Ranked #3603

Ninja Resurrection

There comes a time in every anime watcher’s life that he or she must stare pure horror in the face and, as much as one may not want to, watch an anime that makes their skin crawl. My friends, this was my time.

I can honestly say that this anime did have a decent introduction. The narration, read over stills of maps and old pictures, paints a picture of a potentially decent story. The instant the real animation starts, however, all of the hype is lost in a sea of dismembered corpses. When I say sea, I mean it. The amount of blood and gore in these 2 OVA alone is more than enough to almost give Berserk and Elfen Lied a run for their money; even two children are slaughtered and their decapitated heads are shown to the viewer. If you think that these action scenes are well animated, think again. For a 1998 OVA, the animation is horrific, using stills to simulate the ninja “dashing” by and killing guards along the way. Let’s also not forget the gratuitous sex scenes that do absolutely nothing for the main story line and are equally difficult, if not more so, to stomach. Though the gloomy style of art fits well enough, it is no where near enough to bring this title out of mediocrity.

To make matters worse, Ninja Resurrection is historically based. If the producers would have stuck to the time period in question, this series may have gone down a bit easier. Instead, they decide that Jubei’s crew should have a little help in their battles. The ninjas somehow come across the wonders of 20th century technology in their fight against Shiro and his followers; one ninja even sports a rocket launcher (Yes, you read correctly) and another flies overhead with the aid of a jet pack. Keep in mind, folks, that this anime is taking place in the Japan of the 1600’s.

I really can’t say anything more without repeating myself. If you want a good series based off of real Japanese history, pick up something like Rurouni Kenshin instead. However, if you’re a masochist, then by all mean, pick up Ninja Resurrection at your own risk. Fair warning though, this might even be too painful for a masochist to watch. read more

There's really not much to say about this OVA, I rented it thinking I was getting something related to Ninja Scroll and instead I received a headache from trying to figure out how Jubei was suddenly missing an eye.

This was a gore-fest, which I don't necessarily have a problem with (I love Berserk, Elfen Lied, etc.) as long as I get some plot along with my disembodied heads. But not only was there gore but random violence against children, rape, satanic sacrifices, more rape, more innocent people getting slaughtered for no reason whatsoever... it gets annoying after about, oh, an hour of this.

I really wouldn't have minded this OVA so much if there was some point to it. I might actually say that I liked it, there was definitely a lot of potential, but in the end everything that happened meant nothing. The OVA just ends. We're just about to start this huge climatic battle against the forces of evil and satan's reincarnation and then... the credits roll.

There is no sequel, no continuation, nothing.

So I pretty much just wasted 90 minutes of my life watching an OVA that had no point to it. I want to resurrect the time I lost and will never get back! read more