Ninja Scroll

The characters and battles are super cool! Best animated film ever made!

Ultra violent, high octane action and ultra bloody. What more could you need in an anime? still stands, but this one deserves more than a line so here goes the setup is simple. feudal japan, Jubei is a wandering swordsman for hire, and he gets dragged into a fight with the Eight Devils of Kimon, a squad of ninjas with straight up supernatural powers. a scheming old government spy called Dakuan basically blackmails him into the job, and a Koga kunoichi named Kagero ends up tagging along. that's all you need going in the action is the whole reason to watch. every Devil has a totally different gimmick so each fight feels like a new boss battle, and Kawajiri (who wrote and directed it) makes every hit land hard. for a 1993 film the animation still looks v good, fluid and heavy at the same time. Hmm. there's a reason the Wachowskis named it as an influence on The Matrix Jubei is peak cool loner. barely talks, never panics, just handles it. Dakuan is lowkey the best character, shady old man energy, you never fully trust him and that's the fun. Kagero is the heart of the movie, her poison body thing is such a tragic idea and she's way tougher than the plot gives her credit for. hot take: she deserved more screen time than half the Devils the Eight Devils are the real stars tho. creepy, gross, memorable designs, some of them genuinely unsettling. not deep but they don't need to be music and atmosphere are underrated. Kaoru Wada's score mixes traditional japanese sound with big dramatic moments and it makes everything feel grim and moody. v dark vibe how it holds up: the action and art 100% hold up. the story is thin, it's mostly there to set up the next fight, and some of the old 90s anime habits haven't aged well. heads up, it's an adult film: tons of graphic violence and gore, plus sexual content including sexual violence toward women in a couple of scenes. it's not for everyone verdict: if you love samurai/ninja action and classic 90s anime this is a must watch, one of the ones that got anime big outside japan alongside Akira and Ghost in the Shell. 10/10 for me, nothing else does bloody ninja action like this

Ultra violent, high octane action and ultra bloody. What more could you need in an anime?