The story is not great, it's actually pretty basic: An evil group, working for an evil shogun, trying to take over Japan. Our poor hero Jubei unfortunately gets stuck in the middle, when he decided to help some ninja girl that was being raped by a giant muscle-head freak who tells her to behave, because: it would not make a difference to him wether she's dead or alive while he's doing his thing. Yeah.. it's not classy. Jubei and the ninja girl, let's call her Kagero, end up joining forces to take on the evil group, yada yada yada, we've seen it many times before. It's pretty straigh-forward.
But it isn't the story that makes this movie a "MUST WATCH" classic, it's the action packed, bloody, raw and uncut fighting scenes! If there's one thing that Ninja Scroll delivers, is action. The fights are awesome, so awesome that it'll make you drool like a fat kid looking at cake.
The variety of opponents Jubei faces is very distinct, they all have different and unique abilities. The only downside is that some of the fights, though still cool, are incredibly short and it'll leave you with a craving for more (cake).
The characters are also barely explored, appart from Jubei and Kagero, most of the characters barely even show emotion or motives, or personalities really... nothing. They are flat, extremely undeveloped. Some, like the blind samurai, only appear for like 8 minutes overall. Poor guy, just because he's blind doesn't mean he doesn't have feelings. And one of the biggest promises, the sub-boss, who all through the movie appears to be a complete badass, shows up, only to die miserably like 1.5 minutes later. Which was very disapointing.
As the story moves along, Jubei's relationship with the girl deepens and we start to see more humanity from him, not that much, but its something. He's still a badass don't worry. His past is reavealed to be linked with the leader of the evil group and they face off once more in an epic battle, which ends beautifuly in my opinion.
Overall this movie is really awesome, that's just it. There isn't much more embezzlement to be made. It's a classic of japanese animation, it's simple but it excels in its simplicity, what it promises it delivers: An action packed adventure, full of ninjas battles, nudity and blood. What else could we wish for?
Wether you're looking for a great anime to improve your repertoire or just to have a good time, Ninja Scroll will fit your needs.
