British distributors Manga Home Entertainment will release on Blu-ray Japanese director Yoshiaki Kawajiri's Ninja Scroll. Manga will offer a standard and Limited Edition SteelBook Double Play editions, both of which will be available for purchase on November 26th.
Written and directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri (Wicked City, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust), Ninja Scroll is made by veteran animation studio Madhouse, whose long list of credits include acclaimed movies such as Summer Wars, Paprika, The Girl Who Lept Through Time and Perfect Blue, as well as series like Death Note and Black Lagoon.
Set during Japan's Tokugawa period, Ninja Scroll opens with female ninja Kagero - the sole survivor of a squad sent to investigate a plagued village - at the mercy of Tessai, a monster of a man who can turn his skin to stone. Rescued by wandering ronin Jubei Kibagami, the pair discover from shady shogunate spy Dakuan that Tessai is one of the Eight Devils of Kimon - a band of super ninja apparently led by Jubei's old nemesis Himuro Genma, whom he insists that he killed years ago.
Tricked into helping Kagero and Dakuan take down the Eight Devils, expert swordsman Jubei must push his finely-honed fighting skills to the limit if he is to defeat his deadly adversaries, who include shadow assassin Shijima, blind warrior Utsutsu, explosives specialist Zakuro and, of course, the evil Himuro Genma himself. Pitted against such merciless foes, only one thing is certain; Jubei Kibagami must kill or be killed.
Here's to hoping it ain't screwed in the aspect ratio department like the 10th Anniversary DVD. And hopefully this means we'll start seeing more older titles on Blu, like Perfect Blue!
Very Very lame to have it locked. If they're gonna post this information on Blu-ray they need to separate the websites into all different regions. I hate reading about a movie/series I've wanted so badly then hearing that it will only be available in another region; therefore, useless to me.
planosuperman - releases get region-locked at the request of the rightsholders, not by choice of the publishers of the discs.
Also - blu-ray.com is a site that caters not only to blu-ray watchers in the US, this news item even has an icon showing the British flag, so as to make clear it's a UK release. If you don't want to know about releases from non-US regions you can change it in the site's options. Or better still - get yourself a region-free player already.
Glad I bought that region free capable player recently. Think I might have to order the steelbook of this. Wish there was a US release coming, but I'll take what I can get. Hope the picture and sound are as awesome as the movie is.
This will be the first instance where I get a steelbook that I can't watch... at least, not until a North American release happens and I can swap that disc into this case.
The Japanese release is Region A, but man its over 100.00 to buy! If it was reasonable, even 40.00. I would swap the discs out of the steel for it. But it's not....
Such a great movie. Assuming the transfer is up to snuff, I'd put it on par with Akira in terms of must-have anime. For some reason, in the U.S., it has always been either extremely hard to find or outrageously expensive (I remember paying upwards of $40 for it on VHS back in 1995) and it looks like Blu-ray will be no different. Bummer.
I NEED this movie in America!!! This is probably the catalogue title I've been jonesing for the most for a good BD transfer! Well, we finally got the option of that craptastic E.T. toy that Europe got first crack at, so maybe Ninja Scroll will follow......
That steelbook looks awesome, why can't they release the US version or region A at the same time, I hate waiting months after a region B because it's such a tease. Nice to see one of my favorite anime's coming to Blu though, now here's hoping for Vampire D if it's the same studio.
@Caesu I've had it on pre-order for ages now and I got an email from Amazon telling me that it will now ship out at that date, so it looks like it's changed on amazon too.
