Shuranosuke Zanmaken: Shikamamon no Otoko

Cheap ass version of Ninja Scroll. That's all I could think of as I watched this and thought about the trailer I seen for this. How dare they compare this to NInja Scroll. Dub was boring and poorly cast, story is familiar at best, action and violence is cheap and generic. Don't let the trailer fool you. However, If your a fan of cheesy dubs and the horribly over-acted OVAs, this one's for you. Weak blood sprays and cheap character design really make for a low-budget looking title. Yet, as a fan of these types, I have this dvd in my collection. It's right there ... with Riding Bean, Vampire Wars and M.D Geist and can easily be rewatched due to it's short runtime. If you don't expect too much, you won't be disappointed.

Contrary to animegorey's review, I actually found this to be better than Ninja Scroll but not so much because of the quality but because it's less fantasy and therefore comes much closer to the appeal of such shows as Fist of the North Star.

The biggest disappointment is that the ending disappoints when it could have been easily continued. Certainly the protagonists while not necessarily being special aren't very annoying compared to most other samurai films.

Not annoying might be underselling the characters though. The professional assassin feel of the characters carry this movie. That is, while normally the lack of character development is a detriment ... ...maybe because it's rare for an anime to have a combination of Golgo 13 + Lone Wolf and Cub and a more silent bad ass Rurouni Kenshin's Sato meet up with a gaijin-like hand to hand grappler who just defeated a fat but seemingly veteran like Samurai but there's almost a Zen-like atmosphere to the whole movie.

Like a Zen koan though, length is one of the best and worst features of this movie.

You just don't know if the ending was intentionally there to spread a type of thought provoking message or it's merely there because the movie had no direction.

Nonetheless, in the right mood, this mediocre anime can seemingly be worth a peek and may rise as much as an 8 if you can see past through this as an adventure anime featuring a samurai and more like a Golgo 13-like side event where the events don't really hold much storytelling substance but amid the confusing scenes in the end "it's all part of the character's existence".

Overview:

Sword for Truth was widely considered by otaku during the 1990s to be one of the worst anime of all time! The infamy has died down and now it is simply unknown. It was released in the US under the title: Ninja Scroll 2. This is despite the fact that it was made before Ninja Scroll and has absolutely nothing to do with Ninja Scroll. A far more appropriate title would be: WHAT!? It is very appropriate that this was made during the 1990s, because you are going to say WHAT!? when viewing this pile of shit more often than Stone Cold Steve ... Austin!

Story: 1/10

This is quite easily the least coherent story in the history of anime. Not because it is trying to be artsy and is using layers on layers of symbolism. No, it is due to nonsensical scene cuts, plot points that are brought up once and completely abandoned, and the COMPLETE INEPTITUDE of the writer. A princess is captured and a powerful samurai is hired to get her back. The story starts out quite simple. However, the movie will cut away during a fight to introduce some random character that will never be seen or heard from again. One of the main bad guys is fighting the main character when random lesbian ninjas show up for no reason with zero explanation and fight the baddie while our hero wanders off. It never shows how the fight even finished between the baddie and the lezzies and fucking of course it never mentions any of them again! After capturing the princess, the bad guys try to use a hot hooker chick to make the princess fall in love with her and steal her family sword, which they were already demanding as ransom. This was the entire point of capturing the princess. So the bad guys went with 1 plan and then started a second plan that would only work if they hadn't already gone with the first plan??! WHAT!? This is just an excuse for a hot girl on girl sex scene, that is generally considered to be the "highlight" of this fucking movie! The hero saves the princess, but while rowing a boat is randomly attacked by a sea monster with no explanation. However, the hero slashes the monster with his sword and it explodes....WHAT!? After returning the princess to her father, the father decides that the Samurai touched the princess and should be killed, but then changes his mind at the last second and offers a reward, which the samurai refuses because, "you can't kick dog and then give him a treat". The samurai then crosses paths with a character that it randomly cut to several times and is supposedly an assassin, but they don't fight. They just say that they both reek of blood and the movie ends. This movie reeks of BULLSHIT!

characters: 1/10

Not a single character in this film has any level of character development. I can barely describe the characters using trope names because they don't even have that much development. The bad guys have unestablished motives for why they want the sword. They are just bad guys. The hero isn't cool, isn't badass, has no interesting traits. The princess is apparently bicurious, but that is the entire extent of her character. She just has sex with every man and woman she comes across. huh huh... hey Beavis, I said comes! 90s moment, couldn't help it!

Art: 1/10

Unlike Ninja Scroll, Sword for Truth actually has quite terrible art. This makes it fairly insulting to call it a sequel to Ninja Scroll, which was stupid as hell but at least it was well animated, coherent, and most of all fucking fun!

Entertainment: 1/10

It actually hurts to watch this piece of shit. I only recommend watching this one with pain killers at the ready!

Overall: 1/10

Dear sweet GOD this movie was bad! The only reason anyone ever rented this during the 1990s was because the false title Ninja Scroll 2. It takes a special kind of bad to be both physically painful and absolutely rage inducing. This is one of those anime!