Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Mukou Hadan, Stranja, Stranger - Mukoh Hadan Japanese: ストレンヂア -無皇刃譚
Information
Type: Movie
Episodes: 1
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Sep 29, 2007
Duration:
1 hr. 43 min. Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 8.581 (scored by 8408 users)
Ranked: #432
Popularity: #294
Members: 13,197
Favorites: 207 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
action historical samurai |
SynopsisThe story is set in the Sengoku period. A rounin called Nanashi (meaning 'nameless') saves a young boy Kotarou at an abandoned temple. Kotarou has no family, is pursued by a mysterious militia organization from China and hires Nanashi as his bodyguard. Amongst the men who pursue Kotarou is a man called Rarou, a skilled warrior with blond hair and blue eyes. He obeys an old man called Byakuran and is a member of the Chinese militia. Unlike his companions in the militia, he isn't serving any Emperor and just wants to fight with the strong. (Source: Iwa ni Hana) |
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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ace52387
14 of 16 people found this review helpful
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1 of 1 episodes seen
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
8 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Character |
7 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
Story:
Stranger is first and foremost an action movie. Because the meat and potatoes don’t lie primarily with the plot, its straightforward and very typical “unlikely hero” premise is forgivable. A wandering swordsman reluctantly agrees to protect a child from an elite Chinese expedition. The local feudal lord joins the pursuit, stacking the odds further against the protagonists.
By no means am I implying that the story is bland. The web of tangled motives creates conflicts between the feudal government and the Chinese, and also internal conflicts within each group. There’s plenty of plot movement here to justify a feature length film even though the simple premise of “samurai protects child” remains throughout. The overall simplicity is, in fact, a benefit to this historical martial arts epic; the story flows at a brisk pace, but remains cohesive and effortless to follow. This straightforward approach to the plot lends itself to the primal, action oriented appeal of this film.
Animation:
In the bread and butter aspects of the visuals, Stranger isn’t especially impressive for a movie. Though the character animations show consistent attention to details of weight and balance, the ugly CG and the lack of textural details in the background make the more mundane scenes easily mistaken for a half decent TV series.
As soon as the first action scene shows up-and fret not, for this occurs during the opening credits, the merits in the visuals suddenly become abundantly clear. Aesthetically, these scenes are impressive. The characters are spritely and acrobatic, but grounded with a touch of realism in their body mechanics. Even in the fastest exchanges, the frames of animation are sufficient to keep individual moves distinguishable.
Regarding everything that puts the drama into gratifying action scenes, Stranger delivers in spades. The action choreography moves at lightning speed with elaborate exchanges passing within the blink of an eye, but apart from a few of the villains’ excessively acrobatic flourishes, the characters’ techniques still manage to stay within their weapons and personalities. The main character, for instance, is an unambitious, get the job done kind of guy, which comes through in the action scenes with his simple, fundamentally sound usage of his two handed sword. The fact that he actually cuts and thrusts with two hands may seem like a trifle detail, but it contributes to the continuity of his character. Considering the characters’ personalities in the choreography make it altogether more believable, more engrossing, than if it had been treated merely as eye candy.
This film puts the “acting” of the characters to good, tension building use as well. With their body language and facial expressions, most of the characters show fear as they barely manage to thwart an attack and an eruption of killer intent as they deal a finishing blow. A few of the villains are emotionally unphased by pain, which, by design or not (in this case, it is by the design of the plot), saps a little of the drama out of these scenes. Still, a good majority of the cast members, including the main character, deliver convincing performances that make these fight scenes more like a tooth and nail brawl, and less like a ballet masquerading as violence.
Sound:
The music primarily consists of the powerful orchestral pieces typical of epics. The ever present leather drum beats and flute solos give the soundtrack a distinct Asian flavor appropriate for the setting. The full onslaught of an orchestra of strings or a blaring leather drum beat are played against the action scenes, while unaccompanied flute solos match well with the more tender segments. Despite the range of emotions that the different tracks embody, the Asian motif keeps the soundtrack cohesive, as if each track was part of a single, larger piece of music.
