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Sword of the Stranger

Play trailer Poster for Sword of the Stranger 2007 1h 43m Action Adventure Anime Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 2 Reviews 91% Popcornmeter 1,000+ Ratings
A swordsman becomes caught up in a struggle between morality, righteousness and devotion after he agrees to take a raggedy boy and his dog to a Buddhist temple.

Critics Reviews

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Lynzee Loveridge Anime News Network The movie has long been shared for its high-impact sword-fighting action, but there's plenty to appreciate in its quiet moments too. Rated: A Jul 19, 2023 Full Review Charles Solomon Animation Scoop For years, American animators have complained that their artform is too often restricted to bland fairy tales and harmless fantasies. Sword of the Stranger demonstrates that talented artists can use animation to tell a swashbuckling period adventure. Feb 13, 2023 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Isaac E A hopeful, powerful, and epic movie to say the least. This is really my first traditional anime movie outside of the Studio Ghibli stuff, and I dug every minute of this. Can’t wait to check out more films from this art form. It starts off with honestly one of the best opening scenes for a movie that I’ve ever seen. The action mixed with the music for it seriously gave me goosebumps and had me hooked right from the get go. The way it was edited was pretty amazing too, cutting back and forth from the action stuff to the credits. I have to admit, the story was pretty complex and had me a bit lost at times, but this never made me lose interest in the least bit, and honestly, I think me being confused was mostly on me thanks to my incredibly short attention span ha ha. I think a rewatch will possibly even up my rating once I fully understand all of it. The action scenes were incredible, but there really weren’t a lot of them. This is a very story focused and slow burn type of movie, and the minimal amount of action really wasn’t a problem at all because of how invested I was in the story. Everything about it is super compelling, being about a boy with a mysterious gift who needs to get to a certain place, and is led there by a man with a mysterious past. The mystery around the film I think was what made it so interesting. I was so eager for answers the entire runtime, and once you get those answers they are very satisfying purely on a writing level. Seriously some powerful stuff there. The third act was the icing on top. The tension and thrills meet their max, and the final action sequences were easily a highlight of the film. It was full of so much energy and emotion, and all the conclusions to the arcs left me very satisfied with how it ended. Even if you aren’t an anime fan, I think this is seriously worth checking out. Content: Should be R Intense Stuff: 7/10 Language: 4/10 Sex and Nudity: 2/10 Violence and Gore: 8/10 Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/15/25 Full Review Logan D A Ronin is hired to protect a young boy from Ming warriors. This film sports some beautiful backgrounds that appear as oil paintings and an action packed ending. Oh, and one tough little Shiba inu. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 04/09/25 Full Review Jonathan O An epic revenge anime movie it's so stylish beautiful animation of all time. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/10/23 Full Review Anne F Beautiful and full of heart. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 05/06/23 Full Review Tony S Stunning, fluid animation, incredible soundtrack and great action that, surprisingly, never overshadows the plot, even if the storyline is well trodden. But when it's done so passionately, does it matter? Especially, when the moral decadence of that time period is so well captured and the antagonists get abundance of characterization. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 09/30/21 Full Review Audience Member Is absolutely an epic anime film with really unbelievably animations great story and brilliant va voice actors in subs and dubs is really a masterpiece film. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/04/21 Full Review Read all reviews
Sword of the Stranger

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Movie Info

Synopsis A swordsman becomes caught up in a struggle between morality, righteousness and devotion after he agrees to take a raggedy boy and his dog to a Buddhist temple.
Director
Masahiro Ando
Producer
Masahiko Minami
Screenwriter
Fumihiko Takayama
Production Co
Bones
Genre
Action, Adventure, Anime
Original Language
Japanese
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 26, 2016
Runtime
1h 43m