History Anime / NinjaScroll

* AnAesop: Delivered by [[JerkassHasAPoint Dakuan]], of all people.
-->'''Dakuan:''' By the way, [[spoiler:I’m very sorry about having lost Kagero. It´s unfortunate, [[PetTheDog but she did have a few moments of living as an ordinary girl and of course]], [[CantHaveSexEver making love with you]], that is good after all.]]\\
'''Jubei:''' Was that your plan as well, old man?\\
'''Dakuan:''' [[ManipulativeBastard Exactly, to read people’s minds and control them; it’s the secret of the ninja’s strategy]]. However, [[ThePowerOfLove only true sincerity can hope to move the human heart. Heartless ninjas like me cannot expect to do it]]. [[SympathyForTheHero You’re great and I admire you]].

* VicariouslyAmbitious: Genam ''knows'' that a ninja's life is regarded as even more worthless than that of a peasant's, and therefore he will ''never'' be as an Emperor no matter how gold he has. Therefore, he settles instead to use the blood-money of Shimoda village to buy an army of Ninja '''so''' massive and well-armed that any legitimate government, regardless of dynasty, will have ''no choice'' but to be figureheads puppeted by his ''absolute word'' from the shadows, making him the true ruler of Japan.

'''Dakuan:''' [[ManipulativeBastard Exactly, to read people’s minds and control them; it’s the secret of the ninja’s strategy]]. However, [[ThePowerOfLove only true sincerity can hope to move the human heart. Heartless ninjas like me cannot expect do it]]. [[SympathyForTheHero You’re great and I admire you]].

** Benisato [[spoiler:stuffing a nun's corpse full of snakes and using it as a puppet--the sight of the serpents bursting out of the nun's eyes and mouth is disturbing!]]
** Mushizo's hunchbacked for a good reason--he's got a ''goddamn hornet hive'' fused with his back, and we see them emerge from it!! Oh, and [[spoiler:they start stinging him from within after he plunges into a pond, and they're trying to escape the water.]]

** This is a Japan where the ninja aren't just skilled spies, they're legitimate supernatural monsters that come out of nowhere, resurrect from the dead, betray each other left and right, pop out of the shadows to molest you, disguise themselves as normal people to trap you with venomous snakes, poison whole villages, rape you or your corpse and display barely even practical concern when all their friends, lovers, and family die in one evening because, by then, you've seen and done so much that the darkness of the loss and insanity of it all doesn't even faze you at that point. In this world, you literally have to break the laws of nature just to survive. No thank you.

** What Shijima does to Kagero to take control of her appears to involve specifically molesting her; see RapeAsDrama below.

* DueToTheDead: After [[spoiler:Kagero dies]], Jubei sends her body into a boat and pushes it into the water. Then, he rips off his sleeves and attaches [[spoiler:her headband onto his head]] before going out to exact revenge on [[spoiler:Genma]].

* FauxActionGirl: Subverted in Kagerō’s case. Despite being a well trained kunoichi, she's never able to stand up toe to toe with any of the film's villains, save for perhaps Benisato. However, her male partners Jūbei and Dakuan are not any better themselves at it, and more often than not it’s thanks to Kagerō that Jūbei survives his closer encounters, be it directly or by accident. Also, although she puts up a front of not needing anyone’s help, Kagerō is explicitly stated to be just a poison taster in her very first field mission, which means she's not experienced enough to be called an ActionGirl in the first place.
* FridgeLogic: An InUniverse example. After Kagero reports about the destruction of her ninja squad, the Chamberlain immediately dispatches her once again to the area of Shimoda village to gather information about the attackers who did this. It makes sense on the surface that he'd want her to gather that information... but when Jubei hears this he points out the crucial logical hole by wondering what the hell the Chamberlain expects Kagero to accomplish by herself after the attackers massacred her entire squad and made it look easy. [[spoiler:It's a little bit of foreshadowing about the fact that Genma has pulled a KillAndReplace on the clan Chamberlain.]]

