Ranked #2644

Ninja Scroll: The Series

After watching the original movie and falling in absolute love with it I learned of the TV series. I was so ecstatic to watch what I thought would be an incredible series, to say I was dissapointed would be an understatement.

Story: This isn't where this anime fails. In fact I don't even mind the story, it's interesting but not incredibly original. Everyone wants to kill Shigure and there's only Jubei and two minor characters to protect her. Storyline progression isn't that great, I found myself in the 5th episode going "is something going to happen?"

Animation: Watching this anime didn't make my eyes carefully try to understand what I was seeing. Sometimes when I'm watching an anime (mainly Gankutsuou) I read the subtitles as quickly as possible so i can appreciate the art. Not so here.

Sound/Music: Honestly, when it comes to anime I believe that music is one of those subtle things that makes a great anime even greater, or a terrible anime much worse. Or whichever combination you like. I actually enjoyed the music in this, it did suit the feel of this anime.

Characters: Here is where this anime fails miserably. For people who have seen the movie you'll definitely recognize the monk and Jubei. The other characters are all new. The characters are all one-dimensional. I never found myself rooting for any character because the outcome, I knew, was going to be the same. All enemy ninjas bored me, every single one of them. I'm not a huge fan of monsters in a ninja series, i like them to be more human. I mean sure, throw in a couple monsters, but....when every character except the main party are monsters...it gets really boring. And they're all the stereotypes. I felt all the characters to be very Trigun-ish and when i looked it up, the character designer for Ninja Scroll was also the designer for Trigun. It worked for Trigun, it doesn't work for Ninja Scroll.

Enjoyment: I almost didn't want to finish this series. 13 episodes long, a little over 4 hours and i didn't want to finish it. I chuckled a few times, was entertained for a little bit each episode. But not nearly enough for me to actually have a good opinion of it.

Overall: A series which, compared to the film it was based off of, is horrible. If you haven't seen the movie you might disagree "I think your opinion is terrible, I quite enjoyed this series." I came in expecting to see something that would satisfy me the same way the movie did, and it didn't. I would however, recommend this if you're just needing some ninja-action. read more

Imagine you're standing in front of Van Gogh's masterpiece Starry Night. Then someone runs up from behind you and throws a bucket of sludge all over it and you're left standing there looking like Munch's The Scream. That's what happened with Ninja Scroll.

This series was the result of smearing an excellent movie with garbage.

The key elements to the success of Ninja Scroll (the movie) was an intriguing story, excellent animation, great fight scenes, and an interesting cast of characters. Ninja Scroll: The Series is severely devoid of all these.

Story-wise, this series was a complete bore. I honestly can't remember what exactly happened, and I've seen this series twice. Unfortunately, my memory's starting to work again. Jubei the wandering ninja gets involved with a young woman who has some significant purpose and basically has to protect her/kill anyone who tries to kill her. There were a bunch of battles that mostly seemed random, but apparently they're all linked somehow--I'm still not sure how. Anyway, this had one of the most unsatisfying, hard-to-follow plots ever mostly because it was so uninteresting. It seemed mostly episodic, so the good part is that you don't have to waste your brain cells trying to piece together a plot. A word to future viewers: this story has NOTHING to do with the original Ninja Scroll movie.

The art wasn't as horrible as it could have been. It wasn't very detailed, but the one or two saving graces was the blood and gore level. Most of the fight scenes were boring, and animated half-heartedly. I don't mean to compare this to the movie again, but honestly, the production for the movie was far superior. It's almost embarrassingly bad in comparison, actually.

The sound was pretty much a non-entity. I can't remember the OP or ED. The background music suited the era, but it was rather dull and uninspiring. Most scores move the audience, but the sound was stagnant for this anime.

Ugh, I can't believe I even have to talk about this now... The characters did absolutely nothing for this series. If you do know about Jubei beforehand, you're going to watch this and wonder who exactly is that man who has his name and looks like him: it's not the same Jubei. No, not that there was character development or another side of him that we're seeing--it's a total stranger. Jubei in the series acted like a robot with no emotions. The supporting cast was awfully annoying. The girl had no purpose other than to be a walking plot device, the thief who follows them adds very little, and the old monk from the movie reappears, but it might not have made a difference if his character was replaced with a log--he did absolutely nothing, did not even bother to manipulate or scheme like he normally does.

Ninja Scroll: The Series is painfully boring. Painful mostly because I kept banging my head into my desk from falling asleep so often. There's nothing that urges a viewer to watch it. Unless of course you're someone like me who loved the movie and wanted to see Jubei back in action.

Avoid. Stay away from this series. It's nothing like the movie, and even as an anime that stands-alone, it's terribly weak. No great action, no deep characters, no amazing storyline.

Ninja Scroll: The Series was a terrible thing to do to Ninja Scroll. read more