Sword of the Stranger Review

Bones made a samurai film that plays it completely straight and wins on execution. In the Sengoku period an orphan, Kotaro, is on the run with his dog Tobimaru, hunted by Ming warriors on a mission from their emperor to make an elixir of immortality. He hires Nanashi, a troubled ronin whose name means no name, as his bodyguard, and the film is the slow business of the two of them earning each other.

Masahiro Andō directs the action with a clarity most live-action swordplay never manages: you always know where the blade is, who is winning and what it costs. The final duel between Nanashi and Luo-Lang, the Ming party's Western swordsman, is one of the best fights in anime, and the film has earned every frame of the build to it. Justin Sevakis of Anime News Network gave it an A minus for breath-taking action wrapped around a story that actually makes sense. The plot is simple and the boy and the ronin are familiar types, which keeps it from the top of the scale, but Naoki Satō's score and the craft of the fighting make it among the best pure chanbara anime has produced.