All the people of the town of Shimoda have been killed by a plague. The local government, the Togugawa clan, send a team of ninjas to investigate but all but one of them are wiped out by mysterious forces. The only survivor is a woman, Kagero, who is taken prisoner. A samurai mercenary, Jubei, rescues her but his interest in her mission and cause is temporary...Entertaining Japanese animated action-drama. Some good action scenes, well animated with reasonable amount of intrigue. Broad plot is fairly interesting.The plot is also the weakest part of the movie. Not always coherent, with many random twists and turns, things not making sense and badly badly-drawn (in the figurative sense) characters.Entertaining enough though, just don't try to make complete sense of the story line.

Stumbled to this masterpiece rambling some guys list about great anime movies. Then I read great reviews from here (imdb), and lets say there where no over praising to this movie. It is simply amazing.I never thought 94 min movie would have so comprehensive look out to the characters and make you like them instantly. And as the movie goes by, fall in love with them. Protagonists are super interesting and deep. The villains are spectacular and creative. It's not common that a guy like me gets tears in his eyes from the romance part, but this movie was something else... This movie will take you to an adventure you have never experienced. Watch it when ever you have the chance, you will not be disappointed. And if you do, get a strong chair because the edge of your seat will have a hard time :)

"Ninja Scroll" is an action/anime made in 1993 by Yoshiyaki Kawajiri. This film is set in the feudal Japan.Basic plot: A wandering samurai named Jubei Kipagami, who originally served the Yamashiro clan for years ago, is traveling on the land alone. People in a small village have died by a mystical plague, so a team of ninjas is sent to investigate the case, only to get brutally killed one by one by a rock creature named Tessai. The only survivor, the beautiful Kagero, gets raped and blood poisoned by Tessai. But Jubei saves her and kills Tessai, and sets out to annihilate a group called the Eight Devils of Kimon lead by the demonic Gemma Himuro.Throughout this film, there are lots of sword violence and several supernatural violence, which often get bloody result. This is enough to keep the mature fans of Japanese animation and ninjas interested. The soundtrack fits well in many of these scenes, especially during Tessai's attack and the ending scenes. The animation and the graphics itself are beautifully made, and so are the scenes with Jubei and Kagero together.This film is the fourth 18-rated anime I've seen after "Shadow Skill", "Venus Wars" and "Akira", well this film was at least rated 18 in Norway when released on VHS by Polygram Video. Like the other three anime movies I mentioned, this film was also English dubbed, but not subbed in Norwegian. On the Norwegian DVD copy I have, this film has been heavily toned down from being 18 to being rated 10 (!), something I just didn't like because of the fact all the nudity and the gory violence are intact on this DVD edition. In my opinion this film should have gotten at least a 15-rating.Are you a fan of ninjas and anime in general but haven't seen "Ninja Scroll", I suggest you to check out this film at least once. Honestly, this have to be one of the better ninja anime I've seen, together with the "Naruto" franchise. My overall rating for this film is therefore 9/10.Some of the other movies from Yoshiyaki Kawajiri to be mentioned include: "Wicked City" (1987), "Demon City Shinjuku" (1988) and "Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust" (2000).

WICKED CITY was among the bootleg anime that was circulated in this country before AKIRA came along and proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that American audiences were ready for adult animation. ("Adult" in the approach to animated storytelling.) I caught AKIRA during its initial theatrical run and it was satisfying, indeed, to not only see it on the big screen, but to also finally see it dubbed in English. While most anime doesn't make it to the big screens hereabout (curious, indeed, when one considers the fact that Animego is based here), there's anime aplenty at the local retail outlets. It's expensive, but there are several titles worth their weight in cost: WICKED CITY, VAMPIRE HUNTER D, VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST, ROBOT CARNIVAL, GENOCYBER, TETSUJIN 28, any ASTRO BOY (the original black and white series being the best), DEVIL MAN, GILGAMESH, FULL METAL ALCHEMIST, YU YU HAKASHO, NARUTO, KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE, GOLGO 13, GHOST IN THE SHELL (any), PRINCESS MONONOKE, METROPOLIS, GACHAMAN (any), PROJECT ARMS, WOLF'S RAIN, WITCH HUNTER ROBIN, BAOH, and NINJA SCROLL, to name but a few. NINJA SCROLL, with its seemingly endless invention, is probably my all-time favorite. The animation is about as good (great) as it gets. Kawajiri's direction is to be envied (even WICKED CITY and VAMPIRE HUNTER D: BLOODLUST, as nigh perfect as they are, can't beat NINJA SCROLL). If you're tired (as am I) of the lackluster Americanimation being cranked out by the studios, switch gears and check out some of the aforementioned anime.