Ninja scroll

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Movie
German title Ninja scroll
Original title Jūbei Nimpūchō
Country of production Japan
original language Japanese
Publishing year 1993
length 94 minutes
Age rating FSK from 16 years (re-examination) / previously indicated and from 18
Rod
Director Yoshiaki Kawajiri
script Yoshiaki Kawajiri
production Haruo Sai, Masaki Sawanobori, Shigeaki Komatsu
music Kaoru Wada
synchronization

Ninja Scroll ( Japanese 獣 兵衛 忍 風 帖 , Jūbei / Jūbē Nimpūchō ) is an anime by Yoshiaki Kawajiri from 1993. The work can be classified into the genres of action , fantasy , drama and splatter . The film is based on the character of the sword master Jūbei Yagyu , who is a common subject in Japanese pop culture, but develops its own character and story from this.

action

In Edo period Japan , years before the film began, the young master swordsman Jubei Kibagami worked as a ninja for the Yamashiro clan under the leadership of Himuro Gemma . When the clan found a huge gold mine, the lord tried to keep this discovery a secret and gave Gemma the job of eliminating all witnesses. So Gemma wanted to wipe out the entire ninja corps by ordering Jubei's elimination. In self-defense, he killed all of his former friends. Then he ambushed Gemma in revenge and beheaded him as he rode past. Since then, Jubei has been wandering around the country and can be hired as a swordsman for little money.

One day, the inhabitants of a village in the territory of the Mochizuki clan mysteriously die. The government suspects an epidemic and has the surrounding area evacuated. To investigate the matter, Sakaki Hyobu, the lord of the Mochizuki clan, sends the Koga Ninja team . Among them is the beautiful poison tester Kagero, whose body is so enriched with poison that she is immune to any poison, but the touch of her lips is fatal to anyone else. On the way to the village she is attacked by the powerful Tessai, who can turn his skin into stone. Only Kagero survives, but is captured by Tessai on their escape and taken to a nearby hut, where he sets out to rape her. Jubei happens to be in the hut and can save Kagero. In the process, Tessai loses an eye and now seeks revenge.

After Jubei and Kagero split up, Tessai appears and ambushes him. But the poison he was exposed to when he kissed Kagero begins to work. His invulnerable, stone skin begins to crumble and Jubei can kill him. To take care of his wounds, Jubei goes to a hot spring. There the seductive Benisato, who can control snakes, appears and hypnotizes Jubei. But before she can kill him, the old monk Dakuan appears and throws a shuriken at Jubei, so that he wakes up from hypnosis and fends off the attack. However, Benisato can escape by shedding her skin like a snake, leaving only a shell.

Dakuan is a government spy who has been behind the scenes for a long time. He explains that the two attackers belong to the Eight Devils of Kimon , an association of killers led by Himuro Gemma, who was believed to be dead. Each of these eight is endowed with a supernatural ability. They will take revenge on Jubei for the death of their comrade Tessai. That is why it is better for him to work with Dakuan, because he wants to put an end to the devils. When Jubei refuses, the monk reveals to him that the shuriken with which he freed Jubei from Benisato's spell was soaked in poison. His reward for working together would be a hundred gold pieces and the antidote.

The two lose each other in a forest. While Dakuan is fighting Shijima, who can merge with shadows, Jubei encounters Benisato again in a temple. Again he threatens to be defeated when suddenly Kagero appears, whose investigations have also brought about. She is able to stop Benisato, but before she can interrogate Benisato is electrocuted. Finally, after escaping Shijima, Dakuan joins them and the three decide to work together.

Together they defeat the remaining devils Yurimaru, Zakuro, Utsutsu Mujuru, Shijima and Mushizo and thwart Gemma's plan to take the gold to establish a reign of terror.

Production and publication

The film was produced by Studio Madhouse in 1993 . Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri , who also wrote the script and designed the character design. Hiromasa Ogura was the artistic director, while Yutaka Minowa was responsible for the design and animation direction . The film was released in Japanese theaters on June 5, 1993.

