Jubei-chan: The Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch or Jubei-chan: the Ninja Girl (Japanese title: 十兵衛ちゃん～ラブリー眼帯の秘密～; Juubei-chan: Raburii Gantai no Himitsu) is a 13-episode Japanese anime series written and directed by Akitaro Daichi. It is animated by Madhouse Production. A sequel called Jubei-chan 2 has aired in Japan and was released on DVD in the latter half of 2005.

The anime is mostly action-comedy, but has drama elements as the series progresses. The story focuses on a teenaged girl named Jiyu Nanohana, who is affectionately nicknamed Jubei by her father.

Jubei-chan has been released in the United States by Bandai Entertainment under the title Jubei-chan The Ninja Girl: Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch under four separate DVDs as well as a 4-disc Complete Collection Digipak. As with virtually all Bandai releases, it is region 1 DVD. The series was broadcast worldwide by the anime television network, Animax, in English (utilizing Bandai's dub) and other languages, within its respective networks in Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, South America, and other regions, under the title Jubei-chan: the Ninja Girl. The series is rated for years 13 and up. Jubei-chan 2 is slated for release from June-December 2005 by Geneon.

The main conflict of the story is between two rival Japanese sword schools: the Yagyu Jubei school and the Ryujoji school. The rivalry was seemingly ended 300 years ago when Yagyu Jubei defeated the Ryujoji school champion. Dying from his wounds, Jubei told his loyal companion Koinosuke to find someone with "plump, bouncy bon bons" and give her his eyepatch that contained a lifetime's worth of sword techniques. Unknowingly to Koinosuke, the Ryujoji clan plots their revenge...

In modern day Japan, after 300 years of failure, Koinosuke finds Jiyu Nanohana and immediately sees that her "Bonny bom bom bum" make her the ideal candidate to be the next Jubei. He approaches her and tries to give her the eyepatch but she steadfastly refuses. Only when they are attacked by a Ryujoji swordsman does she don the eyepatch and dispose of him. They eventually find out that the Ryujoji clan believes it will be vindicated once the reincarnation of Jubei is defeated.

The first few episodes of Jubei-chan are "Monster of the Week" oriented. The later episodes delve into deeper issues, such as the pain of losing Jubei's mother and the sacrifice that Jiyu has to make in order to live a double-life as Jubei.

From Wikipedia