Sword of the Stranger

For a long time, feature film anime had been lacking when it came to top-notch production. I found this title not expecting much but from the very beginning it had me. Everything that was great about the ninja/samurai animations in the 90's re-emerged onto this film and I think its safe to say that the choreography far excelled that of its predecessors. The story as vague as it may have been did enough to keep my interest ,but in the end it was the fight scenes that kept me compliant to watch further. Not often do you find a final battle to be so intense pushing the boundaries of fluid animation that your eyes are glued to every moment of the fight. I really can't say enough about this film. At a time where many anime have become primarily viewed in a TV series format, Sword of the Stranger was a breath of fresh air and nostalgic return to what I loved so much about anime feature films. For any fan of Ninja Scroll,Dagger of Kamui, Samurai X, and other great anime classics, this one is for you trust me.

I watched this movie last night with my dad and we both loved it. I'm 27 and he happens to be in his 50's. I expect everyone younger, older and in between will love it as well.

I'm sure you can imagine what an anime title like "The Sword of the Stranger" might hold in store for you. A young boy named Kotaru and his faithful companion Tobimaru. A deadly swordsman with blue eyes. A hungry samurai with a troubled past. The Sword of the Stranger doesn't re-invent the wheel but it is more than the sum of it's parts.

All in all: If you enjoy anime watch it. You can also expect to hear a great score.

One of the most outstanding action animation movies.

(sorry if you are confused with my comments cause i'm not a native English speaker :>)

The storyline is quite simple and unlike the other tedious Japanese animation movies, the audience don't need to smash their head onto the wall to get an idea about what's going on. Actually the only down side of the movie is you can guess the ending more or less at the beginning.

The blood spilling scenes are very astonishing, and the Chinese swordsmen who take secret pills and never feel pains will give you chill in the bones with their cruelty.

Actually In real history, the famous emperor who sacrifice his people to find a medicine of Immortality, is Yíng Zhèng, the first emperor (we call him Qin Shi Huang)of a unified China from 221 BCE to 210 BCE. Later in his life, Qin Shi Huang feared death and desperately sought the fabled elixir of life, visiting Zhifu Island several times to this end. He even sent a Zhifu islander Xu Fu with ships carrying hundreds of young men and women in search of Mount Penglai, where the Eight Immortals lived. These people never returned, as they knew that if they returned without the promised elixir, they would surely be executed. Legends claim that they settled down in one of the Japanese islands, a view that many Chinese and Japanese people are familiar with today. (from HTTP://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang)

Although the movie is mainly animated in 2D, the 3D effects used in scenes are perfect and only used when necessary, It's more practical 3D than showing off the techniques.

Music used in the movie is extraordinary, you can actually feel the cold wind passing by your face and hear the echos among the mountains. Bamboo flute used in the music gives an amazing oriental feeling throughout the movie.

As a native Chinese speaker, i think the Chinese dialogue reflects the way people talking at that time pretty well, but sometimes they speak Japanese as well, which breaks the reality of the movie, hope they could manage to get more voice casters in Chinese.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone interested in actions, orient myths or violent scenes.

To be really honest the movie contains a few clichés. It just has to be sad. But with that part out of the way, I can only speak of great appreciation for this movie. The story is not the most brilliant and again it might be a little cliché, but in a very adorable way. In my case it didn't bothered me for a second. This might be because I really love the traditional anime way of capturing samurai hero stories. For people who have a little more trouble with that, just looked passed it. Because the other parts of the movie have been worked out better than most of the movies I've seen so far. Let's begin with the looks of the movie. For a pretty much traditional drawn anime it is just beautiful. And it gets even better with the action scenes. They are drawn, animated and captured very well. They are fast but clear, they contain a lot of cool moves (if you can put it that way) and are supported by absolute wonderful sound effects and music. The thing that really captured me and makes me watch the final scene over and over again, is the perfect balance between action and music. This movie might not be the industries best, but contains something a lot of the other movies don't: Heart.

If you like traditional anime, samurai and hero stories, this is absolutely one to watch!!

The concept in Sword of the Stranger isn't new. A wandering samurai who killed a lot of people during the war is tormented by his past and has "Sealed" his sword and decided not to use it anymore. Without having to look far you can already find earlier animes/mangas with the exact same concept (Rurouni Kenshin is the first that comes to mind).

Still I really loved this movie and consider it a must watch, specially for people that like animated movies. The animation one of the best I've seen in recent animated movies, with great design, fluid animations and great image quality. While not many in number, the battles are masterfully handled by BONES (animation studio) with great (animated) choreography.

As I've said the concept behind the story isn't new but it's enjoyable nonetheless, I really liked the trust relationship that forms between the main character and the boy he is escorting and there is also a special connection between Nanashi and the main antagonist. In the end you will be caring for the characters.

Finally, and it should not be overlooked. The Soundtrack for this movie is truly wonderful. Composed by Naoki Sato, it's an amazing OST filled with emotion and fits the movie like ring.