This theme always plays in my mind whenever I think about this film.(Spoilers are mentioned wherever needed)
Sword of the Stranger is one of the most exhilarating and beautiful films I've ever seen, filled with excellent fights, great OSTs, meaningful exploration on strength, and an epic showdown.
There's no denial that the fights scenes only range from good to great. Every fight scene is so detailed, fluidly animated and well choreographed, it almost feels real. Add in the traditional Japanese music like flute & drums that fits the Edo setting and beautiful backgrounds, that gives this sense of beauty to every fight. But what makes these fights more than great is, the Story and it's execution.
The story follows an orphan named Kotaro and his dog who are being chased by a Chinese emperor, who believes that his blood holds the key for immortality. Kotaro, then meets Nanachi, a wandering Ronin, a No name (as his name implies), who agrees to help him (& his dog) to escape. It's your classic "Lone warrior meets Lost kid" but it's brilliant execution of this simple yet powerful story makes it a great film. More than fights and plot, the movie feels so life-like. The moving crowds, well drawn landscapes and how lively every scene is. You see two warriors sharing blows with each other, and at the same time you see an old man trying to catch his fish. It's moments like these that gives a visual poetry to the film. However, the movie has one of the basic underlying theme that was told through it's one dimensional characters, and that's "Strength".
Every character in this film is one dimensional, with nothing more than a single trait that defines them, and that is, the different sources of their "Strength". Strength is a very fundamental concept in nature. It's something that we're born with, lack of and sought for, all at the same time. And the characters and their motivations represents this theme of "Strength", without explicitly saying it.
The main antagonist of the entire movie. He's the kind of person you don't want to face. He's powerful, reckless and unstoppable. He wants nothing but the feeling of being in a battle where he can truly feel alive. His strength comes from not having anything to lose, which makes him a fearful enemy and an unstoppable opponent.

All these different characters, with different motives and ambitions are weaved together into one story which resolves each of their character study with one battle, which leads to "The Epic Showdown". In it's 1hr 45 minutes runtime, the movie spends it's first half, to set for this one 30 minute long exhilarating battle. You get to see all the characters that were pre established. And as underdeveloped as they might be, gets a satisfying conclusion.
But the movie's main highlight and probably one of the greatest action sequences in all Anime, is the Epic Showdown between Luo Lang and Nanashi.
Nanashi rides on the horse, while Kotaro riding it. Even though, we were told that they are close to approach a village, Nanashi is completely worn out by pushing through his limits which leads him to end up with a stab through his abdomen, where blood is staring to lose which can be seen on the tracks left behind. Nanashi started to close his eyes, which could mean he's starting to lose consciousness but given how much he pushed in the battle and given how far they are to the village, there's a good chance he might've ended up dead, but that was never really said and left to the viewer to interpret.

Summary
Sword of the Stranger is a perfect example of how to deliver a payoff. While slowly building each character and plot point, it delivers "ONE EPIC FIGHT", and despite all it's short comings, it's forever a masterclass in brilliant execution to tell a simple yet effective story.
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