Ninja Resurrection

Original Title: 魔界転生 地獄篇
Romanized: Makai Tensho - Jigoku-hen
Literal: Resurrection From Hell: Book of Hell

Plot Synopsis

In feudal Japan, there was a growing Christian movement among the people, but powerful warlords have moved to unite the country and crush this intruding religion. The expulsions and purging have proceeded, and there is only one group of holdouts left--a starving band of rebellious farmers now holed up in a castle under siege by the armies of the warlords.

But the leader of this band is not a normal man: A prophecy tells of a child who will be born as a savior to the people, but if he is touched by evil, he will be reborn as the offspring of Satan himself. When a group of skilled ninjas are brought in to deal with this uprising, their leader, Jubei, may set in motion events far greater, and darker, than he could imagine.

Soon famous dead warriors begin rising from their graves and the spawn of satan himself may make an appearance.

Review

Rating: 1.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-06-21

Ninja Resurrection is yet another ultraviolent ninja action flick, and it's frequently mistaken for a sequel to Ninja Scroll though it's not--it's actually based indirectly on a novel by Futaro Yamada. While it has an original story and both the characters and violence are creative, it's simultaneously too bloody and too downright silly to be able to recommend.

In fairness, Ninja Resurrection is completely unrelated to Ninja Scroll, but it's hard to avoid some comparisons since ninja hack and slash is measured by the Scroll bar these days. It's easy to see where the confusion comes from--the main character is another Jubei and ADV did their darndest to sell it like a sequel. But associating it with Ninja Scroll just makes this not-a-sequel even more of a disappointment than it deserves to be.

Given the marketing, you might expect Ninja Resurrection to actually be something like Ninja Scroll. It is not--it's more like a dark, ultraviolent version of Ninja Cadets. That is not a good thing.

Problem number one is the characters. The "hero", Jubei, may be relatively historically accurate, but he's essentially a bad guy. Not just a bad guy, but a bad guy lackey, albeit one who eventually develops some personality. Then there's the inevitable collection of superpowered ninja people (here on the protagonist's side since he's a bad guy). Their abilities are original but silly, instead of unoriginal but cool and fun. True, I've never seen a fold-out, multi-barreled wooden missile launcher in a ninja movie before, but that doesn't mean I want to. And you need to see the armor-plated rocket ninja thing to appreciate how flat-out stupid it is. There's also a little guy who looks like he belongs in a Go Nagai movie.

On balance, this cast drags it across the line between cheesy ninja show and medieval Power Rangers. On the bright side, the silliness factor does go down in the second episode, but that's where the bloodlust kicks in in full force.

I cannot emphasize the word "gore" enough. Most ninja flicks are plenty bloody--severed limbs and spurting sword slashes are de rigueur. Ninja Resurrection, however, seems to miss the point of ninja gore. As cool as one nighttime rain of arrows is, the bulk of the series is taken up by legions of near-defenseless rebellious peasants getting hacked to pieces. I don't know about you, but that just doesn't quite cut it (pun intended) for me. It's creative carnage, but there's a limit to the number of decapitated bodies, disemboweled ninjas, and raining blood a movie can absorb before it starts to get a little too gratuitous.

The flying chunks are rendered with sadistic abandon approaching Fist of the North Star, so you'd think Ninja Resurrection would at least work as splatterfest, but the situation is (or should be) too grim to properly enjoy even on that level. If that's not bad enough, the second part features... things so graphic and disturbing that I'm not even going to try to describe them. The word "gratuitous" doesn't even begin to do it justice. There's also a lot of pointless sexual content directly connected to the violence, making both all the more disturbing.

In summary, the apparent good guy isn't and Jubei is only the good guy compared to, literally, Satan. All you're left with are a bunch of under-prepared farmers getting cut into little pieces (and plenty of that). The second part starts out looking like a standard anime light action show then turns abruptly into a near-pointless shock-and-gore-fest.

The storyline--ignoring that it dead-ends after two episodes--is the one positive. It's convoluted (which I consider good in a samurai drama) and is in fact historical fiction of a sort. The classic samurai movie intros are one of the best parts--almost like a history lesson, each episode begins with a long list of hard-to-remember names of minor characters and classically-illustrated portraits of various warlords and such. It's nice that the political end of the plot is relatively believable, even if the action isn't. Of course, there are glaring historical inaccuracies (other than the obvious)--rioting peasant farmers in heavy plate armor, for example--but all things considered, those are the least of its problems.

