Studio Bones/Masahiro Ando

Bones is known for its many high-profile anime TV series including both versions of Full Metal Alchemist, Soul Eater, Eureka Seven, and Ouran High School Host Club, as well as the movies released for these series. While this would normally place them squarely in the TV Series Movie Guide, Bones made an uncharacteristic move in 2007 and released an original movie that is well worth its inclusion in this Movie Guide. Bones’ movies are about as appropriate for general audiences as their respective series, but Sword of the Stranger is much too gory for younger audiences.

Masahiro Ando

Sword of the Stranger  (2007)
Sutorenjia Mukōhadan (ストレンヂア 無皇刃譚)

Sword of the Stranger is a jidaigeki (Edo period) anime with more than its fair share of awesome samurai action. The narrative follows a young orphan boy named Kotaro and his trusty Shiba Inu Tobimaru as they flee between monasteries and are hunted by a group of Chinese Ming Dynasty warriors. The boy and his dog happen upon a nameless ronin (samurai without a master) and enlist his services as a bodyguard not knowing the depth of the corruption of their pursuers. I’m not usually one for period pieces of any description, but this movie keeps the pace up and every fight scene will make you cringe as people are decapitated or cut clean in two. It’s also pretty neat to see the Chinese characters switch back and forth between speaking Chinese and Japanese, as Chinese speakers are a rarity in most kinds of anime. This movie doesn’t really have any deep mysteries to solve or novel lessons to teach, but it looks and sounds great, is very entertaining, and is well worth the price of admission (whatever it costs on Blu-ray these days). Recommended for anyone looking for visceral as opposed to cerebral entertainment, don’t let the setting scare you away from this worthwhile anime movie.