Shurannosuke Sakaki is a masterless samurai with a razor-sharp katana and a cold-hearted personality. Whenever you see the mark of two crossed scythes on his back, death is sure to follow. Because of his exceptional swordsmanship, Shurannosuke is hired by the Nakura Clan to rescue Princess Mayu from the Seki Ninja. In this mission, he must use his full potential to survive the Seki Ninja's notorious henchmen.
(Source: ANN)
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Comentários
literaturenerd
Overview: Sword for Truth was widely considered by otaku during the 1990s to be one of the worst anime of all time! The infamy has died down and now it is simply unknown. It was released in the US under the title: Ninja Scroll 2. This is despite the fact that it was made before Ninja Scroll and has absolutely nothing to do with Ninja Scroll. A far more appropriate title would be: WHAT!? It is very appropriate that this was made during the 1990s, because you are going to say WHAT!? when viewing this pile of shit more often than Stone Cold SteveAustin!
Story: 1/10
This is quite easily the least coherent story in the history of anime. Not because it is trying to be artsy and is using layers on layers of symbolism. No, it is due to nonsensical scene cuts, plot points that are brought up once and completely abandoned, and the COMPLETE INEPTITUDE of the writer. A princess is captured and a powerful samurai is hired to get her back. The story starts out quite simple. However, the movie will cut away during a fight to introduce some random character that will never be seen or heard from again. One of the main bad guys is fighting the main character when random lesbian ninjas show up for no reason with zero explanation and fight the baddie while our hero wanders off. It never shows how the fight even finished between the baddie and the lezzies and fucking of course it never mentions any of them again! After capturing the princess, the bad guys try to use a hot hooker chick to make the princess fall in love with her and steal her family sword, which they were already demanding as ransom. This was the entire point of capturing the princess. So the bad guys went with 1 plan and then started a second plan that would only work if they hadn't already gone with the first plan??! WHAT!? This is just an excuse for a hot girl on girl sex scene, that is generally considered to be the "highlight" of this fucking movie! The hero saves the princess, but while rowing a boat is randomly attacked by a sea monster with no explanation. However, the hero slashes the monster with his sword and it explodes....WHAT!? After returning the princess to her father, the father decides that the Samurai touched the princess and should be killed, but then changes his mind at the last second and offers a reward, which the samurai refuses because, "you can't kick dog and then give him a treat". The samurai then crosses paths with a character that it randomly cut to several times and is supposedly an assassin, but they don't fight. They just say that they both reek of blood and the movie ends. This movie reeks of BULLSHIT!
characters: 1/10
Not a single character in this film has any level of character development. I can barely describe the characters using trope names because they don't even have that much development. The bad guys have unestablished motives for why they want the sword. They are just bad guys. The hero isn't cool, isn't badass, has no interesting traits. The princess is apparently bicurious, but that is the entire extent of her character. She just has sex with every man and woman she comes across. huh huh... hey Beavis, I said comes! 90s moment, couldn't help it!
Art: 1/10
Unlike Ninja Scroll, Sword for Truth actually has quite terrible art. This makes it fairly insulting to call it a sequel to Ninja Scroll, which was stupid as hell but at least it was well animated, coherent, and most of all fucking fun!
Entertainment: 1/10
It actually hurts to watch this piece of shit. I only recommend watching this one with pain killers at the ready!
Overall: 1/10
Dear sweet GOD this movie was bad! The only reason anyone ever rented this during the 1990s was because the false title Ninja Scroll 2. It takes a special kind of bad to be both physically painful and absolutely rage inducing. This is one of those anime!
animegorey
Cheap ass version of Ninja Scroll. That's all I could think of as I watched this and thought about the trailer I seen for this. How dare they compare this to NInja Scroll. Dub was boring and poorly cast, story is familiar at best, action and violence is cheap and generic. Don't let the trailer fool you. However, If your a fan of cheesy dubs and the horribly over-acted OVAs, this one's for you. Weak blood sprays and cheap character design really make for a low-budget looking title. Yet, as a fan of these types, I have this dvd in my collection. It's right therewith Riding Bean, Vampire Wars and M.D Geist and can easily be rewatched due to it's short runtime. If you don't expect too much, you won't be disappointed.
