serving the Dark Shogun from stealing a government's ship of gold. On his way he also rescued Kagero, and a love story slowly unfolded between them eventually into the movie, you know the drill here. The fight scenes were top-notch, lots of gore, and over all it was a pretty fast-paced movie. All the fights were over WAY too quickly before we got to see any of the demons really getting to use more of their special power; in the fight with the snake girl, she even got killed by her own team before she got to make any move! Besides, I'm not so sure about creative characters here. All the demons, as well as other fighers in Ninja Scroll were undeniably inspired by the popular fighter game series Samurai Showdowns I, II, III, and IV. If any of you had played it you should know what I'm talking about, we'd have the ever-popular blind swordman Ukyo here again, along with the steel-armed Sieger, the buddhist monk Nicotine, a hunched back guy that resembled Gen-an, the game boss himself with his electric attacks (and also looked and acted a lot like a lady, just like in the game!), the shadow guy from Samurai IV with his retractable metal claw, and of course, our main hero, appropriately being the samurai Haomaru. Of course they've changed all the names of the main characters, but you'll run into a bunch of other secondary characters that had kept their names over from the games, like the ninja Hanzo himself; unfortunately he died too quickly, like almost all of the other fighters in Ninja Scroll. All in all, I love the story plot, this is not a classic in any means like "Spirited Away", but a great movie nonetheless, go rent it!

Rating:
Summary: Greatest of all time.....
Review: This was by far one of the greatest Anime's ever produced. It's a must buy. It's the bench mark for all Anime movies. The characters are great and if your into Anime and sword play this is the DVD for you. I'm waiting for the next chapter.

Rating:
Summary: 5 for the movie, 2 for the dvd.
Review: This is an awesome movie. All the characters are realistic in their emotions and you really feel for some of them (especially Kagome). The plot twist of Jubei gets poisoned (not a spoiler, happens ten minutes into it) is a cool countdown plot. Though the animation is outdated, it looked good when i so about 3 years ago. But, the dvd is TERRIBLE! Of course, I expect this from Manga now.The features are nice, but the quality of sound and picture is horrible. It's like a VHS copy. Overall, good movie, bad DVD.

Rating:
Summary: A horrid excuse for an anime. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!
Review: ZERO STARS IF POSSILBE

As far as this pitifully over glorified bloodbath is concerned, I am at a loss for words. This pathetic piece of work is something recommended by a friend. So, I end up buying it and find that to my disdain, it is not at all what it is cracked up to be. It starts with Jubei, a ex-ninja turned bounty hunter, fighting two random guys he seems to know and then turning away and walking into a forest where he meets a slue of underdeveloped characters. Finding the plot for this film is like finding a needle in a hay stack. The grabastic character development went along at a snails pace, often jumping from scene to scene with no introduction the new characters. At times the movie would take a turn for the worst, featuring a LARGE ROCK DEMON RAPING A INNOCENT NINJA WOMAN WITHOUT A REASON OR MOTIVE!!!!

I made myself watch this movie to the end simply to say I saw it. I feel that if individuals concider this, truly a work of art in its own putrid right, to be qualified as "anime," that my days for the genre have been numbered.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best anime movies you will ever see
Review: This movie is a must have. There is alot of extreme violence and nudity but it adds to the depth of the film. You get really attached to the characters and the story. The main character is about as bad a$$ as they come, and the heroine isnt the typical weak stupid female who cant do anything. See this movie

Rating:
Summary: Rumor of a new edition
Review: This is an amazing movie, I am a huge fan. I have recently heard that a 10 year anniversary edition will be availible in June. I am looking forward to seeing all the enhancements it will contain. I highly recommend this movie, thought it is a touch violent and definally not aimed at a younger audience. All anime fans I have known have always placed this in, or near there top 5 of all time, and I can agree with that.

Rating:
Summary: Ninja Scroll has everything anime should have action and sex
Review: Out Look: Jubei an excellent ninja who travels just to find a place to stay and gold. He saves a girl, Kagero and is drawn in to a web of treachery facing dangers only gods should face.

My advice: By the movie to find out more, and you will see one of the greatest animes of all time!

Rating:
Summary: Jap Anime! Jap Anime! Jap Anime! I love it!
Review: This is a Japanese Animation Classic in my town. Ghost in a Shell and Ninja Scroll rule over dusty stuff like Akira. Ghost in a Shell is flashy and futuristic and Ninja Scroll is mystic and what you could call a teazer into studying japanese history and culture.

Like with all japanese animation you have to realise that you are watching something written by people from another culture. Ninja Scroll definatly has it's universal apeal, but if you can't handle forighn films, you'll probably have difficulty likeing Ninja Scroll.

I rate this movie five stars, I thought it was great. The wandering ronin/ninja, the mysterious overshadowing evil, the unusual cast of villans all add up to a great movie. No not for kids but then you knew that allready. It's deffinatly grittier than your average american cartoon. It has an edge to it something that might make more sense once you get into japanisma and the whole culture.

The bible belt christian set probably won't get this stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Not what its hyped up to be
Review: First and foremost, this film presents excelent actionshots, its quite thrilling and definitly entertaining. The graphics are better than whats usual for animefilms, and the english dub is also quite good.

Thats the positive side though...the main problem is the lack of character development, it seems like you are expected to know the main characters before you see the film, and everytime they get into a tight spot they reveal a new skill thats totally unrealistic given what you know of them. They are also cold and unemotional, and you simply dont get emotionally engaged in their efforts to save feudal Japan.

It does however introduce some very interesting opponents, one guy got a beehive in his back, another one is a blind ninja that fights through his hearing, unfortunatly these ideas arent followed through -- they suddenly appear and is killed of ten seconds later, I ended up thinking that everything could have gotten so much better with some rewriting in the script..building up the suspense some more prior to the encounters, the movie doesnt last much more than 90 minutes anyway so they have room for it as animemovies are so expensive.

The film has also been censored, wich is okay at times, but this particular movie revolves strongly around being for adults, and looses some of its purity as its essence has been sliced, you get the feeling that something is missing in here, and the atmosphere gets unsufficent.

The plot features a lovestory, but this bit is seriously cut short by the lack of characters, and its not given enough priority to be emotionally engaging.. Its like putting a block of ice in the micro for ten seconds, it has the potential of getting hot, but it ends up being just as cold.

As a conclusion I would have to say that even if the movie is good slasher-entertainment its not something you will go around remembering a long time after, and this is a shame, because the movie had the potential of being a classic..