Ninja Scroll (DVD)

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This DVD, as the name implies, is a re-release of one of Manga Entertainment´s best known features. "Ninja Scroll" was one of the earlier anime movies I watched, so I was pretty excited when this disc came my way. The back boasts of a 1.78:1 aspect ratio option, which I was initially excited about. More about that later.

"Ninja Scroll" is a fast paced action/thriller movie, with spies, ninjas, intrigue, and lots and lots of killing. I believe that the point was to try to recreate a samurai flick, with all of the superhuman skills and action, and in that "Ninja Scroll" certainly succeeds. The plot is not particularly deep, but it doesn´t pretend to be either. Like the director says in his interview on the disc, the show is aimed at a more teenage audience.

The main hero is Kibagami Jubei, a folk hero in Japan. The son of a noble, the real Jubei disappeared from the capitol for twelve years with no account of his whereabouts, a time which is attributed by legend to Jubei wondering around the countryside, righting wrongs and fighting the good fight, all while incognito. In this particular movie, Jubei stumbles onto a plot that threatens Japan´s stability, so of course he swings in to action to save the day.

Strange, but watching this movie again, I just wasn´t as impressed with it as I used to be. The biggest hook for the movie seems to be in its shock value, which doesn´t appeal to me much anymore. I think the most memorable such scene was when one of the bad guys chugs blood out of an arm he just ripped off of a ninja. That´s by no means all of the gore though, there´s severed limbs aplenty along with electrocutions and detonations.

The plot is slightly above average for ye old samurai flick, but in the end, that´s what "Ninja Scroll" is. The film is short enough that you won´t get bored, but only just. The action scenes are incredibly animated, for the time it was created in, and still won´t disappoint.

Video:
You can watch the video in either 1.33:1 (full-screen on 4:3 monitors) or anamorphic widescreen 1.78:1 (full screen on 16:9 monitors). The DVD is double-sided, with one of the video formats on either side. Considering that I´ve never seen "Ninja Scroll" offered in anything other that 1.33:1, where did the 1.78:1 print come from? Anime fans tend to be one of the more vociferous groups when so much as a single frame has its color levels adjusted, so I was surprised for this new print to come out. As it turns out, Manga created the 1.78:1 print by chopping off the top and bottom of the 1.33:1 print. I couldn´t believe it, but if you compare a few shots from each print, it´s easy to see that that´s what happened. This is unacceptable. I can understand, although not condone, why sometimes a 1.78:1 aspect ratio is pan and scanned down to 1.33:1 (people like my brother don´t like black bars on their TVs), but the kind of people who own a 16:9 TV today are more likely to be concerned about video quality. Therefore, in what world does it make sense to crop a 1.33:1 print to 1.78:1? I don´t know either.

The animation quality has started to show its years. "Ninja Scroll" was produced before there was any computer generated graphics in anime, so there are plenty of static looking backgrounds, repeating frames, and sliding cels to simulate motion. However, whenever there´s any fighting or fighting-related activities, the animation is full frame. The color palette looks a little shallow, particularly on Jubei, whose clothes, hair, skin, and eyes are all similar shades of brown.