I'll begin by saying personally I think the anime is a bit overrated and I myself found it around a 7.5. But gave it an 8 to be generous and I will explain why below. I will split my review into the pros and cons to explain why.
Pros
Art (9)- The art is pretty mind blowing. It even kept up in the fight scenes. They even gave meticulous attention to the background. At times the background did fall off though and were simply blurry blobs. (However this could've been intentionally done, as their "style" of drawing)
Sound -(10) The background music was always spot on. Especially for the fight scenes with the low drums or the dramatic scenes with the woodwinds.
Enjoyment-9- This is where sword of the stranger really shines. The fight scenes are remarkable. And gore lovers will have their eyes wide open. (however for me it was a bit unrealistic, just how do you hack off so many limbs with one swing)
Cons
Story (7)- The story is unique and hasn't really been down before. The background for the plot has been explained pretty well in the intro above. Kotarou is this boy who is going to be sacrificed so hes on the run and runs into this samurai, Nanashi. However the Ming (Chinese) elite soldiers are after them.
The story was strong, but there were parts "low points" in the anime. While they were on the run, they didn't really do much some days but eat sleep and ride the horse.
Character-6- This is one of Sword of the Stranger's weak spots. None of the characters are really developed at all except Nanashi, with his 3 second flashbacks. The anime's name is truly fitting being "Sword of the Stranger" as Nanashi really felt like a stranger the whole anime. I had no idea who this guy was or why he kept his sword sheathed.
From his flashbacks we can tell Nanashi was an ex-soldier and he probably killed a lot to earn his name "No-named red-haired demon". Since then he has kept a lock on his sword but WHY? It didn't make sense to me. Did do the classic "vow to never kill again"? It didn't make sense to me why he didn't unsheathe his sword till the end. He showed in many instances that he was PERFECTLY CAPABLE of killing someone EVEN with his sword sheathed which totally ruined the reason why it was so. Like a murderer who promises himself not to use guns but has a dozen knives in his pockets.
The other interesting characters in the anime were the Ming Elite. Who, were not developed at all. And for some reason where so strong that they could easily go through a dozen Japanese in less than 5 seconds flat. Rarou especially was interesting as he was a 6 ft. Caucasian with blond hair and blue eyes. But hey, that was never explained. They simply left him as a barbarian who desired nothing but to fight strong opponents.
1 Very tiny problem I also had was the voice acting for the Ming(Chinese). Being Chinese myself, listening to it was a bit painful and at times I couldn't even understand just what in the world they were saying.
