Product Details

• Actors: Sword for Truth
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Studio: Palm Pictures/Manga Video
• DVD Release Date: July 25, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004X0YK
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #267,809 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Set in the early years of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the samurai adventure Sword for Truth is a nonstop bloodbath: characters are beheaded, disemboweled, dismembered, stabbed, impaled, and otherwise dispatched amid fountains of blood. The violence is so repetitious, it soon loses its shock value. The icy Shuranosuke Sakaki wears the "Blades of Death" on his kimono--with good reason. Apparently a ronin (a masterless samurai), he's hired by the Nakura clan to rescue the kidnapped Princess Mayu from the Seki Ninja, who are demanding the antique Ginryu Sword as a ransom. Shuranosuke fights a succession of warriors, a kappa (a water demon in Japanese folklore) and the damned soul of a Seki Ninja, slaughtering them all effortlessly.

The story makes no sense. The viewer never learns why the Seki or the rival Himiko Ninja desire the Ginryu Sword. An extended sequence depicting lesbian sex and opium use never pays off; neither does the duel between noble Kazuma Utsuki and a paid assassin. But the minimal plot is only there to connect the sword fights. When Utsuki comments, "The scent of death is in the air," he's not kidding. For hard-core fans of anime swordplay and violence only.

Unrated, but graphic depictions of violence, violence against women, sexual encounters, drug use, and drinking are unsuitable for children. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pointless, sexist trash... get Ninja Scroll instead, July 25, 2000

By	Josh Leman (Littleton, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sword for Truth (DVD)

I'm afraid this review is mostly about how Sword for Truth compares to the classic anime Ninja Scroll, but that makes sense because this little movie is obviously a very cheap rip-off, and because Manga Video is clearly trying to sell it to fans of that older, infinitely better work of animation. The packaging actually says, "The best sword fightig action since Ninja Scroll." But Sword for Truth only succeeds in making us appreciate Ninja Scroll for how good it really was, like how all those lame Jaws rip-off aquatic horror movies made us appreciate Steven Spielberg's classic even more. Ninja Scroll's violence, though extreme, always served some purpose in storytelling or characterization; in Sword for Truth, hundreds of stock ninja images (images, not characters) are decapitated, vivisected, disemboweled, and butchered in dozens of other ways, spraying their vital fluids all over everything, and none of it means anything. The sexual content in Ninja Scroll was fairly unnecessary, but again it made sense within the logic of the storyline; in Sword for Truth, women are empty images (again, images, not characters) who only exist to have their shirts cut open and have sex with the samurai badass hero. It's the kind of movie that a bunch of twelve-year-old boys would get together and make, dripping their raging hormones all over every page of the screenplay. The production values are terrible as well, with static animation and low-budget voice acting. I can't recommend Sword for Truth in any way. Not when there's another movie out there that does most of the same stuff this one does, except with infinitely more taste and artistic skill.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Uhh...Was it just me or did nothing happen in this movie?, August 7, 2001

By	Blacksilver2501 (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sword for Truth (DVD)

My first thought when the end credits started to role was: What the h--- was that? I wish I had read the reviews of this movie before I purchased it so I could have saved my [money] and bought a movie with a story. Granted this has everything every hard core anime fan wants; decapitations, dismembering and gratuitious sex, but there was just no point to the movie. Just as an interesting story starts to form, the movie's over. You never know anything about the main character except that he did something horrible in his past.... Then there's the ridiculously pointless assassin who shows up in the middle of the film.... Nothing explained, nothing concluded. Add the confounding pointlessness of this movie to the fact that it's not even 50 minutes long, and all you get is a big waste of money and bigger dissapointment. Two stars for creative deaths, zero stars for story and point. Bottom line: Don't bother....

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good anime...Not for people with A.D.D., March 13, 2006

By	woodman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sword for Truth (DVD)

This is one of my favorite anime's, even though the series was never finished... Comparing this to Ninja Scroll is like comparing apples to oranges... You should not compare one movie to another.... It's like comparing Scarface to Godfather... How many times can you watch Ninja Scroll anyway? This movie is for true fans of anime. Yes, Sword for Truth does have a semi-complicated plot, but I was never bored. There is lots of bloody swordplay and nudity, so this movie is Not for kids...

Warning: If you could not follow Pulp Fiction, then you will probably not be able to follow this movie. Also, this movie was the first part of a series that was never finished...

Again, if you are a true fan of anime, get this movie.