×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Review

by Michael Wieczorek

Ninja Resurrection

VHS Vol. 1 - Revenge of Jubei

Synopsis:
Ninja Resurrection VHS 1
The forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu and those forces loyal to Toyotomi Hideyoshi's young son and successor, Hideyori, raged an epic battle and that battle was called Sekigahara. Toyotomi Hideyoshi wasn't present because of his death during his failed attempt to conquer Korea. And at the end of that battle Tokugawa Ieyasu remained the supreme victor and became the undisputed ruler, Shogun, of Japan.

As Shogun, Tokugawa decided that Japan must be isolated from the rest of the world and this includes the expulsion of everything foreign, including Christianity. So a battle rages across the land between the Shogun's soldiers and Christian rebels.

One group of these Christian rebels is lead by a young man named Shiro, with the aid of his general, Souiken Mori; they build up a large army of disgruntled Christians and revolt. And in this revolt they manage to capture a castle where they fortify themselves in preperation for the Shogun's retaliation.

As you might expect Tokugawa isn't to pleased with this so he dispatches one of his general to take care of the pesky rebels. Also with this force is Jubei and his band of ninja commandos. And so an epic battle rages between the Tokugawa forces and the Christian rebels but something sinister force awaits in the background.

An ancient prophecy says that a Child of Heaven, whom Shiro is believed to be, shall arise and deliver the faithful from their enemies but also hidden in the same prophecy there is a warning that states that if this savior should falter he shall be reborn as Satan. And the treachery of one of Shiro's generals lurks in the background as the prophecy is fulfilled during the battle.
Review:
I think the most obvious warning with this anime is that it's not for those who are faint of heart or who are looking to be intellectually stimulated. As with many ADV titles it's full of graphic violence as well as the lone sex scene at the end. There isn't really that much that is wrong with a show full of sex and violence as long as the show has a half-decent plot and some other redeeming qualities; unfortunately Ninja Resurrection has neither.

The plot for the most part is nonexistent. It was basically just an excuse so the animators could have a bunch of people being torn to bits. Also even the weird Christian prophecy plot element that was supposed to add some intrigue comes off as being incredibly hockey.

The dubbing was bad. And not a good bad either. As usual the extras were terrible and most of the main characters were wooden. Also no one could pronounce 'Tokugawa.' They pronounced it as Tow-koo-gu-wha and not Tow-koh-gaw-wah. Also the dialogue was pretty trite. It made some Van Dam movies sound like Shakespeare.

All in all, the animation was pretty good, but at times became lazy. The kind of animation where they just use still pictures instead of doing any animation at all. Most of it was just people getting hacked to pieces and blood spurting out. The gore was about as absurd as that of 'Ninja Scroll' but didn't have people shooting out geysers of blood whenever they were cut. 'Ninja Scroll' however had a decent plot and good animation.

Even the action scenes, which make up most of the Anime, were boring; and I'm a guy who likes action. It gets tiring seeing about five people effortlessly gutting masses of poorly armed Christians. How can an untrained and lightly armored Christian soldier be able to take on a ninja commando who is carrying a bazooka and another one who has a suit of armor that transforms into a jet.

In the end this is something that I don't recommend to anybody. Maybe it would have been better if it had a giant robot in it, probably not. But if you want something that has nothing but blood, gore and violence that this anime is for you. If you want something to numb your mind and make you want to demand the forty-five minutes of your life back that you wasted by watching this anime, then this is definitely for you.
Grade:
Overall : D-

+ It was short and had decent animation
A lot.

bookmark/share with: short url
Add this anime to
Add this VHS to
Production Info:
Director: Yasunori Urata
Script: Kensei Date
Music: Masamichi Amano
Original Manga:
Ken Ishikawa
Shouko Toba
Character Design:
Kenji Hayama
Keiichi Satō
Art Director: Geki Katsumata
Chief Animation Director: Keiichi Satō
Animation Director:
Kenji Hayama
Hirotoshi Takayama
Masahiro Yamane
Original Novel: Futaroh Yamada
Art design: Tadayuki Shiroyama
Sound Director: Kensei Date
Director of Photography: Yoshiaki Yasuhara
Executive producer: Yasuhito Yamaki
Producer:
Toshiki Ōnishi
Kenichiro Zaizen
Licensed by: ADV Films

Full encyclopedia details about
Ninja Resurrection (OAV)

Release information about
Ninja Resurrection - The Revenge of Jubei (Dub.VHS 1)

Review homepage / archives