QUOTE
Mukoh Hadan (Japanese)
Stranger - Mukoh Hadan (Japanese)
سيف الغريب (Arabic)
ストレンヂア －無皇刃譚－ (Japanese)
Genres: action
Plot Summary: Hunted by the Mings from China, young Kotaro and his dog meet a nameless samurai ("Nanashi") who is constantly being haunted by dreams of the past which lead him to seal his sword. Among the Mings is a fiercesome Western fighter named Rarou, who desires only to find a worthy opponent. When both groups clash with a Sengoku-era feudal lord, a proud general, and monks torn between faith and survival, the reason behind the Mings' pursuit tests the bond between Kotaro and Nanashi.
Director: Masahiro Ando
Screenplay: Fumihiko Takayama
Music: Naoki Sato
Character Design: Tsunenori Saito
Art director: Atsushi Morikawa
Animation director: Yoshiyuki Ito
Art design: Shiho Takeuchi
Director of Photography: Yohei Miyahara
Producer: Masahiko Minami
Color setting: Shihoko Makayama
Key Animation:
Hidetsugu Ito
Kenji Mizuhata
Masahiro Koyama
Masahiro Sato
Takashi Tomioka
Yutaka Nakamura
Stranger - Mukoh Hadan (Japanese)
سيف الغريب (Arabic)
ストレンヂア －無皇刃譚－ (Japanese)
Genres: action
Plot Summary: Hunted by the Mings from China, young Kotaro and his dog meet a nameless samurai ("Nanashi") who is constantly being haunted by dreams of the past which lead him to seal his sword. Among the Mings is a fiercesome Western fighter named Rarou, who desires only to find a worthy opponent. When both groups clash with a Sengoku-era feudal lord, a proud general, and monks torn between faith and survival, the reason behind the Mings' pursuit tests the bond between Kotaro and Nanashi.
Director: Masahiro Ando
Screenplay: Fumihiko Takayama
Music: Naoki Sato
Character Design: Tsunenori Saito
Art director: Atsushi Morikawa
Animation director: Yoshiyuki Ito
Art design: Shiho Takeuchi
Director of Photography: Yohei Miyahara
Producer: Masahiko Minami
Color setting: Shihoko Makayama
Key Animation:
Hidetsugu Ito
Kenji Mizuhata
Masahiro Koyama
Masahiro Sato
Takashi Tomioka
Yutaka Nakamura
I saw this over at AX 08, and I was meaning to make a review and share with it all of you guys.
Plot
I won't spoil it for everyone, but despite the title (it seemed like some cheezy samurai flick) it was amazingly well written. Balancing the action and dialogue remarkably well, and could be a cult classic. I could honestly say this could be comparable to the Akira Kurosawa's original Seven Samurai with how much depth the story went into. However, my biggest problem was the depth, there so many interaction with different characters I wanted to see happen in the movie, but it never did.
Art
I'm not gonna say anything about the artwork, because by now we know animators love to visually stun us. However, BONES takes it to a different level through the animation quality. If you're expecting some Naruto animation rip-off from another series/movie, don't expect that here. Every motion each character made in the fight sequences were fluid-like, and every motion flowed well together. I couldn't really complain much about this movie because of animation quality.
Musical Score
One word, EPIC. I was kept at the edge of my seat when the suspense music came on, and was literally moved to tears when the somber music played (note I was with my Best Friend when I watched this). The music fit well into each scene, and invoked a person's emotions to feel the mood and atmosphere of the scene.
Overall: 8.9/10
I like BONES, especially since they did a lot of my favorite animes. In anycase, this got licensed by Bandai, so it should be distributed overseas soon.