Bloodtype Online

    Once again it's time to go on another voyage of sorts with Ogami and Daigoro as they continue on the trail of bodies that they've gotten so far along on.  We've seen in the original film how they both moved on after the lost of Ogami's wife and Daigoro's mother.  In the second film we see Ogami battle against assassins galore and come out victorious.  The third film brings a conflict within Ogami himself as he attempts to survive attacks from Retsudo (one of his biggest rivals).  This time though Ogami is brought in from a group of warriors to save their clan from extinction. 

    "Shogun Assassin 4" picks up after the third film and features Ogami and Daigoro on yet another journey on the road to death that they travel.  Only this time they find themselves with a challenge.  They are enlisted to save the clan of the Daimyo, but to prove that he is up for the challenge at hand Ogami must face all five warriors before his mission is complete.  Information for the mission will come as he faces and defeats five warriors and each step along the way he will be given the necessary information that he needs to continue. 

    The original "Shogun Assassin" film featured that beginning of the "Long Wolf and Cub" story to define the characters and get you acquainted with the way that they operate.  The second film furthered that same reason, but added a dimension as Ogami had to face a plethora of opposition.  In the third film however things started to change a bit as the story was solid, but there seemed to be the least amount in character progression (at least on the part of the Ogami character) with the notable exception of Daigoro.  In this film however it seems as if the character of Ogami is brought back into focus and has to face quite the challenges during this films running time. 

    Another thing that this film has similar to the first one is that it's probably only second to that film in the amount of bloodshed that is shown on screen.  There's a particularly nasty battle in the third act of the film in which Ogami slices and dices in only the way he can through a ton and I mean ton of assailants.  This is probably my favorite part of the film as it took quite sometime to get there and considering the lack of bloodshed in some of the prior movies, I think it was time to get that back to form in this movie.  The story of Ogami and Daigoro have been the main focus of the second and third films so it was nice to finally focus on the slicing and dicing once again!

    Overall I would have to say that I did enjoy the film even though there was a portion of it that did feel like filler.  It's a solid movie although you can tell that with this one that things were starting to reach the end of the road (and not just because there were only five films composed, but rather that the story itself is seemingly closing in on itself and beginning to wrap up).  But if you're a fan of any of the films in the series this one is a must see if you haven't already.  This DVD itself is available from the folks at Animeigo by itself or as part of the incredibly awesome "Shogun Assassin 5 disc collector's set".  RECOMMENDED.

Rating - ***

-Ed Demko