Episode 5: The Diamond Child:
In this episode, two thieves of limited ability, Tatsunosuke and Tsubute, match wits with both the townsfolk and each other as they struggle to steal the Dragon Stone from Jubei, and will one of them succumb to the lure of the Kimon Clan, in an alliance fraught with danger?

Episode 6: Shelter From The Rain:
Nenmu poisons Jubei as the two ninja fight. Jubei escapes and seeks shelter in a small home run by a woman and her young son. When other travelers stop by, will a weakened Jubei be able to save himself from the multitude of perils, including a supernatural ninja on the prowl?

Episode 7:Blossom:
Azami, the supernatural plant demon, is back and looking for the other half of the Dragon Stone that she couldn't get during her first encounter with Jubei. Her powers are not without limit however and both of them will need to fight yet another demon, this one with the ability to control bats and act like a vampire, before they can settle their old score.

Episode 8: The Fate Of Rengoku:
Rengoku, the patchwork killer, is back in action on a mission to kill Jubei and recover the Dragon Stone, although not in that order, She seeks to keep the stone out of the hands of the Kimon Clan but will she succeed this time, having enhanced her abilities to an even greater extent or will it all be for naught?

I thought the series was okay but the limited style of animation wasn't really to my liking. The story was more about the duels between the various ninja clans and Jubei were the true focal point. If you like such duels, you may like this series a lot but it wasn't worth more than a rating of Rent It because the lack of story, cohesive plot, character development, and production values limited it's appeal. Fans of ninjas and ancient Japan's mythology will probably like it more than I did but the character has been done better in the past.

Picture: The picture was presented in 1.33:1 ratio full frame color. The picture had some grain to it and video noise in certain scenes, particularly ones with lots of red and black colors. It wasn't as good looking as some of the newer releases from other companies but fans of the various Ninja Scroll/Jubei series will be satisfied.

Sound: The sound was presented with a choice of either a 5.1 Dolby Digital English track, a 2.0 stereo Japanese or English track and optional English subtitles. The sound effects showed the most separation between channels with some for the dialogue. The Japanese vocals were superior to either of the other two tracks but you could hear what was said in any of them. The subtitles were a bit off in a few cases, timed slightly slower or too fast, depending on the scene and didn't match exactly what was said on the English dub tracks.

Extras: This time I only got a screener copy of the DVD so I can't say if there was a paper insert but the DVD did have a couple of interviews, one with series director Tatsuo Sato and the other with character designer and series animation director Takahiro Yoshimatsu. Each interview allowed enough time for the men to explain where their headset was at when designing the show and where the ideas came from as well as their personal backgrounds in anime. Sato explained the heavily borrowed themes from the so-called Spaghetti Westerns and Yoshimatsu explained how his past animations helped him build this series from scratch. The interviews were a bit over eleven minutes long each and had English subtitles since the men spoke Japanese during them. Another decent extra was the storyboard to feature comparison where the two were compared to one another. There were also some trailers, a quick short on the drawing of the dvd cover art, and an art gallery.

Final Thoughts: If you liked Volume 1, you'll like this one even more although I found the technical limitations nearly as bothersome of the lack of a decent storyline. It's possible that future volumes make more sense and have more character development than the first two volumes have but as the series progresses, I'm getting more doubtful. I like some of the character designs but even the drawing showed a lot of inconsistencies (and errors in proportion on a regular basis), which are beginner's mistakes. If you're into this type of anime, check it out but do so as a rental or forget about blaming me. Also keep in mind the adult themes (from the violence and language to the sexual innuendoes).