-Story-
From what I know, during the early 90's hyper-violent and gratuitous movies and OVA's were very common in the anime industry. If Ninja Scroll is any indication... I heard exactly right. After their overthrow by the Tokugawa Shoguns, the Toyotomi clan has assembled an army of the night and... ah, who freaking cares? It's all an excuse to get a bunch of awesome ninja fights. If I had to describe the story in one word it would be 'gratuitous'. Blood? Gore? Violence? Fan-Service? Special Powers? All check. Ninja Scroll has the plot of any number of cheap American action films, this one just happens to be animated. One scene that sums up this movie perfectly has a geisha getting it in the butt while some exposition is being dumped. Was that remotely necessary? No. Does anybody really care? Also no. Put your brain into cruise control for this one and break out the popcorn. (Oh, and there aren't any scrolls pertaining to ninjas in this film, so what exactly the title is referring to is a bit ambiguous).
-Art-
And this is why cell animation is awesome kiddies. The grim, washed-out colors that cell animation excels in fit the tone of Ninja Scroll. Movies have better animation than TV series almost by default, and here is no exception. Fluidity is top-notch, and very few shots or images are re-used. Shot composition is very dramatic, often using silhouetting to great effect- and one scene is even shot only in black and shades of red. Ninja Scrolls looks GREAT.
-Sound-
A surprisingly convincing English dub considering this was pre-Bebop. The soundtrack uses many traditional Japanese instruments to create a good Edo period sound. But interestingly, the climatic battle is shot without music (there are plenty of other sound effects to make up the difference)- I thought it added to the realism as much as Ninja Scroll can be considered 'realistic'. Excellent sound.
-Characters-
First rule of awesome: "When a character can toss an object into the air, defeat multiple foes before it comes down, and casually catch it- they are awesome". Coincidentally, this is exactly how our main character Jubei is introduced. His look and attitude remind my of Spike Spiegel- the seemingly unfocused joker who actually could have killed you 23 different ways in the time it took to read this sentence. Kagero is pretty useless for a character hyped up as an elite ninja woman. She looks (and thanks to Wendee Lee SOUNDS) a lot like Faye Valentine (perhaps she and Spike met in past life?) The comedic highlight is the manipulative old A-Hole Dakuan- he's a jerk, but an entertaining crazy ancient jerk. The villains are just a series of opponents with cool powers and attacks that Jubei is supposed to overcome, motivations and personalities aren't exactly important for a film of this nature.
-Enjoyment-
Go in with the attitude that you're going to watch '300' or something like that, and Ninja Scroll will be fun. I pity any poor saps who try to take this movie seriously.
-Overall-
Very, very stupid. Very, very cool. If I were to judge 'Ninja Scroll' from a purely serious perspective I would have to tear it apart. But it's not meant to be taken seriously at all. It's gratuitous, it's bombastic, it's bakkakkoii.
