Stranger: Mukou Hadan (Sword of the Stranger)

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: ストレンヂア -無皇刃譚-

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Information

Type: Movie

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Sep 29, 2007

Producers: Bandai Visual, Shochiku, Sony Music Entertainment, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners

Licensors: Funimation, Bandai Entertainment

Studios: Bones

Source: Original

Genres: Action, Adventure

Themes: Historical, Samurai

Duration: 1 hr. 43 min.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 8.26¹ (scored by 164,520 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #307²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #707

Members: 333,066

Favorites: 2,992

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Funimation

8.26

Ranked #307Popularity #707Members 333,066

Episodes: /1

Synopsis

In the Sengoku period of Japan, a young orphan named Kotarou and his dog Tobimaru steal from unsuspecting villagers in order to make ends meet. However, Kotarou is forced to remain on the run when he finds himself being hunted down by assassins sent by China's Ming Dynasty for mysterious reasons not involving his petty crimes.

Fortunately, the duo run into Nanashi, a ronin who has taken refuge in a small temple, when Kotarou is attacked and Tobimaru poisoned. Although the samurai saves the helpless pair from their pursuers, he feels that there is no need to help them further; but when offered a gem in exchange for his services as a bodyguard, he reluctantly accepts Kotarou's offer of employment—just until Tobimaru is healed and the two reach their destination. As the three set out on a perilous journey, it soon becomes evident that their path is riddled with danger, as the Ming Dynasty has now sent a terrifying swordsman after them to capture Kotarou and fulfill a certain prophecy.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Stranger: Mukou Hadan won the award for Best Animated Feature at Brazil's International Fantastic Film Festival and was nominated for the same categories at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. It also won the 2009 "Menzione Speciale" recognition at Italy's Future Film Festival.

The film wasn't nominated to the Oscars, but it was amongst the 14 finalists for consideration to the Best Animated Feature Award; however, the final nominees were WALL-E, Bolt and Kung Fu Panda.

Episode Videos

Episode 1

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Stranger: Mukou Hadan
Other:	Stranger: Mukou Hadan Pilot

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Characters & Voice Actors

Nanashi

Main

Nagase, Tomoya
Japanese

Tobimaru

Main

Luo Lang

Main

Yamadera, Kouichi
Japanese

Kotarou

Main

Chinen, Yuuri
Japanese

Feng Wu

Supporting

Nojima, Hirofumi
Japanese

Mu Mao

Supporting

Mizusawa, Fumie
Japanese

Inui, Juurouta

Supporting

Miyano, Mamoru
Japanese

Itadori, Shougen

Supporting

Ootsuka, Akio
Japanese

Huo Chou

Supporting

Houki, Katsuhisa
Japanese

Yue Shen

Supporting

Aizawa, Masaki
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Minami, Masahiko

Producer

Iizuka, Toshio

Producer

Tasaka, Hidemasa

Assistant Producer

Andou, Masahiro

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

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Opening Theme

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Ending Theme

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Reviews

Feb 19, 2024

novawrite

Recommended

In "Sword of the Stranger," a lone ronin, Nanashi, finds himself drawn into a perilous journey when he agrees to protect a young boy named Kotarou pursued by mysterious enemies. As their bond deepens amidst breathtaking sword fights and intricate plots, they must confront their pasts and fight for their futures in a stunning tale of honor and sacrifice.
Or one of those movies are forgotten gold.

Story 8/10
The storyline has a good flow and strong structure. It follows both characters in a good manner and helps understand them and get to know them well despite the short period of a hour and a ... half. The background scene is just enough to hint and show what the characters have been through up until now without being a nonsense and without being stuck too much at one place, where the plot eventually tries to pull both characters to the future instead of their past.
Though, I do have to say that the main plot – the sacrifice ritual doesn’t give much interesting information and doesn’t help much with understanding what drives the opposing force in this anime. While on the surface it seems more like a maniacal wish it is never really clearly shown what would or could happen if they succeeded.
The plot itself is more focused on the bond between Nanashi and Kotarou instead on the reasons like “Why is this coming from?”, on this note you would need a better knowledge on Japanese-Chinese history and relationship to kind of understand where this is coming-going.

