The Dagger of Kamui

The Dagger of Kamui (カムイの剣 Kamui no Ken) is a 1985 anime film, based on the novel series by Tetsu Yano, directed by Rintaro and animated by Madhouse.

Takuo Noda directed the animation, and the music was composed by Ryūdō Uzaki and Eitetsu Hayashi.

Synopsis

A young boy named Jiro finds his mother and sister murdered in his home. Falsely accused of the crime, he flees from his village and meets a priest named Tenkai, who has him kill a rogue ninja named Tarouza. After fulfilling that task, Jiro undergoes training to become a master assassin. Many years later, Jiro finds out that he was an orphan and his real father was Tarouza, who had worked for Tenkai until he aborted his mission when he fell in love with an Ainu woman. The young ninja discovers that the Shogunate was to retrieve the lost treasure of Captain Kidd and use it to once again isolate Japan from the rest of the world. Using the clues that Tarouza had kept secret, Jiro - along with the female ninja Oyuki and a slave named Sam - travels to Russia and America to search for the treasure in hopes of using it to extract revenge from Tenkai.

Dubbing History[]

The film was dubbed by the Tokyo-based company Frontier Enterprises, likely upon commission from Toei themselves.

The film was originally released on VHS in America by Celebrity Home Entertainment on their Just for Kids label under the title of Revenge of the Ninja Warrior in 1988. This release of the film was heavily edited, removing 22 of the 132 minutes of footage; the resulting cut ran 110 minutes. The complete dub would later be re-released by Best Film and Video Co. in 1995 under the title of The Blade of Kumai.

While the film has been released on DVD in America by AnimEigo, it was only a subtitle-only release. It will be the same case with the Blu-ray release.

Cast[]

Character	Seiyū	Voice Actor
Jiro	Hiroyuki Sanada	Toby Williams
Tenkai	Tarō Ishida	Jack Marquardt
Oyuki	Mami Koyama	Carrie Sakai
Sanpei	Takeshi Aono	Greg Starr
Andō Shōzan	Ichirō Nagai	Richard Nieskens
Julie Rochelle / Chico	Yuriko Yamamoto	Michelle Hart
Sam	Kazuyuki Sogabe	Clay Lowrey
Shingo	Kaneto Shiozawa	Bill Calhoun
Tokachi Hanzō	Takashi Toyama	William Ross
Kōzunosuke Oguri	Hidekatsu Shibata	Jeff Manning
Tsuyu	Yoshiko Asai	Didi Moore
Sayuri	Tomiko Suzuki	Mary Malone
Taroza	Michio Hazama	Cliff Harrington
Oyaruru	Masako Ikeda	Judith Sackheim
Chiomapp	Mitsuko Horie	Rumiko Varnes
Uraka	Naoki Sugimoto	Will Gluck
Captain Drasnic	Takashi Ebata	Ken Frankel
Mark Twain	Iemasa Kayumi	Don Knode
Genjuro Fujibayashi	Mikio Terashima	Lanny Broyles
Iga Chief	Kōichi Kitamura	Cliff Harrington
Goldgun	Kazuo Oka	Jeff Manning
Jackal	Ryōichi Tanaka	Jeff Manning
Shōbei	Yasuo Tanaka	Leighton McClure
Kinsaku	Masato Hirano	Adam Simons
Magohachi	Kazumi Tanaka	Craig Williams
Elder	Shirō Amakusa	William Ross
Okinba	Ryūdō Uzaki	Tracy Gleason
Shinban no Kikusa	Eitetsu Hayashi	Ken Frankel
Indian Chief	Yasuo Muramatsu	Jerry Davidson
Narration		Richard Nieskens