Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2009

©2009 岡崎能士・GONZO

Actually, the other two movies opening this week are better, but you’ll probably go see them anyway, and this stylish manga romp represents an opportunity to see a dynamic, English-language anime on the big screen that was only released on DVD overseas. It’s helpful, but not essential, to have seen the first movie, but only if you care about the plot, which basically involves a lot of manga-violent swordplay to decide who’s the top blade. It is after all a samurai movie. But this is not about the emotion-free plot or the violence; it’s about the spectacle. The animation is way, way better than the original (which was actually a five-part Spike TV series cobbled together into cinema form). One brilliant festival scene combines nebuta, awa odori, hanabi and a few other Japanesey things into a colorful and kinetic whole that I’d like to see again. A good part of the reason it works is that Samuel L. Jackson does the voices of both the title character and his motormouth sidekick, Ninja-Ninja. Lucy Liu voices the vengeful, big-breasted, stiletto-mounted, dominatrix villainess Sio, who has disinterred and reanimated Afro’s father (don’t ask).