Ninja Scroll | |
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Information | |
Original Title | 獣兵衛忍風帖 |
Rōmaji Title | Jūbē Ninpūchō |
English Title | Ninja Scroll |
Directed | Yoshiaki Kawajiri |
Produced | Shigeru Kitayama Masako Fukuyo Kazuhiko Ikeguchi |
Written | Yoshiaki Kawajiri |
Cinematography | Hitoshi Yamaguchi |
Edited | Harutoshi Ogata Yukiko Itō |
Music | Kaoru Wada |
Studio | Madhouse |
Distributed | Tokyo Theatres |
Licensed | Manga Entertainment |
Released | June 5, 1993 |
Runtime | 94 minutes |
Ninja Scroll (獣兵衛忍風帖, Jūbei Ninpūchō or Jūbē Ninpūchō, literally: "Jubei's Ninja Chronicles") is a 1993 Japanese animated film directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri. The film was a co-production between JVC, Toho and Movic, with Madhouse serving as the animation studio. Ninja Scroll was theatrically released in Japan on June 5, 1993, and received an English-dubbed release in Western countries through Manga Entertainment in 1995.
Praised for its animation and action scenes, Ninja Scroll is regarded by many as one of the most influential anime films ever made. Alongside Akira and Ghost in the Shell, it was responsible for increasing the popularity of adult-oriented anime outside of Japan. The film has been cited by The Wachowskis as an influence on the Matrix franchise, and resulted in Kawajiri later contributing to two segments of the anthology film The Animatrix. It spawned a television series called Ninja Scroll: The Series in 2003.
Plot[]
In Edo period-Japan, the Yamashiro clan mines gold in secret, and sends a shipment to the Toyotomi Shogun of the Dark as payment for his protection. The Shogun of the Dark intends to use the gold to buy advanced Spanish weaponry and overthrow the current government, the Tokugawa Shogunate. The ship runs aground onto Mochizuki territory in a storm, and the Eight Devils of Kimon, a ninja team with supernatural powers in the employ of the Yamashiro, kill the people of the nearby Shimoda Village to keep the gold shipment a secret.
While investigating the deaths, a Mochizuki Kōga ninja team is massacred by the Devils. The sole survivor, the kunoichi Kagerō, is captured by a devil named Tessai, who rapes her. She is rescued by Jūbei Kibagami, a mercenary ex-Yamashiro ninja, who fights and eventually kills Tessai. Dakuan, a Tokugawa spy, blackmails Jūbei into helping him kill the remaining devils. To ensure his compliance, Dakuan stabs Jūbei with a poisoned shuriken, and promises to give him an antidote once the mission is complete. Jūbei learns from Dakuan that the leader of the devils is Genma Himuro, the former Yamashiro ninja leader, who had ordered his team's members to kill each other to cover up the location of the goldmine five years earlier. Jūbei, who had been forced to kill his comrades to survive, decapitated Genma in revenge; Genma survived due to his immortality. Jūbei is attacked by another devil, Benisato, but he is saved by Kagerō; before she can be questioned, Benisato is killed from afar by Yurimaru, Genma's right-hand man, for failing her mission. Kagerō agrees to work alongside Jūbei and Dakuan, who informs Jūbei that her body is infused with such deadly toxins that anyone who kisses or sleeps with her dies, which was why Jūbei could kill Tessai.
The trio arrive in Shimoda, where they discover that the villagers died due to their water supply being poisoned, making it appear that they were killed by a plague. Jūbei and Kagerō fend off attacks from three of the devils – Mushizō, Zakuro, and Mujūrō Utsutsu; Jūbei succeeds in killing Mushizō and Utsutsu. After finding the beached ship, Kagerō deduces that the gold has been taken to Kashima Harbor, where it will be transported to the Shogun of the Dark in another ship.
Jūbei, Kagerō, and Dakuan arrive at Kashima, which has been evacuated due to the townspeople's fear of the plague. While Jūbei battles another devil, Shijima, Kagerō sends a message to Hyōbu Sakaki, the Mochizuki chamberlain, to bring his army to the harbour. She also learns from Dakuan that Jūbei's poisoning will only be cured if he copulates with her – the poisons in her body will counteract his. Kagerō is captured by Shijima, and Jūbei kills him, rescuing her once more. Kagerō asks Jūbei to sleep with her to cure himself. He decides against it, and upon the arrival of the Shogun of the Dark's envoy in a ship, he leaves to prevent the gold reaching its destination.
Kagerō arrives to meet Sakaki, but he stabs her, revealing himself to be Genma in disguise. Enraged, Jūbei fights through waves of ninjas, but is nearly killed by Yurimaru. A gunpowder-rigged rat, left as a trap by Zakuro for Yurimaru for rejecting her advances, kills him, allowing Jūbei to escape. He finds Kagerō; mortally wounded, she admits her love for him and they kiss, curing Jūbei's poisoning. Before dying, Kagerō gives Jūbei her headband.
Jūbei and Dakuan board the departing ship. On board, Genma reveals his true intentions – to use the gold to raise a ninja army to terrorize Japan rather than serve as an ally to the Toyotomi – to a masked samurai who serves as the Shogun of the Dark's envoy, and proceeds to kill him. During an altercation with Zakuro, Jūbei and Dakuan set the ship ablaze. As Jūbei and Genma engage in a brutal fight, the gold becomes molten and engulfs Genma, who sinks to the bottom of the sea. Afterwards, Dakuan thanks Jūbei, and expresses admiration for his and Kagerō's humanity. Jūbei resumes his vagabond lifestyle, with Kagerō's headband tied around his sword's hilt.