Ninja Scroll is one of the best movies I've seen, and my favorite by far. It's a 2-hour long animated movie which takes place in feudal Japan. The story is not too complicated, but also not too easy to understand (my brother still doesn't know what it's about!).
For this section I used the translated copy of the video by Manga. The summary is just a summary and I haven't included a lot of details so not to spoil the fun for all those who haven't seen it yet, but at least it's detailed enough so that for those of you who HAVE seen the movie, it should clear up some questions on what happened.

Characters and Settings

Main Characters

• Kibagami Jubei - Mercenary ninja
• Kagero - Koga ninja woman; poison taster
• Dakuan - Government spy for the Tokugawa Shogunate

8 Demons of Kimon

• Tessai - Technique of Stone
• Yurimaru - Technique of Electricity
• Zakuro - Technique of Explosives
• Benisato - Technique of Snakes
• Shijima - Technique of Shadows
• Mushizo - Technique of Wasps
• Utsutsu Mujuro - Technique of Swords
• Himuro Gemma - Technique of Reincarnation

Extra Characters

• Sakaki Hyobu - Chamberlain of the Mochizuki Clan
• Hanza - Leader of the Koga Ninja

Places

• Shimoda Village - Place where the plague was spread
• Kashima Harbor - Place where the gold was brought to be picked up
• Mochizuki Domain - Area where the story takes place

Summary

The House of Toyotomi wants to take over the Tokugawa government. In order to do so, they sent the 8 demons of Kimon to the Mochizuki domain to claim the gold from a ship which crashed during a storm. The 8 demons passed through Shimoda Village; poisoning the wells and blaming the villager's deaths on a plague.

The Mochizuki Clan is a small clan which controls the area. When reports of the plague was reported to Sakaki Hyobu, the Clan's Chamberlain, he sent the Koga Ninja to investigate. One of the Ninja was a woman named Kagero.

The Koga were wiped out by Tessai and Yurimaru - all but Kagero, who was captured by Tessai. Jubei saved her, and they parted ways. Tessai took revenge by assaulting Jubei by surprise. When Jubei killed Tessai, he was praised by Dakuan, who was watching him.

Reporting to the chamberlain, Kagero was told to find the identity of the Koga's murderer(s), and to find out what they wanted.

Jubei was taking a dip in a pond when he encounters Benisato, who hypnotized him. Jubei was broken out of the trance by Dakuan's throwing star, which hit him in the shoulder. Benisato escapes, and Jubei finds out that the throwing star was poisoned. Dakuan hires him to help track down and defeat the remaining 7 demons for 100 gold and the antidote.

Travelling through a town, Jubei meets up with Kagero who saves him when he meets up again with Benisato. Dakuan then asks Kagero to join them, in which she agreed.

Travelling to Shimoda Village, the trio meets up with Mushizo. Jubei defeats Mushizo, and Kagero discovers that the town's wells were poisoned.

Jubei decides to take a look around the area, and he and Kagero climb up a cliff. There they encounter Zakuro, in which Kagero falls for her trap. However, Jubei saves her.

When both Jubei and Kagero 'recovered' from the trap, they meet Utsutsu Mujuro, who challenges Jubei to a duel. Jubei defeats him though with the help of Kagero.

Taking a look at the coast near Shimoda Village, Jubei and Kagero sees a ship which had crashed during the storm. Later on, they travel to Kashima Harbor in which they meet up again with Dakuan. Dakuan, who was followed by Shijima, didn't know he had a "tail". Kagero is captured by Shijima, right after Dakuan tells her the antidote for Jubei's poison.

Seeing a message left by Shijima, Jubei goes off to rescue Kagero even though he knew it was a trap. He saves her, and Jubei rejoins Dakuan as the Shogun's ship enters the harbor.

Just as the Shogun of the Dark's minions were loading the gold into the ship, there was a sound of hooves as the Mochizuki Clan rode to fight. Kagero, not knowing that the Mochizuki were killed and Gemma was pretending to be Lord Hyobu, was stabbed in the bac by Gemma.

When the Shogun's ship set sail, Jubei climbed aboard. Meanwhile, inside the ship, Gemma expresses his true plans to the retainers of Toyotomi. Dakuan encounters Zakuro, whom he used to help blow up the cargo hold. The ship started sinking, and Jubei meets up with Gemma, who he vows to destroy.

Jubei avenges Kagero's death and parts ways with Dakuan, who doubted that Jubei could get ashore in his condition. Jubei jumps off the ship and continues his travels with Kagero's head band tied to his sword.

Some Final Notes

Here are some notes which will help complete the idea and events of the story, and some more detailed accounts on what had happened.

• The 8 demons poisoned the townsfolk of Shimoda Village to prevent people from wandering into the area as they take the gold from the ship which crashed there during the storm.

• The current ruling house is that of the Tokugawa Government, which is opposed by the Toyotomi. However, the Shogun of the Dark supports the Toyotomi House.

• The gold on the ship was the gold taken from the Yamashiro land. 5 years ago, a hidden mine was found underneath the Yamashiro Clan's land. This was discovered by the government, and Jubei was among the people who were sent to topple the Yamashiro Clan.

• Himuro Gemma was the leader of the Yamashiro Clan's ninjas. He told the ninjas to kill Jubei, and among those ninjas was a person named Shinkuro, whom Jubei befriended. Forced to slay them all, Jubei killed Gemma to avenge Shinkuro and the others.

--Dakuan

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