siderite I heard this was the best Highlander film out there, with the exception of the first, of course, and I also love good Japanese anime, so I thought it was going to be a win-win. Wrong. While the animation is well done, the script is abysmal, the characters cardboard and the story the lowest common denominator in Japanese and Hollywood visions (the writer of the script is not Japanese).The story is that of Colin, who gets the honorary and completely pointless McCloud after he helps the Scottish clan in a battle. He is on a quest for vengeance against the guy who killed his girl. He goes on doing that for more than 2000 years, relentlessly. That's it. Nothing more. The bad guy is a Roman who wants to create the perfect order, so he is progressively furthering every dictatorship that ever existed: Japanese warlord, Nazi, etc. and now, in the post apocalyptic future, he built his own little empire, again.The fact that every time Colin appeared and destroyed this guy's dreams I was thinking of "God dammit, why do every time Chinese people try to build up a wall, Mongolian people have to come and knock it down!" did not help to make me take this film seriously.Bottom line: the ridiculously simplistic and clichéd script, with weak undeveloped characters stoped me from enjoying the otherwise good (but in no way original) animation. Almost a complete waste of time.

t_atzmueller Some crossovers work, some don't; sadly, "Highlander – Search for Vengeance" belongs to the second category. Not just that but it seems that certain films don't translate into other mediums. As example, I'd like to point out the live action adaptation of the anime "Fist of the North Star" – it worked fine as a cartoon but was a rather laughable film. Although not as awful as mentioned "Fist of the North Star" live action, "Highlander – Search for Vengeance" remains somewhat of a failed experiment.Being both a fan of the original "Highlander"-franchise and mildly interested in anime ("Ninja Scroll" being among my favourites), I looked forward to seeing this film and knowing that this wouldn't be a kids cartoon, like the awful "Highlander"-animated-series, expected a more adult-oriented approach. It was, giving us that graphic violence which we've come to expect from this particular type of anime but more blood and gore never equated to a better "Highlander" film.Where did it go wrong? In my personal opinion, the supernatural elements never had a place in the franchise, being part of the trouble that has plagued "Highlander"-sequels and TV-shows. "It's a kind of magic", and that's all that the "Highlander"-fan needs to know. That was the magic of the original "Highlander" concept: these were people like you and me, with the exception that they were immortal, fought with mean-a** swords and had to fight to the last man. What we get here are demons, cyborgs and sorcerers, set in an end-time scenario, which would fit better in a "Fist of the North Star"-film; hence, the flashback-sequences are the highlight of the film. I could go on and point out that the abominable "Highlander: The Source" took place in a similar setting, using the concept "magic" short of making Duncan McLeod pulling a rabbit from a hat. However, that wouldn't do "Search for Vengeance" justice – even if flawed, the anime is infinitely better than the (hopefully) final "Highlander" film.For 'conservative' "Highlander"-fans, "Search for Vengeance", especially those not familiar with anime, is an odd little curiosity – for anime fans it's regular fare, pretty much "Ninja Scroll" set in the "Highlander"-universe.Giving it 5 points from 10 would be very well-meaning.

bringer348 I think you will enjoy this film. I only ever enjoyed the first Highlander film. So much so that I would consider myself to be a huge fan of it (I'd owned the laser disc way back and have owned several different versions of the DVD) The TV series didn't really do much for me and I thought the sequels were all terrible.I'm not usually a fan of anime but I think this is probably the best anime I've seen since watching Akira long ago (and I would probably say that I enjoyed this movie more than Akira. I'm also a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki but I would never compare Akira or Highlander to his films since he's on a different level all together.) I wouldn't really compare Highlander to other anime films though since the story is much different and probably much easier for western audiences to grasp. Not going off on strange esoteric philosophical tangents etc. Less convoluted rather and a bit more focused than most anime I've seen anyways.I have to admit I don't really like fantasy oriented anime much at all (aside from Hayao Miyazaki). I mainly don't like fantasy anime because it's a series of "what ifs" as though anything were possible and I find that rather boring. I guess I'm somewhat into realism. Fantasy anime is what 99% of the anime that is so popular these day is really (that I've noticed anyways) but I enjoyed this film much more that I'd expected too since it retains the highlander story in historical past as well as a post apocalyptic setting (love post apocalyptic movies). It has much more depth to it than you could imagine really.There's a few bits towards the end that kind of turned me off from it (some references to religion and stuff and Colin finding love and a home in the setting from the original movie even though he's lived close to 1400 years already... Seemed a bit forced to me because I would think as that much time has passed, all the battles he's waged through etc he wouldn't really feel that intimate with becoming a MacLeod all of a sudden) but these are minor things that I don't think the vast majority of people would even bother to notice. I think fans of the first movie will really enjoy this and I think of it as being better than the TV series or and of the sequels that followed the original movie.

xindi005 I have just purchased HIGHLANDER: THE SEARCH FOR Vengeance from my local wally-world and I was blown away from the very beginning.I'm a bit familiar with the body of work that the crew at madhouse have done (NINJA SCROLL AND X come to mind) and I have to say that this one is the best yet from him. I'm also glad that the guys who brought HIGHLANDER to life in the first place had a hand with it.I won't ruin the story for those that are reading this review, but if you are familiar with anime and the sweeping style that comes with it, as well as the movies that I've mentioned, then you will not be disappointed.Watch it, rent it, buy it! Enjoy it.