The Christian purges are based on historical fact, though the use of Christianity in the story is more likely to be significant to viewers outside Japan. Having a Christian warlord is an unusual twist, but the way the religion is handled might well seem a little odd, at best, to someone actually familiar with (or a member of) it. The whole idea of a divine savior being reborn as the devil is questionable (particularly since all he does is get really mad), and some of the mechanics are a little off, but if that doesn't bother you it basically works.

On the technical end Ninja Resurrection is about par for a reasonably high budget OAV. The action scenes are nicely animated, although how much fun they are depends on your taste, and you definitely should not expect any ninja showdowns, or any real swordfights for that matter. There's a fair amount of style to the art--hard shadows and cool background scenery abounds. The character designs aren't bad, but they have an uncomfortable Tenchi Muyo flavor, and the "savior" has a pointy nose that looks funny when he starts cackling maniacally. At least the main villain looks the part, though how anyone could mistake him for a good guy escapes me. Jubei looks rather similar to the Ninja Scroll Jubei, though true to historical form he has a cool eyepatch.

The acting in the dub isn't perfect, but it's well cast and both of the Christian leaders are quite good. In the Japanese version the bad guys sound sufficiently evil, and the peaceful scenes at the beginning of the second part are well acted.

Somewhat ironically, the best part of Ninja Resurrection is probably the soundtrack: Lots of grandiose choir themes that accentuate the apocalyptic overtones of the plot, and several pieces of swelling orchestral music that bring a sense of large-scale importance to otherwise minor scenes.

Summing up, Ninja Resurrection is not a sequel to Ninja Scroll, and don't come expecting one--they have almost nothing in common but ninjas and a Jubei. On its own merits, it's a slightly weird but passable ninja series that has a creative story, a couple of interesting characters, some super-ninjas with tragically silly abilities, and way, way too much tasteless violence for its own good. It also has no conclusion. If loads of extreme violence and/or the unusual plot sound appealing, you're sick, but you might well love it. Otherwise I'd advise keeping your distance.

Related Recommendations

If you liked the original Ninja Scroll, you're in serious danger of being disappointed by this one. A much closer match would be the more stylish gory ninja horror of Yoma: Curse of the undead. Others are perhaps Go Nagai's Devilman, or straight splatterfest like Fist of the North Star.

US DVD Review

ADV has two versions of the DVD available; the original one, which includes stereo tracks in both languages and some art, and the price-reduced "anime essentials" version, which apparently adds a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack in English.

Content Guide

Heaps of violence and very adult themes easily qualify it for ADV's 17+ rating. The particularly offensive scenes are at the end of the first part and about halfway through the second (don't let the second half's mild start fool you).

Violence: 5 - Violence and gore of the most extreme and offensive sort abound.

Nudity: 3 - A few isolated scenes.

Sex/Mature Themes: 4 - Those same scenes, which are outright disturbing.

Language: 1 - Not noteworthy.

Notes and Trivia

This anime series is based on a manga series by Shouko Toba, "Makai Tenshou: Yume no Ato" ("Resurrection From Hell: Remnants of Dreams"). The manga itself is based on the novel "Makai Tenshou" by Futaro Yamada, which is in turn (very) loosely based on real characters from Japanese history.

The novel has been adapted a number of times, most notably in a 1981 live action version directed by Kinji Fusaku (who later directed Battle Royale) and starring Sonny Chiba. It's available in English as "Makai Tensho - Samurai Reincarnation." There's also a 2003 live action movie of the same name (not available in English as of this writing), as well as a pair of other straight-to-video releases (sold in the US as "Reborn From Hell: Samurai Armageddon" and its sequel "Reborn From Hell II").

Finally, there's also a PlayStation 2 game of the same name.

Many of the characters in this series, including Jubei, are based on actual figures from Japanese history. For those wondering, it's not clear whether the Jubei of Ninja Scroll is supposed to have anything to do with the "real" Jubei--his name is different, as is his MO.

Availability

Available in the US from ADV on a hybrid DVD, most recently an "Anime Essentials" re-release of their original disc. Was originally available on a pair of subtitled or dubbed VHS tapes, now out of print.

RightStuf carries the Anime Essentials DVD, and also still has copies of the original DVD release at closeout pricing ($6) as of this writing.

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store