Ninja Scroll TV Vol. #3

By Chris Beveridge     June 30, 2004
Release Date: June 29, 2004



What They Say
Contains the final 5 episodes!

Until now, no one has fully understood the secrets of the Light Maiden. But they are revealed at last when the Hiruko warrior Zofu save Shigure from a clan of assassins and forces her to face a place and purpose she did not choose.

The Review!
Bringing the series to a close, revelations are made and truths come out that bring the entire plot together, one that sends the series off with a bloody but ultimately satisfying conclusion.

Audio:
For our primary viewing session, we listened to this show in its original language of Japanese. The series sports a rather solid stereo mix that provides a good amount of directionality across the forward soundstage as well as some depth. There are a few scenes where something is coming from far away and it does a good job of making that feel like it?s in the room. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout and we had no problems with dropouts or distortions during regular playback. English language fans will be happy to know that there?s a very solid 5.1 mix included that brings the directionality up a few notches in sharpness and clarity as well as a 2.0 mix for those who hate downconverting their audio tracks.

Video:
Being such a recent show, the transfer here bears that out nicely with a solid looking print. Colors are vibrant when required and the dark blacks and blues hold their solid feel without breaking up. Cross coloration and aliasing are virtually non-existent throughout the four episodes. There?s a slight amount of grain throughout the entire production, providing some areas with a more film-like feel, but it?s mostly noticeable during the darker sequences. There are a few scenes that are very heavy in reds, such as one with Shigure standing against a sunset, where the reds suffer from the chroma issue and start taking on a bit of a life of its own. The fuzzy feel is more striking in some heavily red scenes than others but varies by player.

Packaging:
Continuing the look of previous volumes, the style used really does a nice job of giving the artwork some real flair while being minimal. The central image of Jubei walking off into the fields with a glance thrown back works really nicely here, especially with the mixture of earthy colors. The border surrounds it nicely while providing the volume number and name at the top and the series logo inside. I believe the Japanese version of the logo is listed along the outside of the border as well. The back cover provides a few shots from the show and some promotional artwork. The summary is pretty good but difficult to read with the font used. The discs extras are clearly listed and the usual production information is done up nicely as well. The insert provides another look at the front cover but without any of the text. It opens up to provide two panels for the five episodes, giving a shot from each of them, the episode number and title as well as a summary and the chapter listing titles. The back of the insert provides advertisements for other shows.

Menu:
The main menu works out nicely here where it adopts a similar style to the cover framing and has animation playing inside of it but with a filter over it that gives it a slight paper/grain feel. Selections are nicely laid out with the ability to choose by episode, play all or go into the setup or special features. There?s a very slight transitional animation going into the submenus and each submenu has its own piece of music playing. Access times are nice and fast and we had no issues getting around but the disc does not read the player set defaults, forcing it into an English language version with no subtitles.

Extras:
Finishing out the series in terms of extras we get some of what we've seen before plus some new material. One of the bigger extras, especially for those fascinated by the animating process itself, is the storyboard to feature comparisons which have five brief instances to check out here. The opening and ending sequences are done in a textless form once more and the usual array of artwork fills a gallery. One of the neat extras that Urban Vision typically tries to get done is a fast version of the illustrator doing the cover art, which is done here and makes me really wish I could draw. The other big extra included is a twenty minute behind the scenes piece which goes into a lot of what it took to get the show dubbed and out.

One thing I don't like is that Urban Vision continues to put a wide range of trailers onto their discs including shows that they have repeatedly said they'll never put on DVD because they sold so poorly on VHS. While they look at only their own products as a whole and the need to move them, expecting anything on VHS for anime to sell these days is just plain silly.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Ninja Scroll has been a fairly engaging series all told but with a really weak middle piece that didn't really seem to help push the story forward. While the center set of episodes helped to continue to push forward in the area of showing what strange things inhabit the world and just how cunning and strong Jubei is, they weren't exactly episodes that felt like they were required viewing for such a short series as it is. With the last volume, almost everything feels like a key episode even as the fights stretch across them.

The way everyone has been split up hasn't helped much either since you know they'll all come back together, and that makes up a good bit of the five episodes on this volume. Interestingly, we start off with Shigure trying to decide what to do next now that she's still on the run and ends up being confronted by a group of Yagyu who insist that she come with them. She's ready to fight as always but these are some of the better swordsmen out there led by one of their best, so she hasn't got much of a chance. Fate intervenes though with the arrival of Zofu, a member of the Hiruko clan, and his insistence that he'll protect Shigure to whom he refers to as the Light Maiden. Shigure has little input in any of this and Zofu ends up eliminating the band of Yagyu surprisingly fast.

What we learn from Zofu is key to the end of the series. We learn of what exactly Shigure's role is as the princess along with the dragon stone that she's been charged to protect. Used as a backup in case the Tokugawa shogunate failed, the Hiruko has looked at the Light Maiden as their savior, one of royal lineage who will be used with the dragon stone to create a nation made entirely for the Hiruko. They won't need to wander and hide in the shadows any longer after this is accomplished and they'll be able to take a position of strength and power in the world. Zofu's ready to take her and keep her safe while dealing with his own inner demons.

Of course, the Hiruko aren't the only ones after the Light Maiden and the power that the dragon stone contains. The Kimon clan has their own plans for the power and wealth that it's reported to have, so it's leader, Yamidoro, sends of his own demon shaped warriors to deal with the annoying Hiruko folks as well as Jubei and the rest of his group as they all eventually come back together while trying to find Shigure and save the dragon stone from the march of evil. In true epic form, everything comes to a head in a volcanic active mountain where the secrets of the dragon stone are able to unlock entry to a place where the future of several clans and longstanding battles will be decided.

Ninja Scroll manages with its last episodes to actually shift Jubei to the background a bit but still giving him numerous highly energetic and well animated action sequences. With the refocus on the Light Maiden and her role as a savior of the Hiruko or a tool of the Kimon clan, things shift from Jubei in a few ways but he still keeps a critical role in things. With the addition of other Yagyu and a slew of the demonic styled creatures from both clans running about, there are a lot of good action moments and he's able to be there right through the end of things as it gets more and more interesting. But it's also just a limitation of the character in that an action character who is supporting a key character can only do so much when the story shifts focus. But unlike the middle episodes in the series, they're all kept close together and are able to play off of each other. Combined with some fast pacing and excellent animation, the conclusion to the series really works well.

In Summary:
From my perspective, Ninja Scroll suffered a fair bit from its presentation to the US market. Between lengthy delays in volumes and confusing releases of limited editions to brick and mortar retail stores as exclusives, each release had many people asking what was going on and what was included in these other volumes. With minimal information coming out of Urban Vision about it, often until the actual day of release, you couldn't be sure of what you were going to get. The series also suffered from a middle section that in the end could have been mightily compressed, reducing the series probably by at least three episodes. I'd almost say that the show would have worked better as an eight or nine episode OVA series and gone for a more stylish approach. But with this final volume, they do manage to redeem themselves with a well paced and solidly built set of episodes that tells of an actual story that is concluded with a good amount of satisfaction. Ninja Scroll could have been better and appealed to that demographic that's looking to counterbalance the big influx of shoujo titles but Urban Vision just didn't seem up to it.

Features
Japanese Language,English Language,English Subtitles,Creating the Cover Art,Storyboard to Feature Comparison,Art Gallery,Behind the Scenes

Review Equipment
Panasonic PT50LC13 50" LCD RP HDTV, Panasonic RP-82 Progressive Scan codefree DVD player, Sony STR-DE835 DD/DTS receiver, Monster component cable and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.