Masao MARUYAMA, 6 anime to highlight a 50 years’ career: Ninja Scroll
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Japanese animation, Masao MARUYAMA, a major character of the industry and ambassador for Animé 100, is coming back over his career, more than 50 years during which he produced a huge number of anime. For us, he has accepted to recall six anime that punctuated his career and today, he’s telling us about Ninja Scroll!
"I’ve chosen to begin with Ninja Scroll [Jûbei ninpûchô in Japanese] because to me it is the anime at Madhouse that is the most representative of our time.
Madhouse is a company created by friends, after Mushi Pro went bankrupt, and at the center of it was Yoshiaki KAWAJIRI, who was illustrator, screenwriter, and director [and he directed, wrote the script, and designed the characters for Ninja Scroll]. Some of his original ideas made us wish to create a story about samurai and chanbara-like sword fights, with a touch of American taste. We thought it would be better not to stick too much to realism and to turn to the fantastic, and that’s how Ninja Scroll saw the light of day.
Not only did the ninja fight with swords but they also tried silly actions that were impossible to achieve, that showed through the funny looks on their faces. Those comical and awkward movements appealed to the fans.
My favorite character is Jubei. He always lets himself get carried away into adventures, but he never initiates it. That’s what makes him so funny, this total lack of intent in others’ troubles though he always ends up being part of it, his almost lazy character that disappears when he encounters unfair situations. He always protects the weak in the end.
In the episodes I worked on, with Jubei or not, we’ve always tried to innovate. We produced scenes unlike anything else that had been created before and experienced a lot of things. It was some kind of challenge, to do new and original things, and when the results was good, we were really glad about it, even if the production period had been very stressful.
Of course we had limits, like money and time which we’d have wanted double all the time, but we did our best with what we had. When there was something we couldn’t do, we would try the next time. It was how we thought and how we kept on. We were never fully satisfied with our work but that’s also where the ideas came from for the times to come."
Ninja Scroll in short
- Japanese title: Jûbei ninpûchô
- European title: Ninja Scroll
- Released in 1993 in Japan, and in 1996 in Europe
- Directed by Yoshiaki KAWAJIRI
- Studio: Madhouse
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