One of Studio Bones' Best Films is Returning to Theaters in 4K

At a time of great stride and strife alike in the fields of film and animation, the temptation to look back at the cinema of years past is stronger than ever before, and the anime industry is no exception. Beginning this weekend, Masahiro Ando's Sword of the Stranger, an underrated classic containing one of the best sword fights ever put to animation, is returning to theaters in Japan.

Studio Bones - the creators ofFullmetal Alchemist, Mob Psycho 100, and Bungo Stray Dogs - produced this visceral jidaigeki (period drama) back in 2007. The film follows a young boy named Kotaro and his dog on the run when they encounter Nanashi, a ronin who agrees to escort them to safety while protecting them from the cult that wishes to sacrifice the boy.

A Cult Classic Seen Like Never Before

Sword of the Stranger has been remastered in 4K and the film is back in theaters for two weeks. This limited run began on Sunday, April 14. To celebrate the release of this upscaled version, director Masahiro Ando spoke at the first showing at Cinema City's Cinema One in Tokyo.

Who is Masahiro Ando?

Ando is a certified industry veteran whose portfolio spans many all-time greats. He was an animator on Evangelion and Ghost in the Shell, the animation director on the Cowboy Bebop movie, and he directed one of Bones' greatest romance stories, Snow White with the Red Hair, to name just a few. He's even directing an adaptation of 1978's Time-Patrol Bon this year, coming to Netflix on May 2. However, Stranger is often seen as his magnum opus.

Why This Release Matters

Stranger was the first original film by Studio Bones, and in that vein, it feels so unlike most other anime films before or since. Despite its bloody spectacle and the occult motives of its antagonists, it's a fairly grounded action film with almost no supernatural elements. Its leads were also not the most conventionally cast. Tomoya Nagase, the voice of Nanashi, primarily acted in live-action. Likewise for Yuri Chinen, who was only 13 when he voiced Kotaro.

An Unusually Pretty Film

In terms of setting, the film takes place during the Sengoku period but presents itself in a different light compared to its peers, often literally. Whereas other anime depict this period of conflict under the warmth of a summer sun, Stranger opts for an overcast sky on the border between autumn and winter. One might think that this would deprive the color of vibrance, but the dark reds against the gray add a lot of character. Of course, it helps that the film just looks gorgeous in motion.

Tsunenori Saito's character designs are peak Bones artwork, balancing fine detail with a propensity for subtle but expressive character acting. As alluded to at the beginning, it also has some incredible action scenes, chief among them being the final fight, animated by the legendary Yutaka Nakamura, with storyboards by Ando. It's one of the best fight scenes in anime history, and it made a lot of viewers more passionate about the process of creating animation.

Will This 4K Release Come to America?

As of the time of writing, there is no word on an international release for this 4K remaster, but it deserves one, for all the good it does to simply say such a thing. It might not be the "greatest film ever," but there is a timeless quality to this at-first-glance story that is made all the more powerful by the creative spirit of one of the industry's best studios. It's a classic, a comfort film, and just an overall fun time, hence why it's being celebrated at all.

Studio Bones also happens to be celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, making Sword of the Stranger's 4K release even more appropriate. With any luck, the film will get a wider release or a 4K Blu-ray sometime soon. Even if audiences in North America aren't so lucky, though, the old Blu-rays aren't impossible to find yet, and now might be a great time to see what the fuss is about.

Sword of the Stranger is available to stream on Crunchyroll. (Note: while both Japanese and English versions are present, there are no subtitles. The Chinese dialog, which is intentionally unchanged in both versions, is not subtitled either, which might make streaming it not an ideal experience at this time. We have reached out to Crunchyroll about this issue.)

Source: Catsuka on X (@catsuka), Cinema City's website