Nagisa Oshima made one animation, and it's nothing like what anime became. A young lord seeking vengeance meets a ninja teaching peasants to fight back, and the film treats both with the same cold precision Oshima brought to his live-action provocations. The animation barely moves. What matters is that a master filmmaker saw manga as material worth taking seriously, and he made something that feels like a historical document from the moment it was born.

Set in Japan's Muromachi period, this feature-length adaptation of Sanpei Shirato's classic comic centers on the son of a feudal lord who was assassinated. Seeking to avenge his father, he crosses paths with Kagemaru, a renegade ninja who helps peasants and farmers rise up against the rule of Oda Nobunaga. The film is the only animated work by Nagisa Oshima, a leading figure of the Japanese New Wave, and it mixes action and drama with supernatural elements.