Here we have a beautiful story about survival, friendship, hardships and will to live and protect. It isn’t presented in a cheesy way present in most of the series. A boy and his dog, living on his own since he was six years old, due to parents’ deaths, and a mysterious stranger, former soldier with intriguing past. He never draws his sword, never to protect himself. A one hour and forty minutes adventure of the two getting to know each other, fighting for priorities, and loved ones. It’s a beautiful story that I believe moved to tears a lot people. Somehow I can’t help the comparison to “Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron”, Dreamworks’s animated movie. Although the main theme is entirely different, after watching it I get the same feeling. In both we see fight for freedom, however shown in a different way, and friendship building despite all the problems occurring at first.
The music is absolutely amazing. As a fan of the soundtrack from “The Last Samurai” I was impressed by the music here, in this anime. I won’t say it’s better or worse, I don’t have enough comparison yet.
As for the art and the fights. The only thing that was a bit irritating to me was that some parts were looking like computer-rendered 3D, not hand-drawn art. Except that the art was really good, very realistic and pleasant to watch. Same goes for voices. I actually wonder why MyAnimeList.net doesn’t list the voice actors, they’ve done a lot of a good job and they’re not even credited here, it’s a shame. But back to the art, some people might find discouraging the amount of blood and some scenes disturbing. Let’s face it, wars and conquests have always entailed a lot of blood. And definitely at a time like that. It’s a huge advantage that the authors didn’t try to smooth the history. However, personally, I thing they’ve overdone it a bit, too much of blood splattering, at times.
My overall score is of course 10. I couldn’t give any other nmber. “Sword of the Stranger” fully deserves the highest score possible.
