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!*

Ninin ga Shinobuden, known here in the west as Ninja Nonsense, is pretty aptly named. There’s ninjas…and there’s nonsense.

Once again, my thanks to Sergio Aviles for sponsoring this review from my “Yuri Wishlist.”

When I reviewed Volume 1 of this series, I labeled it a “Yuri” anime. Not so this one, although there is some Yuri-ish implication and service. But by and large, it’s just silliness all the way down.

There’s fart jokes and crotch jokes and nudity jokes and being scared jokes and gags about sex and food and various body parts…and one or twice some slight ninja-ing goes on. But not much. ^_^

This volume also makes it maddenlingly clear that the protagonist of the series here is not Shinobu, despite the series’ original name, but Onsokomaru. He is the catalyst for pretty much every gag.

In terms of Yuri, the best scene is one that turns out to be a fantasy. But the scene is important for two reasons: one, the massive Yuri-service in and of itself, which is kind of fun, and; the more important two, it parodies the viewer’s interest in that service, even as it feeds the fantasy. In fact, that, in a nutshell, is a good definition of the series. If we, the viewing audience, are Fans of either gender then our assumptions, needs, fantasies and service are all given to us with an open hand…and then with a caustic gag about what a hopeless Fan it makes us. Even Shinobu’s desire for Kaede is parodied as a fannish sort of thing. It’s broad comedy with a sharp edge. And I like it.

I also want to note that the liner notes are really pretty good – better than the “character bios” in the Extras section of the DVD, which appear to be based off of the first episode only. Someone did do their homework over there at the Right Stuf. So thank you, unnamed researcher. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 6
Characters – 7
Yuri – 3
Service – 6

Overall – 7

Insert clever one-liner here to end the review.