Basilisk (Seasons 1–2)

Basilisk (2005) is a Japanese ninja action anime from studio Gonzo that you can watch online on iFILM. The year is 1614, the dawn of the Edo era, and two clans bound by centuries of blood feud are finally given permission to settle it for good.

Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu can't decide which of his two grandsons should inherit, so he hands the choice to a war in the shadows. The Kouga and Iga clans each field ten of their deadliest fighters; the winning side earns the government's protection for a thousand years, while the losers are wiped off the map. The cruel twist: the heirs of the two warring houses, Gennosuke and Oboro, are in love — and end up on opposite sides of a slaughter neither of them wanted. All twenty warriors wield their own inhuman techniques, and the show spares neither its characters nor its audience.

Adapted from Futaro Yamada's novel The Kouga Ninja Scrolls, the same source that seeded plenty of later shinobi stories, Basilisk works through grim fatalism — methodically killing off the very people you've grown attached to. It's a tragedy dressed as an action series, not a breezy shonen adventure. Stream every episode of Basilisk online on iFILM.