Story
There isn't anything ground-breaking plot wise. True to the title it is the story of a young boy running from "something" and he ends up meeting a stranger who lends his sword to help the little boy. There is a high degree of predictability and the usual anime cliches abound. That being said the plot does nothing to detract from how good this anime is. To be honest if this was a series instead of a movie the story would have ranked higher because there were a lot of sub-plots that could have been developed.
In this movie there is a whole theme of redemption, choosing principles over loyalty and making the right choices that most people wouldn't have understood. The philosophy behind this movie is not subtle, but I think a lot of watchers would not have thought about it much since it's very easy to just "go with the flow" and enjoy the movie. It's comfortable that way. I would have rated the story a little lower but the ending was a true class act and kicked it up a notch to 8.
Characters
Characters made this anime awesome. All 3 main characters are very well fleshed out. The little boy is loveable, gruff, loyal and innocent. The stranger lives in perpetual anguish over his past actions yet defends the boy. At the start we know nothing about him except from the music you get the impression that he probably has "Bad A$$" martial arts skills. You can't help liking them both.
Best of all is Tobimaru, the loyal dog. He's not just a dog, he's a main character in his own right. Now ... I'm a cat person but after watching this anime I wanted a dog exactly like Tobimaru. I wonder what breed he is and where I can find one, and if they act like him in real life. Ok, I confess, I really REALLY liked the dog. Although I'm sure he was meant to be a plot device to bridge the relationship between the 2 main protagonists, he became much "bigger" than his conceived role. <3 Tobimaru!
The main blonde villian was awesome and the supporting cast and villians were also well developed. There was no fluff or wasted characters.
Art/Animation
This was a little shy of perfection. Some of the animation is clearly CGI (water etc) but every now and again you get a landscape scene that is hazy and seems of a lower "fuzzy" quality. I'm not sure whether that was intended or not but it looks incongrous compared to the high quality animation in the rest of the movie's frames. I don't understand why though, because the rest of the background in other scenes is very lovingly rendered and realistic ... *scratch head*
As somewhat of a martial arts aficionado I really enjoyed the fight scenes in this anime. The swiftness of the action, the brutality of injuries - all those were beautifully animated. This anime (along with Seirei no Moribito) is one of the few martial arts anime that shows "realistic" fighting without the "super power up effects" of other martial-arts type anime. Overall, really good animation, would have been perfect if not for the "fuzzy" landscape frames.
Sound
Great soundtrack and sound effects fitting with the movie.
Enjoyment
Couldn't ask for much more out of a movie, I really enjoyed it. This anime touched me on an emotional level and made me think enough to write a review. Even now I'm still wondering about the ending. I hope more people take the time to watch this because it truly is worth seeing.
