Ninja Resurrection

Ninja Resurrection: The Revenge of Jubei
Makai tenshô: Jigoku-hen

English Voice Cast:

Martin Burke is Tokisada Shiro Amakusa
Gary G. Haddock is Jubei Yagyu
Mari Mashiba is Yatarô
Edwin Neal is Souiken Mori
Jessica Robertson is Ocho

What the box says:

Join a nightmarish journey through faith and betrayal as the infamous warrior Jubei confronts the ultimate evil! Japan, 1614, the Tokugawa Shogunate bans the practice of Christianity and ruthlessly slaughters its adherents. The scattered survivors place their faith in a prophecy of salvation: a Child of Heaven will be born to deliver the faithful from their enemies. Yet hidden within the same prophecy is a dark omen. For it is written that, should the promised savior falter, he will be reborn as Satan. Now a new leader, Shiro Amakusa, has arisen to challenge the Shogun's power. The followers of Christ believe their savior has appeared. However, unspeakable treachery lurks within the Christian stronghold, as the blood-soaked horror of the prophecy is unleashed in NINJA RESURRECTION! Contains both horror filled episodes ("Revenge of Jubei"; & "Hell's Spawn") on one DVD.

Plot:

In a major fight, random guys are being sliced apart. If there is reason for the fight, I missed it.

In the 1600s, a rebellion which led to a large number of Christians being slaughtered. The Christian leader was executed. The Shogun of Japan banned Christianity. A book of prophecy tells of a child that would be born as Christ or if his destiny was blocked to return as Satan. .

Soldiers attack a group of Christians and destroy their temple. Ocho finds Shiro who wakes up after being shot. His crucifix stopped the bullet. Everyone is sure that it is a sign of a miracle. Suiken Mori watches from afar with great interest. (Actually, to keep the spell checking in hand, Mori will be referred to by the name Captain Creepy which is very appropriate for him.)

Soldiers march on when energy crosses appear much like the ones in Neon Genesis Evangelion. The soldiers are swarmed with arrows and spears.

Cross flags are flown. Captain Creepy tells people how that their protection is the reward of their faith in God. Lord Shiro tries to convince people not to rage against their enemies and to bring peace.

Tokugawa castle, the Shogun learns of his troops being defeated. Jubei will handle things.

The narrator tells about how the Shogun’s general attacked the Christians while Jubei is flying around…

Shiro realizes he cannot win the war. The people are out of food and will starve. He offers to surrender. Captain Creepy won’t let him surrender. Jubei flies and arrives at the Christians’ castle. He easily dispatches the Christian soldiers, let the gore ensue.

The Shogun’s troops head for the castle and the battle slaughter. Shiro tries to calm the people.

Most of the castle is covered in gore. A couple of kids are decapitated by Captain Creepy.

Jubei finds Shiro. Jubei reveals the Shogun has ordered him to kill the leader of the revolt. Shiro offers to surrender himself in exchange for amnesty for his people. Jubei agrees as Shiro is about to hari-kari himself. Captain Creepy claims that Jubei slaughter the 2 kids and holds up the severed heads. Jubei denies it. Shiro starts to go all Tetsuo from Akira on Jubei. Shiro gets all powered up, turns evil, and summons a dragon.

Jubei must contend with Shiro and a giant dragon. Jubei’s men who carry Surface-to-Air missiles and steam powered mecha take care of the dragon.

Jubei manages to systematically cut off Shiro’s arms. Using the severed heads to shock Shiro, Jubei delivers the final blow. Shiro falls into the temple below.

Jubei and his men head off.

In the temple, Shiro questions God when Captain Creepy arrives and declares that God doesn’t exist. He offers for Shiro to be reborn but he must get jiggy and do the beast with two backs with Captain Creepy’s daughter, Ocho. Captain Creepy watches triumphantly and knows that Shiro will be reborn as Satan and eliminate the Togukan emperor.

On a field of severed heads on spikes, Jubei plants 2 crosses for the children and walks off.

