Ninja Scroll

This week I was fortunate to watch three fantastic animes(which I love from watching the likes of Studio Ghibli) in a row, Akira, Ghost in the Shell and this, Ninja Scroll. Ninja Scroll captivated me from start to finish, with the ultra-violent scenes and gore it is perhaps not for all, but from an animation and storytelling perspective it is really one of the most engrossing animated films I have ever seen. The animation is stupendous, every action has so much detail but the backgrounds and colours have many moments of dark or ethereal beauty to them. The music is haunting and sweeping, the characters are interesting with a lot of depth and conflict in them, but other than the fast, clean and incredibly compelling action the star was the storytelling, often dark and poignant but never less than riveting. Overall, captivating from start to finish, a must see. 10/10 Bethany Cox