vigorousjammer
Well, let me start off by saying that even though I went into this with really low expectations, this wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. There's some pretty decent moments here & there, but for the most part, it's still just kind of poorly made. First off, the writing is terrible and sounds like something I would have came up with if I was 13, and was into nothing but pointless violence and pointless sex. That's all that happens in this movie. There's a very generic story that they have in there as well, but it ends up being less of afull story, with scenes jumping between each other, not flowing very nicely or having any kind of a good transition between them. The whole thing is presented sloppily, and it's really more of an excuse to have a bunch of blood, gore, and naked ladies.
Also, I should mention that the pacing is completely fucked. This movie is 49 minutes long, and if I had to guess, about 35 of those minutes are dedicated to dialogue and exposition. 5 minutes are dedicated to sex scenes, and the remaining 9 minutes are dedicated to action. The main villains that they introduce are usually killed off within the first 30 seconds of their introduction, thus giving the viewer very little time to even process what's going on, yet the movie just continues.
The characters are really not good at all. The main character, Shuranosuke is virtually unbeatable and therefore, all of the fights end up becoming super boring to watch about halfway through, since it's just him wrecking house the whole time. The other characters are very generic or one-dimensional... and everybody's dialogue is written rather poorly.
The quality of the animation ranges between "Good for a 1990 TV series", and "Wow, that was really embarrassingly poor". The art style leaves a bit to be desired, but it's fine, for the most part. Thing move pretty good, for the most part, too... however, there are a few parts where the animation just looks really stiff and unrealistic. The art is passable, though, and is probably the most well-accomplished part of the whole thing.
Audio is pretty decent. The sound mix is dated, even for the time, and it just feels cheesy and doesn't work very well. I watched it in Japanese, and the voice acting was decent, but nothing spectacular. The soundtrack was also pretty middling.
Overall, Sword for Truth is pretty bad, but there also ends up being some pretty silly moments in it, and some decent art that makes it somewhat bearable. Still, I wouldn't recommend this cheap Ninja Scroll knockoff to anybody with half a brain.
I give it a 3 out of 10.
Foolness
Contrary to animegorey's review, I actually found this to be better than Ninja Scroll but not so much because of the quality but because it's less fantasy and therefore comes much closer to the appeal of such shows as Fist of the North Star. The biggest disappointment is that the ending disappoints when it could have been easily continued. Certainly the protagonists while not necessarily being special aren't very annoying compared to most other samurai films. Not annoying might be underselling the characters though. The professional assassin feel of the characters carry this movie. That is, while normally the lack of character development is a detriment...maybe because it's rare for an anime to have a combination of Golgo 13 + Lone Wolf and Cub and a more silent bad ass Rurouni Kenshin's Sato meet up with a gaijin-like hand to hand grappler who just defeated a fat but seemingly veteran like Samurai but there's almost a Zen-like atmosphere to the whole movie.
Like a Zen koan though, length is one of the best and worst features of this movie.
You just don't know if the ending was intentionally there to spread a type of thought provoking message or it's merely there because the movie had no direction.
Nonetheless, in the right mood, this mediocre anime can seemingly be worth a peek and may rise as much as an 8 if you can see past through this as an adventure anime featuring a samurai and more like a Golgo 13-like side event where the events don't really hold much storytelling substance but amid the confusing scenes in the end "it's all part of the character's existence".
Gundroog
Well, I think anyone who watched anime long enough ventured into the territory of trashy old OVAs with plain stories but lots of incredibly well animated sex and violence. At first glance Sword for Truth is just that, it starts off with a gigantic white tiger tearing through a bunch of samurai but it doesn't take long to realize that this is not gonna stand up to something like Ninja Scroll or even Demon City Shinjuku. Sword for Truth doesn't really have anything substantial to offer if you're seen any of the above or pretty much any other short movie in the same vein. There'sno story to speak of, all we get is a super strong samurai dude slashing through everyone and getting contracted to save the damsel in distress while killing yet more people on his way. There's a hint of continuation at the end but I think we know how that worked out.
