Jiro, Tenkai and Oyuki (from top to bottom)
"In heaven and earth, you are all that I can rely on. Whether going along with you will bring about misfortune or hope, for now I do not know. But there is no going back now!"
— Jiro
The Dagger of Kamui, sometimes referred to as Revenge of the Ninja Warrior, is a classic animated film released in 1985, one of the earliest works of Madhouse, and based on several novels of the same name.
Japan, 19th century, the end of the Edo period. An Ainu
foundling named Jiro is taken in by a widowed inn-keeper and her daughter. One evening, Jiro's adoptive family is assassinated by a ninja, and Jiro is framed for the murder with a strange dagger left at the scene. Jiro is forced to flee, with the dagger, in order to escape punishment for the crime. He eventually runs into a strange monk named Tenkai, who unexpectedly presents him with the opportunity to get revenge on the man who actually killed his family. Jiro, still a young and naive boy at the time, accepts the offer, and soon takes the opportunity to stab the man Tenkai's followers captured.
From then on, Jiro's fate is entirely tied to Tenkai's ninja faction, as he is raised and trained in the arts of ninjutsu. But Jiro's first mission, to discover the fate of his lost father and his missing birth family, is complicated when the monk sends his other ninja out to kill him. Jiro's journey takes him throughout feudal Japan — and beyond — following a series of clues that will eventually lead him to the truth. A truth that is inextricably tied to the strange dagger that has become Jiro's main weapon. But will that truth really appease his soul?
The series' animation is top-notch for an 80's animated film, just like its excellent soundtrack. Despite being quite obscure in the West, both the manga and the anime were very influential, namely Go Nagai among others cites it as a reference.
The show provides examples of:
- Ambition Is Evil: Tenkai is this personified since his ultimate goal included toppling the Shogun and taking his place.
- Beauty Equals Goodness: Zigzagged. Most villains on the show are rather lacking in the face department (especially the Three Demon Ninjas), with few exceptions who eventually turn out to be not that bad in the end.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: At the onset of his journey, Jiro meets a young boy named Uraka and his grandfather whom he saves from a group of bullies. Sometime later, after getting framed again for the murder of his mother (the real one this time), Jiro is freed from imprisonment with the help of Uraka.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: A very peculiar instance with the adoptive daughter of the old man who takes Jiro in after his last showdown with Tenkai's militia. Left to mourn her foster parent after Jiro leaves for California, she gets questioned by Tenkai who promises to let her leave if she tells him all she knows. Feeling that she would die anyway, she slits her throat with the shuriken Jiro gave her as a memento.
- Big Bad: Tenkai who remains the main antagonist all through the series.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Averted. While Jiro and Oyuki clearly share a strange attraction to one another, they never really act on it, except during the trip to California in which Jiro feeds Oyuki mouth-to-mouth.
- Body Double: Jiro discovers that Tenkai uses body doubles after the monk was apparently killed by Oyuki in America.
- Combat Pragmatist: Although he may use classic ninja techniques, Jiro is quite good at taking advantage of his surroundings to get the drop on his opponents.
- Devious Daggers: The whole cast has a knack for short blades and daggers, as the name of the film implies.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: The eventual fate of Oyuki in Jiro's arms, shortly after they were revealed to be brother and sister.
- Doomed Hometown: After killing his adoptive family's murderer, Tenkai has Jiro's entire village burnt to the ground and its inhabitants slaughtered.
- Exact Words: In the last section of the film, Jiro and his companions use Captain Kidd's treasure to fund a war against Tenkai, and start by traveling to Iga to hire ninja mercenaries. The leader of the Iga Hattori clan makes an offer of eight ninja at 5,000 ryo each, for a total of 80,000 ryo. Jiro immediately wonders about the math, but the Iga leader explains "That's the calculation to use against Tenkai." Jiro agrees, and takes the ninja to retrieve the money — but by the time they've returned to Iga, they've been replaced by the men of Tenkai's Dragon Hanzou. The Iga leader declares that he's fulfilled his contract with Hanzou to trap Jiro — but then tells Jiro that since he'd paid enough for 16 Iga ninja, he would now deliver the other 8. Cue fight scene.
- Hidden Weapons: Tenkai's walking staff, which is typical of Buddhist monks, holds a sword inside of it.
- Highly-Visible Ninja: It's a wonder Jiro manages to be so stealthy with his bright beige fur tunic and his typical Ainu headband. Oyuki qualifies with her bright red flowers on her kimono but the rest is much darker.
- Indian Maiden: Jiro rescues Chico, a Native American tribeswoman of French descent, and takes shelter with her tribe before resuming his search for Catalina. Chico later discovers that she is actually the orphaned daughter of a spy who also fought Tenkai in the past while seeking Captain Kidd's treasure — and apparently killed him then. This is how Jiro first realizes Tenkai uses Body Doubles.
- In the Past, Everyone Will Be Famous: During Jiro's travels in the American Old West, he happens to encounter Mark Twain (who introduces himself with his pen name). Twain describes how inspired he was by seeing Jiro win a showdown without using a gun, and rewards the ninja with the Plot Coupon of the location of Santa Catalina Island.
