It seems perfectly natural that Osamu Dezaki should direct a samurai anime. Through his duties on the Blackjack OVAs and two Golgo 13 adventures, Dezaki worked extensively in rampant violence, smoky pulp atmosphere, and grim, implacable men of dubious morals, all of which are well-suited to a swords-and-blood action piece set in the bleakest days of medieval Japan. Still, an experienced director doesn't guarantee something good, and there's ample evidence of that in Sword for Truth.
The requisite nihilistic hero is Shuranosuke Sakaki, a lean, purple-robed fellow who appears outside of a palace one night, just as some royal guards are attempting to restrain a tiger that escaped from a carnival. Unblinking, Shuranosuke slices the beast into ribbons and nonchalantly departs. One of the guards then recognizes him as the “Scythes of Death,” a legendary swordsman so skilled that, as we soon see, he's able to swiftly cut away a pretty woman's clothing when she attempts to pick his pocket.
After dicing up some random thugs for good measure, Shuranosuke is summoned by the local royal house, which informs him that the rogue tiger he killed was merely meant as a distraction while the Princess Mayu was kidnapped by ninjas. Thinking Shuranosuke a bad enough dude to rescue the princess, the royals entrust him with the Ginryu Sword, for which Mayu is being ransomed. Our hero then retires to his house and again meets the alluring pickpocket, whose dislike of him shortly gives way to some mad, passionate, and abruptly murderous sex.
Upon meeting up with the would-be ransomers, Shuranosuke is attacked by a contingent of warriors, and then mysteriously aided by a group of kunoichi, female ninjas who also want the Ginryu Sword. Their onslaught forces the leader of the kidnappers, who seems to be the head baddie by virtue of being larger, nastier, and more bearded than the others, to hold Princess Mayu at swordpoint. It's then that the princess insists on asking Shuranosuke a question: “What is love?”
Shuranosuke's answer (which, sadly, does not reference overplayed '90s pop) is followed by further inadvertent help from the she-ninjas, who swarm the hulking bearded guy and allow the princess to escape with Shuranosuke. Together, they make their way across a lake, over the hills, and through a string of bizarre, semi-demonic adversaries.
Though its setup is similar to Ninja Scroll or Yotoden, Sword for Truth primarily recalls Dezaki's own work, as its tone and plot developments could easily be a medieval Japanese Golgo 13 adventure. Like Duke Togo, Shuranosuke kills nearly every male character he meets and either beds or inadvertently wins the heart of the entire female population. And just as in The Professional or Golgo 13: Queen Bee, Dezaki doesn't hold back, investing combat with plenty of blood and viscera while rarely missing the opportunity for a sex scene. Unfortunately, that's just about all that he can do here, and there isn't much beyond the perfunctory gore and nudity. Sword for Truth's animation is stilted and bland even by the standards of its native 1990, and Dezaki's habit of slipping in still images at the height of the action only makes things look cheaper this time.
That aside, Dezaki can't be faulted for the rather scattershot script by Takeshi Narumi, author of the series of novels that inspired Sword for Truth. In bringing his writing to animation, Narumi introduces countless plot threads that almost always lie unresolved. The female ninjas who aid Shuranosuke are supposedly part of some opium-abusing lesbian cadre, yet we never see their relevance to the story, or even the end of their fight with the bearded thug. Shuranosuke confesses to Mayu that he once murdered his entire family, only to offer no elaboration whatsoever. Narumi also brings in a jujitsu-using assassin named Marounji as a possible adversary for Shuranosuke, but the two scarcely have time to meet before Sword for Truth's 60 minutes are up.
Instead, most of the villains are generic devil-samurai whose predictably unsuccessful attacks on Shuranosuke can be measured in seconds. Whether it's a ghostly, water-walking old man, a masked, web-spitting cyber-assassin straight out of Buichi Terasawa's Kabuto, or a fish demon that looks like a cross between Mer-Man from Masters of the Universe and Gollum, Shuranosuke hacks through them all with equal ease, and equal tedium.
Even the voice acting is nondescript. The Japanese track is decent, and the English version has only a few annoying performances, but neither cast can give the production the slightest bit of excitement. Manga's DVD release is also lacking extras, though I have to wonder what they could possibly have provided, aside from some information on the original novels. And I suppose I should be grateful that, given the company's habit of meddling, they didn't re-title this Captain Slash and the Lesbian Ninjas or something.
Perhaps it might have been worth watching over a decade ago, but today, Sword for Truth seems a rushed, tepid, bargain-basement Ninja Scroll, and it's far less than one would expect from Dezaki. He's worked with much better projects, including They Were 11 and Rose of Versailles (the latter of which, sadly, isn't available over here). In proper perspective, Sword for Truth could be worse, yet as samurai bloodbaths go, it couldn't be duller.
