Ninja Scroll: The Series
Publisher
MVM
Director
Tatsuo Sato
Production
Madhouse, WOWOW
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
13 eps; 25 mins each
Year
2003
Ninja Scroll volume 2
By otaku_kei
2nd Dec 04  The Kimon and Hiruko clans are still battling for possession of the Dragon Stone and the Light Maiden. Jubei is still playing the part of 'man with no name', all brooding intensity, and the rest of the travellers are still as ineffectual. Once again we have 4 episodes that follow the same vein as the first volume: Shigure in trouble, Jubei protects her, villain dies almost as soon as Jubei gets involved. That really does cover most of what happens in this volume, unfortunately leading to these episodes to being little more than filler content. Shigure is a woefully under-used character in this series. As a destined leader/key to the resurrection of the Lost Dynasty she could at least have been provided with more to do than turn tail and run at every sign of danger. When we were introduced to her character in volume 1 we saw that Shigure was a well-trained ninja. But that detail appears to have been abandoned so that she can play the wilting flower opposite Jubei's dangerous mystery man. Once again it falls to the 'monster of the week' villain to provide the interesting character of the episode. With a welcome return of the crazy spider-ninja from volume 1 we actually see the scriptwriters getting to flesh out and develop one of the characters. Not sure why they felt the principal cast were unworthy of that treatment? Negative, negative, negative that is all I seem to be going on about, which is a shame as there is a lot to enjoy about this series. As with the other volumes in the series the picture and audio qualities are great and the casting was well chosen for the most part. The character designs are inventive and distinctive and almost instantly recognisable as telling the heroes from villains in this tale. All in all the production of this title is great, it is just the meandering plot of this volume that really hampers it. So having passed the midway mark for the Ninja Scroll TV series what can we say about this show? Well having watched the show in a random manner (volume 3 then 1 then 2) I was already aware of how the tale concluded. So I was hoping for a strong character or plot driven storyline. Unfortunately that has not occured. In fact the plot developments could probably be limited to 4 or so episodes the first couple and then the closing of volume 3. The episodes in this volume add nothing to the plot, and the apparently conscious effort of the creative talent to not have character development mean that these episodes cannot even be valued for that. But this is all entertaining fun, and if that is what you are after then you will find quite a lot to enjoy about this series. Personally though I felt this series missed an opportunity to be a really good 6 episode series for an unfocussed 13-episode series. This volume scores so low simply for it's lack of development to the story line... 5/10
R2 DVD Notes
Features: 5.1 English; 2.0 Japanese; English Subtitles; Interview with the Director; Interview with the Character Designer; Storyboard to Feature Comparison; Creating the Cover Art; Art Gallery; Original Trailers
Release information: 5th July 2004 - OUT NOW
Notes: Once again the production is great with the picture and audio quality being perfect. Yet nce again this series is let down by it's extras being nothing more than filler material. A shame really as otherwise this series really isn't putting much wrong.
-- otaku_kei 2nd Dec 04
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