One of the most amazing things about this film is its music, in my opinion. I absolutely love it!!
Next to that, the animation and art is also great of course ^^
It's hard to choose only one aspect that I like best about this film XD
This started out as such a random title for me. I just rented it because it was a movie, and I have a pretty short attention span. I admit to being slightly worried about watching it because samurai anime tend to be overly gory and full of random naked women; I only watch 'em for the historical aspect. But Stranger, although bloody, didn't go overboard (to the point where I had to cover my eyes), and the women were scarce: I appreciated the fact that the princess did what a noble woman should do (gracefully stayed outta the way, doing artful things) and the Ming girls just kicked butt (and their devotions were subtle).
That aside, the film was gorgeously animated, and had THE best damn choreographed fight sequences I've ever seen! *_* I love action, weapons, and martial arts, and this handled all of them better than any live-action movie I've seen. The duels were amazingly well-realized, and everthing was handled so realistically, right down to the smallest detail.
Oh, and the music! The icing on the cake was the beautiful score that was used with key sequences so superbly it brought tears to my eyes. Everything regarding the goings-on in this film was done so perfectly; it was masterfully told, despite the fact that the overall concept was so basic - sometimes simple is best.
Bloody brilliant anime!!! I didn't expect it to be so good, so I was really floored by how brilliant it turned out to be. Not to sound completely emo, but it really moved me. Stranger was so epic, I couldn't stand it! :D
In my humble opinion Sword of the Stranger is the best anime (movie) to date, storywise and animation wise. It even can compete (maybe even excells over some) RL movies in the same genre. I'm thinking about Gladiator, 300 and Braveheart.
And ofcourse Nanashi is the embodiment of "GAR", besides I have a weak spot for "kick-ass" characters with righteous set of morals but nonetheless aren't flawless and decide/come across a point that leads them to "redeem" themselves.
I can't explain why I liked it: though the plot is rather simple, but everything in this film makes you love it, starting from the background of the protagonist and ending with the music.
My turn to say what I like about this movie, I guess.
The story. Simple, but still amazing. And it is the feeling of possibility that it really might have happend, what makes me love this movie. I mean, they did well with the story even without supernatural powers and magical heroes. I appreciate that they shown us the naked truth about that age and era. People in the village seemed poor, only one thing the women in the palace were supposed to do was worrying about their husbands/lovers, and the leader of the army sacrificed his own useless daimjó for his own purpose.
On the other hand I also have soft spot for stories about friendship and courage spiced with self sacrifice.
The art and animation are chapters on their own. Especially the way in which the battle scenes were done is amazing. The last battle was breathtaking, it was almost as a dance choreography.
Together with the music, the whole movie is something really unforgettable for me.