Narration about the battle reveals that Shiro was found dead and Captain Creepy was never seen by mortals again.

Part 2, Jubei severs a number of limbs from his enemies. He recalls the words of his father who fights and cuts his eye out. Jubei must always win no matter what and must learn to fight without using his sword.

The narrator extols a number of the greatest samurai of all including Jubei. Their deaths are barely known.

Several months after the fall of the Christian revolt, Onwe and her brother Yataro are fishing. Jubei recalls the children that were killed in the revolt.

At Yagyu castle, Lord Jushin arrives to see his children: Yataro and Onwe. The Shogun has ordered his nobles to bring all their young daughters to be brought to the capital. Apparently, new soldiers and strange visions have been seen there, too.

Sparring ensues. Jushin takes his daughter and Votoro off.

Jubei has one of his men watch the capital.

At the capital, large drooling guy with a prehensile tongue who resembles a younger Captain Creepy has his way with a girl to her death.

Some guy is gutted in another too dark to see scene.

Apparently, some samurai who died months ago has been reborn.

A spy report’s to Jubei’s father about the dead Samurai who was reborn.

Jubei meets with a monk to discuss Shiro and Captain Creepy and the return of Satan (imagine the voice of the church Lady saying the last part of the sentence…) Jubei has been haunted by killing for duty. The monk knows a man, Mososh Miymoto who gave up killing 40 years ago.

Man ponders if he could defeat Jubei.

Back in the capital, the Shogun is ready. Captain Creepy’s daughter, Ocho, who has been carrying Shiro’s man juices, begins to float in mid-air. Invisible demon rape and soul removal and return ensues. Several men are watching…Cronenberg body melting and re-sculpting ensues. Captain Creepy calls for Satan, and Shiro to return. Shiro, who has silver hair and looks like bishonen, pretty-boy, pulls himself out of Ocho full sized.

Shiro must have an insane display of power…

Jubei trods on.

Shiro uses his long silver hair like razor wire on a number of peasants while another guy is randomly slaughtering them with a katana. Captain Creepy is very happy…

What I say:

Anime extends into some many genres from sci-fi, horror, comedy, action, etc. While, I seen several movies and series, I am nowhere near being an expert. I've reviewed a few in the past like Armitage III: Polymatrix, Ghost in the Shell, Ultra Man 2, and Vampire Hunter D. Even though not anime, the 3 seasons of the Spawn, Spawn 2, and Spawn 3 are probably some of the closest animation stylistically to Ninja Resurrection. That will be explained in a couple of paragraphs.

First off, Ninja: Resurrection has absolutely no connection to Ninja Scroll. The packaging and title do everything to practically confuse everyone into thinking that it is. It's been a few years since I've seen Ninja Scroll. That means Ninja Resurrection isn't going to get my anger about not being a sequel to a far superior anime but for its own faults. Ninja Resurrection's faults are plentiful enough without outright deceit into thinking it's a sequel to Ninja Scroll.

Vampire Hunter D is nowhere near the most graphically violent anime ever made. Though, most people when they first see it can't quite belive anything like it was made. Sure Heavy Metal is probably the most famous North American R-rated cartoon. I'm leaving out the Fritz the Cat movies for one reason: not seen either of those movies. Ninja Resurrection revels in its excesses of gore and sex. The violence is there to show how brutal things can be. Though, we have a villain that had another part of the OAV been made, he would have probably been drowning kittens for fun.

We all are more than the sum of our experiences. Can't say that I was very comfortable with the Christianity aspects. To be more precise, I'm not too fond of having the main Christian character automatically renounce his faith when things go bad. In Japan, Christianity is nowhere as widely followed as it is here. They could use the rebellion in the 1600s and turn it into a story of how the leader turns into Satan and how Jubei must defeat him. A few years ago, there was quite a ruckus about Dogma which had Linda Fiorentino as the Last Scion, or numerous great niece of Jesus. Not sure how that was blasphemy when the New Testament included several references to the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Random event story, the biggest problem I saw when watching Dogma in the theater was during the opening credits that mentioned something about playtpus a couple got up and left the theater and didn't return. I guess they were easily offended by humor against Australian marsupials.

