Ninja
Scroll: The Motion Picture
(1993/Sentai Blu-ray)
Picture:
B Sound: A Extras: C- Film: B+
When
a mysterious plague wipes out a village, a group of ninjas are sent
to investigate what happened, but what they find are the 8 Devils of
Kimon, who killed the village to hide large shipment of gold for the
Shogun of the Dark. Jubei Kibagami, a wandering swordsman for hire
finds himself caught in the middle when he meets the beautiful ninja
Kagero, the sole survivor of the ninjas. Together, along with Dakuan
- a monk spy, they must stop the 8 Devils of Kimon from reaching
their goals in Ninja
Scroll: The Motion Picture
(1993).
Jubei
is a swords master for hire, but has he met his match with the
supernatural power ninjas of the Devils of Kimon? He soon finds
himself in a middle of a ninja war over a treasure that could change
the nation. Jubei discovers the Devils of Kimon is lead by Gemma,
his old nemesis who now has the ability of regeneration. As he and
Kagero defeat the devils one by one, they begin to draw closer to one
another and eventually fall in love with each other. In the end,
Jubei faces Gemma alone in one final showdown in which only one of
them will survive.
This
was and is a classic, legendary, influential anime, as Ghost
in the Shell
was know for cyber punk, Ninja
Scroll
was known for it's ninjas. It is full of action, adventure and
violence, it is beautifully drawn considering how old it is. Like
all old animated films on Blu-ray, there is usually very little they
can do to improve the quality, short of re-animating the film, they
can only try and clean it up a bit. However, the 1.33 X 1 digital
High Definition image looks about as good as it can thanks to some
good work from Sentai, though the lossless DTS-HD MA (Master Audio)
mix is even better and a rare 5.1 (English in this case) outing for
Sentai we wish there were more of; an impressive upgrade from the
original theatrical mono sound, which we still get in Japanese
lossless 2.0 DTS-MA.
Extras
include trailers, but you can read more about the TV series version
at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/483/Ninja+Scroll+V.+1+(TV)
-
Ricky Chiang
