Sword for Truth

Original Title: 修羅之介斬魔劍 - 死鎌紋の男
Romanized: Shuranosuke Zanmaken - Shikamamon no Otoko
Literal: Demon-slaying Sword of Shuranosuke - The Man of the Crest of the Death Scythe

Plot Synopsis

A wandering swordswinger is hired to rescue a princess (well, actually, he's supposed to trade a family treasure of her father for her). In the process, he runs into a big group of bad men who are trying to unleash demons upon the world (or something like that) using that artifact. They aren't the only ones after it--there's also a troupe of female ninjas and a tragic assassin. Anyway, the traveling stoic guy saves the girl, but it looks like he's going to have to do something about all those nasty people trying to kill her (and him), and (surprise, surprise!) he kinda likes her, too. Wonder what her dad's gonna think...

Review

Rating: 0 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2003-08-03

Sword for Truth bills itself as the best ninja action since Ninja Scroll. This may be true, but only if it's the only ninja action movie since Ninja Scroll (and despite logic dictating otherwise, even that may be a questionable claim due to the use of the word "best" in a sentence with the title). Although all the elements are there, this ninja hack-and-slash flick is, at absolute best, a bad ripoff of Ninja Scroll.

In fact, its so bad I can't even really bring myself to spend much time insulting it. Here's your laundry list: The animation is generally weak, the art is downright bad (the main character, in particular, is really ugly), the plot is mostly random, and the whole mess is almost completely devoid of originality. As if all that weren't bad enough by itself, the story full of loose ends and is apparently the first part of a series (or is so badly written it feels like it)... but this is it. So, if it wasn't bad enough alone, it has no conclusion, either.

The characters consist of a wandering block of wood that passes for a hero, a generic princess, a big group of female ninjas who seem to be really good at getting cut to pieces, and a tragic assassin, who would probably be interesting if the series ever continued. Don't even ask about personality or character development--the only thing that could make me like the cast more is if they'd die faster so it would be over.

All that's even worth mentioning about this are the extremely large number of severed body parts (though accompanied by a surprising lack of blood and gory artistic detail that might've sparked some interest among splatterfest fans), and the large volume of completely pointless sex.

Overall, Sword for Truth is bad, both artistically and in plot, and unless you can't get enough of violence and ninjas, it's definitely in the must-avoid category.

Related Recommendations

Ninja Scroll is very similar, and much, much better. Those glutton for punishment might be interested in such anti-gems as Cybernetics Guardian and MD Geist.

US DVD Review

The DVD version features bilingual stereo audio, an English subtitle track, a chapter index, and little else. Manga says its digitally remastered, for whatever that's worth.

Content Guide

Violence and pointless sex, and the wrong kind at that--easily in the 16-up category, maybe even 18-up.

Violence: 4 - Not wildly graphic, but lots of flying limbs.

Nudity: 3 - A fair amount.

Sex/Mature Themes: 4 - A surprising ammount of unwholsome activity.

Language: 2 - Nothing noteworthy.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a novel by Takeshi Narumi, which apparently contained a whole lot more depth, perhaps explaining why there are so many non-sequiturs in the plot. The director, Osamu Dezaki, is known for a whole lot of much better movies, including both Golgo 13 movies and the quality sci-fi drama They Were 11, of all things.

Availability

Available in the US from Manga Video on bilingual DVD. Was previously also available on subtitled or dubbed VHS. (If you're looking for it, here's the DVD at RightStuf and AnimeNation)

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