Ninja Scroll: The Series

What a terrible anime. I truly had high hopes for the Ninja Scroll anime series, based of the classic anime movie. Boy I was in for a major disappointment. The anime takes place fourteen years after the movie following Kibagami Jubei who's still roaming Japan and meets Shigure a priestess and things go down hill fast from there. Ninja Scroll the movie was a classic. The story was concise, the animation was great, the action was exciting and the characters were interesting. The series on the other hand was the complete reverse. The story was unbelievable and the tone of the anime had no drama forthe story. The animation wasn't very good. The music was good, and that's the only thin that kept it from getting the one. The characters weren't interesting and you couldn't care about, even Jubei was one of those characters. God I wanted this to be a good anime. I am truly sad it wasn't.

Throughout this entire series I was up and down in deciding whether it was good or bad. I decided it is neither. Ninja Scroll: The Series is beyond the scope of simple definitions such as good or bad. It is B-movie! The only, and best, way to describe this anime is through comparing it to classic American B-movies, so I'd say you could call it B-anime. Most of you will be going into the series after watching the movie, which I admit was much better, and so will most likely be disappointed. That's because you'll also expect the same quality, but I'm warning you that you'lldiscover something entirely different. And that's whether your sense of humor can overcome your sense of quality. I guess mine can occasionally experience a power surge, because the Ninja Scroll series made me laugh out loud on countless occasions. The cheesy and cliched lines, quirky humor , the repulsive monsters, the gore, the occasional nudity, this all equates to your average modus operandi of a good B-class movie, and Ninja Scroll's got it all baby. With the plot being pretty basic, ok terrible, it's left up to the characters to keep this train on the rails...and they kinda do. I'd have to give Tsubute(young thief with stupid bandage) credit here for cracking some smart-ass lines and generally inserting a bit of classic light comedy, whereas Jubei(wise-ass ninja dude) masterfully utilizes all the great sarcastic hero jibe to poke at all the small 'inconsistencies' of evil-doers. The animation was passable, with the enemy's character designs getting quite interesting, but mention must be made of the soundtrack which at times reminded me of Mortal Kombat and the like. However this wasn't the only reason I gave sound a 7, the voice actors were also a classic form of 'bad'(english dub), but it was in a funny and fitting way. So before you begin ranting about seven being way to high for the quality, I'll remind you that all sevens given in this review were purely from a comedic-B-movie-enjoyment perspective. In the end I was quite satisfied, although I don't know whether that was because of the series, or because it finished. It was still a decent piece of easy watching, reminded me of the good old morning cartoon watching days(but slightly more adult; not really in the area themes). Your enjoyment of this series will definitely depend on what you find funny, but if you're a fan of B-movies, definitely give this one a try.

If you are looking for the story creativity and mood of ninja scroll well this isn't it. If you liked jubei and want to see him fight some more while hanging around a familiar old face (that he does not remember) it is worth it to watch. The fights were slick looking and not drawn out and out of all that is different jubei's attitude remains the same and that puts a smile on my face.

I actually enjoyed this anime...well I found it 'somewhat' entertaining to be exact. I'd rate it overall as a 6.8/10. The story is pretty basic if you're familiar with this type of ronin/ninja genre in anime. Princess is being chased by bad guys, runs into a strong ninja/samurai and they end up journeying together while he protects her. Then some others end up tagging along with them on their journey. Im sort of fan of this type of thing so you can count that as part of why I found this entertaining when some others did not. I have to admit the story dosent drawyou in all that much but there's definitely a progressive story holding everything together. This is probably because for an anime with a progressive storyline, it feels very episodic. Most of the episodes seemed put together simply to feature the new bad-guy(s)-of-the-day that Jubei must defeat. These battles are well animated and its interesting to watch how Jubei will go about defeating his new foe though a good portion of them end quick via a single strike from Jubei (his quick draw move a.k.a Wind Slash Technique). Sound isnt anything special but nothing bad either. The anime's intro uses an instrumental which serves as a theme throught the anime. Its a little catchy but really not anything special and can be easily forgotten. Voice acting is good as well as the various sound effects in the anime. Character is one of the reasons I watch these type of anime. The Jubei type character often draw my attention. Carefree & loves to relax until he gets drawn into battle where his strength and quick wits are revealed. The princess was a 'meh' character for me. Just someone trying understand more about why she's being chased. Then theres a boy thief and some mysterious old man some might be familiar with if they've seen the movie. The other main character draw here are the foes they encounter. They are mostly monstrous oddities with special abilities. Some come with a story while others are just a Jubei slash away before they are forgotten. Either way I found them entertaining. So there you have it. If your a fan of historical/wuxia anime with samurais/ninjas cutting up stuff I'd recommend this to you as a way to pass some time. Other than that I'd say its just some good ol "saturday morning cartoon" like a reviewer before mentioned. You can click "overrall ratings" to see my individual ratings for this anime but my overall score for it is 6.8/10.