There was always something delightfully anti-social about some of the anime released in the 80s and 90s. I mean, what could be more counter-culture (and 90s) than a bunch of animated movies made exclusively for adults that featured content that definitely was not for the little ‘uns – although, weirdly enough, so much of it was wrongly placed on in the kiddie section of my local video rental place. Yes, some of it unavoidably tried way too hard to be edgy and in a time where anime has fully crossed over into the mainstream, some of it feels a bit too sanitised compared to the stuff I grew up with – but like with all the best examples of a particular genre, the best stuff manages to remain evergreen.
This brings me to Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s truly resplendent Ninja Scroll, a vicious slice of anime that not only delivers the detailed and staggering world-building that the best of the genre offers, but it serves up some of the more notoriously salacious aspects of it too. Prepare to draw your sword, because Ninja Scroll is begining to unfurl.
In Edo period Japan, wandering vagabond and professional sword for hire, Kibagami Jubei finds himself in the middle of a vast conspiracy when he stumbles upon a plot by the mysterious Shogun Of The Dark to horde gold in order to ultimately overthrow the Tokugawa Shogunate and the villain has sent out his team of superpowered ninja, the 8 Devils Of Kimon, to make sure the plan goes off without a hitch. However after an entire town is poisoned to keep the gold shipment a secret, a Mochizuki Kōga ninja team is dispatched to investigate and is promptly obliterated by the Devils and their various freaky abilities, leaving only Kagero, a female poison taster, alive. Enter: Jubei, who gets himself embedded into the chaos by rescuing Kagero from a mountainous pervert who has the ability to turn his skin to unbreakable rock, and both are subsequently hired/manipulated to assist by elderly Tokugawa spy, Dakuan who sets out to getvto the bottom of all this ninja business.
What transpires is a string of confrontations where Jubei, Kagero and Dakuan have to pit their skills against the supernatural abilities of a bunch of enemies who can do such fucked-up shit as control bees from a hive located in their body, travel via shadow, manipulate electricity, or even have the ability to discharge snakes from their nether regions. However, Jubei finds that this mission starts getting extra-personal when he firstly finds that he and Kagero are falling in love and secondly, that the leader of the 8 Devils Of Kimon is old enemy Himuro Genma. But both these revelations come with their own complications – for a start, to even so much as kiss Kagero would be a death sentence as her blood and saliva are lethal to mortal men and what’s even more disturbing is that Jubei killed Genma years earlier by relieving his shoulders of the pressure of carrying his head. How can Jubei and the gang possibly hope to defeat an enemy whose special skill is he simply can’t die?
There are a lot of reasons why Ninja Scroll is so beloved by me, but the main one is quite simply because it is just so fucking cool. Kawajiri has always excelled and seamlessly merging vibrant, awesome world building with keenly plotted action and he’s managed to display it with such entries as Wicked City, Cyber City Oedo 808 and an entry in the Animatrix anthology. However, with Ninja Scroll, he takes matters to another level with a dark fantasy adventure that blends an Akira Kurosawa setting with a deranged, Clive Barker mindset that also throws in the kind of kill-the-next-henchman-and-move on plotting of a Lone Wolf And Cub movie. The swaggering hero, Jubai, is your typical, cool as fuck hero who somehow can go toe to toe with superpowered monsters thanks to be pretty handy with a katana and having wits to spare, but unlike a lot of Anime protagonists, he’s actually pretty likable beyond his skills and monster killing and is also refreshingly human, gingerly pulling out a loose tooth after a particularly bruising encounter.
However, a hero is only as good as his villains and thankfully, Jubei has eight of the fuckers to lock swords with who all come with an array of striking character designs and a ton of beautifully realised abilities that instantly took me back to the time when I first laid eyes on the three Storms from John Carpenter’s Big Trouble In Little China. While you may have seen some sort of variation of each of these funky skills before, it’s presented in a way that makes even the inclusion of electricy powers or granite skin feel fresh and new. It also helps that the 8 Devils also have an selection of awesome weaponry, such as retractable claws, huge throwable double bladed spears that return to sender like a boomerang and incredibly thin micro-filaments that conduct a lethal jolt of bio-electricity to a victim who doesn’t even realise they’ve been snagged.
However, all these powers and weapons are great for show, but it doesn’t mean a thing if the flick doesn’t showcase them in a thrilling matter (imagine if Darth Maul followed up his double light saber reveal with a sub-par fight), but we’re in extraordinarily capable hands with Kawajiri and he showcases each ability and brawl to maximum effect. Take the final brawl on a burning ship that sees Jubei in a life or death brawl with a hated enemy who has a healing factor that would put Wolverine to shame; despite being animated it still carries an extraordinary amount of weight, with you feeling every punch as if they were being thrown by flesh and blood assailants. In fact, the moment where our hero gets the upper hand with a series of skull pulping headbutts, may truly be one of the greatest scenes of action brutality of the entire decade.
Of course, what with this being an anime product of the 90s, you can expect things to get a little skeevy here and there and seeing as Kawajiri was responsible for that unforgettable spider prostitute from Wicked City, things unsurprisingly get quite iffy at certain points. Anyone squeamish concerning any kind of sexual assault might not find Ninja Scroll particularly a fun watch, but while some moments do admittedly step over the line (Kagero predictably gets a rough time of things), it’s the nature of the beast. However, while some might find such things indefensible, when taken in the same vein as the psycho-sexual, S&M nature of Hellraiser, where certain acts of sexual perversion are weaved seamlessly into the plot, it does make a certain amount of sense and it definitely adds a real edge.
Undoubtedly one of my most favourite examples of anime from the time period, a more lazier review than me may simply write Ninja Scroll off as just Fist Of The North Star with swords (something I admittedly have actually done), where Fist was defined by how random and chaotic it’s violence is, Scroll proves to be far more controlled and precise, much like the stealthy assassins themselves. I once remember a friend telling me that anything is instantly made better when you put ninjas in it and if that’s true, imagine how amazing something would get if said ninja had fucking super powers. But why simply imagine when Ninja Scroll exists?
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