- Jidaigeki: Jiro's story becomes an epic set against the background of the twilight of the Bakumatsu era and the coming Meiji Restoration, although Jiro can't bring himself to care for the political conflict and only seeks revenge against Tenkai's clan.
- Large and in Charge: Tenkai is unusually tall and massive and he's indeed the leader of his ninja militia that secretly serve the Shogunate.
- Leotard of Power: Oyuki wears one under her usual short kimono. She's is the only character to wear an anachronic garment since lycra didn't exist at the time.
- Long-Lost Relative: Jiro and Oyuki are brother and sister, which explains why they're so irresistibly drawn to one another. Also, the leader of the Iga Hattori clan was Jiro's grandfather on Tarouza's side.
- Manipulative Bastard: Tenkai, who is making himself into the power behind the throne for the Shogunate. Not only did he manipulate Jiro's entire life to shape him into a pawn, he also drove Jiro's father to his doom in the quest for the treasure tied to the Dagger of Kamui.
- Master of Illusion: Oyuki's main ability, using Petal Power to perform Doppleganger Spins and other tricks.
- McGuffin: The eponymous dagger, that holds the way to a secret treasure in its handle.
- The Mole: Jiro eventually realizes that someone in Tenkai's forces is trying to keep him alive. He first suspects Oyuki. Although Oyuki does eventually become loyal to Jiro anyway, the fake Tenkai reveals that the real mole was Sanpei, the plain-looking spear carrier who helped train Jiro as a ninja. Sanpei was secretly a spy for the pro-imperial faction in the coming Boshin war.
- Moses in the Bulrushes: Tenkai enforces this trope when Tarouza tried to have his wife escape along with Jiro. Tarouza loses an arm and disappears, Oyaruru loses her husband and son, and baby Jiro gets a cut on his face before being sent downriver and orphaned.
- Ninja: Tarouza takes Jiro under his wing to be trained as a ninja like the rest of his subordinates, and Jiro's father. Jiro eventually goes to an independent ninja clan in Iga.
- Ninja Run: All over the place, unsurprisingly. Bonus points for Jiro doing a Power Ninja Run against the sunset with a group of ninja mercenaries he hired.
- Orphan's Ordeal: Jiro's life as a kid was far from easy, even before his adoptive family was killed.
- Orphan's Plot Trinket: The Dagger of Kamui and the note Jiro's birth mother left (which he eventually makes into his Martial Arts Headband.)
- Real Is Brown: The movie is quite low-key in colour which adds to its intended realism, in contrast to the psychedelic ninja action.
- Reverse Grip: Most of the fighters in the series hold their weapons that way.
- Self-Made Orphan: Tragic variation. The ninja who Tenkai had Jiro stab at the start of the movie was the boy's long-lost father. Jiro only learns of this much later. Fortunately for Jiro, Tenkai technically landed the finishing blow.
- Single-Stroke Battle: Used a lot in the movie, more particularly between Jiro and the ninja faction sent after him. The trope also gets combined with Showdown at High Noon when he wins a duel with a racist cowboy without ever touching the gun he was given; when the smoke clears from a passing stagecoach, the cowboy is found dead while Jiro disappeared.
- Terrible Trio: The Matsumae Three (or Three Demonic Ninjas), as their name implies.
- The Corpse Stops Here: Happens to Jiro twice, both times with family members. First, he's found with the Dagger of Kamui at the beginning next to the corpses of his adoptive mother and sister. Years later, he barely has time to reunite with his long-lost birth mother before being drugged and forced to watch another ninja stab her with the Dagger, leaving him to be blamed.
- Token Black Friend: In order to travel to California, Jiro has to take a Western boat. Since Westerners weren't that fond of Japanese people at the time, Jiro befriends Sam, a slave of the captain, after rescuing him when he's left behind by his crewmates. He asks for passage on Sam's ship, the California. Sam decides that he owes the ninja his life, and Jiro buys Sam's freedom when the captain forces the ninja to disembark in Alaska. Sam uses his share of Captain Kidd's pirate treasure to buy a boat, hire his old master as captain, and return Jiro's party to Japan.
- Treasure Map: Jiro discovers that his dagger contains an English poem that's an important key to finding the lost treasure of Captain Kidd.
- Worthless Treasure Twist: Subverted near the end of the America arc in the middle of the film, once Jiro finally finds the lost treasure trove of Captain Kidd in California. At first, Jiro only finds a cave with an empty throne and a hidden chest with only a few coins. Tenkai('s Body Double), who followed Jiro to the cave, remarks that it wasn't worth risking Jiro's life for. After a fight scene with several revelations and Oyuki sacrificing herself to stab 'Tenkai', the bleeding monk stumbles to the throne before expiring. The throne then turns around as the wall behind it slides back to reveal a room filled with a hoard of treasure.
- Would Hit a Girl: Women get no special treatment for being women in the setting. If they're willing to fight, they will be fought. Oyuki found out the hard way.
- Would Hurt a Child: Tenkai doesn't care much about the age of his victims. Even infants are fair game.