The film was shown on television in North America, France and Spain and has also been translated into Russian and Italian, among others. The unabridged (English) version was indexed in Germany because of the depictions of violence, Splendid brought out a cut FSK-18 version in Germany. In 2004 the anime was licensed by Panini Video , and in 2010 by I-On New Media who released it on DVD in German dubbed on February 25, 2011 under the label Animaze. After a renewed check by the Federal Inspectorate, the indexing was lifted, so that the new publication with synchronization was uncut, without youth approval. Another release followed on September 26, 2014 together with Sword of the Stranger on the double DVD Animaze Anime Box # 2.

synchronization

role Japanese speaker ( seiyū ) German speaker
Jūbei Kibagami Kōichi Yamadera Alexander Doering
Kagerō Emi Shinohara Melanie Hinze
Gemma Himuro Daisuke Gōri Gerald Paradise
Dakuan Takeshi Aono Peter Groeger
Sakai Hyobu Shūichirō Moriyama Uli Krohm
Tessai Ryūzaburō Atomo Raimund Krone
Hanza Katsuji Mori Matthias Deutelmoser
Benisato Gara Takashima Isabelle Schmidt
Shijima Akimasa Omori FGM Stegers
Yurimaru Toshihiko Seki Sven Gerhardt
Utsutsu Mujuro Norio Wakamoto Matthias Deutelmoser
Mushizo Reizō Nomoto Thomas Schmuckert

music

The music for the film was composed by Kaoru Wada . The closing credits song Somewhere, Far Away, Everyone is Listening to a Ballad was written by Ryouhei Yamanashi.

Adaptations

Television series

In 2003 an anime television series was produced, the plot of which takes place a few years after the film. However, it also revolves around Jubei Kibagami. The 13-part series was also created by Studio Madhouse and was published in Germany by the Anime Virtual label under the title Ninja Scroll - The Series .

More movies

Studio Madhouse is working on a sequel to the film. The first announcement was for 2006, until August 2008 there was no script. In the US, the film Ninja Resurrection was marketed as a sequel to Ninja Scroll . Although the film also revolves around a main character named Jubei, this is a different character, closer to the original of Jubei Yagyu, and the plot of the two films is otherwise unrelated. However, the main character of the film has a brief appearance in the series Jubei-chan , a comedy about his modern rebirth.

In 2008 Warner Bros. announced the development of a real-life version of the material. Alex Tse was named as the scriptwriter and Leonardo DiCaprio is said to be the producer .

Comic

From September 2006, the publishing house Windstorm in the USA published a twelve-part comic series by J. Torres , which continues the plot of the film.

reception

In 1993 Ninja Scroll received the Citizen's Award from the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. During the 1990s, the title was one of the most famous anime films in the West. The US publication sold 70,000 copies by March 1996, making it the best-selling title of the young label Manga Entertainment at the time . In Germany, too, Ninja Scroll was one of the most popular films in the scene at this time and shaped the image of anime that emerged at that time with its bloody battle scenes , according to the magazine Animania in 2004. However, director Yoshiaki Kawajiri understood it “excellently, the violence in exciting to embed dramatic action ”. According to another criticism, the “excessive depiction of violence” caused the film to slip into the splatter genre. Together with the tragic love story that the film also offers and the high animation quality, this is the recipe for the success of the film in the 1990s. The Anime Encyclopedia praises the well thought-out plot, the wonderful backgrounds and the successful special effects. The good quality, which has long made it one of the most popular anime, shows the large budget and the great effort that was put into the film.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Jonathan Clements, Helen McCarthy: The Anime Encyclopedia: A Century of Japanese Animation . 2nd Edition. Stone Bridge Press, 2006, ISBN 978-1-61172-909-2 , entry: Ninja Scroll , p. 452 f .
  2. ↑ a b Animania 03/2005, p. 19.
  3. ↑ Ninja Scroll release date known. In: AniSearch.de. October 11, 2010, accessed December 13, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Animania 12 / 2010-01-2011, p. 6.
  5. ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | Ninja Scroll - The Movie. Retrieved March 29, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Anime News Network on Studio Madhouse's plan to produce a second film
  7. ↑ DiCaprio Considers SMAP for Ninja Scroll Film . Anime News Network. April 6, 2009. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
  8. ^ Warner Bros. Acquires Ninja Scroll. In: ComingSoon.net , CraveOnline, October 26, 2008. Retrieved April 12, 2010. 
  9. ↑ Eileen Fitzpatrick: Shelf Talk: Manga Chopping Out Space On Store Shelves For Its Japanimation Releases . In: Prometheus Global Media (Ed.): Billboard . May 18, 1996, ISSN  0006-2510 , pp. 67 .
  10. ↑ Animania 01-02 / 2004, p. 42.