Ninja Scroll Vol. #3

By Dani Moure     April 26, 2006
Release Date: November 01, 2004



What They Say
The war between the clans reaches its climax as Shigure is kidnapped by the Kimon clan, leaving both the Hiruko and Jubei desperately chasing after them. As the powers of the Light Maiden grow stronger, friends and enemies become harder to tell apart and Shigure, pursued by legions of creatures, finds she can no longer deny her responsibilities as the Light Maiden. She alone is the key to finishing the war, and the drifter ninja Jubei has committed himself to seeing her to the end!

The Review!
The monster mashing and demon slaughtering continues in the latest volume of Ninja Scroll: The Series.

Audio:
For my main review, I listened to the Japanese stereo track since this was my first time seeing these episodes and I like the original cast. I noticed no dropouts or technical problems during regular playback. I also spot-checked the English 5.1 track and my thoughts of it have not changed from the previous volumes.

Video:
Airing in 2003, and still being released in the US, the materials are in great condition, as you'd expect, and so we have a great transfer here. Colours come out very well and are nice and vibrant, during both the day and night sequences. I noticed no aliasing during regular playback, and despite the amount of action and fast-moving pace, I noticed no artifacting either. The transfer is clean and sharp, and overall it is very pleasing to the eye.

Packaging:
No packaging was included as this was a check disc.

Menu:
The menu system takes a simple, yet effective, approach. The main menu features an image of Jubei in an action pose as if he's about to draw his sword on the left side of the screen, with the show's logo off to the right side. From the menu, you can jump straight to any of the four episodes, and go to the setup or extras menu. The opening theme plays over the main menu screen, while the rest are all silent. The oddest thing is that there is no scene selection menu present on the disc, especially given there are more chapter stops than usual in an episode. The submenus follow the same style as the main one, just with different images. Selections are all nice and fast.

Extras:
The final volume is comparatively a little lighter on the extras, no doubt because of the extra episode on the disc. We get the final storyboard to feature comparison, which shows five relatively short scenes (four of the fight sequences), with the original storyboard line-drawings filling the screen, and a small inset showing the final product to compare. We also get an interesting behind the scenes featurette which goes behind the dubbing of the show and runs at almost 20 minutes.

Creating the cover art makes a short return this volume, running a couple of minutes and showing the front cover for the first volume being drawn. Also featured is a short art gallery, and the textless opening and ending sequences. This series has made out really well in terms of extras.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
And so, after just thirteen episodes, it's already time to say farewell to Jubei and friends (I think it's safe to call them friends now). The series puts all the pieces of the story on the table in this final volume, which manages to deliver some exciting twists and a healthy dose of quality action, although some of the aforementioned story moments are a little contrived.

The disc opens with Shigure separated from everyone else and being attacked by an old friend of her father's, who has led his clan to join the Kimon. She's rescued by an unlikely ally - a wandering swordsman who is skillful in much the same way as Jubei. After taking all the enemies out, he tells Shigure that he's Zofu of the Hiruko clan, and explains to her that the Dragon Stone she has is the key to the lost clan's treasure that the Hiruko want to finally come out of the darkness after all this time, and that's why Shigure is their Light Maiden. They're fighting with the Kimon because they just want the treasure for no reason other than it is treasure. Shigure on the other hand doesn't want to be the Light Maiden, which disappoints Zofu and he looks like he's going to attack her.

Zofu seeks out Jubei and seems to be asking for a fight, dangling Shigure's necklace in front of him to try and provoke him. It works but it turns out it is indeed a ploy, he really wants Jubei to kill the demon that's been inside his body for as long as he can remember, and after a nice little backstory, Jubei obliges. I liked this episode for a couple of reasons; firstly, Zofu was a pretty interesting enemy and although we pretty much know what to expect from him in terms of what he wants from Jubei, it's nice to see a bit of a story behind him even if it was a bit forced and predictable. Also the more snippets about the whole Dragon Stone and Light Maiden story we get the better at the moment.

