Ninja Scroll: My Otaku Origin Story

This is my final essay project for my East Asian Cultures class.  I know, I'm being lazy and posting something old instead of writing something new, bad Tristan!!  Fret not!  I will have a completely new post soon!  This month marks my 20th anniversary of being an otaku so I felt it was appropriate to share this story with all of you.  I decided to re-watch and talk about Ninja Scroll since, up to this point, I had never done so publicly.  As the title implies, this is the anime that started it all for me.  My life was forever changed...

    Nearly two decades ago my older friend approached me with a question, “Wanna watch a cartoon with blood, guts, and nudity?”  How could I refuse?!  He rented Ninja Scroll from our local Blockbuster Video and my passion for anime was ignited.  I was captivated by what seemed to be a beautifully violent painting brought to life.  If one were to take a brief survey of what comes to mind when someone hears the name Japan, you would likely get one of two responses: sushi or ninja.  And this movie has all the ninjas a person could ask for.

    Watching this movie again after several years I found myself just as entertained by it as I was all those years ago.  After a brief opening scene in which the main protagonist Jubei dispatches some would-be assassins, I am treated to one of my favorite bloodbaths of all time.  A ninja squad is jumping from tree-to-tree and suddenly come under attack by a group of demon-ninja.  An enormous bladed weapon flies through the air, separating heads from shoulders and torsos from legs.  Body parts and blood rained down on the ground below.  I remember when I first saw this at the age of twelve, I didn’t blink.  I was shocked and amazed.  I never imagined a cartoon could look this pretty yet be so insanely brutal.  Nowadays it really does not faze me.  I just sit back and enjoy the carnage.

    In the next scene we see that one of the demons has captured the lone female ninja that was traveling with the squad he had just eradicated.  He quickly proceeds to rip her clothes off and sexually assault her.  This was the first animated nudity I ever saw.  As a kid I was excited and fearful.  Excited because I was witnessing naked breasts, yet fearful of the consequences I might face if my parents were to find out what I was watching.  These days the nudity holds my attention just as much as it did when I was a child, minus the paranoia.  I still laugh a bit at this scene because the stone demon is so large that when he kisses the ninja he engulfs large portions of her body.  At one point he seems as if he is going to swallow an entire breast.  It’s a ridiculous scene.

    The movie never actually states outright whether the demon-ninja are truly demons or just humans with extraordinary powers.  Whatever the case may be, they are referred to as the “Demons of Kimon”.  I don’t know if the creator/director was inspired by yokai when he thought these villains up, but I feel that would be a safe assumption.  The main goal of the evil ninja is to amass enough wealth and power so they can shore up their ranks and overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate and replace it with those loyal to Toyotomi.

    Later in the film Jubei happens upon a Buddhist temple where he finds a nun praying alone in the candle light.  After a brief conversation she begins convulsing violently and then hundreds of snakes erupt from her body.  Jubei comes under attack by another demon-ninja, a snake woman.  Things seem hopeless until Kagero, the female ninja from earlier in the film, sneaks up on the demon and puts a knife to her throat.  What ensues is one of the most memorable and disgusting scenes I have seen.  A poisonous snake slithers out of her vagina and bites Kagero on the thigh.  It still turns my stomach just as much today as it did eighteen years ago.  The idea of something like that actually happening horrifies me.

    Something else that both amuses and irks me is the completely unrealistic and savage beatings that Jubei receives.  No human could survive what he goes through, yet somehow he perseveres.  He gets punched in the face and stomach multiple times by the stone demon but is nowhere near as injured as he should be.  In the following scenes he is perfectly fine, as if nothing ever happened.  I know realism was not the intent of this movie, but a little more would have been beneficial.  I find myself losing interest in a character when they are practically perfect and impervious to injury.

    Upon viewing Ninja Scroll for the purpose of this assignment, I came to notice something I had never caught before.  The main heroes and villains have more in common with samurai than with ninja.  Ninja are known for being stealthy assassins.  That could not be further from the truth for most of the protagonists and antagonists in Ninja Scroll.  None of the main characters wear anything that is commonly associated with ninja and most of the battles are fought out in the open instead of under the cover of shadows.  It really made me question the logic behind the title.  Whenever I think about ninjas, this movie never comes to mind.

    Despite the issues I have with this movie, it is still a classic in my eyes.  I get very nostalgic when I watch it.  This movie is my otaku origin story.  It also appeals to my morbid curiosity.  I am always interested in seeing how creative a movie can be in slaughtering its cast members.  The more inventive, the more I enjoy it.  Ninja Scroll is like a beautifully animated train wreck.  No matter how disturbing it is, you find yourself unable to look away.

DVD cover.