In feudal Japan the Iga and Kouga tribes have hated each other for four hundred years; only a treaty forcing them not to fight prevents them from going to war. Then the treaty is ended and each tribe selects ten ninjas who will fight until the other side is eliminated. These aren't ordinary man and women they each have powers that make them hard to defeat. The matter is complicated by the fact that two members of the rival clans; Oboro Iga and Gennosuke Kouga are in love
that won't stop them fighting for their clans but fighting each other may prove more difficult.
The differing powers the fighters possess make the battles interesting as we learn what method each will use and how it will be countered. As the numbers get whittled down inevitably favoured characters will be killed off; some the viewer will have grown to care about while others will be seen as getting what they deserved either way this is not a happy series; it is a tragedy that gets darker as time goes on leading to a poignant final confrontation.
The various skills the fighters possess are imaginative and entertaining and the characters are well designed and fleshed out; we get occasional flashback showing us the characters before the war so we learn more about them and occasionally get to see characters who have died once more even if I did occasionally get confused with who was who occasionally! The animation is pretty good and done in a style that suits the story. The action scenes don't shy away from the brutality of the war and some of them are a little disturbing but not gratuitously so. Overall this is worth watching if you like action anime where characters just get on with the fighting rather than talking to their enemies and individual fights are not stretched over several episodes.
These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.
The differing powers the fighters possess make the battles interesting as we learn what method each will use and how it will be countered. As the numbers get whittled down inevitably favoured characters will be killed off; some the viewer will have grown to care about while others will be seen as getting what they deserved either way this is not a happy series; it is a tragedy that gets darker as time goes on leading to a poignant final confrontation.
The various skills the fighters possess are imaginative and entertaining and the characters are well designed and fleshed out; we get occasional flashback showing us the characters before the war so we learn more about them and occasionally get to see characters who have died once more even if I did occasionally get confused with who was who occasionally! The animation is pretty good and done in a style that suits the story. The action scenes don't shy away from the brutality of the war and some of them are a little disturbing but not gratuitously so. Overall this is worth watching if you like action anime where characters just get on with the fighting rather than talking to their enemies and individual fights are not stretched over several episodes.
These comments are based on watching the series in Japanese with English subtitles.