Sasuke

Man...how in the world do you even BEGIN to describe the whack-a-do insanity that is Sasuke? No, I'm not talking about the infamous Naruto character Sasuke Uchiha, I'm talking about a 1968 anime that these days people only know about because AnimEigo decided to randomly release it on blu-ray this past October. Before this, the only thing people knew about it was a scene involving an exploding dog that made the rounds. I was curious about it and decided to buy the blu-ray, since 1. I want to support AnimEigo, and 2. I love me some historical anime. Apparently Sasuke is one of the earliest ... known anime to be about ninjas, and a lot of tropes and narrative thumbprints it established would influence other ninja series like Naruto down the line. Now that I've seen the whole thing...eh, I wouldn't say Sasuke is very good, but it does make for a very entertaining watch even without its historical significance.

Based on the 1961 manga by Sanpei Shirato, Sasuke takes place in the Edo Period, where ruthless feudal lord Ieyasu Tokugawa rules Japan with an iron fist and sends all manner of assassins to kill those who oppose him down to the very last. Among these opponents, there is also the Sarutobi clan and its best warrior, Daisuke Ozaru. When Ozaru's wife is killed, his son, the titular Sasuke, finds himself traumatized and with a target on his back. At first, Sasuke assumes he is alone in the world now, but a mysterious vagabond helps him out of many a jam...who turns out to be none other than Ozaru himself. Within this war torn land, father and son embark on a dangerous journey, with Ozaru training Sasuke in the ways of the Sarutobi ninja in the hopes that they can strike back against Tokugawa's tyrannical rule, fighting all manner of different enemies along the way. Yeah, if you're thinking Ozaru is going to spend the entire series hiding his identity from Sasuke, don't, because he reveals himself in episode 3. Good thing the show dropped that plot point early on, as it'd be kind of pointless to drag that out for 29 episodes straight without making Sasuke seem really stupid.

You also shouldn't expect Sasuke to be a happy fun time as a show either, because it is dark. Yes, Sasuke looks like a precious little button of a boy (And was voiced by an actual child actor!), but the show itself is extremely violent, dark, and has absolutely no qualms about showing both people and animals dying in brutal ways, with or without any actual blood. One episode has a dog being blown up because a girl sewed a bomb into its leg, another episode has wild dogs being eaten by crows with their corpses shown in full view, horses get blown up by shuriken bombs, another episode has a whole group of children accidentally killing themselves because they tried to imitate a ninja technique and their dad couldn't be bothered to teach them how to execute said technique safely, so on and so forth. If you're someone who can't stomach this level of violence in anything, you'd best skip this show. Considering this was made in 1968, when anime was still fairly in its infancy, there was still a lot of experimentation going on to see what shows could get away with showing on TV. One could argue that Sasuke was the most violent anime to ever air in Japan in that time. Do correct me if I'm wrong, though. That said, for all of Sasuke's attempts to be a serious action show, a lot of the time it borders on being downright silly, both because of it being a product of the 60s and therefore held back by the technological limitations of the time, and because of a lot of narrative decisions it makes.

Speaking of the animation, yeah there's no beating around the bush, this is a show from 1968, so of course it's going to look fairly choppy and limited. I'll give the animators credit for doing their absolute best when it came to actually animating the fight choreography within their technical limitations, even if a lot of it involved showing characters moving super fast with blur lines. But there are times when certain frames and animation cycles will be re-used over and over again, cels will just slide into the frame to simulate a character moving or walking, other times the camera will just linger on a character's face for a long time, and so on. One thing I especially noticed is that sometimes a character will talk even if their mouth isn't moving, or vice versa, their lips are moving but no sound comes out. I will give Sasuke this, while the watercolor background art isn't particularly bright, I like how it uses a lot of grays and thick, smudgy charcoal lines for things like barren trees to really convey just how oppressive the world feels to a child Sasuke's age.

Moving onto the audio, I don't have much to say on the soundtrack, other than that it can be very loud and obnoxious when utilizing certain instruments. Sasuke as a series looooves its shamisens, and you'll be hearing those a lot throughout the entire series. I will say the opening is pretty catchy, and I often found myself singing it whenever I was in the mood. I've only seen the Japanese version of the series, and AnimEigo's blu-ray also has a...random English dub that was just never put out into the public eye until now, which I haven't seen yet. Based on what I've heard of the original language, the acting in Sasuke is admittedly rather mixed, often bouncing between stiff and stilted to over-the-top and theatrical. I'm admittedly surprised the producers decided to have Sasuke be voiced by an actual child actor, which is fine, but even his VA had moments where he was rather green, particularly with the constant repetition of one sound bite of him laughing. A lot of the overdramatic acting resulted in a good chunk of the story not coming off as serious as the series seemed to want it to be.

Granted, the story and characters themselves aren't really much to write home about, even if for the time it might have been considered the best thing out there, and from what I hear, the anime only covered the earliest parts of the manga. Sasuke is mainly just about Sasuke and his dad fighting a bunch of cliche bad guys every few episodes, Sasuke learning responsibility and ninja skills, and helping people with their problems. The characters don't really develop all that much except for Sasuke, and even what he gets is fairly inconsistent. Sometimes he'll be a little badass and other times he'll be whining about his mother and screaming her name constantly for the 100th time. Ozaru I'm the most mixed on because sometimes he seems like a decent dad, other times he'll be a real dick towards Sasuke even when the situation doesn't warrant it. The villains are mainly just cliche cartoon villains who are just there to go after Sasuke or cause problems, and there's a TON of villains Sasuke and Ozaru have to deal with. I can only imagine Sasuke and its manga were one of the first to really try for a story that had more stakes, so I guess a lot of this is due to being a product of its time and not really getting a fine grasp on things like character development yet.

Honestly, you'll probably only remember Sasuke's story because a lot of it is pretty...batshit. It does try to explain how most of the ninja techniques work, even if a lot of it still relies on your suspension of disbelief, but other times it goes in pretty crazy directions just to do what it wants to do. For as dark as the show tries to be, it can be downright silly most of the time too, and I don't think it was intentional. Whether it be because of the limited animation, or just how unhinged and insane some of the narrative decisions in some episodes are, there's so much in this show that'll make your jaw fall to the floor. Even some of the many animal and child deaths start to become rather unintentionally funny after the 20th time in a row. I almost wonder if people would be better off treating it as a comedy because of all the crazy shit that happens in the show. I did find myself enjoying Sasuke because I kept wondering just what kind of shenanigans the show might pull out every episode. Or all this could be my lack of familiarity with Sanpei Shirato's work in general. I don't know if Sasuke's manga ever got an English translation of any kind, fanmade or no. Also, for anyone wondering, episodes two and three have uncensored child nudity involving Sasuke, complete with uncensored genitalia being shown for long periods of time. Those are the only two episodes that have it, but I wouldn't blame you at all if you dropped the show for that reason.

In conclusion, Sasuke tries to be a serious historical ninja show, but it being a product of the 60s and how crazy it gets prevents it from achieving true greatness. It does make for fun riffing material, or something to watch with friends while you're smoking marijuana. Sasuke is a wild ride, though historical significance doesn't always translate to quality. I certainly don't regret buying the new blu-ray, but I doubt I'd go back to it.