Anime: Sengoku Kitan Youtouden Soushuuhen

The last three remaining masters of three different shadow arts schools are hunted down after a chance meeting... bla bla bla.
Read the synopsis on the main page of this Anime, but it's all just a front for: a Ninjas and Demons Anime.

If I had to compare it to another movie it might be a hint of Ninja Scroll (though this film is inferior in every way possible) coupled with any other Anime which features demon-like creatures.

Much of the story is messy and convoluted and I quickly lost interest in trying to keep up with which clan is siding with which or which clan has switched sides to join some other.

There seems to be a lot of conversations based around alliances between some random clans which you just don't have any connection or interest in. Just too many unimportant side story plots which all seem to ultimately be meaningless.
They try and flesh out the mostly superficial main plot with a bunch of totally irrelevant back and side stories which ultimately make this Anime more complicated to understand than it deserves to be and for no better reason than trying to mask the simplicity of the main plot.

The main story is not only guilty of being predictable and uninteresting but they manage to jump to parts in the story unexpectedly, which sometimes makes for brief moments of confusion as you work out where in the story the jump has taken you.
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The movie is starting to age somewhat [1989] and the art reflects this. This movie is never going to be used as a hallmark for the era in terms of artistic skill, but it surely wasn't one of the more ugly Anime of the time either. Fairly mediocre in this regard then too.

All the main protagonists seem extreemly generic. The monsters seem to follow suit with their designs being unimpressive and bland.
The notable exception to this are the (what I like to call) "Boss characters". The more important enemies, the 7 Obero Ninja, some of which have interesting designs but ultimately all look alike.

There is also an attempt at being gory - but I must add that compared to the more brutal Anime, even the gore is somewhat toned down and not really all that gruesome. The gore is never used excessively - to this Anime's credit.

The animation on the whole though, is pretty good and it looks like no corners were cut in that regard. It's just a real shame that the actual artwork is not as consistent as the standard of the animation as a whole. For example large explosions can be very intricate and you see a lot of little details when objects get torn apart as the fluidly move cross-screen.
The animation is probably the strongest attribute of this Anime.

You would have thought that with the actual animation being the strongest point, the fight scenes might be interesting too... but alas no luck here either.
Whilst again the actions scenes are animated very well, the actual choreography is just dull making most fights predicable and lacking in awe-inspiring action.
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The music is fairly bad, with the score often reminding me of cheap elevator music for the most part. It never appears fitting or reminiscent of the Ninja era. Noticeably lacking in this department.
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It's not a bad Anime per se, just that it's not a terribly good Anime either.
Average in all regards and excels in no area.


Good:+ Intricate animation
Bad: - Uninteresting plus convoluted story and characters.