However, back to my ramblings, this seems to be one of the most mean-spirited animes or even of any of movies I've seen. The first part of Ninja Resurrection is pretty bad violence wise when kids are randomly decapitated just because of orders from General Meaness. The second part seems to be almost light hearted until a few Too Dark to See scenes and something that looks like a deleted scene from Urotsokidoji: Legend of the Overfiend. If that doesn't imply quality, what does? If you missed the sarcasm in that last sentence run don't walk to your nearest hospital and seek immediate medical attention...

Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 and the Peter Jaskon's Bad Taste and Dead Alive are splatterstick. Well, all the aforementioned movies aren't truly gory but more dark humor. John Woo can make a violent scene in Hard Boiled seem like art or poetry in motion.. I have never even been interested in ever seeing the Guinea Pig series. However, Ninja Resurrection is the kid who tortures animals for fun. Just too gleeful in its violence and gore. "Look, we cut a couple of heads off, cool!!" Not every piece of animation is going to be profound or a blatant toy copmmercial. I can't help but feel that if Ninja Resurrection had spent more time on trying to develop characters a less on gore. It would have been a far stronger.

Quite a few bits of part 1 and 2 are extremely fuzzy about who several of the characters are like who is the girl with the major labor pains. I guess it was Captain Creepy's daughter from the first part, few months afterwards. I don't understand why Shiro was reborn as a totally different looking character, the silver-haired bishonen, silver haired pretty boy, in the 2nd part. Had the series continued, maybe there would have been some answers to some of these questions that are sprung up but never naswered. Like the several samurai who are killed and reincarnated...

Jubei's samurai group includes a guy that has suit of steam powered mecha which turns into a flying starfish and a woman with a portable Surface to Air missile shoulder launcher. Those might be the best part of the movie. Unfortunately, just focusing on them would at least have Ninja Resurrection far more entertaining and have nowhere as mean-spirited.

What can I say about an OAV that apparenly didn't make enough money to finish the series. 2 parts were made. Doing my attempts at research (yes, attempted research, I don't just do lame references to 80s bands), I found numerous conflicting reports on how many part the OAV was to be. Some claim 13 parts altogther. That doesn't make much sense, 13 parts would be a TV season. Most OAVs are 3 parts. 4 part OAVs are extremely rare for some reason whether or not the number 4 in Japan is considered as unlucky as 13 is here or not...I've been trying to find out what would have happened had the series continued. Jubei would probably had to have fought the Samurai masters that had been reincarnated...Samurai having to overcome incredible odds does sound like Ninja Scroll. Though quite a few Japanese movies have had stories where a small group most overcome some truly terrible evil force like in Legend of the 8 Samurai.

This anime is based on a historical period in Japan with a quite a bit of mythology thrown into it. Ninja Resurrection is based on a novel. In fact, there is a movie version starring Sonny Chiba: Samurai Reincarnation which has just finally come out here in the good old US of A with more than a half hour of footage that hadn't been on any of the previous versions of that movie. Just reading about Samurai Reincarnation helped immensely into deciphering some of the dangling plot points of Ninja Resurrection. So, if you're interested, hunt down the live action uber-cool Sonny Chiba live-action version unless you desperately need to see Japanese animation of something out of a Cronenberg bad acid trip.

Quotable Dialogue
"They shall be crushed by the power of the Christians."
"They cannot enter the sacred chamber."
"Do not expect any special treatment."
"A samurai daughter out killing snakes."
"Careful sister, don't become anyone's mistress."
Morals of the Story
Lasers can glue statues back together.
Severed heads can be used against demon possessed saviors like silver is to werewolves.
Parapalegics need lovin' like anyone else...
Snow falls from red skies.
Fish have no bones.