When it comes to animation and art there's really not much to speak of either. Character designs are bland and forgettable, while it's excusable for some side characters who simply wear period appropriate choice it doesn't excuse everyone else looking like as interesting as a plank of wood, especially considering that the OVA is far from being a period piece and features a bunch of bullshit monsters, ninjas and other things that sound cooler in paper than in this movie.
Background art, shot compositions and art direction are completely unremarkable and even despite having a relatively decent director on board the whole thing looks extremely forgettable, I was actually baffled when I saw who directed it cause even though I'm not big fan of Dezaki I think he's usually capable of creating expressive, visually impressive shots.
Animation is a bit of a mixed bag cause even though it's largely extremely mediocre it can have random moments of being good but they are so rare and unimpressive that's it hardly justifies watching it.
If there's one good thing I can say about it is that at certain moments the english dub was so terrible that it was actually hilarious but otherwise not bad enough to watch it for the laughs.
So yeah, avoid this garbage, complete waste of time.
RoarkTenjouin
Have you ever stumbled upon a movie that you swear is a rip-off, only you then find out that it actually came before the movie that you swear it's ripping off? Like for example: Despite seeming like Gordy is a Babe rip-off, Gordy actually came first. The reason I mention this is because Sword for Truth feels like a Ninja Scroll rip-off - and there is grounds to compare the 2, since Sword for Truth has the gall to label itself as having "The Best Sword-Fighting Action since Ninja Scroll!" Story - 3/10 Basically, it's the story to Super Mario Bros. Except MUCH moreviolent, and much darker, with samurai and ninjas. While that might sound like it's a good thing, it's not - it's much stupider. Also, instead of having a likable samurai version of Mario, we have someone who's very hard to root for.
Art - 2/10
The art is alright...when there's no fight scenes. Which is a HUGE problem, since the fight scenes should be the most important part - especially since this film has the gall to compare itself to what I consider to be one of the best anime films of all time. Heck, I would give the film a high rating in the art department if the fight scenes had the best art.
Sound - 3/10
The sound is very forgettable. I don't remember any of the music, and the voices are just bland. I can't really comment on anything else here.
Character - 1/10
Sakaki makes Kirito from SAO look BALANCED. I'm not kidding - He doesn't even get scratched. Jubei from Ninja Scroll comes close to death several times, and that's what makes him such a likable character. Sakaki, on the other hand, seems like he's some distant ancestor of Golgo 13 - he goes around killing things and having sex with women. And while that might make him seem like he's one of the most manly characters in existance, he's just a joke - I would label Issei Hyoudou or Minato Sahashi as "manly" before I even thought of giving Sakaki the label of "manly".
Enjoyment - 1/10
I'm probably not going to be able to ask this question anywhere else, so I might as well ask it now: How exactly can a sword be "For" something, anyway? Like BennettTheSage said: "If it was Sword of Truth, it would be cliché, but it would make some modicum of sense".
Overall - 1/10
Just go watch Ninja Scroll instead.
Alternative recommendations:
Ninja Scroll, Afro Samurai...Anything with the Samurai tag that has a score higher than a 7 on this site.
ktulu007
This OVA film is notorious. It's regarded as one of the worst anime ever made, like Mars of Destruction. It was released in 1990 by Production Reed. That's right, the Nuku Nuku studio. It was based off of a Narumi Takeshi novel. So, let's see why this one is so notorious. Story: We open with some soldiers out to hunt clandestine Christians when they find themselves being fed to the lions... I mean a tiger. The tiger is huge, being able to deflect their weapons and gulp up horses. It's only stopped by the arrival of an enigmatic swordsman named Sakaki Shuranosuke. His services are quickly securedto help rescue their princess, who was kidnapped while the soldiers were away dealing with a tiger attack.
This actually has the same fatal flaw as one of Elfen Lied's. The sexual content and gore are so absurd and over the top that they lose all impact within ten minutes. And the thing isn't even an hour long. A little restraint would have gone a long way.
The other big issue the film has is that it's clearly setting up a lot of future events which results in a lot of sequences that go nowhere and contribute nothing. Like the assassin who practices jujutsu or the whole thing with the Nakura clan's special sword that these ninja clans are fighting over for no adequately explored reason and the kunoichi escape with, last we see of it. There's also this weird, shadowy cultish group we see a couple times where the scenes don't actually seem to have anything to do with the rest of the film. For that matter, the scenes about Sakaki's past don't really contribute anything since there's no closure or arc of any kind.
