500http://i.ur.com/lQO8KMk.png This movie was pretty alright. Oh it has a thirteen episode series too... I wonder how that is. EDIT AFTER THE FACT: I literally found this out only after finishing this review but apparently Ninja Scrolls 2https://www..com/watch?v=TvAsKZAYEak a sequel to the movie but apparently not outright rejecting the TV series as Jubei has the wind slash was going to be a thing at some point. Introduction and Plot That theme music is pretty catchy. I hope it doesnt play a billion times and becomes annoying. Ninja Scroll the Moviehttp://anilist.co/anime/617/JuubeeNinpuuchou from 1993 was a reasonably enjoyable action movie. It wasnt amazing or anything but it was enjoyable enough. It was apparently received well enough for someone to actually want to make a continuation of it ten years later. Ninja Scroll the thirteen episode long TV series made in 2003 was meant to show the original movies protagonists journies fourteen years following the events of the original movie. However none of the events of the original movie are ever referenced or brought up so you can easily see it as it being its own entity separate from the original movie about the same swordsman character. Which is convenient because the TV series was... disappointing to say the least. The movies plot wasnt anything special but it seemed like they actually tried. With this... theres a weird stone called the Dragon Stone everyones trying to get as well as this Light Maiden of legend and all that really boils down to is a battle with a different sometimes multiple ninjas each episode. Then they finally make it to the place they have to go to a bunch of stuff happens and the series just sort of ends. Itd be a fine action show if... the action was as good as the movies if the characters were actually even slightly interesting and if the ninjas they battle every episode werent... well... 440http://i.ur.com/6a2AFLW.png ...this. You cant throw this at a person in the very first episode she also spawns swarms of gigantic flesh eating worms from her skin and sends them after her enemies which is but not the weirdest that this show has. Are these ninjas? They dont look like ninjas. As a matter of fact they very much seem like horrific monsters and/or mutants of some sort. Also theres never an actual ninja scroll of any sort. Thats a petty gripe I know but still. Characters...? Lets have a quick run through of the main characters. Comparisons to the movie will be made in the case of the protagonist and one other character because its somewhat surprising that both characters actually had somewhat of a personality motivation backstory and etc in the movie and all those are either slimmed down or outright absent in the TV series... making me think this is more of a spinoff rather than an actual continuation/sequel... ...which is good because I liked the movie. 250http://i.ur.com/JcRzDPY.png 270http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/ninjascroll/images/8/8a/JubeiKibagami.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130517103412 Left: TV Series Right: Movie. This is our protagonist the wandering swordsman Jubei Kibagami. In the movie Jubei actually had a past and actually had motivation in cutting through the crazy ninjas so he can stop their leader whom he once killed or so he had believed. But before he was aware of his connection to these ninjas leader he was actually downright abrasive and unwilling to stick his neck out for anyone and was wholly unwilling to be involved with this trouble until an annoying old man literally injected him with a poison and would not reveal to him the antidote until Jubei helped the old man finish his objective. Well thats great. But what about Jubei TV edition? He similarly doesnt want to become wrapped up in the conflict between these two equally weird ninja groups but mostly just because hed rather lie around and sleep. He could have simply tossed the Dragon Stone after it being entrusted to him by its previous dying owner but he chooses not to because of a change of heart I guess. Also movie Jubei had no special abilities of any sort. He survived all his fights only via his swordsmanship and willpower/determination. TV Jubei on the other hand has this generic wind slash attack from episode 1 and it basically kills almost every ninja it successfully lands on. Even following them witnessing and becoming aware of this attack that almost instantaneously cuts every ninja in half they never develop a counter towards it or actually try to avoid it... It really doesnt make the action that fun or thrilling to watch at all because even in the few fights where he doesnt use it I just kept thinking I wonder when hes going to use the thing. 440http://i.ur.com/W8o86Oc.jpg Shes the female lead of Ninja Scroll TV Shigure. Believed to be the Light Maiden her home village is soon wiped out by a goliath sized ninja who believes he is a car and begins to occasionally travel with Jubei and co except for whenever the plot decides for them to be split up for a while. Her personality is... theres really not much to say. The first episode shes all I want to explore the outside and Im such a skilled warrior that everyone here loses to me in practice fights. But then it turns out the outside world is awful filled with horrible monstrosities of beings and it turns out shes not at all a master fighter. After that its mostly just... we have to protect her shes the Light Maiden. Eh. Shes no Kagero female lead of the movie thats for sure. Literally being 100 poison I guess automatically beats Shigures nothing. 