The next episode is more than a little strange, as one of the Hiruko clan, Gyokai, escapes and goes after Shigure, the Light Maiden that he's in love with. He's a complete oddball, and when he catches up with her, he rolls up into a ball and grabs her away as she and Jubei are fighting a group of skull-masked demons. He tells Shigure that he'll protect her and that she's special, but she rejects his advances. Eventually the Kimon lord shows up, and despite everyone's best efforts Gyokai meets an unfortunate fate and Shigure is capture, and thus the race to find her is on.

But not before your typical Ninja Scroll sidetrack. With Shigure gone the three guys get on board a boat to travel in search of her, but almost immediately come face to face with some of the Yagyu, in particular one called Renya, who seeks the Dragon Stone. As he and Jubei are face to face, a little girl steals the stone after distracting everyone by claiming she was running from a pervert. As everyone tries to track her down some of the Yagyu start dying in gruesome ways, at the hands of an old lady running around on the ship. But she is somewhat linked to the little girl who stole the stone. While this story was quite interesting, it was far too obvious what the "twist" would be way before it happened and highlighted a problem this series has highlighted on a couple of occasions " that it sometimes takes the characters an age to find out things we already know.

The more interesting revelations here come in the form of seeing Shigure held captive by Yamadoro, who slaughters hundreds of Hiruko in front of her eyes. It all leads towards the inevitable final battle, as in the last two episodes the Hiruko, Kimon, Yagyu and indeed our gang come together in one final showdown. Yamadoro just wants to use Shigure to get to the treasure, and succeeds in manipulating the Hiruko and even Jubei to some degree. The Hiruko want to be brought back to power again though, and will sacrifice it all for the Light Maiden. The Yagyu, on the other hand, just want Shigure dead because she's "evil". And so the final pieces are in place.

It's easy to pick holes in Ninja Scroll's story even at this stage. So much of it is predictable without really having to think about it, and at times it's a bit contrived (the confrontation with Mufu and Yamadoro on the last episode was pretty silly, for instance). But that's not really the point, because Ninja Scroll was always meant to be primarily an action series with plenty of demon slaying and a somewhat simplistic story to tie everything together, and in that the series succeeds very well. The animation is pretty good throughout, and there are some very good fights and action sequence incorporating a swag of interesting looking characters. Granted, a few of them (like the bat man) misfire, and we don't get to know most of them particularly well at all, but again, this is an action series first and foremost.

Perhaps the most interesting factor in these last episodes though was some noticeable character development if you actually for it. Jubei, always portrayed as a wanderer and bounty hunter looking out for himself at all times, actually develops an interesting relationship with the group, in particular Shigure who he goes out of his way to protect and care for on several occasions (it looked like he wanted that kiss as well). Shigure was sidelined somewhat considering her role in the story, but she did finally find her own way with regards to the whole Light Maiden ordeal and we see the resolution she chooses in the final episode. We don't really see a great deal of the old man, and outside of the episode on the last disc we don't get a great deal of Tsubute either. Nevertheless, some of the characters' choices were surprising in a way, considering their past, showing that they have changed a bit.

In Summary:
Ninja Scroll has a clear agenda as an action series with a fairly simple story to hold it together, and it succeeds very well at being just that. It's not going to win anyone over who's looking for a great depth of character or some epic story, but for action fans, and fans of the original OVA, this definitely gets my recommendation. It's a but uneven in the middle after a good start, but it comes together well in the end.

Features
English Language (5.1),Japanese Language (2.0),English Subtitles,Storyboard to film comparison,Behind the Scenes,Creating the cover art,Art gallery,Textless Opening and Ending

Review Equipment
Philips 28" Pure Flat Widescreen TV, Philips DVP5100 code free DVD player, JVC gold-plated RGB SCART cable, standard stereo sound.