Cullum, Good Power in Ninja Scroll

myspace.com

I am not going to lie, I actually enjoyed Ninja Scroll. When trying to pick one central topic to blog about, I, once again, can not just choose one specific topic, so I’m choosing a broad one. The most obvious theme in Ninja Scroll is powerful beings. Everyone from the characters considered to be good to the characters considered to be evil are powerful in this movie. Having power sometimes destroys a person and turns them in the direction of being evil. In my opinion there were far more ‘evil’ users of power then good in Ninja Scroll. I will start with the first most powerful character, focusing heavily on him. This blog will be fairly longer than my first two.

homepage.mac.com

The most powerful, influential character I noticed in Ninja Scroll was definitely Jubei. He was able to defeat Gemma twice, the first time he was able to regenerate himself. The second time, what he desired most ended up leading him to his demise when Jubei cut him in half and left him in a river of melted gold. Jubei is also very cunning and is able to trick some of the eight Demons of Kimon. Jubei is not only powerful, but very honorable and loyal, like a Samurai should be. In the end, Jubei does not follow Dakuan to his next destination to get rewarded, but instead he cuts whatever the old man was holding a brick of gold in so that it falls in the water. I believe his reward was knowing the the old man did not get the gold. When Kagero offers herself to him to counteract the poison inside of him with the poison inside of her, he declines her offer. He does not just decline her offer because he is respectful, but he does not do it because he feels like he would be raping her. My interpretation is that he believes she will be wondering wether he had sex with her to cure himself or because he actually wanted to. This shows that Jubei is not only superhuman physically, but an amazingly remarkable person mentally as well. He is the Robin Hood of Samurai’s after all. 

Tripod.com

ugo.com

Kagero is a very powerful woman in the movie. She is a woman Ninja. After Jubei ‘saves’ her from the oni, she follows him, determined to pay him back for his help. She ends up dying to defend him, which I think makes her more of a Samurai than a ninja, but thats just my opinion. Anyone that even touches her is poisoned and dies.. She killed two Demons of Kimon, including the oni and the shadow puppeteer, with this very poison. She is a superb fighter and is the only one that survived the trip to the ‘infected’ village, even if Jubei is some what responsible for her survival.