The 1993 anime film "Ninja Scroll" is still refered to as a timeless classic of the action genre. I would almost compare it to "Raiders of the Lost Ark": sure, there are memorable characters in it, but it's everything, from the music to the acting to the plot, that make it a lot more fun than it ought to be, and easy to watch over and over again. That type of adventure should be easy to take advantage of, making sequels and prequels and spinoffs to make as much money as possible. "Ninja Scroll" was subject to this, but not simply as one would think. There was first "Ninja Resurrection," a two-episode OVA that happened to feature a lead character with the same name and similar design to Jubei from "Ninja Scroll," but otherwise with little in common, indirectly marketed as a sequel only in America. Later, there was "Ninja Scroll - The Series," a 13-episode television sequel, meant to be an official continuation. There were also intentions in 2012 to make a new sequel, with studio Madhouse releasing a teaser trailer for it, but reportedly, a lack of investors from Japan put the project on the shelf.So "Ninja Scroll - The Series" should be the best options to turn to if left wanting more after the movie, right? Wandering ninja Jubei finds himself in trouble once again after saving a young woman from an attack that wipes out her village. The girl had her destiny hidden from her all her life: she is really the Priestess of Light, and appointed as the saviour of another ancient clan. Aside from Jubei, the old and sly government agent from the movie also returns to help out the pair, attempting to formally hire Jubei as her bodyguard. Aside from the girl is the "Dragon Stone," a small stone ball passed down to the girl, and said to be a key to obtaining a lost secret treasure. This sets the ground for a series of enemies to attack the gang for that mcguffin. For that matter, there isn't much real plot to get caught up in with "The Series." It isn't until the final two episodes that the three, plus a amateur thief, actually stop wandering aimlessly across the Japanese countryside and confront the story. Before that, we get enemy after enemy, typically one or two new foes per episode, most of whom die within the same episode. This is appropriate for "Ninja Scroll," but with the movie, each enemy was memorable, and each scene felt like it had a purpose in the movie. With "The Series," it's a bit more generic... it lacks the sharpness, and while the enemies are all wild and varied in their abilities and design, they could very well have all been cut out without the show suffering. Not to mention that few enemies ever feel dangerous, as Jubei also prevails with a cut of his sword. Did I mention the use of oddly-placed pauses in-between dialogue, as if to artificially stretch out an episode an extra minute for televised broadcast?Speaking of a somewhat lackluster story, the show just looks poor, by any standard. It's hard to believe this was really animated by Madhouse, normally known for high-end production values... I'd swear the entire show was outsourced to a studio in China or Korea. Animation looks poor throughout, like a sub-standard children's show on a Saturady morning channel. Think "Beyblade" or "Digimon": as much as I like those shows, the animation never needed to be great, so it wasn't. The one exception is a few seconds of action in the very final episode, where the animation almost looks exceptional for a brief moment. And the character designs, while varied, are almost consistently unattractive or odd-looking, like a bad episode of "Naruto" or "One Piece." It would be incredibly easy to mistake this as a children's show, which would be a big error: there are still plenty of shots of violence, blood, decapitations, mutilations, nudity and rape, almost on par to the film. The movie was (and still is) shocking for it's content, but to see that applied seconds away from scenes of a goofy comic-relief character in this show feels like a bigger issue of tone. 
The English dub doesn't use the actors from the movie for the returning characters, and Jubei and Dakuan both feel a bit different in personality: Jubei is a little more fierce and cynical, and Dakuan is acting as a travelling monk instead of a government agent, a bit more senile than before. But across the board, the dub isn't very good, and the Japanese dub is SIGNIFICANTLY better, so now you know which one to listen to. The music is a collaboration effort, and includes a few vocal rock tracks in the background, and a simple opening and ending instrumental theme that gets reused. It's fair, but like the rest of the production, feels a little lazy."Ninja Scroll - The Series" isn't a total wash. Like the original film, it can still be a fun adventure, mostly owing to Jubei and the corny banter between the characters. But I was also amazed to find a show that seemed so weak, especially compared to modern anime. Some extra credit should go to the out-of-print "Ultimate Collection" American release by Urban Vision, complete with beautiful DVD packaging and plenty of on-disc bonus features. But even then... the English audio commentaries offered sounds like the crew had nothing to talk about, and the video quality of the episodes are poor, outsourced to a third-party authoring group. That summarizes the show in a nutshell: lazy, despite any best intentions that might have existed.