Here it is. When the cultural bomb of Ninja Scroll (Yoshiaki Kawajiri, 1993) hit American shores, the Japanese entertainment industry could assure itself of two things:

1) Its national role as tastemaker to the West was assured for one hundred years.
2) Its image as a sedate and refined nation was ruined for one hundred years.

With all the violence, all the sex, and a good dose of traditional culture to boot, Ninja Scroll established a great deal about how Westerners still view anime today; until the girly-girl series started to hit a few years later. But for many, anime remains that moment early in the film where the Rock Dude tears that guy in half. And besides, Akira was just gross, but even a shojo-loving snob like me has to admit that Ninja Scroll was really flipping cool.

Of course, Ninja Scroll isn’t actually about a ninja; its hero is a ronin loosely based on one-eyed, real-life samurai Jubei Yagyu. But it includes a host of ninja, servants to a feudal lord, who fall rather easily to the film’s phantasmagoric villains; a (literally) gnarled old man, and one quite memorable Kunoichi.

The highlight of Ninja Scroll is easily its rogue’s gallery, the Eight Devils of Kimon. Aside from Rock Dude, I’m sure we all remember Hornet Guy, Gunpowder Chick and Zatoichi Ripoff. And who could forget Electric Dandy? Ninja Scroll certainly has some of the finest fight scenes ever choreographed, not least the gruesome, final battle against (not spoiling anything) Regenerating Whosit. This provides an ingenious trick if you should ever find yourself up against a regenerating foe. In fact, a lot of these fights are won with science that’s as instructive as anything before Pokemon taught us that water conducts electricity.

Ninja powers showcased include: Getting ripped in half, getting cut in half by a giant shuriken, turning into a log and (especially useful for ladies) poisoning dudes you sleep with. Many of the non-ninja villain’s powers–for example Electric Dandy’s wires–also have a ninja flavor to them.

In closing, this atmospheric, full-throttle action film film certainly deserves the title of an Anime You Must See Before You Die. Nonetheless, I think we’re all glad that subsequent years have shown us that it doesn’t represent, so to speak, the Japanese national consciousness.

Word on the street is that a purported sequel doesn’t have anything to do with the original; but it is worth pointing out that it involves one of the most fascinating episodes in Japanese history.