Bandai Entertainment has announced the acquisition of the Sword of the Stranger anime feature film, which was produced by Studio Bones (Cowboy Bebop, Wolf’s Rain, Eureka Seven) and released in Japan in late 2007.  Bandai is preparing a theatrical release for a subtitled version of Sword of the Stranger at the ImaginAsian Center in Los Angeles and the ImaginAsian Theater in New York on July 18th.  An English language dub is in the works and will also receive a theatrical run followed by a DVD release that will include both the Japanese and English tracks.  Bandai is planning to produce both a regular DVD edition and a Blu-ray version.

Sword of the Stranger, which was directed by Masahiro Ando, features character designs by Tsunenori Saito (Blood: The Last Vampire).  The plot involves a young boy who escapes from a burning temple and is pursued by a foreign military force (from Ming Dynasty China) led by brutal westerner.  The boy secures a reluctant defender in the person of a nameless ronin, who proves to be a ferocious fighter in his own right, and the movie builds towards a climactic duel between the two swordsmen that doesn’t disappoint. 

Action-packed throughout, Sword of the Stranger is a worthy successor to Ninja Scroll, and like that classic anime feature film, it features plenty of blood and more than a little sword-slashing gore.  Fluidly animated throughout, the film also benefits from its creatively staged fight sequences, which were created by a team of Bones top animators including Yutaka Nakamura, Takashi Tomioka, Koichi Arai and Shuichi Kaneko, each of whom manages to put a personal imprint on a particular scene without violating the film's overall tone.  While Sword of the Stranger’s theatrical releases are likely to be limited at best, its prospects on DVD are excellent given the continuing interest of North American audiences in jidaigeki/samurai anime of which Sword of the Stranger is an excellent example