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What is Ninja Kamui like? Community score: 3.7
© SOLA ENTERTAINMENT/Sunghoo Park
I was hoping that this week the show would get back on track, but unfortunately, this week’s episode was even slower than the previous one. Without the glamor of exciting ninja battles to distract from it, all of the show’s writing problems are exposed. So, in terms of what happened, Higan received a call from a mysterious benefactor who claimed to be an ex-ninja like himself and offered to help him get past Auza City’s security system. Meanwhile, Mike receives more criticism from his superiors for continuing the investigation, and Emma is taken back to headquarters, leaving him alone. We also flash back to Higan’s days as a ninja, where he goes on missions with his future wife Mari and another ninja named Zai, who seems more devoted to the ninja creed. When Higan tried to bypass Auza’s security system, he was stopped by Zai, who seemed to have a strong grudge against him for leaving the organization.
On paper, that sounds like a pretty solid development for this episode, but somehow it feels like very little happens. We know from the beginning of the episode that Mike has some family troubles, as his daughter was killed in revenge during one of his missions and his wife left him afterward. While this helps explain why he’s willing to work with Higan on his one-man campaign, it’s a shame that this show has not one, but two kids stuffed into refrigerators because the worries of some sad father. There’s at least an implication that his family situation might be a bit different from Higan’s when he talks about being jealous of Higan for getting to choose his partner, but that might be interesting later.
Even the flashback to Higan’s ninja days doesn’t make much sense, which feels like an even bigger disappointment considering how much his motivation depends on it. While ninjas are taught not to get attached and to put mission first, Higan, Mari and Zai consider each other as comrades. When Higan goes out of her way to help Mari after one of their missions goes wrong, they fall in love. Again, it sounds useful enough conceptually, but the problem here is that this flashback only lasts about four minutes, and we don’t get to know what the better impact is on our understanding. us about these characters. We don’t know why these three somehow have a sense of camaraderie when they were supposedly raised not to think that way or why Higan has such strong feelings about Mari. I’m not against clichés as long as they’re done well, and like Mike’s story, there’s always the possibility that more could be added to this one. However, I’m not optimistic about this being more than what’s been shown and what we got seems pretty flimsy.
All that disappointment would have been easier to swallow if at least one stylish ninja fight had followed, but alas, we didn’t get one this week and that was probably the downfall. greatest hope. We get some pretty good parkour as Higan tries to get past Auza’s security system, but it’s not the same as watching ninjas punch and stab each other, and my heart feels sad and empty. With any luck, all of this could at least pay off with a good ninja fight between Higan and Zai next week, but if the show is going to be sparse with fights, I’d rather have something better than a something to chew on during that time. more disruption than we have received to date.
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Random notes
I love the number of nifty labels for some English text, like a site on the Dark Web with the words “Dark Web” plastered right on it or a top secret government file stamped directly on it. so. I wish the rest of the show could be as silly
© While this week the ninjas back off from pursuing Higan, we see a snippet of them sitting around a table discussing how to deal with him and take a look at some of his future opponents, including one a guy named Big D with incredible hair and a masked woman named Aska. Given this show’s penchant for action movie clichés, I’d be shocked if she didn’t turn out to be Mari in disguise and it turns out she pretended to be put in a refrigerator, but that also seems like it might be more complex than this simple program can reasonably handle, so I’m not sure whether such a change would be beneficial.
Ninja Kamui airs on Adult Swim and streams on Maximum.