Ninja Scroll is a nice tight anime which can’t be said for all animes that sometimes sprawl for season after season. The series could have been much longer with episodes like this and it is a nice break from the main story, but it also shows you the potential that Ninja Scroll had for having season after season of adventure. There is a fun, standalone episode within the story in which Jubei faces the sins of his past in the wife and child of someone he is responsible for killing.

While most of the creatures in the series could have carried the whole series, it was almost a joke in that these creepy critters could pose so little danger to Jubei…I really wish we had some more of Ubume (and her pop-out kid), Azami (a character who unfortunately is victimized multiple times including a pretty graphic rape scene), and Rengoku who along with the other characters could have been developed more. It keeps introducing fantastic enemies that are more and more horrible…then they quickly kill them.

The flow of the series in general is just odd.

Remember when a spider-woman sewed you onto a dog? Good times! The last few episodes of the series seek to build the tension, but I sometimes wish that tension was present earlier in the series. Even when he’s injured, he gets over it rather quickly. He holds a powerful weapon in his sword and his ability to slash quick while creating an extendable “arm” of himself through the waves it creates. The only problem with this is that Jubei feels rather invincible. The story is rather basic in that you have a swordsman guarding a woman who has a destiny to unlock, and all parties face insurmountable odds as they face attackers from all sides.

The series is largely adult and doesn’t feature as many of the “kid anime” features that are common (even in the adult shows). As I sought to clear out my backlog of TV and movies, my recent renewed interest in anime had me land on Ninja Scroll rather early…and it was an enjoyable turn. He loved it, and when I found a used copy of it, I decided to pick it up…and then the series sat. Ninja Scroll was recommended to me by a friend.

Ninja scroll movie english dub ep 4