Ninja Nonsense Anime, Volume 3

June 6th, 2007

Wacky hijinks continue at Ninja Academy, news at six. ^_^

Thanks to our sponsor for today’s review, the mighty Serge. (If you’d like to sponsor a review, please feel free to purchase something from my Yuri Wishlist and become the hero of the day! Don’t want to buy something for me? Buy something for yourself through the Yuricon Shop and still be able to claim that you support Yuri with some level of accuracy!)

In Ninja Nonsense, Volume 3, we get to spend a little bit more time exploring the nature of  fanboyishness and its affect on innocent ninja girls. The resulting case of fangirlishness isn’t that surprising.

The anime begins with something that any Yuri fan will recognize – a clear parody of Maria-sama ga Miteru, the explanation of which, by the way, the liner notes got correct. So yay, no letter campaign needed. ^_^ And from there, we’re treated to not only wacky hijinks that involve Onsokamaru pretty much ruining everything, we also get bits of Shinobu playing dress up, the female Ninja Academy’s hypercompetence and continued, but mercifully brief, appearances by Shinobu’s otaku tendencies.

Which leads me to this thought – there has been some discussion on why, exactly, Shinobu does not attend the female Ninja Academy. She’d received better training and not have to live with a bunch of nose-bleeding pervy boys. But I think this volume answers that question, in a way. I’m fairly certain after having watched this that Shinobu is a natural fangirl. Sure, she’s picked up extra bad habits from living with the fanboy ninjas, but her cosplay obsession isn’t something she got from them – not *that* level of obsession, anyway. As stupid as this idea is – I think she belongs with the fanboys, as much *because* she’s a lesbian fangirl as for any other reason. Also, her natural incompetence at ninja skills would make her stand out in a bad way in the girls’ school. ^_^

What else does this volume contain? Onsokomaru inexplicably gets stuck in/on Shinobu’s little sister, Miyabi. A wacky baseball game, a visit to a hot springs (didn’t we do this one already?) and a suggestive moment as Kaede gets one of those “colds” that involves a fever and everyone “helping” her to get better. Which leads us to another gag – the “Shinobu tries to seduce Kaede, but it a totally fail way” gag which is kind of funny and also immensely pathetic. ^_^ Clearly one of the offshoots of her living with all the boys is that she has developed zero skills at picking up girls. I can’t help but wonder if she might at least have mastered *that* at the Girl’s Academy. ^_^

The anime, in other words, is more of the amusing same.

This volume comes with some very decent translation/liner notes, which I enjoyed reading. It also had a terrific extra – a group interview with some of the seiyuu. I love those. So that was nice. But there’s one totally “huh?” thing: One of the “extras” with this volume is supposed to be a “reversible” DVD case cover. I took a look, and well, sure, it’s reversible…but it’s the same picture on both sides. I still can’t quite figure that one out. It’s like a reversible coat that looks the same either way. Sure it’s reversible, but short of a ketchup stain on one side, why would you ever turn it to the other?

But anyway, this volume is silly, random and has short bursts of all sorts of fetishes, among them, Yuri. Another great Sunday afternoon, god-my-hand-hurts-from-being-on-the-computer-for-a-week-straight-I-need-a break anime.

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 4
Service – 6

Overall – 7

Hey look! This blank white sheet of paper is *reversible!*

5 Responses

  1. Lugui says:

    Olá!
    Tudo bom?
    Desculpa entrar em contato atraves dos comentários, mas não consegui te mandar um e-mail.

    Então, seu blog foi indicado pra mim pel Valéria(tomodachi no shoujo).
    Faço faculdade de cinema e estou fazendo um trabalho sobre Cinema Queer. Abordaremos vários temas, entre eles, a batalha de Stonewall, filmes, arte, direitos gays etc… só depois que me lembrei que Yaoi e Yuri poderiam entrar no trabalho, nem que fosse apenas com uma curiosidade.

    Queria saber se posso contar com a sua ajuda para obter material sobre Yuri(significado do nome, origem, primeiros mangás, repercursão e aceitação no japão, mangá/anime de maior sucesso/mais polêmicos, etc…)

    Sobre yaoi até estou conseguindo encontrar agumas coisas. Mas sobre Yuri está sendo bem difícil.
    Qulquer tipo de material/link que vc tiver disponivel, jah será de grande ajuda!

    muito obrigado

    Meu e-mail é:
    dubiela_lavigne@hotmail.com

  2. neo_hrtgdv says:

    umm.. I don’t speak Portuguese, but I speak Spanish and they are very similar.. so may I try an translate some bits? be aware I might horribly miss some words, so don’t rely heavily on my translation ok? :p

    “Hello!
    Everything ok?
    Sorry for contacting you through comments, but I couldn’t get in touch via e-mail.

    your blog is perfect for my movie Valeria (tomodachi no shoujo).

    In the cinematography college I’m making a work about Cinema Queer. We will cover many subjects, among them, the battle of Stonewall, films, art, gay (something?) etc.. so after reading about yaoi and Yuri I thought they could be in the work, even if its just like a curiosity thing.

    I wanted to know if I could have your help to get material about Yuri (meaning of the name, origins, firsts mangas, repercussions in the society of Japan, manga/anime of more success/more polemic, etc..)

    About yaoi I’m getting to find some stuff. But about Yuri is being really hard.
    Whatever kind of material/link you have available, it would be of great help!

    Thank you very much

    my mail is:
    dubiela_lavigne@hotmail.com

    ..and that’s it, hope it helps ^-^’

  3. Thank you for the translation. I was able to get the gist (oddly, I have less trouble understanding Portugese than I do Spanish…no idea why that might be, since I don’t speak either), but am unable to respond. I am sure that someone who reads this will be able to help her in her native tongue.

  4. Patrique says:


    >Clearly one of the offshoots of her living with all the boys is that she has developed zero skills at picking up girls. I can’t help but wonder if she might at least have mastered *that* at the Girl’s Academy. :-)

    I think she is just portrayed as being immensely shy. Just look how she responds to all the attention of (mostly) the girls at Kaede’s high school, who think she’s co cute in her nekomimi outfit. I thought that was actually a pretty endearing moment.

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