The 12-episode Shigurui anime from Madhouse is FUNimation’s latest acquisition.  Based on the ongoing 9-volume seinen manga series from Takayuki Yamaguchi, the anime series, which FUNimation will release under the title Shigurui: Death Frenzy, was directed by Hirotsugu Hamazaki, who captures all of the anatomically-precise blood-spattered intensity of the manga series.  It should be interesting to see what sort of age rating FUNimation will give to the Shigurui anime when it is released in 2009.

The gore and sexual violence in the Shigurui anime series is strong stuff, but it is there in service to a very strong narrative and it is not gratuitous.  This historically-based chanbara (samurai) epic is set during the short and cruel reign of the Shogun Tokugawa Tadanaga.  Tiring of staged conflicts with bokken (wooden swords), the daimyo commands a combat with real weapons between a blind swordsman and a one-armed samurai.  One of the most interesting twists of the Shigurui anime is that it is not “about” this staged combat, rather it is about the rivalries and conflicts that led to these two disfigured antagonists being chosen for this epic fight-to-the-death.