Characters 8/10
Nanashi and Kotarou are very typical characters. One is a lone samurai, who has done something wrong in the past and is trying to redeem himself, the other – a fisty kid with lots of opinions that doesn’t take “No” for an answer. While normally I would find characters like Kotarou annoying and not very pleasant, the kid was well written and even tho he was shown as smart for his age, he was still naïve and a kid, which makes the character more real and reliable. He finds himself looking at Nanashi as a father or big brother figure and softens a lot.
Tobimaru was there just to be part of key plot points and to drive the plot at some points. While being a loyal companion and listed as Main Character there isn’t much to this dog as while it seems trained it was still show more realistically – as a normal dog that can even die.
Luo Lang was rather strange villain with no actual resolve on his hand than just trying to find a person worthy of his sword skills and a good rival. He doesn’t care about outorityy and would rather kills his mates in order to be able to battle with the best swordsman he has encountered. Personally, I found the Chinese used by his character and his comrads rather laughable. The voice actors weren’t good at Chinese and it was way too obvious. In case like this it would just be more appropriate to go with your own language and not try to add random 5 lines of bad Chinese in there, it just takes off of the enjoyment.

Sound 9/10
If we take off the bad Chinese at times the overall voice acting was very good. Sound effects were presented exactly on point and were very well made. The background tracks go well with the scenes and don’t distract.

Art 10/10
This is where this show just wins. The art and especially the battle scenes are way ahead of 2007 and are just a delight to watch, they themselves are worth watching even if you didn’t like the plot. The anime doesn’t lack blood and violence but in very well measured matter and this adds very well to the overall feeling of it.

Enjoyment 10/10
This movie is pure enjoyment if you like samurai themed series. Considering the fact that it’s also a movie with very good visual for its years and not a 24 long series that can have more than one flaw.

Overall 9/10
On the matter if this should be considered a classical movie – While this is an extremely good movie it’s just doesn’t have a ground for it to be a classic. This doesn’t set any new stones nor does it show something new and unseen before 2007. The overall vibe of this movie is very Dororo-like but in a more non-fantasy style. The characters themselves, like mentioned, aren’t something new, not milestone worth mentioning. Nevertheless, this movie is very well made and has extremely good visuals without the us of ugly 3D in place of good animation.

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Mar 26, 2024

BaronLukis

Mixed Feelings

A solid movie, it's not bad but it's not great either. It's a decent piece of work that entertains enough for you to enjoy the film. The animation and music are the best things about the film.
The characters do not fully develop, they are rather flat and the pace of the story is too slow for my taste.

The plot is good, several political actors involved, several interests at stake, but its potential is wasted, the interactions between the main characters are weak, the princess/queen does not appear.
For the rest, the duels and fights we want to see are there.

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Sep 8, 2023

Yaroster

Not Recommended

Story (4/10): The problem with a lot of Samurai stories in anime is encapsulated here in my opinion.
Always adding an unnecessary part of weird fiction, constant style over essence and such — I would recommend watching the much better Kenshin OAV that is so far the most interesting samurai animated movie we’ve had and it is much older.

Voice Acting(1/10): As a Chinese speaker, albeit not an expert one, the voice acting for mandarin was beyond subpar — not even talking about tones it just sounded wrong and the Blu-Ray has a warning before the start of the movie saying that the author purposely pushed the ...

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Poll: Stranger - Mukoh Hadan Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Liquid - Apr 16, 2008	260 replies	by DjDuubstep »» Nov 5, 2023 9:45 AM
Is this good?? Tanjiro1316 - May 3, 2022	21 replies	by Toueki »» Oct 10, 2022 8:02 PM
Poll: is it better in sub or dub? which gives a better feel? i_m_a_hero_too - Jul 1, 2020	7 replies	by Yukikaze_01 »» Feb 14, 2022 1:59 PM
Sword of the Stranger ending (warning: spoilers!) ( 1 2 3 ) NamariKirei - Feb 3, 2009	111 replies	by Adampk »» Feb 15, 2021 9:37 AM
Anyone know if the subtitle issue with Funimations release has been fixed? Nyren - Mar 8, 2017	0 replies	by Nyren »» Mar 8, 2017 2:30 PM

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