Ninja Resurrection

Ninja Resurrection, known in Japan as Makai Tenshō: Jigoku-hen/魔界転生 (Demon Realm Resurrection: Portrait of Hell) is a two-part Historical Dark Fantasy original video animation animated by Phoenix Entertainment (who are best known for the equally gory and explicit Urotsukidouji series) and directed by Yasunori Urata.

The OVA series is based both on Futaro Yamada's novel Makai Tenshō and partially on Ken Ishikawa's manga adaptation of said novel from 1986. Although based on the same source material and of a similar style, Ninja Resurrection is not a sequel to the anime film Ninja Scroll.

Tropes used in Ninja Resurrection include:

• Abusive Parents: Soiken Mori sacrifices his own unwilling daughter as part of his plan to resurrect Shiro as Satan. He also has no problem sexually abusing her, as he slices off his own finger, which then comes to life, crawls up his daughter's body and then fingers her private area in order to make her have sex with Shiro as part of the resurrection ceremony.
• Ax Crazy: Araki Mataemon, and later Shiro himself after becoming enraged that Jubei murdered two children (even though it was actually Soiken mori who did that) and even more-so after Shiro is resurrected as Satan.
• Big Bad: Mori Soiken.
• Bloodier and Gorier: Compared to the prior adaptations of Makai Tensho (excluding Ken Ishikawa's manga adaptation), this series notably has much more graphic and explicit scenes of gore and dismemberment.
• Crapsack World: The story takes place in the Tokugawa era, which, as seen in this series, was an incredibly brutal time to be alive in, where you could be persecuted against by the government just for being christian. This was also based on real-life events, so all the horrible things shown in this OVA actually happened in real-life.
• Darker and Edgier: While the original novel, as well as its other adaptations, are pretty dark, this animated adaptation really takes the cake, with its tragic themes, excessive violence, explicit scenes of rape and child murder, and lets not get started on the incredibly bleak cliffhanger ending, which will really leave a bitter taste in your mouth.
• Downer Ending: Both episodes of the anime end really badly to put it very mildly. The first episode ends with Shiro failing to protect his fellow Christians against the government, all of whom are killed, including Shiro himself, which then cuts to Jubei remorsefully lamenting over the little brother and sister he thought he had accidentally killed (In reality, it was Soiken Mori who killed them), as well as building a grave for the two children. And before the credits roll, we get a shot of Shiro's decapitated head on a stick that is on top of a pile of corpses. Meanwhile, the second episode ends with Soiken Mori and Yui Shosetsu successfully resurrecting Shiro as Satan, which is then followed by the now resurrected Shiro, along with his three fellow resurrected Samurai, slaughtering an entire town of innocent civilians, and then the credits roll.
• Evil Old Folks: Mori Soiken, who is a Complete Monster of the highest order, being a satanist who has no problem abusing his daughter and eventually sacrificing her, as well as murdering children and ultimately plans on resurrecting Shiro and several other samurai as demons in order to bring forth Armageddon. The worst part? He not only succeeds, but he becomes a Karma Houdini (although in several other adaptations, he does get his karma. And if the series wasn't cancelled after 2 episodes, he likely would have met his comeuppance).
• Genki Girl: Onui in the second episode, who is shown to be very cheerful and upbeat, especially in a series as grim as this.
• Gorn: This series is infamous for this, showing characters getting graphically sliced up, with mountains of blood and guts flying everywhere. Given that this is from the same studio that made Urotsukidouji, this is to be expected.
• Hate Sink: Mori Soiken, who, as already mentioned above, is an absolutely monstrous and depraved individual with zero redeeming qualities.
• Never Trust a Title: Despite what the title, historical backdrop and art style promise, this OVA is not in any way related to Ninja Scroll. It also doubles as a Non-Indicative Name, since, while the series does indeed feature ninjas and has resurrection as the story's main theme, the ninjas in question are actually minor characters here, and not once are any ninjas resurrected from the dead at any point. The characters who are actually resurrected in the story are samurai, making one wonder why this series wasn't called Samurai Resurrection instead. It also doesn't help matters that this series was not even originally called "Ninja Resurrection" in Japan. Its original title is Makai Tensho, which roughly translates to "Demon Realm Resurrection", but when released outside of Japan, ADV Films, the English distributors of the anime, decided to replace the "Makai" in the title with Ninja in order to capitalize off the success of Ninja Scroll, even going as far as to make the title logo closely resemble that of Ninja Scroll's. Needless to say, a lot of viewers were fooled, which was a mixed blessing for ADV Films, since, while it did help Ninja Resurrection receive a lot of sales (to the point of even being a best seller), it also resulted in the anime being very negatively received by both critics and audiences when it first came out, with the misleading title being only one of the many reasons. Additionally, the first episode is called "The Revenge Of Jubei", despite the fact that, while Jubei does slaughter a lot of enemies in the first episode, his goal is not to get revenge on anyone. If anything, the reason he is killing Shiro's soldiers is because he has been hired by the government to do so. And of course, the episode wasn't called The Revenge Of Jubei in Japan either. That was yet another one of ADV Films' ideas to mislead the audience.
• Obviously Evil: The first time we see Mori Soiken, he is immediately established as a very sinister-looking man who plans on using Shiro for his own depraved agenda. Likewise, the newly resurrected Samurai who assist Shiro are all very evil looking, which is very fitting, given that they murder anyone they see, as well as raping innocent women.
• Would Hurt a Child: In the first episode, Souiken Mori murders and decapitates two innocent children in order to deceive Shiro into thinking Jubei killed them in order to make Shiro fight Jubei and kill him. In the second episode, the newly resurrected Shiro, along with Mataemon Araki, Botaro Tamiya and Inshun Hozoin go on a killing spree, murdering multiple civilians, which visibly includes children.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: While Jubei has no problem slaughtering his enemies, he absolutely draws the line at harming children.