Have you ever had that piece of media, like a film or TV show, that people keep talking
to you about? They keep saying how good it is, and you know
they are probably right but for some reason you just
don’t find the time to watch it? Like, there is no reason to believe that it is going to
be a bad or disappointing watch, but it just never
comes to mind when you are trying to think of something to watch next?
For a long time, at least the majority of this past decade, that has been how Sword
of the Stranger was for me.
Sword of the Stranger is a semi-historical action drama film, released in 2007 by Studio
Bones. Based off of no preexisting material at all,
it got royally screwed over upon western release, which led to very few people over here knowing
it existed. It was mostly recommended by word of mouth,
which I wouldn’t have thought would have been much of an issue considering
it’s Studio Bones. You know, THAT Studio Bones.
2007 was the time after their massive successes with FMA 2003,
Ouran, and Darker Than Black. They were coming into their own, but were
still making waves with fans out here in the West.
And yet this wonderfully animated film went relatively unnoticed.
This is a film not necessarily about breaking new ground in narratives or storytelling,
but largely about making a visual spectacle that let the animators stretch their legs
a bit. It allowed them to really show off what they
were capable of and to make a wholly solid production at the same time.
To explain more about the film and potentially change the tides in the film’s favour
-- ladies, gentlemen and others -- today I give you Sword of the Stranger
and why it is a Must Watch.
Let’s Jam.
Before we get to the truly great parts of the film,
it’s probably best to first introduce the more mild or somewhat bland aspects of the
film. Narratively speaking, Sword of the Stranger
is a fairly common lone samurai story. Or, if those aren't common to you, it’s
like a typical western. Just with samurai instead of cowboys.
Taking place in Japan’s Sengoku period (1467-1615 AD),
a group of skilled Chinese mercenaries and delegates are sent to the island of Japan
by the Emperor, with orders to capture a young boy there.
The boy, Kotarou, while fleeing, ends up bumping into a lone samurai ronin Nanashi.
After getting himself wrapped up in the situation following a Chinese ambush,
he agrees to escort Kotarou to a nearby monastery where he will be safe.
So far so good. Young, slightly annoying kid protagonist finds
outlaw-type action bad ass with mysterious origins.
Time to go on a ROAD TRIP!
Without spoiling too much of the plot, the majority of the narrative revolves around
not only why the Chinese are after Kotarou in the first place,
but also the fact that the film surprisingly has enough time to develop the characters
as they travel. Not just the mains either,
but also the villains and the Japanese locals who aren't too pleased about these foreigners
traipsing across their land.
We get to see an interesting outlook as a myriad of power struggles come to a head.
We’ve got the loyalists from China who would die for their emperor,
and some of their subordinates who are less cultishly loyal.
There’s also the local shogun who doesn’t worry about much and seems to care about even
less. Plus, there’s his general who is becoming
more irritated by the foreigners with each passing scene.
All the while, Kotarou is just trying to keep himself and his dog alive,
attempting to guilt this powerful swordsman into helping him and,
when that doesn’t work, bribing him. We don’t necessarily get to understand Nanashi’s
reasonings for helping, but we almost don’t need to. It’s implied,
and by that I mean explicitly stated in front of a campfire,
that he’s had a fairly dark past and feels the need for some kind of redemption.
And, as if by providence, the world has given him that chance by trying to protect this
boy and his dog.
While it is true that much of the overall meat of the story is not something wholly
unique to the film, what it offers -- the character interactions
over the course of it -- really gives it a kind of spice to keep
the whole thing from feeling overly bland and repetitive to those already familiar with
this kind of story.
Of course, the real reason why you would want to watch Sword of the Stranger is for the
cuts… of animation.
That’s a clever way to refer to the animation which mostly consists of people trying to
slice each other to death with swords.
This is to say that the film is quite a bit of a gory affair.
Even from the film’s initial intro, not only is the choreography done with stunning
detail, but the blood and effects are striking. So,
come prepared if you are squeamish. The intro also thankfully sets up a lot of
your expectations for the animation in the film.
It’s basically the second-best action scene in the whole film, barring the finale.
So even if the narrative doesn’t get its hooks into you at the start, the gorgeous
visuals hopefully will.