* HopeSpot: Not long after Dakuan cynically suggested that Kagero's clan might not make any attempt to stop the Eight Devils, (due to not wanting to be the small clan that gets squished between the shogunate and the Toyotomi, the exiled former rulers who hired the Eight Devils) the Chamberlain and his samurai come riding into town and face down the ninja mooks working for the Eight Devils... [[spoiler:and then we find out that Genma [[KillAndReplace killed the Chamberlain several days earlier and has been using his powers to impersonate him]] when he suddenly stabs Kagero in the back.]]

* MakeSureHesDead: Yurimaru electrocutes an entire river trying to kill Jubei and his friends--then tells the other Devils of Kimon present to comb it for dead bodies .

** Kagero has a moment of terror when [[spoiler:Genma runs her through with a sword while posing at the chamberlain]].

* VillainousRescue: Yurimaru has strung up Jubei with his wires and is torturing him by via electrocution--then [[WomanScorned Zakuro]] uses one of her "living bombs" to kill Yurimaru (Jubei manages to escape, although he is severely hurt).

* ActionBomb: Zakuro's MO. She turns [[spoiler:the leader of the Koga ninjas]] into one to attack Kagero and Jubei. [[spoiler:She later becomes this herself, sinking the cargo ship in the process]].

* AmbiguousSituation: Kagero puts a distraught face when she sees Chancellor Hyobu is having sex with a woman while giving orders. Is she [[SourPrudes upset by the Chancellor liking courtesans?]] Is she [[FanDisservice disgusted by the old man humping one in front of her?]] Considering how Kagero sees herself as a mere tool to be used by her lord, is she [[ClingyJealousGirl jealous of the courtesan?]] Or, now considering she cannot have sex at all due to her poisonous body, is she simply [[CovertPervert jealous of people who can?]]

* BadHabits: Dakuan carries a shakujo staff, a tool vinculated to the Buddhist religion, which along with his hat and his advanced age would make him pass in the setting as a monk or a pilgrim, instead of the ninja spy he is actually.

* BondOneLiner: In the English dub when [[spoiler:Yurimaru is killed]], Zakuro quips:
-->'''Zakuro''': It looks as if Yurimaru has carelessly stepped into my trap. An unfortunate accident, but his own fault. Now, he's the queen of the devils.

* TheBrute: Tessai. How he's able to move with the grace and agility of a ninja is up for debate.

* CarryingTheAntidote: This trope is subverted; Jubei ''thinks'' Dakuan is doing this, so he attempts to [[CuttingTheKnot Cut The Knot]] by hitting Dakuan with the poison too, but Dakuan had already thrown away the poisoned shuriken and replaced it with an ordinary one, expecting him to do just that.

** During Jubei's battle with Utsutsu Mujuro, Kagero tries a sneak attack and embeds one of her short swords in a bamboo pole. That sword then comes in handy when Mujuro attempts a killing blow on Jubei, only for said sword to deflect his attack, allowing Jubei to kill him.
* CoitusUninterruptus: Kagero reports the massacre to her clan's Chamberlain, who is... preoccupied, much to Kagero's disgust ([[FridgeBrilliance and possible jealousy, depending on how you interpret the face she makes]]).
* ConservationOfNinjitsu: {{Justified|Trope}}; Jubei blows through a group of {{mooks}} in the opening scene, but is forced to fight for his life against the Eight Devils of Kimon throughout the rest of the film.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Jubei just happens to be near the place where Tessai takes Kagero after he captures her.
* CorpseLand: Shimoda village is littered with diseased corpses. [[spoiler:Then we find out they were poisoned...]]
* CrapsackWorld: This is a Japan where the ninja aren't just skilled shadow fighters, they're legitimate supernatural monsters that come out of nowhere, resurrect from the dead, betray each other left and right, pop out of the shadows to molest you, disguise themselves as normal people to trap you with venomous snakes, poison whole villages, rape you or your corpse and display barely even practical concern when all their friends, lovers, and family die in one evening because, by then, you've seen and done so much that the darkness of the loss and insanity of it all doesn't even faze you at that point. In this world, you literally have to break the laws of nature just to survive. No thank you.
** Just to drive it home further, there is one, ONE moment in the entire movie that has happiness in it. It's the villager who cheerfully tells his neighbor that the storm made his wife go into labor and now he has a ninth child, and even this moment is cut short because a damn corpse wanders in under control of one of the devils to tell them that a plague has wiped out Shimoda village.
* DeadlyBath: Benisato attacks Jubei while he's bathing in a hot spring, but thankfully he [[CantBatheWithoutAWeapon kept his sword within arm's reach]] and is able to defend himself, and they're both go in a FullFrontalAssault.

