What a beautiful movie!

Excellent, a Must See

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Sword of the Stranger has all the ingredients of a Japanese epic on par with Seven Samurai. Strong, realistic characters with fantastic back stories, incredible fight choreography and a sweeping scope. However, I feel it could've done some things better. The dialogue, like with a lot of English dubs, can be really awkward. Sometimes I struggled to tell what was going on in the fight scenes and the editing can be funky sometimes. The biggest change that would make the greatest impact, though, would be to put more focus on the character's different motivation. they all do get mentioned in some capacity, but not enough emphasis is put on them so I don't feel anything when their arcs are completed.None of this makes the movie not worth your time, however, just slightly disappointing. It's still one that you should definitely see.

This is Masahiro Ando's first and only animated feature . The movie is great with good sword fights with tons of blood. The animation is stunning and voice & acting are very good. The music is outstanding especially in the beginning fight of tittles . The colors, music, story, effects and sword fights are top class. This animation made me look for more action animations. This movie has deep characterization. Exceptional music, astounding cinematography. This is the greatest Samurai animation that i ever seen. I felt ending fight could have been better. A must-watch movie for anime and action movie lovers . this is time-less classic .

The concept in Sword of the Stranger isn't new. A wandering samurai who killed a lot of people during the war is tormented by his past and has "Sealed" his sword and decided not to use it anymore. Without having to look far you can already find earlier animes/mangas with the exact same concept (Rurouni Kenshin is the first that comes to mind).Still I really loved this movie and consider it a must watch, specially for people that like animated movies. The animation one of the best I've seen in recent animated movies, with great design, fluid animations and great image quality. While not many in number, the battles are masterfully handled by BONES (animation studio) with great (animated) choreography. As I've said the concept behind the story isn't new but it's enjoyable nonetheless, I really liked the trust relationship that forms between the main character and the boy he is escorting and there is also a special connection between Nanashi and the main antagonist. In the end you will be caring for the characters.Finally, and it should not be overlooked. The Soundtrack for this movie is truly wonderful. Composed by Naoki Sato, it's an amazing OST filled with emotion and fits the movie like ring.

For those of you familiar with Chambara (samurai) movies, Sword of the Stranger, is the anime equivalent. Story line is typical Samurai storyline, wandering samurai helps out a kid and gets caught up in a plot by foreigners and "bad" samurai. without giving the plot line away I will say that if you are familiar with chambara movies and enjoy the stories/genre you will enjoy this movie. Technically wise, this movie is very well animated. Traditional hand drawn cel work mixed with some CG. It is beautiful to look at and the fighting scenes are amongst the best I have seen in anime or in real life action. A beautifully crafted movie that needs to be seen just on the technical aspects alone.