Hora. I've watched this movie thanks to my friend Silencers who gave me the movie (he gives me such nice things to watch), and my summary of this movie is as such:
OMFG. I CAME.

Now, in more detail:

This movie came into my radar because of the fact that it was being made by Studio Bones (one of the four Japanese animation studios that I highly respect, the other three being Production I.G, Studio 4C and Madhouse). But I had absolutely no idea that it was gonna be this freakin' awesome. The music astounds you with its force, the action is absolutely intense and bloody, and it will show you just how bloody a swordfight can get. It's a straight-forward, no-nonsense action film. And a fairly realistic one at that. No henshin or super-powered scenes here: the fights are bone-crunchingly brutal. The opening grabs you right in and never lets you go till the end. I've been watching the final fight sequence at least twice a day for the past 4 days.



I'm not spoiling the story (and it's a fairly good one), because frankly this movie is more towards the action. The story does its job by providing an above-average way to link the action scenes together. But man oh man, what choreography! What detail! Studio Bones has gone above and beyond to deliver one of 2008's most visceral masterpieces in the samurai genre. Trust me, you DO NOT want to miss this.



The animation is unlike anything I've seen in recent memory. No speed lines, no recycled scenes. NONE WHATSOEVER. The animation is amazingly fluid and complete; the movements of the warriors are complete and there is a seamless unbroken flow from one sequence of movement to the next. As a fan of animation in general, this realization filled me with orgasmic delight. This is what you get when a group of people decide to put their blood, sweat and tears into their work in order to come out with the highest possible standard in quality, that also raises the bar for other animators and production studios in this field.



This is what Sword of the Stranger is. It's f**king amazing, and it would be a grave mistake for you to miss it.

If there's a limited edition or collector's edition boxset out with good English subtitles out, I'm getting it.

This post has been edited by ganaeshd: Apr 26 2008, 09:45 PM

Some series are not worth downloading, so seeing them online is totally okay. Case in point: Naruto.

Others are so amazing that actually spending money on the DVD and owning them is totally justifiable. Case in point: Sword of the Stranger.

Watching this movie, online? EPIC FAIL. You, sir, fail as an anime fan.

This post has been edited by ganaeshd: Apr 30 2008, 05:22 PM