Sword of the Stranger Review - 80/100
Sword of the Stranger is Bones’ first attempt at an original movie (as in not based on an already existing series). Masahiro Ando, who had no prior experience with directing an entire anime and instead seems to specialize in animation and character-designs, was given the director’s seat and the screenplay was done by the director of the third Patlabor Movie. That’s not really the best cast you’d expect from Bones’ repertoire, but still, Sword of the Stranger is a worthy movie.
Don’t expect too much from the story, though. It features an uberpowerful ex-samurai with a sad past who got tired of killing who meets up with a young boy with an equally sad past. The main villain is another uberpowerful guy who’s looking for a challenge that only this ex-samurai can give him. Yawn, yawn, nothing we haven’t seen before. The reasons why you want to watch this movie is because of the animation, the cultural reference, and most importantly the bond that develops between said ex-samurai and boy.
Most of the time in this movie is not actually spent on the fights, but on showing how these two, with totally different personalities come to understand each other amidst their arguing. The two of them are dynamic and a joy to watch throughout the movie. The plot basically only serves to get and keep the two of them together, and even though it’s nothing special, it knows how to not get in the way of the development of these two for a large part of the movie.
I think that the big problem with this movie is that it would have made a great family-movie if it wasn’t for the huge amounts of gore in it. Gore can be a tricky thing. It’s great to intensify your scenes (Shigurui, anyone?), but at the same time you do alienate those who can’t stand it. I can really imagine that kids would have loved the innocent moments of this series, if it weren’t for the umpth guy who got an arrow blown through his entire face, with all the graphic details of a movie-budget.
Still, if you don’t mind the gore, I can’t really think of a reason not to watch this movie. It’s the genuine moments that really were the most enjoyable, plus some pretty impressive sword-fights. Bones could have done a lot worse (just take a look at Gonzo’s first attempt at a movie). The music is also really solid. You wouldn’t guess that it comes from the same composer who did Eureka7 and Heroic Age, and yet it complements the movie perfectly.
Well … nice to that hear the movie turned out to be good .. i was thrilled when i watched the trailer and knew it was made by Bones ^_^
About the story … well it is a fact that it gets harder and harder everyday to create something that hasn’t been done before … people really have to understand that .. what really matters now is how well you execute the story and characters …. and from what i read they seems well executed ;)
Thanks for the review
Comment by Hunter-Wolf — April 18, 2008 @ 15:24
It reminded me of Seirei no Moribito a lot. Same beautiful autmn nature. Same accent on relationship of an ex-samurai and a kid. Same excellent fights choreography, but here there’re more of them.
Comment by aya — April 18, 2008 @ 17:17
I really enjoyed this movie! Ok, because of the gore it’s “only” for a mature target, but I’m not 13 years old anymore, and I loved the genuine moments as much as the violent ones. I agree about the music, it really complements the movie perfectly (and sometimes it reminds me of the LOTR soundtrack… XD). My score: 90/100
Comment by Bodom — April 18, 2008 @ 19:09
thank you for your review on this movie! i never heard of it & immediately downloaded it after i read your review! it was superb & i’m super grateful to u!!!
Comment by Little One — April 19, 2008 @ 19:09
I really enjoyed this movie. It’s definitely worth watching.
Damn good.
Comment by Denizen — April 19, 2008 @ 20:34
Just finished watching the movie and it was well worth that 1hr48mins! Gore-concerns aside, the balance between the quiet and fight scenes was particularly good, and the music was pretty epic. My only 2 gripes would be not enough background story development for the 2 main characters, and the dodgy Jap-accented Chinese which was obviously phonetically memorised ^^ Overall, happily satisfied.
Comment by xiaohu — April 19, 2008 @ 22:34
Yeah, it definitely is dodgy and in my opinion, more dodgy than hearing the usual Engrish.
But we’re here to enjoy the movie and enjoy it I did - very much so. Rewatched it when I saw this blog entry put up. Beautiful art and wonderful animation with great action sequences, a stirring and evocative soundtrack, a straightforward story - the strengths of this movie.
Comment by leongsh — April 20, 2008 @ 5:31
You are right, the subject matter had been done and watched before. Still, I honestly watched it for the action and ended up liking the movie thanks to the bond between the protagonists. It was heart warming and quite an enjoyable movie. It didn’t take itself seriously (nor as gory) as Shigurui but nothing wrong with a change of pace when it comes to period pieces.
Good story pace and well drawn out characters…What else can you ask Bones for?
~Shivers at Gonzo~
Comment by dowamaru — April 23, 2008 @ 19:56
Amazing. It was really freakin’ amazing. The detail of the animation is simply astounding, and the music is powerful. Amazing what taiko drums can do to a film score. Rock-solid action, and the crazy amount of gore was a welcome surprise, as I never expected this from Bones. Straight-forward no-nonsense actioner… and boy, could they do it!
It was a pleasant surprise to watch Mukoh Hadan, to say the least. Makes me wonder what the hell Gonzo was thinking when they produced Agito.
Comment by Ganaesh D. — April 25, 2008 @ 8:13
i just watched this movie yesterday and i enjoyed every moment of it,true the plot is quite silly and i can’t say the characters have that much depth and yet it was very good
the animation was beautiful,i know it is a movie but few anime are capable of bringing such a visually wonderful art at this moment(seirei no moribito is the last one i can remember) so such movies are always welcome and i had nothing against the gore,they did not exaggerate with it and in the end it turned into a very enjoyable movie
Comment by Archer — May 18, 2008 @ 12:43
Hey I loved this movie! Does anyone have any suggestions for anime movies I can watch like this?
Comment by adam — May 29, 2008 @ 1:49
Yeah, it definitely is dodgy and in my opinion, more dodgy than hearing the usual Engrish.
the chinese ming soldiers were speaking perfect chinese. the western ming soldier and the japanese boy were, imo, purposely made to speak poor chinese.
Comment by Will — June 2, 2008 @ 11:18
I agree; Dodgy plot but the character interactions rang true, and the kid actually behaved like a kid and still wasn’t annoying, which is pretty rare. Beautiful looking too, grainy film-effects, muted colours, rain and mud and mountains and falling-down houses and snowy woods, great character designs with emotion obviously considered over prettiness, which is always good to see. I loved it. Bit confused as to how this is licensed but the similar but much more accessible-to-all-ages Seirei No Moribito isn’t, also confused as to what was so special about his blood to start with, but meh :).
For people bored by prettiness, it was worth it just for the fights in my opinion :) they are getting so damn good at animating the things these days… it is a massive pity the violence will stop young kids from getting to watch it, but any toning-down of these set pieces would have been a crime, plus half of the comedy moments wouldve been lost.. I also liked how they didnt make it clear at the end whether the main character was going to live or die.
but yep, even I who do not speak either japanese or chinese could tell the chinese was bad :D the guy who suggested it was intentional could well be right, but it just looked like bad acting, and ruined the blond guys character every time he spoke chinese :)
Comment by centzon totochtin — June 4, 2008 @ 0:57