I say this even now in the year of 2020, when the stunning effect of this animation
has dimmed slightly compared to when the film was first released.
Because if you were to compare it to some of the best cuts of today, it might fall flat.
But when you consider that it’s 13 years old, that impressiveness starts to come back.
There are three big names that I want to bring up in relation to this:
Firstly, the key animation for this film was done by Hidetsugu Ito,
and that’s probably a name you don’t recognize. Because looking at the work he’s been involved
with, he mostly sticks to key animating theatrical films.
He’s one of the reasons why many shounen anime series can have middling animation for
much of their run, only for a theatrical film to come out and
blow it all out of the water.
Fitting, considering just how good with water he is, not just in his portfolio,
but here in this film too, where you have entire scenes that take place in the rain.
Next, there’s the director of the film himself: Masashiro Ando,
a name that has a bit more recognition behind it,
mostly because of this film as it was his directorial debut.
A key animator himself by trade, Ando made a name for himself on some of the bigger films
of the 90’s and early 2000’s. He was a key animator on the original Ghost
in the Shell, Patlabor 2, and the Bebop Movie.
One of Ando’s strengths, as both a director and as an animator,
is that he knows how action works in animation. Much of the action for Sword of the Stranger
wasn’t based off of any existing choreography and instead relied on the artists’ individual
imaginations in order to be brought to life. To be able to understand that and to drive
it forward is a skill that Ando had in spades. Bones is very much known for their action
scenes, even in some popular non-action shows to their name,
so to be able to corral that talent into one project took someone who needed to know how
all of the animators worked.
Lastly, I can’t talk about the names behind the animation of this film without mentioning
one final name: Yutaka Nakamura.
You might not know his name, but if you’ve been watching anime for any decent length
of time, specifically any of the major Bones anime
for around the last 20 years, you’ve seen his work.
Nakamura is almost like Bones’ pinch hitter of a sort.
Some of the company’s best cuts of animation in their history were done by Nakamura,
and if they need a moment in a show to really be done well, likely his name is attached
to it.
For Sword of the Stranger, Nakamura was in charge of the final fight scene of the film.
The swordplay between two masters of the art takes place on top of a makeshift
building that is falling apart in places. If you watch this film thinking that some
of the animation doesn’t necessarily look impressive
compared to modern day, then this is the scene to change your mind.
The angles, the direction of the movement, the impact of each sword swing is masterful,
and honestly the whole film is worth watching just to get to this point to see this scene
in context.
What I would have given to watch this scene in theaters.
This is where the film’s somewhat hidden nature in the West comes to light.
Technically, this film did have a theatrical release,
just not a very good one. Two years after debuting in Japan, Bandai
USA picked the film up for distribution in North America,
charged Vancouver-based Ocean Studios with the task of producing a dub,
and had a one-night-only screening of the film in around 350 US theaters back in February
of 2009.
Marketing however was not particularly a strong suit,
and because the film wasn’t directly tied to any existing franchise,
it’s not like Bandai could have tapped into any fanbase.
As far as I can tell, while the film may have done somewhat well on that one singular night,
everything else was just left alone.
Following the theatrical run, the film was dumped to DVD later that year and was kind
of left to be forgotten about. And so it was.
Bandai kept a tight hold on the film’s rights, but largely its presence
within the anime fandom of the West was due to word of mouth.
You picked it up and watched it because someone you know already did and told you how good
it was. But there are obvious limits to that. Eventually
the DVDs went out of print. Why? Because Bandai decided to downsize.
At the start of 2012, Bandai USA began to close its DVD distribution chains,
leaving any title under that banner to become suddenly more scarce than before.
So even if you had a friend who recommended the film,
unless they had a copy to lend or you began to sail the high seas of the internet,
actually watching the film was out of your reach.
By the time Funimation finally was able to grab the rights to it in 2016,
it became more of a too-little-too-late situation. It’s like trying to get people to watch
classic anime films like Akira or Ghost in the Shell,
just without the same kind of historical fame that those films have as classics here in
the West.
So those who have heard of the film and have watched it speak of it highly,
while those who haven’t...well, now we bring it back to the situation I started with.
One where, yeah, you’ve heard that it’s good and you’re sure you will watch it eventually...one
day...sometime soon...
