This is crap when watched older.

I think you turned 23 and lost all your good taste in movies, music and anime.
Either that or you started taking heavy amounts of drugs in your 20's because you MUST be on drugs if you think Ninja Scroll is total crap. Jesus listen to what you're saying. Do you even WATCH anime? If you do then you've seen some TOTAL CRAP and you know damn well Ninja Scroll is not that!
It has cool characters a fast paced story and kick ass violence.
Your 14 year old self is laughing at you right now. He's laughing at the "old guy" that has *beep* taste.

Morons, all of ya.

"You know, my name..."

thats cuz all yall are pussies now.

Please Don't Bother Me, I'm Watching Something Else Now.

No, you're doomed. ^_^

Seriously, people's tastes change over time for many things. I doubt there is anything you watched then you'll still be interested in now. There is a lot of stuff I watched when I was much younger and now find horrible (Crystal Triangle was good? What was I thinking?)

I still love Ninja Scroll, though, and it has withstood the test of time where so many others didn't. I think part of it was actually the interaction among the bad guys. Despite the limited exposure some of them get, they have at least a little depth which is typically lacking in any but the main bad guy, especially in a one shot movie.

If memory serves, my mother (lol?) picked it up for me at random, back when DVDs were still high-end, and I told her to take it back. I couldn't have been much older than 14-16. I thought it was all blood and rape, with little else. But d'ya know what the most bizarre thing is? According to MAL, I've seen 140+ days (excluding re-watching) worth of anime, and I like it more and more every time I watch it. At first my rating was 5/10, then 7/10, and after my most recent re-watch in HD + English, 8/10. The doomed love subplot only resonated with me with maturity and the ninja superpower aspect only became a plus after I became familiar with another, much longer series that was based on the same source material - Basilisk.

Kawajiri's work is ageless. His western approach to violence and sex, as well as his no-nonsense approach in general, make me a fanboy of his. Anime is so censored and 'moeififed' these days that his work truly stands out. My two favourite films by him are Bloodlust and Highlander.

Agreed. I probably would have thought this was decent when I was a teen but I'm much, much older and watched it for the first time now and it was very boring. The only aspect that was mildly interesting was finding out the special abilities of each of the villainous ninja.

Not if you take LSD it isn't man. Open your closed mind. But be careful.

Cult Leader my mind's frightening, I drink blood from a human skull like a Viking

I realize I am years late with a response to this, but I feel it must be done anyway. I first saw this movie when I was maybe 17, I have seen it many times since. I am now almost 33 & still find this to be one of my all time faves. For me, it is not about the action, it's about the classically tragic nature of the love story. In many ways that story style is iconic of Japanese love stories, in that all of the really good ones are heart wrenchingly tragic being unrequited or otherwise impossible given the circumstances surrounding the would be lovers. This one is particularly sad in that Kagero never really got a chance to experience true womanhood because of her chosen method of approach.