My one glaring issue is the “dub” put over the Chinese expedition. It’s shown many times in the movie that these characters don’t speak Japanese with any semblance of fluency. Most of the time, their lines will be dubbed in Japanese, leaving the viewer to imagine that in reality, the language they are speaking is Chinese. On the other hand, at seemingly random points, these characters will actually speak Chinese to each other. How the director decided when Chinese was appropriate as opposed to the dub is beyond me. One character may deliver a Chinese line, and the very next line he utters in the same scene will be dubbed. It’s also a little jarring when half of the expedition speaks perfect Chinese while the other half speak it so poorly that had the context not been there, I’d have sooner guessed it to be broken German than broken Chinese.
Characters:
The characters in Stranger have few nuances. Simply describing the two main characters as lone wolves, one a petulant child, the other a reluctant, carefree ronin, covers most of the complexities you will see in their personalities. From this description you could probably also guess that the two characters eventually bond, and bring out the virtues within one another. The child learns to be more appreciative and apologetic, while the ronin finds meaning in self sacrifice. The rest of the cast is equally simple, only the exact opposite of the two protagonists. They’re not malice embodied ala traditional Disney villains, but they do demonstrate the darker side of humanity: cowardice, ambition, blood thirst, greed, and several other character flaws. The heroism and purity of the protagonists are highlighted nicely next to the backdrop of immorality in the rest of the cast.
The emphasis of these characters is the virtuous courage of our ronin hero; going against the world if need be to save an innocent child. The clash of heroic self sacrifice and greed inspired villainy gives the cast a bedtime story charm that is unhindered by simple and clear characterizations. The two main characters also avoid my two greatest peeves with one dimensional leads; their defining quirks aren’t obnoxiously exaggerated, and they prefer emotional understatement over melodrama. Instead of beating you over the head screaming “this is my unique personality!” or sulking and bawling at their own misfortunes, the two main characters retain a believable mildness that separates them from the droves of corny single-layer characters.
You can, and ought to, leave your higher thought processes behind while watching Stranger. Its story piques our deepest, most primal sense of morality, and the action fuels our savage desire to watch violence unfold. If at any time you are too lazy to follow convoluted plots, too irritable to stomach pretentious lectures on philosophy, but you want to find release in heart pounding action sequences, then there is no title more elegant than Stranger that will satiate such a craving. read more
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knockngoc
9 of 11 people found this review helpful
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1 of 1 episodes seen
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| Overall |
9 |
| Story |
9 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Character |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
Story: 9
Off the bat, after reading the synopsis, you come to the conclusion...Wow this sounds pretty darn interesting but a little sketchy as well. You may seem inclined to feel that this may be one of those animes where the artwork looks great, but the story isn't there at all. Please, I do recommend you watching this, the story is a little out there, but considering the times and how everyone wants the "miracle or everlasting..." it was good. The idea of how they get this miracle..was a little far-fetched. However that doesn't mean the story isn't good. From beginning to end there is a good flow to story as well as the the character development.
Art: 10
What can I say, AMAZING. This has got to be one of the best artworks. I was pleased to see no fireballs of death coming from the palms of the fighters or spiritual energies radiating from the bodies. What it comes down to, crisp lines with great shadows and beautiful colors. Plus what makes it shine even more is the fact that it is in HD! Can't beat that. Plus the fight scenes were choreographed amazingly. The nice touch of sparks as the swords clashed and blood spewing from the characters were very nicely done. There were a few parts in the movie that I didn't quite like the artwork. It seemed too computer generated with the angles they did, it didn't quite flow with the rest of the amazing artwork. Nonetheless, the artwork rocked this movie!
Sound: 10
Again, HD quality, hard to beat. I was surprised to hear 2 languages. It was a nice realistic touch to have two different languages spoken by the characters considering there were the Chinese and Japanese. Would be funny to see Chinese people speaking Japanese considering the timeline. Then again, we always see that happening in anime since it is just easier on everyone. Besides that, spot on sounds, everything sounded like it should have, metal against metal, wood cracking/snapping etc.
