Jubei Chan 2 Vol-2: Vendetta (2004)
Animation Production: Mad House
Released by: Geneon Entertainment
Running Time: 75 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Jubei Chan 2 first made an appearance at our doorstep without too much fanfare or advanced notice, but the elegant ninja artwork on the cover did make it stand out from our review pile of anime titles so we picked it up and gave it a whirl to see what it was all about. Having not seen the first series that Jubei Chan 2 follows up on the title managed to not only captive us, but to blow us away with high speed, elegantly choreographed fight sequences that rivaled anything else that’s come out in 2005. Jubei Chan was really in its own class!

Going into volume 2 we now had a grasp of who the major players in this sequel are and what the basic premise of the story was so rather than focus on learning the basics now we could have fun with the plot and character development, not too mention the even more frenetic ninja action that makes an appearance here!

Story

"Jiyu has vowed not to use the Lovely Eye Patch again, but as she and her family go out to celebrate, the Siberia Yagyu devise a diabolical plan to draw out Yagyu Jubei whether she likes it or not. Forced to break an important promise to herself, Jiyu feels tied to a fate she wants no part of. To make matters worse, her happy family begins to crumble as she learns of her father’s betrayal and Freesia makes a move to take Jubei's place! Unable to deal with this crisis, Jubei tries to rid herself of the Lovely Eye Patch once and for all... but fate is rarely so kind." -- DVD Box

Review

This second volume in Geneon’s release of Jubei-Chan 2 contains episodes five through seven in the series, which include:

Episode 5: Peaceful in a Fake Family
Jiyu thinks that today is a great day to take her family out for a fun day in the shopping district, however the Siberia Yagyu has different plans for them and our heroine, which include the kidnapping of Freesia! Will these fiends make Jiyu go back on her promise to never wear the lovely eye patch that transforms her into Yagyu Jubei again!?

Episode 6: Yesterday's Friend is in Fact an Enemy
With her promise to herself broken and the discovery that her father is in fact not writing a love story, but rather, another samurai drama, Jiyu is emotionally drained, but when Freesia reveals that she is in fact someone else entirely, someone with a vendetta against Jiyu, things begin really falling apart for our brave protagonist.

Episode 7: Cut, Fell, and Dissapeared
A battle 500 years in the making has begun between Freesia and Jiyu, who once more wears the lovely eye patch to fight as Yagyu Jubei, who will survive and become the one true Jubei!? Will the loser live to see another day? This is the most dramatic challenge yet!

As I mentioned in the intro piece, when we first entered the world of Jubei Chan 2 we did so without any prior knowledge of the original series so to a degree we missed out on some of the finer nuances and references to those first episodes, but surprisingly enough this wasn’t a real handicap as the story was easily accessible and enough was laid out with careful attention to detail and narrative fluidness that it made it easy to understand the setup and get to know the characters. With that hurdle now behind us this set of episodes comes off as being that much more powerful and elaborate in their setup than first anticipated.

In fact, it was almost eerie how easily I was able to get right back into the flow of things an get with the program, which speaks highly of the creative team here. Now that the cast introductions are out of the way we begin focusing on the main characters of the story, Jiyu and Freesia, and learn what it is that these girls are struggling with and what drives their actions in addition to exploring how their different personalities and goals clash with each other’s.

In Jiyu we have a heroine who wants to move away from her past and the burdens that are attached to her heroic persona. She doesn’t want to be Jubei, she doesn’t want to fight, all Jiyu wants is a peaceful life with her dad and surrogate family. However she can’t walk away from her destiny and no matter what she does it seems like she always ends up resorting to wearing the lovely eye patch, whether it’s to save herself from a dangerous situation, to protect her friends, or because it’s the right thing to do. What she wants versus what is actually happening to her life are becoming more and more conflicted and they are taking a toll on her.

With Freesia we have a young girl who deep in her heart worships her father deceased father and desires for nothing more than to honor him by mastering and continuing the fighting arts that he had mastered. That’s why she sees Jiyu as an obstacle to her goals, even though she doesn’t want it, Jiyu can’t help but become Yagyu Jubei, using a relic of Freesia’s father, the lovely eye patch, which she sees as rightfully hers. This predictably leads to our two heroines fighting each other in their alternate personas while still being the best of friends when in their normal states.

It’s the tension that comes about as a result of this double existence that is at the heart of the episodes in this DVD volume as Jiyu finally learns that Freesia was the ninja dressed in white and the reasons for her wanting to hunt her down. This makes for a compelling driving force in Jiyu’s actions as she begins to feel as if everyone has betrayed her and that perhaps there is no one that truly is there for her. She feels as if just about everyone in her life is there because they need or want something from her, not because they want to necessarily be there. This tension is heightened when she gets into the fight of her life at the beginning of episode seven and leaves you gasping at what happens and what may come next!

Supplementing the very powerful story that progresses through these three episodes we also have some of the best anime ninja action to be seen in any recent titles. In particular there is a sequence at the beginning of episode seven that leaves you in disbelief at the sheer beauty of its kinetic energy and brilliant movement choreography. This one 2-3 minute sequence was quite possibly the coolest anime fight scene I’ve seen in the past couple of months and are definitely worth the price of admission.

Jubei-Chan 2 is one of those shows that’s really well put together and it’s obvious from even seeing just a couple of seconds of animation, especially during the action scenes which benefit from an even higher frame rate than the dialogue ones, which were solid to start with. The color palette is very colorful and relies heavily on muted pastel colors with some darker shades thrown in for good measure during night scenes. Special visual effects are limited to atmospheric details and for certain aspects of the fighting segments like the swords’ sparks or special ninja attacks.

The music soundtrack is appropriate for the series’ theme, but despite this and having a really neat theme piece of our heroine it felt like it could have probably use some more noteworthy additions. This time out though they did downplay the use of the main theme song as a background track which made for a bigger variety of music to be played unlike the first four episodes which relied on it quite heavily. The voice acting though was good, especially the actress who plays Freesia. She has one of the most unique anime voices I’ve heard in a long time.

The DVD package is well together in typical Geneon fashion. The exterior of the DVD case ports a great piece of art featuring Freesia in a ninja-like pose against a vibrant blue background. On the reverse side there is an alternative DVD cover that features Freesia i in a more manga-like rendition. Inside the box there’s a small insert with the dates of all the other volumes in this release on one side, and a mini poster on the inside that features Jiyu and Freesia. DVD extras include a Shinkage Sword Lesson feature, Japanese cover art gallery and previews for other Geneon releases. Both the audio and video transfers seemed perfect with no visible problems to report on.

Final Thoughts

Anime ninja action hardly gets any better than this. If you enjoy a smooth flowing story with no fillers and heavy on great combat scenes Jubei Chan 2 should be your top pick when you go out to your favorite anime shop. Can’t wait to see Jiyu’s counterattack in the next DVD!

Very, very recommended.

Jeffrey Couto