Review for Ninja Scroll the Series - Collector's Edition

Introduction

This takes me right back to the beginning. I’ve been hooked on anime for a long time now, but it wasn’t always thus. After I reviewed the Akira Special Edition DVD release, more and more anime discs started to turn up in the review disc lottery free-for-all that reviewers engaged in back then. Things were hit and miss at first, and for a few months, I was weighing up whether I actually wanted to watch more anime. There was a plus side and a minus side, and eventually the plus side, with shows like Tenchi Muyo, Vampire Princess Miyu, and Kiddy Grade clinched it. It was a close thing though, as a couple of zero context Dragonball Z discs (seriously, Warner Vision just released some episodes at random for a while before giving up), Transformers Takara, and the Ninja Scroll TV series almost made me quit. Indeed, I had a strong dislike towards Ninja Scroll TV, and not because it wasn’t a patch on the Ninja Scroll movie. I never really appreciated the movie until I saw the uncut version on Blu-ray. It just wasn’t my cup of tea back then. It’s been almost 20 years, and now MVM are bringing us the Ninja Scroll TV series on Blu-ray. Surely after this much time, not only will I have lost any biases, I’ll have forgotten the show completely. It’ll be like watching it for the first time all over again. I hope...


The demons of Kimon are once again causing trouble in their quest for power. They are pursuing the Sacred Dragon Stone that has been entrusted to Jubei’s care until he can deliver it to the Light Maiden. Accompanying him on his quest are Shigure, who may be the Light Maiden, an urchin Tsubute and the old spymaster Dakuan.

13 episodes of Ninja Scroll TV plus extras are presented on this Blu-ray disc from MVM, which makes use of the materials created by Discotek for the US market.


1. Tragedy in the Hidden Village
2. Departure
3. Forbidden Love
4. Broken Stone
5. Diamond Child
6. Shelter From the Rain
7. Blossom
8. The Fate of Rengoku
9. A Dragon Within
10. The Heart of the Hiruko
11. Renya Yagyu
12. Dynasty Restoration
13. Farewell Jubei

Picture

Thirteen episodes plus extras on one disc would seem something of a squeeze, but this disc comes via Discotek, authored by MediaOCD, who go the extra mile to make anime look good on disc. It doesn’t hurt either that Ninja Scroll TV was made for the Japanese NTSC television era, with 480 lines of resolution to work with. What we get here is a 4:3 pillarboxed 1080p up-scaled transfer and it looks really good given the source material. The image is clear, the animation, limited though it is, is smooth, and colours are rich, making use of the HD colour gamut, far more vibrant than the old DVD release. Detail levels are solid, and the consistency and crispness is such that you might be fooled into thinking it’s a higher definition presentation. Having said that, you can’t get away from the 30fps source material, and where that frame rate is adapted, you’ll see some jerkiness in pans and scrolls, although really, it’s just the end credit reel so affected.

Sound

If you’re into the original Japanese audio, then you’re sweet, as Ninja Scroll TV gets a PCM 2.0 Stereo Japanese track, giving you the uncompressed experience. English audio fans will have to settle for DVD quality with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround and 2.0 Stereo, with optional English subtitles and a signs only track. The audio is fine, the stereo works well enough, and the action comes across with requisite impact. The actors are suited to the roles, and the subtitles are accurately timed and free of typos. It still bugs me that they use the proton pack sound effect from Ghostbusters, and the music quickly gets tedious through repetition.

Extras

All 13 episodes fit easily on a single Blu-ray disc, and there is room for over an hour of extras too. This time we get the full extra feature set that the US DVD release got back in the day, as opposed to the subset of extras that PAL territories got then.

Clean Opening and Ending (3:02)
Dub Behind-the-Scenes (19:10)
Dub Outtakes (4:49)
Illustration Demos (7:04)
Storyboard Samples (20:22)
US Promo (4:59)
US Trailer (2:07)
Japanese Promos (3:31)
Soundtrack Promo (0:32)


Character Designer Yoshimatsu at San Diego Comic Con (7:21)
Episode 2 Dub Crew Commentary
Episode 2 Dub Cast Commentary
Episode 13 Dub Crew Commentary
Episode 13 Dub Cast Commentary
Interviews
- Tatsuo Sato [Director] (10:58)
- Takahiro Yoshimatsu [Character Designer] (11:22)
- Peter McEvilley [Music] (8:17)
- Kitaro [Theme Songs] (8:22)

Conclusion

This is going to be one of those “if you like this sort of thing, you’ll like this” reviews. I don’t. I last saw Ninja Scroll TV back before the invention of Blu-ray, and I didn’t enjoy it then. Watching it now, having long since forgotten it, and practically approaching it fresh, as if it was a brand new show to me, I liked it even less than I had written in those DVD reviews. I think I’ve gotten even further from the target demographic in age, and it’s really quite telling. Back when I was a kid, I watched a lot of episodic cartoons, variations on a theme, week in and week out, with shows opting for a repetitive familiarity instead of an ongoing and developing narrative. I had outgrown such shows before I was a teenager, opting for Mysterious Cities of Gold over Scooby Doo. Episodic shows have to do something really special with characters and originality to hold my attention. Ninja Scroll TV is a monster of the week show, and it isn’t special enough to hold my interest.


The funny thing is that I used to feel the same way about the original Ninja Scroll feature film, from which this show was spun off. It had some bad-ass action, no little sex, and a parade of grotesques, freakish ninja with bizarre abilities for the protagonists to face. It was less monster of the week than it was monster of the scene, but I had to wait until I saw the uncut Blu-ray release before I could appreciate the character development and subtext within the film. The thing is that the TV series, obviously cuts out the sex, it tones down the violence, and it strips out any real character development, subtext or nuance. It is that weekly parade of grotesques, freakish ninja for our protagonists to deal with, and if I were fifteen, watching this on TV, I’d love it. But all these decades later, I need something more from my anime.


It’s a road movie of sorts, the Light Maiden and the Dragon Stone are the key to an ancient treasure, and everyone is after it. Shigure might be the Light Maiden, and she’s been raised by the Hiruko ninja for that destiny, but she doesn’t know if that is what she wants. The Kimon ninja will do whatever it takes to possess the two, and so the conflict begins. Into the middle of this comes Jubei Kibagami, the hero of the piece, and more a ronin samurai than a ninja, although if he waves his sword at something with enough intent he can slice them in half by remote.


When Shigure’s village is destroyed, she embarks on a journey to the Yagyu ninja, and ostensibly safety, with Jubei as a reluctant bodyguard. Also in the mix are the wily ninja master from the movie, Dakuan, and a cheeky thief named Tsubute. And every episode will introduce new ninja from the Kimon, or the Hiruko or both, with their particular back-stories informing that episode’s narrative, but inevitably swords will flash, and someone will die, and given the nature of the story, it won’t be any of our heroes. Some of these stories are interesting enough, but mostly the show sticks to a comfortable routine.


It’s good that Ninja Scroll TV is back in print, and you’ll have never seen it looking as good as it does now on Blu-ray. But Ninja Scroll TV is best considered a gateway drug; a dependable first anime if you’re into outlandish action. Once you have a few anime under your belt though, it will quickly lose what appeal it first had once you see what anime can really do. If you’re into freakish ninja action, I’d recommend Basilisk as a more satisfying option.

Ninja Scroll TV can be had from Anime on Line, from All the Anime, and from mainstream retailers.