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Shigurui - Death Frenzy
Anime DVD Review
Is it possible to make a subtly beautiful visual love song to blood, guts, insanity, nudity, love, strength, weakness, life and death at one time? Think before you answer this one.
I loved Samurai Champloo and I loved Kill Bill so I had thought that Shigurui was going in that direction less the humor. I mean how much humor can there be if 90% the DVD case is covered in blood? Not only was the humor gone but it definitely took the other furthest fork in the road from those two. It has that love song feel that Kill Bill had for blood and martial arts; it has that reverence for samurais, strength, and life that Samurai Champloo has. Do you hear the "but" coming in my meandering yet? Shigurui takes the two, adds more to the mix, and, something I didn't think was possible before, took everything to the extreme some more.
 Even the history of how Shigurui came about is extreme. "The Way of the Samurai is found in death....The Way of the Samurai is in shigurui (desperateness).... Common sense will not accomplish great things. Simply become insane and desperate." From Lord Naoshige's sayings in the Hagakure, you end up in the first 34 pages of Norio Nanjo's Suruga Jo Gozen-Jiai. Those pages were just a description of a sword fight from one of the eleven match tournaments held at Sunpu Castle, Suruga. .From there you finally get, Takayuki Yamaguchi's story about two disciples of a samurai school, who become mortal enemies due to ambition, fate, love, and lust.
Gennosuke Fujiki grew up and trained all his life in Kogan-Ryuu Dojo; he was properly taught on how to behave as a samurai and humbly accepts his position in life. If the fates had not stepped in, he would've been blessed with the Sensei's daughter, Mie Iwamoto, in marriage and inherit the secret techniques of the dojo. Instead, Seigen Irako barges into the dojo, beats the crap out of him, impresses the second-in-command Gonzaemon Ushimata, and finally gains the Sensei Kogan Iwamoto's approval on becoming a student in his dojo. Fujiki sulks but he was taught better than to be petty. He is still the assistant instructor and he still has Mie's affections. A year later, Irako has caught up and his ambition to take over the Kogan-Ryuu Dojo is in full gear now. Lusting after the Sensei's woman, Lady Iku, has to stop once he's proved his superior skills and received the command to marry Mie. Getting Mie to fall in love with him was easy but getting her to lose her affections for Fujiki was easier. It's not hard to make a puppet move when you already control the puppeteer.
 Unfortunately, Irako underestimated the puppeteer and Kogan not only had him blinded and disfigured but casted him out from the dojo. The damage is done though. Mie becomes mad from losing her love and marriage. Fujiki becomes a closet maniac, knowing full well that he has lost everything to Irako despite being a perfect student and samurai. He will train and perfect himself more and one day he will rid himself of Irako's shadow. Irako? If he wasn't bent on revenge, what kind of ambitious madman would he be?
Shigurui is like watching a movie that pauses in sections so you can stop to enjoy a photograph or a video or a brief moment in life that you otherwise would've missed. It is absolutely artistic, with no beginning or end, abstract at times and always beautiful in an ordinary sort of way. Experience life viscerally through it and realize that as you are watching it, you are missing the life that you could be leading. Opposites are not contradictions but definitions of each other; "death is...how to live life to the fullest".
Reviewed by Carolyn Whu, July 2009
Below: Scenes from Shigurui.
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