260https://i.yt.com/vi/hfSI30jkClI/hqdefault.jpg 250http://p2.i.ntere.st/9200dba493b608ac455f3bf78cf6302a480.jpg Left: TV Series Right: Movie. Dakuan this weird old man shows up and bothers Jubei in both iterations of Ninja Scroll in one way or another. In the movie hes an agent of the Tokugawa clan and basically sees Jubei as a potentially handy tool in thwarting those wishing to disrupt the rule of the Tokugawas. Manipulative and not unwilling to do some morally questionable actions to bring about the result hes aiming for he poisons Jubei once Dakuan realizes Jubei is wholly unwilling to help him out of the goodness of his heart. In the movie hes an actually serious character. In the TV series hes just the old man in Jubeis group. He may or may not still be a spy but I dont think they really ever mention that. Or perhaps its just a really similar looking old man... 440http://i.ur.com/G27l7js.jpg Finally were at Tsubute. A thief character Shigure encounters and then becomes a part of Jubeis group because literally why not. They needed another character I guess. He literally contributes absolutely nothing at all even moreso than Shigure and Dakuan he can at least sort of defend himself and the other two a little. Apart from dialogue because of course we need dialogue Tsubutes biggest contribution to the show other than be annoying is trying to steal the Dragon Stone from Jubei/Shigure on multiple occasions despite not even knowing if he could actually sell it for anything. Why continue to let the obvious and clearly unrepentant thief continue to travel with you even though he keeps trying to steal from you and contributes NOTHING???? That covers the main characters. What about their enemies if this shows plot is really little more than they proceed to travel and then are attacked/ambushed by ninjas? The Ninjas Bat ninja? His power is bats HOW ORIGINAL. I recall thinking when I was watching the first episode Well okay I dont see this getting any weirder if this is what the start is like. 440http://i.ur.com/kZxB4zb.png But then of course theres the ninja who is literally just an eyeball that flies down peoples throats to possess them. Thus Jubei is straight up just killing random people one by one in this abandoned house after this eyeball flies down their throat. Of course he finally stops it by cutting the eyeball in half. After a bunch of other people are needlessly dead. 440http://i.ur.com/B9JbeCY.png The group of ninjas in the movie were strange too and some of them had supernatural powers themselves but nothing like this. There was a guy who could turn his skin into stone and the main bad guy could literally force himself back to life just because his will to remain alive was just that great even if he had his head cut clean off. Additionally there was a main bad guy and Jubei actually had reasons and backstory to have motivation to stop him. As well as because the degree of the insanity used in making these ninja abominations was much less in the movie it also worked in the movie because it was a movie. Eventually I think they just started to run out of ideas with the series. There is a ninja whose power is essentially... it can take the parts of people and animals she kills and then can attach it to herself or to others. 440http://i.ur.com/ej1pBaV.png I will now combine you with a dog. Why? I dont know why not? Of course it escalates after that point. She has her face pretty badly cut after one of her fights with Jubei so she kills a snake and uses its skin to fix it. Then she stumbles into a bear kills it and then attaches its arms to herself. BEAR ARMS. HOW DID SHE NOT WIN? Oh right Jubei can cut through the air. 440http://i.ur.com/THXYjOu.png She eventually got so tired of losing that she traded her limbs to another strange ninja who was mad that he had weird ugly looking limbs because she would gain the ninjas poison powers which would perhaps make her win if bear arms didnt. Also her arms of course choke the ninja to death after they make the trade because yeah why not. 440http://i.ur.com/WKnVgQL.jpg 440http://i.ur.com/sAUVwJt.jpg So weird. And... heres the thing. The weirdness does not make this show any better. If anything it makes it worse although the eyeball episode was my favorite episode. But I guess they thought well we cant just do what they did with the movie. A swordsman killing relatively normal ninjas comparing them to this isnt enough. Yet if they had actually done that I think it could have actually been much much better. Like I really dont get why there was a need for a scene where the moth ninja tries to rape the tree ninja. That sure was weird. And didnt add anything at all except I guess Jubei is the protagonist and a good guy so okay hell stop the rape even though she tried to kill him and his group probably not even a couple of hours before this. 440http://i.ur.com/4U2qT7M.png Well a similar scene happened in the movie so... Conclusion Bad characters this version of Jubei and the old man from the movie are worse generic/uninteresting fight scenes thin bad plot and when there is plot its really needlessly weird and... the opponents Jubei fights are either bad generic weird or a puzzling mixture of all of the above. Carry a magical stone protect a girl fight some freaks and thats thirteen episodes were done. Was looking for at least an average/okay and consistent action show coming from the movie but ended up being a 3 out of 10. My recommendation is to watch the movie because it genuinely is much better and then just leave it at that and pretend this doesnt exist. Theres better action shows out there. Probably. 500http://i.ur.com/CUGhJ8Y.png