So this is me telling you, watch this film. Ideally on Blu-ray, but in a pinch the streaming
option works as well. Though for whatever reason, Funimation only
has the dub available. Not entirely sure why.
If I haven’t gotten across the good reasons to watch the film,
then allow me to summarize. First, it has a decent plot that combines
one samurai’s redemption with the honour and downfall of others,
alongside the local politics that interfere with the situation both for profit and for
loyalty. Second, it’s animated by some of the best
in the business, with high points that still rival animation
of today. And third, which is potentially the most important,
it has THE BESTEST DOGGO!
While the child character can be annoying and unreasonable at times,
his dog Kotomaru is not. He’s an extremely loyal pup and knows how
to make the best of every situation.
For Sword of the Stranger, if you don’t watch it for the amazing cuts of animation,
or the history baked into it, then the best reason I can give is that this
devoted dog is what makes this film a Must Watch.
Which brings us to....the end of the video. and we are slowly making our way through a
bunch of anime that I haven't talked about, that I haven't seen many other people talk
about but you know, you should.
I've already had people question my name for this series "Must Watch Anime"
yes, "like Chihayafuru and Sword of the Stranger are must watches" Well I think that they are!
especially now that we live in a time where a lot of us, have nothing but time on our
hands. It is one of those films that is really good
but no one talks about. That's just how it is with anime films actually I feel like.
We don't talk about them, except for like when they've gotten really big. Like things
have changed in recent years! Promare was freaking huge!
But like Sword of the Stranger, and even Redline, people don't talk about as much anymore and
people should watch Redline, Redline is great! Or at least the first 8 minutes of Redline
is great. But enough of that and I should be really
wrapping this film up. as far as streaming goes it is available currently
from Funimation as I mentioned earlier in the video.
and again, I'm just going to re-state how very odd I found it that the dub was the only
thing available. It's not that the dub is bad per se.
It's just a little awkward when you have characters who are Chinese who speak I believe it is
Mandarin, and then speak "Japanese" which is translated
in the dub to English, and you can tell that the voices are not the same people.
and there is a bit of a disconnect with some of the characters.
Other than that though the dub is perfectly serviceable! But if you can get it on physical,
and you can actually watch it in Blu-ray, in Japanese that's probably the best way to
go. As far as what's going on next for the channel,
I DON'T KNOW. Because all of my plans have been horribly
combobulated. I don't even know if that is the right word.
I'm probably going to still be having a spring wrap-up video. Because I've had nothing but
time to catch up on everything this season so far.
So we are going to be talking about that in the next week or so.
and beyond that we are going to see how it goes!
We are going to play it by ear, and that's the best I can promise!
But that's kind of how everybody is going, but we are going to do our best to keep everything
moving! and with luck everything will turn out fine!
So a big thank you to all of my patrons who continually make these videos possible, you
guys are great! I do want to state, pretty much flat out that
if you are a patron, and for whatever reason you do not feel like
you have the money currently due to, the current world situation.
Feel free to cancel, I do not care. I would really much rather you guys take care
of yourselves, and that your all fine and everything is cool,
Because I want you guys to take care of yourselves, so please do that.
But for those who have donated through patreon, thank you very much! Specifically a special
shout out to patrons: Calhoonboy, PhoenixZero, Hector Montemayor,
Richard Emil Bradley, Rune Jakobson, Ryefan Boneapart,
and Siri Yamiko for being especially awesome. You guys are great! But take care of yourselves
everyone. Please seriously.
I'd end this video by just saying wash your hands, but I know everyone already does that,
so I'll end it with a second piece of advice: Wash your phones!
I don't know why people haven't been saying to wash your phones, you hold your phone in
your hand, you play with it in your hands all the time.
The only things it really touches is your hands and whatever surfaces you leave it on.
So please wash your phones. Wash your phones.
Just be careful around the parts that have the inside bits....
[ALARM IN THE BACKGROUND]
Just be careful in and around the parts that have inside bits, so like where you plug it
in, and if you happen to have an audio jack which
my phone, doesn't have. Just be careful not to get any water or anything
in there, but clean your phones. If it has a case, clean your phone cases,
be safe everyone.
and until next time, WATCH MORE ANIME! because we got a lot of time now so... it's
a good thing to do. and of course...
Stay Frosty.