There are some just plain stupid bits as well. We're told that the tiger was drugged and that's why it rampaged. But unless it's a feral Tigatron, that doesn't explain how its hide deflects or otherwise snaps a bunch of bladed weapons. And we all know Tigatron went on to become half of Tigerhawk, so that's not the explanation. I'm going to go into spoiler territory on this next one. So, consider that your warning. The bit towards the end where the Nakura clan decides to kill Sakaki makes no sense. The dude just rescued their princess. All they have to do is pay him and he'll be on his way but no, they have to decide he needs to die because... only Master Splinter is allowed to wear a kimono that colour. There's not actually any explanation for it.
Characters:
The characters are pretty much devoid of personality. You'd get a stronger sense of character from a bag of gummy bears than you get from this film.
Art:
The artwork is pretty horrendous. Expect some of the worst sex scenes ever to grace a film. I'm not exaggerating when I say that The Room has brilliant sex scenes compared to this. There are also moments where the art doesn't work with the dialogue. Like the scene where the Seki ninja master realises he's fighting female ninja and acts like it's a surprise even though it was really obvious the second they showed up. The action sequences are slow, choppy and very low effort. It comes across as the studio just not giving a shit whatsoever.
Sound:
The acting isn't all that bad. They did get some skilled actors like Kazuhiko Inoue & Sakuma Rei. Unfortunately, the performances in this are all a bit stilted. It comes across like the actors were handed the scripts, told to read and then didn't get second takes. The best part of the music is Sawada Chikako singing the ending song. Aside from that, it's pretty dull.
Ho-yay:
One of the really bad sex scenes is between two women that we never see before the scene or after. It's one of those pointless scenes that doesn't do anything.
Areas of Improvement:
If you're going to adapt a longer work into an hour long film, leave out all the random side plots you don't have time for and condense the thing into a proper, stand alone story. Because this is a mess of scenes that seem to come out of nowhere and contribute nothing.
Leave out the sex scenes. I'm not against sex scenes that are well done and contribute something to the story. This doesn't have any of those. It has awkward sex scenes involving characters we never see again.
Explain yourself. You don't need to give us a long stretch of exposition. But we need at least off-handed explanations for basic things like how they're breaking their blades against the hide of an escaped circus tiger or why this sword is so damn important or why the Nakura clan suddenly wants Sakaki dead.
Final Thoughts:
I can definitely see why this is considered one of the worst anime. It's a mess of plot threads that don't go anywhere, characters with no personality, horrible art and lacklustre performances. The one thing I can give it credit for is that its crass sensationalism is slightly less rubbish than Elfen Lied's. It's still a 1/10 anime, but that's something.
KamuiX1999
Wow, what an absolute mess this is. Imagine an exploitative chanbara film from the '70s, with multiple complex plot threads, numerous warring clans, and countless opposing characters, but for some reason only given less than 50 minutes to attempt to be told. That's what watching Sword for Truth is like. It's like if Lone Wolf and Cub tried to get its point across in the runtime allowed for a pilot television episode, setting up all sorts of storylines, introducing characters, and then just ending, with nary a resolution or any sense to be made of the proceedings. Nothing here stands out, the animation isn't evena saving grace, looking cheap and occasionally badly animated with very few frames. I don't know why the hell this was even released, as whatever its goal was was an abject failure. It's no wonder director Osamu Dezaki had his name taken off of this.
Maybe there was a grand plan in place for multiple episodes that told a sweeping tale, but it's clearly obvious those involved in the making knew early on that this was all they were going to have to work with, seeing as how much stuff is jammed in and how rushed it all feels. Honestly, this is one of those cases where they should have shelved the damn thing and not even bothered releasing it. No one should bother wasting their time on this, as it's as hollow an experience as I've ever come across, and this is coming from a huge fan of anime from this era. I can often times even be apologetic at how lacking in resolution these '80s/'90s OVAs can sometimes be, but this is completely unremarkable in every aspect.
