Excellent but underrated film

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Ninja Scroll aka Jūbei Ninpūchō is an simply amazing piece of Japanese anime cinema. Originally released in 1993 in Japan and released in 1996 in America, it tells the tale of Jubei a samurai for hire who gets poisoned and must defeat the Eight Devils of Kimon. Lots of top notch fight scenes occur with fluid animation. The voice acting was very well done by the English voice actors and they stayed true to their characters. The story is very in depth and deep and you will surly enjoy this film. I give Ninja Scroll a 8/10.

Fans of this film often declare Ninja Scroll to be one of the best anime films of all time. Do not listen to them. Ninja Scroll is average at best. The characters are one dimensional and so is the plot. Nothing is ever really given context. Even what many acclaim to be fantastic fight scenes and animation are at best a B-. And a B- in animation is not enough to save this film from everything it does wrong. If you want fantastically animated fight scenes, watch Sword of the Stranger. A lot of anime films are weird. The great ones use the weird in a way that drives the plot or adds another dimension to the story/characters. This is not Ninja Scroll. Ninja Scroll is one of those films that is weird for the sake of being weird and nothing else. It doesn't ever apply any context for its weirdness.All in all, if you've no other anime films to watch go ahead and watch it. If you set your expectations low enough and look past its faults you can find an enjoyable film.It has a similar feel to it as the Rurouni Kenshin TV Series.

This film is very similar to several other action films (animated or live action) in that we have a plot that resembles a video game and it has even a final boss and everything, including several sub-bosses with their own special skills! The main character is your usual good-guy who appears to be a normal fellow but in fact is the toughest of them all. However, despite feeling like a video game, this film deserves such very high rating (8/10) because it is an almost flawlessly executed pure action movie: it is perhaps the ultimate video-game film. :)If Tarkovsky is the French wine, this is the junk food for film buffs. Highly recommended for fans of action films and even for people that like films in general because this is entertainment!

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.