The World Needs More Ninja Scroll, and Here’s Why…

Daryl Surat January 16, 2016

Mid-1990s America was a time before high-speed Internet was available in homes, when owning movies was relatively uncommon due to cost. Nationwide video rental stores thrived. They would frequently offer a small section of “Japanimation,” where it would not be uncommon for violent pornography such as Legend of the Overfiend to be placed directly ninja scroll anime adjacent to children’s films such as My Neighbor Totoro, which themselves could bear “photo ID required” warning stickers since “they’re all Japanese cartoons.” Selections were generally sparse, but one thing was constant for virtually every video outlet in America:

They had a copy of Ninja Scroll.

And people watched it. People who otherwise would never dream of watching anime then or now would pick it up on a whim, their curiosity piqued by the cover or the “Manga Man Says: Parental Discretion Advised” warning label. Within the first 15 minutes they’d see people getting cleaved in half such that it literally rains blood from the sky, hundreds of shuriken thrown, one dude ripping off someone’s arms to drink the blood that pours forth, and not one but TWO sex scenes. And all this was from a “cartoon”! In a pre-Pokemón world, THIS defined “anime,” and content-wise it was like virtually nothing people had ever seen before … so they’d tell their friends about it.

But for as unique in content as it was to many, Ninja Scroll would never have succeeded were it not wholly familiar to us in structure. Despite its Japanese feudal Tokugawa-era setting, no historical or cultural Japanese knowledge is required to understand the film. Per director Kawajiri’s personal interests, as noted in last issue’s interview, it more closely resembles an American Western or 1930s-era hardboiled detective story.

Wandering mercenary Jubei Kibagami is a ninja whose sword quick-draw is so fast it sends shockwaves through the air. Completely cool under pressure and confident in his abilities the way Kawajiri’s heroes always are, a seemingly chance encounter introduces Jubei to Kagero, a literal femme fatale kunoichi for a separate ninja group, the Koga. An entire village has been killed by mysterious circumstances, and she’s been tasked with investigating the suspected cause. Her case becomes Jubei’s too when he’s conscripted by an elderly g-man, Dakuan, into investigating an enemy band of ninja known as the Eight Devils of Kimon. Jubei’s similarities to Spade/Marlowe end ninja scroll anime there, for when you have a sword attached to a wire, “investigate” ultimately means “locate and then battle to the death.”

Kawajiri’s “show, don’t tell” approach means you’re often wondering what trick these experts will do next, at least when you’re not thinking, “Damn, I guess ninja don’t particularly seem to mind when they lose a limb.” Honestly, the Eight Devils aren’t “ninja” so much as X-Men-style mutants. One of the devils can turn his skin into stone. Another has a nest of wasps protruding from his spine. The primary influences for these outlandish “ninja” are thenovels of pioneering Japanese historical fantasy author Futaro Yamada, particularly The Koga Ninja Scrolls which has been translated into English and adapted into the anime series Basilisk. The only place for those traditional “Sho Kosugi movie”-style ninja is to be diced by the weirdos. The key challenge of action cinema—and one frequently taken for granted—is making each action scene unique, and the fact that each of the Eight bears a unique weapon on top of their ability is ultimately in service of this. Still, for my money’s worth, Ninja Scroll’s best battle is a matter of sword against sword, since “only a ninja can stop a ninja.”

Ninja Scroll was and remains one of the best-known and best-selling anime titles of all time the world over. But what the Japanese want from their entertainment is often at odds what everyone else wants. These “wind ninja chronicles” failed to make much of an impression there at all, and while many quip that it’s because “they’ve already got ninja there, so it lacks novelty,” nearly all of Kawajiri’s directorial output is far better received internationally than in Japan itself. His leading characters are frequently male adults, and if you think about it that’s quite a rare thing for anime! He specializes in blockbuster entertainment for a worldwide audience, and is critically lambasted as a result.

That’s why, when I was 15 and the stereotype of “anime” was that it was all animated smut laden with bombastic graphic violence, I absolutely HATED this movie with the level of scorn the Internet currently visits upon the creative efforts of Michael Bay, Brett Ratner, McG, Rob Liefeld, and other “approved” punching bags. In a world where anime fans were few, I needed to “represent.” I’d tell everyone I was into ART, not this tawdry sensationalism. I’d say the depiction of women was more exploitative than the bloodshed, and lament that titles like this would get released but not the works of the then-obscure Studio Ghibli. So I avoided watching Ninja Scroll for 17 years … until now.

O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the poison-infused breast! Divorcing Ninja Scroll from the infamy has let me realize just how magnificently it holds up on Blu-ray. Either something inside of me has died or I’ve reached an epiphany between then and now, but the beauty of Japanese animation is its potential for diversity. When there’s too much of any one genre being made or released, that potential goes unrealized.

Hardboiled action entertainment, once ubiquitous in anime’s “boom days,” has now all but faded away save for the occasional OAV or cable television production. Neither scenario is ideal. It may no longer have as much shock value in an era where the most graphic imagery is only a few clicks away, and bizarre superhuman ninja that don’t seem particularly stealthy at all is the expected kid-friendly norm. But for the sake of restoring the balance, right now is the time for MORE anime like Ninja Scroll. It is all right, everything is all right. The struggle is finished. I have won the victory over myself. I love Ninja Scroll.