Later, after the internet had grown more and streaming and videos became way more prevalent, I found out the "lead" character was indeed named "Jubei". Just not "Kibagami". Which... didn't bode well. But I still wanted to watch it because the trailer still looked pretty good. All dark and atmospheric. Could still be worth watching, right?
So, jump to present-day and by now I finally found time to watch it - ALL TWO EPISODES - and was left going "what the fuck was this shit". I also was finally able to look up more information about it and no, it was never connected to Ninja Scroll. It was just marketed that way so it would sell better based on the popularity of that movie. It's also an unfinished OVA series. So yeah I just wasted my time watching this.
The gore (to the point where it felt waaaay unnecessary in many instances), the rape (all of it too much, also unnecessary, gratuitous and gross), a ridiculous amount of brutality, and disturbing imagery, all these things made this fucking thing even more of a slog to get through and just plain left a bad taste in my mouth.
To the people that enjoy this, you do you. But I can't say I enjoyed this at all. The animation was good in some parts, probably the only thing I enjoyed at times. The design of other!Jubei was also pretty cool in motion and I wanted to see more of his character but that sure won't happen since the fucking thing was never finished (then why even put it out???).
Though it's debatable if I would want to subject myself to more of it even if it was. Yeah no, this was bad. But at least I can finally say I finally watched it after years of wanting to.
