Search - Sword for Truth on DVD

Pointless, sexist trash... get Ninja Scroll instead

Josh Leman | Littleton, CO United States | 07/25/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I'm afraid this review is mostly about how Sword for Truth compares to the classic anime Ninja Scroll, but that makes sense because this little movie is obviously a very cheap rip-off, and because Manga Video is clearly trying to sell it to fans of that older, infinitely better work of animation. The packaging actually says, "The best sword fightig action since Ninja Scroll." But Sword for Truth only succeeds in making us appreciate Ninja Scroll for how good it really was, like how all those lame Jaws rip-off aquatic horror movies made us appreciate Steven Spielberg's classic even more. Ninja Scroll's violence, though extreme, always served some purpose in storytelling or characterization; in Sword for Truth, hundreds of stock ninja images (images, not characters) are decapitated, vivisected, disemboweled, and butchered in dozens of other ways, spraying their vital fluids all over everything, and none of it means anything. The sexual content in Ninja Scroll was fairly unnecessary, but again it made sense within the logic of the storyline; in Sword for Truth, women are empty images (again, images, not characters) who only exist to have their shirts cut open and have sex with the samurai badass hero. It's the kind of movie that a bunch of twelve-year-old boys would get together and make, dripping their raging hormones all over every page of the screenplay. The production values are terrible as well, with static animation and low-budget voice acting. I can't recommend Sword for Truth in any way. Not when there's another movie out there that does most of the same stuff this one does, except with infinitely more taste and artistic skill."

Uhh...Was it just me or did nothing happen in this movie?

Blacksilver2501 | California | 08/07/2001

(2 out of 5 stars)

"My first thought when the end credits started to role was: What the h--- was that? I wish I had read the reviews of this movie before I purchased it so I could have saved my [money] and bought a movie with a story. Granted this has everything every hard core anime fan wants; decapitations, dismembering and gratuitious sex, but there was just no point to the movie. Just as an interesting story starts to form, the movie's over. You never know anything about the main character except that he did something horrible in his past.... Then there's the ridiculously pointless assassin who shows up in the middle of the film.... Nothing explained, nothing concluded. Add the confounding pointlessness of this movie to the fact that it's not even 50 minutes long, and all you get is a big waste of money and bigger dissapointment. Two stars for creative deaths, zero stars for story and point. Bottom line: Don't bother...."

Sword for Truth

D. V. Wasson | 09/27/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"SWORD FOR TRUTH



This anime has been trashed for being a rip of Ninja Scroll. It shouldn't be. Ninja Scroll had two hours to work out its plot. SFT had one hour. It was conceived as a pilot for a series. Anybody who has ever seen a one hour pilot for a tv show, especially one that didn't sell, knows how frustrating it is to be left hanging. SFT is only half the story of the Hojp clan trying to get back two swords, which were taken from them after they lost a battle.

The longer Legend of the Devil (90min) covers the story better. I want to read the original book or books by Takeshi Namuri.

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