Sword Of The Stranger - Final battle

Sword of the Stranger (Japanese: ストレンヂア 無皇刃譚 Hepburn: Sutorenjia Mukōhadan?, Stranger Mukōhadan) is a 2007 Japanese anime film directed by Masahiro Andō and produced by animation studio Bones. The film follows Kotaro, a young boy who is hunted by a group of swordsmen from Ming Dynasty China for mysterious reasons. Among the group is a fearsome Western fighter named Luo-Lang, whose only desire is to find a worthy opponent. Kotaro and his dog meet "No Name", a nameless ronin who is haunted by memories of his past which have led him to avoid drawing his sword ever again. When the Ming clash with a Sengoku-era feudal lord, a proud general, and monks torn between faith and survival, the reason behind the Ming group's pursuit tests the bond between Kotaro and No Name.

[sokandueler]

This fight is literally perfect. It doesn’t hold your hand with slow fighting, nor does it overwhelm the viewer with flashy visuals. It is a perfectly paced, perfectly choreographed, and perfectly animated fight between two expert martial artists.

[SlyFoxMeta]

I actually really like how the fight ended. It showed the two fighters as being equally matched in strength and skill, with the final blows being the same maneuver. The only difference between them was that Lou-Lang was very serious and had little empathy towards others; whereas Nanashi tended to be more sentimental, which was what ended up saving his life as the jewel that carried little monetary value (as stated by the boy earlier in the film) held significant emotional value to Nanashi and was ultimately vital to deflect an otherwise fatal blow. Very poetic in its own way.

[Poet]

Fun Fact:
Whenever you're reminded of this scene you come back and watch it again, and are equally as blown away as you were the first time.

[Kalenz]

Accountant: We still have 20% of our animation budget left and the only remaining thing we have left to do is the final fight.
Director: :)

[MrTheguywithalife]

just to give you an idea of how amazing this fight scene was when it came out...this movie is 10 years old. i remember seeing this my jaw dropped. it was the greatest looking fight scene i have ever seen of ANY media in my entire life.

[Dan-idwv]

I love the attention to detail in this. How he warms his hand at the start. The little slips and skids. The controlled breathing. How they battle for position as much as they clash. Just a perfectly imagined and choreographed duel. Might be the best animated fight I've ever seen.

[roxanhaandrikman]

One of the reasons I love this scene so much is because they don't constantly stop to talk about morals, their pasts, their techniques, have flashbacks or anything else that takes up more time than the fight itself.
They just fight and don't let themselves get distracted or caught off guard.

[somethindarker]

Fun fact; there were originally two sequels planned but the film "underperformed" at the Japanese box office due, even though it could be considered a success financially. Supposedly there was alot of inner conflict among creative and key animators against some of the producers and lower level animators, it's been speculated that the reason they had a revolving door of animators is because they weren't happy with the lack of "females" in the film and the producers wanted to make the kid into a preteen girl to check the thirsty weeb box. Luckily creative stuck to their guns and we got this masterpiece. Kinda sucks we never got the sequels.

[brendanhales]

This fight always makes me tear up cause of how symbolic it is. The treasure Kotaro gave Nanashi saved his life, but he also saved him in a way, from the guilt he felt over his past. He swore to never unsheathe his sword because he killed children, but he drew it once more to save one. Throughout the fight you can just feel that Nanashi doesn’t care if he dies, so long as he does the one thing he should’ve done back then; save an innocent child.

[megalosauru]

The actual fight only lasted for 2 minutes and 28 seconds, but it's greater than any anime sword fight I've ever seen. Bravo!

[norwegiantechnolover]

And people actually drew this..? Frame by frame?! I mean, that's insane, I don't have words... I'm actually speechless from this animation.

[zombiewarrior]

No matter how many times I watch this, I can't get over how well made this final fight is made. The music, the sounds of the swords clashing, the choreography. Everything about it is just perfection.

[joshnoritake]

It’s actually pretty incredible how this battle actually has a lot less frames then you would think it does: there’s a lot of closeups and clever framing that makes the fight seem a lot more visceral and real without actually showing the full clash with the two characters. The soaring soundtrack and the masterful sfx is what really pushes the fight into a true masterpiece.

[MatsuSenpaii]

This is probably the greatest and probably underrated Sword Fight in Anime. The Music, the atmosphere, and the animation makes the fight awesome, and they don't even use special effects for the anime, yet they managed to make it an amazing scene
This one is probably my favourite fight scene in any anime for now

[hubson]

I love the fact, that both Katanas got destroyed, that's pretty realistic.

[benz.]

Me in Sekiro after dying to the same boss 50+ times

[JimKuback]

I love this version of the subs. Luo lang offers the medicine to Nanashi in (very) broken Japanese, but realized immediately that he wasn't going to take it. It was a nice little detail; the only language these two ever truly understood is violence and they spoke to each other fluently in it.

[metaljacket]

Truly the finest sword fight I ever witnessed.

[dhump]

Another comment pointed out that the only truly honorable warriors in this anime were the ones of European descent which is really unique for for an anime about samurai. I found that really cool how the whole movie these two were looked down on by the true blood martial artist of their respective factions as western barbarians but they both exhibited the traits that all the other warriors took pride in their cultures. Neither one used dirty tactics like doping nor did they have personal gain they simply live fought and died by the sword. In a way this made the movie more unique.

[raikaria]

I didn't notice first time watching, but Nanashi won with the Sword... of the Stranger.