Character: 9
Character development was smoothly shown. At first, I didn't understand anything about the characters. There was just bam! Action! But as the story progresses and the characters' paths intertwined, the characters began the open up to each other and seem to be real. Even though it was a little of a cliche to uncover the main character's sudden history revealed to us at such a climatic moment. It was done well and once that happened, it was very easily understood why his actions were as such before.
Enjoyment: 9.5
I give that a 9.5 but I won't round up to 10. Only because I love the romance genre and this didn't have any. *Sobs in the corner* But just amazing on how the story was laid out. I was never bored. I mean, how can you be bored with swordsmen slicing off heads and arms and blood spewing across the screen? It just doesn't happen. As I stated before, loved the whole no super powers from the characters. That would have really killed it. I haven't seen such a well executed anime showdown with only cold steel and skills. I'm just used to the gun fire, spam of explosions, and miraculous powers. So this was a nice change.
Overall: 9 (Can't Round)
Given the formula, Amazing Story + Exquisite Artwork + Realistic Sounds + Great Characters = Phenomenal Blockbuster Hit!
Really, if you haven't seen the movie, please watch it. I mean it's so great of a movie that I am writing a review on it. I have never written a review before but this was that great of a movie, so thats saying something. So stop reading this stupid review of mine and just go watch it. SERIOUSLY STOP READING AND WATCH THE DARN THING ALREADY. YOU WON'T REGRET IT! And if you do regret it, sorry... read more
Recommendations
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Both have similar stories and great action, although Stranger has more action.
Similar theme~
And both have gorgeous art as a bonus.
Both animes have a very similar story (a guardian figure, in the form of a very skillful warrior, protecting the weaker innocent.) Seirei no moribito, being a tv series based on an epic fantasy novel series, obviously contains much more details in terms of story, characters and the setting. Sword of the stranger lacks that detail since its only a movie targeted at a smaller audience. When I saw moribito, I was expecting a lot of action. I was a bit disappointed, even though 3 of the 6 fights of the series were really amazing. Thats probably because I was more of a action who*e back then...
so I really think that if you want a more fast paced, adrenaline-driven version of moribito with better action, then you dont need to look further than stranger - Mukoh Hadan. Though moribito has much more depth in terms of story and is much more heavy on the characters. 26 episodes also make sure that there is enough 'lore' to give the series (moribito) a stronger 'soul'
both are great animes!
Serei no moribito has a similair plot with Sword of the stranger.
Both anime have a amazing production quality.
Sword of the stranger concentrate on the action scenes, while Moribito focust on a epic story with a lot of drama, a slice of life and fantasy scenes with also(less) amazing action sequence.
Both with amazing animation, similar situations, background and some similarities in the characters.
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both samurai and have awesome art and fighting scenes
Both are recommended to to anyone looking for some impressive sword fights and strong characters.
If you loved the action in one of the two, you should definitely check the other out. Champloo's action focuses more on the details and fluidity while sword of the stranger's has a more emotion driven and cinematic 'feel' to it.
They're both samurai themed with verry stylized fighting sequences, and both Mugen and Nanashi have a thing for saving the helpless (then of course getting so attached to the ones they saved that they risk their lives for them em' everytime they get in trouble... -.-)
Both have beautiful art and thoughtful stories. Also both have action that is executed well and without being gratuitous or over done.
It has the same type of fighting style, in my opinion - it's wild, anything goes!
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Ending ThemeNo ending themes found, add themes.
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Related ClubsStudio BONES Fan Club, hardcore violence and gore, Battle Arena, Anime Movie Club, Samurai & Ninja Club, ~ Takai's LEAGUE ~, We ~ Love ~ Anime, - ~ Miyano Mamoru Fanclub ~ - , Historical Anime , Anime Experience, Anime Fights/Battles. , Moetaku, Sword of the Stranger, We don't like fringe!, The Real Man Club, Anfiniti Network
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