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Sword of the Stranger is action packed adventure full of amazing eyesights - from incredible fighting scenes to breathtaking landscapes and nature views.
Unfortunately with that potential, it fails to be a masterpiece.

The biggest problem I found with it were the characters.

Nanashi, one of the two main characters (if we leave the dog out) is a goodhearted vagabond who happens to be ultimate swordsman haunted by his past. Nothing original, put the hauting-past aside and you have Jubei from Ninja Scroll. But he is somewhat lovable and that’s what ninja movies are about - ultimate swordsmen, right? What else could I expect, duh!

Kotarou, another main character, ... is a child. Unlike Hollywood movies, I found children in anime not as annoying. Until now. Kotarou is annoying, ungrateful and disrespectful little bastard. And his actions sometimes are out of control, I mean no one would act in the way he does. So he feels a bit stretched and unrealistic.

Having said that, main characters are not too bad. Their dialogues are good enough for an action movie.

Villains and supporting characters however are really dull.

There is only one that stands out and even him I couldn’t find interesting in any way. He is neither - nor well developed, nor kept mysterious enough to be frightening. He is simply an ultimate swordsman that we know is going to fight the last battle.

Putting characters aside, plot is actually quite good. Nothing ground-braking of course and obviously not a head scratcher with some deeper thoughts and meanings, but not bad at all. Story line has nice twists and betrayals here and there, but the main events are quite predictable.

All these flaws aside, Sword of the Stranger is highly enjoyable movie. As said, views are really amazing. Not only fighting scenes, but everything. And I mean absolutely everything! So you will not want to miss a second of it!
Not only that, it surrounds with such a great atmosphere and makes you feel like you are in the inside the movie!

Like you were a vagabond yourself…

Ninja Scroll was the first anime I have ever seen. I probably was going to elementary school at that time and I’m not sure how my friends parents allowed us to see this sick and twisted story full of gore and tits.
Needless to say, I couldn’t understand a jack shit of what was actually going on, but man did I love it.

Ninja Scroll also marks my new found interest in anime. It is the first anime movie I’ve seen in 5 years. I loved it, and since then I’ve already watched about 10 anime movies.

It is, in a nutshell, an action movie. And action here ... is great. Let me rephrase that: it’s awesome beyond belief! But what is action alone without great characters, interesting storyline, fitting music and heavy atmosphere? For me, action is never a key ingredient into great movie, and too often movies rely only on fighting, jumping and ass kicking.

Not the case here. Suspense is as it’s highest throughout the film. It will never let go and you’ll have not a second to rest. If that wasn’t enough, it is all done in great animation and surrounded by awesome sound.

Atmosphere is at a highest level. I’ve been looking for something like this for so long. It’s certainly not horror, but has some touch of it. Not in a silly cat-jumps-out-to-scare-the-shit-out-of-you way, but in that dark, creepy and let me repeat myself - suspenseful way.

Storyline is quite simple, but has many micro twists and is not clear from the very beginning. We are left to figure everything out as we go along and that keeps it interesting until the end.

To top it all of, both, heroes and villains are really well written. Dialog is great, and characters are not some generic faceless douchebags that you wouldn’t care for. By the end of the story, you will find attached to them for sure.

Good thing you can always re watch this masterpiece and meet them again.

10/10

Jin-Roh for me was all about transformation: from a man to a beast - the wolf.
Fuse, a human in Special Forces and a member of a secret Wolf Brigade, is somewhat not fit in yet. He still has humanity within him when he hesitates to kill a terrorist girl. Is he the only human in the pack of wolves?
His dreams and thoughts throughout the movie suggests so. It’s an inner battle that goes inside him while the twisted plot of the movie unfolds and gives us reasons for his actions and dreams.

It is really slow paced and heavily emotional movie, but at the same time ... somehow it manages to be very intense and keep you at the edge of your seat.
Especially towards the end, when truth and lies become clear and you’re left racing with your mind wondering how it will end for the main characters.

Well written dialogs and realistic personalities makes you really care what happens to them.

Music is simply fascinating. From the opening scene I already knew I’m in for the something that will leave me thinking about. For me, sound is one of the most important aspects of any movie, especially if it is as emotional as this one.

Great and realistic characters, well written dialog, not straight forward story line and dark atmosphere makes Jin-Roh a remarkable experience.

10/10

originally written for www.mykkanime.tumblr.com

I’ve seen Ghost in the Shell 6 years ago and I hated it.

Watching it 6 years later was amazing experience. One week after watching, I’m still haunted by the cold atmosphere it created and existential questions it raised.

The movie is very slow, there are few action scenes and they are really cool, but the strength of the movie is not action. In fact, if you expect action, ass kicking, fast cars and stuff like that, you will be greatly disappointed.

My favorite scenes are the slowest ones, accompanied with excellent music, they blew me away. They have something cold, atmospheric and even sad about them.

However Ghost ... in the Shell is nothing without its philosophical touch. When human is no longer human? Are we still human? Is artificial intelligence human? What’s consciousness? Maybe we are just a puppet in the puppet masters hands?

I will have to watch it again few times until I can fully grasp everything.

And do I mind? Not at all, I’m already looking forward to it!

10/10

originally written for http://mykkanime.tumblr.com/

Sky Blue is probably the lamest anime movie I have seen so far. Not that it is entirely bad, I have enjoyed watching it, but if someone asked me what I think about it, “lame” would be a perfect word.

Lameness begins with storyline. It is the most generic dystopian future storyline that you could think of.
Mankind has split into groups of two: elite, who live in ultra sterile futuristic Eden, and working class who live in the wasteland.

While I think it is accurate vision of the future or even depiction of the present day (we already are divided by where we live, where we eat, ... relax, etc), I can’t help but find it boring.
Boredom begins because now we have very clear distinction of who are the good guys and who are the bad guys. I wish we would see this movie from one side only. Like, if we only saw elite, bad guys and good guys could shown opposite and thus a chance for a nice plot twist.

However it is not the case and everything is as predictable as it gets. You know exactly what is going to happen in the end. Maybe not the details, but on the large scale, everything is clear from the very start.

Characters are also really lame. I couldn’t care less about any of them, except maybe some secondary guys who are way more sympathetic than the main guys!
Main characters are blank, uninspired, generic and boring.

Music is … I don’t remember it. It is there, but always somewhere in the background.

However there are some positive things I can say about this one: wasteland is really cool, more time and character development in there could have created nice Mad Max atmosphere.

Eden invasion was a tribute to Death Star invasion and I always love references and tributes. Too bad I don’t really like Star Wars.

Other than that, it is an mediocre sci-fi movie with nice animation, boring characters and decent story line.

Some extra points for me wishing to look at the sky more often after watching this.

6/10

originally written for http://mykkanime.tumblr.com/