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Ninja Ressurection
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Title Info
- alias: The revenge of Jubei
- alias: Makai Tensho
- alias: Ninja Scroll 2
- seen: 1 of 2
- type: OAV
- grade: flawed
- Other elements of this title:
- This title appears to be an unsuccessful pilot.
- made: unknown
- Review created: A while ago, i'll revise it eventually.
- mod: none
Before anything else is said ADV (the distributors) need a good solid slapping for what must surely be the most transparent piece of dodgy advertising ever attempted. The film `Ninja Scroll' is a solid ninja action romp that became a successful western release. This anime, despite the name, has absolutely nothing to do with that movie. It does have ninja, and there is one called Jubei in the dub, but that is nowhere near enough to claim it as a sequel. In addition it's not even really a movie, looking a lot more like the first episode of an OAV series to me. And to top it all off, it's nowhere near as good a film as Ninja Scroll was. I knew this before I borrowed it, but I deeply feel for anyone who only discovered these facts after buying this tape.
The film itself tells the story of a Japanese `christ' come to lead the oppressed christians in Japan. Of course, being Japanese, the prophecies warn that if this figure is thwarted he'll join the other side and the earth will become a monster filled hell. Of course since the Japanese military forces take a dim view of armed christian rebellions you can be pretty sure what is going to happen. Along the way there is a lot of quite gruesome violence, a bit of demonic magic, a sex scene, and some of the most stupid ninja (led by Jubei) ever in a movie. Apparently an army of thousands of Samurai have no hope of victory where five ninja types don't even take a wound. By the time the christ figure turned into a japanese dragon and one ninja demonstrated his ability to turn into a jet propelled interceptor (I am not making this up) while another fired his collapsible rocket launcher I'd lost all interest in this title.
I am certainly not interested in watching what will almost certainly devolve into a monster, violence and dark magic slash fest. The animation is fairly average, especially for an OAV, but alright and the story is basic and familiar but not too stupid. Those with a demand for action and graphic violence, but not too delicate about plot or character might find this quite watchable...but most people will consider it a very average title with few redeeming features.
I have to include a review from Lord Carnage (should be Carnage-Sama?), because while the synopsis sounds like the back of the box he did supply me with the japanese name, the fact that only one episode was made, and the fact that the `Jubei' refers to the Japanese historical figure Jubei Hyuga. The review is positive, btw, he liked it a lot. However I prefer the Anime Review page which gets the axe out on what it calls an incomplete, poorly produced and repulsively violent anime. The review is long, good and quite an amusing read. The anime critic identifies this anime as "Ninja Resurrection" (perhaps in the American release?) and mentions that only two of a planned 13 episodes were made. He finds it difficult to be too upset at this fact...and I must admit I have to agree.
Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:22 WST 2009