An incredibly good, if not great ninja anime movie; Ninja Scroll has nothing to do with a scroll, the story is about a wandering ninja, named Jubei, who is drawn into a scheme of his enemy who plans to take over feudal Japan and the government along with the 8 devils of Kimon by manipulating the shogun of the dark for all their gold. He joins the main woman character, Kagero, when she is the only survivor of a team of ninja sent to investigate a plague that has hit a small village. After killing the one who was responsible for the plague, which is one of the eight devils of Kimon, Jubei becomes drawn into the scheme and hatred of the devils of Kimon. As you can imagine, many action scenes and bloody fights ensue.

Since there are 8 devils of Kimon, there are 8 huge fights. This movie is non stop action. The fight scenes are awesome. Time and effort were put into the scenes to make sure that the viewer's heart would pound with excitement. The fight with the blind swordsman in the bamboo forest in particular is heart stopping. The 8 devils of Kimon all have different powers. They are demons that look like humans and have special powers. (I tend to like movies that have enemies that are human anyway, not disgusting demon monster nasty things.) For instance, we have a lady who controls snakes and can shed her skin to get out of tough situations, we have a hunchback with a hornet's nest on his back, we have a homosexual dude who electrocutes people with his invisible wires, we have a guy who can turn his skin to rock and throws a very nasty double edged weapon, there is also a woman who controls rats and can make people and things explode after cutting them up and sewing them back together and there is also a blind master swordsman. Every enemy is cool and mean in their own way. What I also like about the movie is the way the enemies are presented. They are not presented in an order of strength like some other clichéd movies. Also, each one seems to die a creative death, not something like, opps, stab, your dead.

The main characters are also pretty cool. The main character, Jubei, is a tough ninja with extraordinary strength. The main woman is Kagero, who is a woman ninja who has a tricky technique. (Which I won't mention here because it will ruin the surprise.) Her emotions are as hard as rock until her lame little emotional breakdown at the end which I didn't like, it was just too sappy and predictable. You'll see what I mean. There is an old man monk who is the third main character. He is a bit annoying but not as annoying as old man monks from other movies ::cough cough, Wrath of the Ninja:: Also, the heroes and heroines are not perfect and the bad guys are not completely evil (except for a few.) which makes the characters very believable. Although the 8 devils of Kimon never really develop quite so much (it's only a 90 minute movie.), the main characters develop nicely and change. Anyway, the plot is very cool. I like it alot. There are lots of themes that include deception, betrayal, love (nothing too sappy though, this is a movie for guys.) and even self-esteem issues.

Killing demons is not the main focus of the film. It is definitely not a pointless hack and slash ninja film. The demons and the fighting never completely overshadow the main plot or themes in the movie, and it balances out nicely. The art and animation are excellent and some of the best anime out there. It's fast, clean and detailed. The music is also nice. They include mostly drum beats during battle scenes which really makes the fighting even more exciting. All in all, this movie is fantastic, but definitely not for the faint of heart. This is a movie you wouldn't want to watch with mom and dad or your little siblings. The fight scenes are very graphic and quite realistic. This includes loss of more than one limb, pints and pints of loss blood, decapitations, stabbings etc. The sex and nudity is explicit and very naughty. Kagero is raped more than once in a graphic manner and there is quite a bit of nudity too. Not exactly pornography or hentai but it was just so unnecessary. This would most likely have a rating of a high R. The dubbing is all right. It doesn't stand out but it isn't horrid. The voice actors aren't into their characters as much as they should be but they do the job fine. All in all, an awesome movie and a classic that shouldn't be missed.