* EffeminateMisogynisticGuy: Yurimaru sleeps with Genma, treats Zakuro like garbage, and murders Benisato for failing twice in a row. Since Benisato was ''also'' sleeping with Genma, jealousy may also have been a factor.

'''Tessai:''' '[grinning]'' One of us'', yes

** Zakuro's swimsuit-esque outfit also qualifies.

* HatDamage: Jubei turns a bit more serious after Tessai cuts a slice in his straw hat.

** Jubei refuses to sleep with Kagero [[spoiler:despite knowing the act would cure him]]. They eventually do kiss [[spoiler:just before she dies]].

* IfICantHaveYou: [[spoiler:Zakuro doesn't take Yurimaru's rejection very well, especially since he treated her poorly.]]

--> ''A Tokugawa government spy'' wants to hire ''me''??

* LoveDodecahedron: There is a minor subplot of the strange love rectangle between Yurimaru, Zakuro, Genma, and Benisato. Zakuro is hot for Yurimaru (who is gay and sleeping with Genma), while Genma is also sleeping with Benisato, much to Yurimaru's chagrin. For these characters, LoveHurts.

* MadeOfIron: Jubei takes absurd amounts of punishment throughout the film and walks away.
* MakeSureHesDead: Yurimaru electrocutes an entire river trying to kill Jubei and his friends--then makes sure to comb it for dead bodies.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Jubei's iaido technique is never cleared as either a regular but very fast attack or an actual supernatural skill. His battle against Tessai suggests the first explanation (he has a wire attached to the sword which might serve to [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks throw and recover the sword]] quickly), but his battle with Mushizo points the another (he somehow manages to cut the root on which the demon is standing despite Jubei being several feet underwater, making it appear a RazorWind SwordBeam).
* MenDontCry: Played with in Jubei's case; he tries to be this even when faced with the death of friends and loved ones, with the emphasis on the word ''tries.''

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: The final fight between Genma and Jubei is easily one of these, with Jubei mostly on the bad end of it. [[spoiler:He survives by sheer determination, a well-timed collapse of support timbers as the burning ship begins to break apart, and a wave of molten gold engulfing Genma.]]
* NotDistractedByTheSexy:
** Pay special attention to Benisato's introduction. While Jubei is making small talk, he's also readying his sword for the draw.
** A tattooed, attractive woman that Jubei's never met before, slipping into a hot spring with him and saying in an alluring voice that he reminds her of someone she's looking for? [[SarcasmMode She couldn't be up to ''anything'' suspicious.]]
* OffWithHisHead: Jubei initially doesn't believe that Genma is behind the plot because he clearly recalls slicing off his head.

* SissyVillain: Yurimaru. He wears the most complex outfit of the Eight Devils, and often indulges in such artful activities as calligraphy or pausing to smell the flowers.

A loosely related [[Anime/NinjaScrollTheSeries anime series]] was released years after the film's release. A big-screen sequel was announced in 2005, as well as a potential live-action adaptation, but both have languished in DevelopmentHell ever since.