Every frame is designed to make you feel something visceral before the plot even catches up. The island isn't a setting, it's a breathing thing that kills you in a hundred beautiful ways, and Gabimaru's just a man trying to survive long enough to remember why he wants to live. The animation doesn't support the story; it IS the story, turning death row convicts into art that moves.

A condemned ninja faces his final chance at freedom. Gabimaru was once Iwagakure's deadliest shinobi, but now he sits on death row, wanting only to see his beloved wife again. Sagiri, a young executioner from the Yamada Asaemon clan, offers him a full pardon: bring the Elixir of Life back to the shogun from a legendary island, and he walks free. Few who have gone there have ever returned, and none unchanged. Gabimaru arrives with Sagiri to find other death row convicts pursuing the same prize. Strange creatures, eerie man-made statues and the hermits who rule the island all stand in their way, and every step raises new questions about what the place really is. Action, adventure, mystery and the supernatural meet as Gabimaru fights to make it home alive.