After nearly two weeks of turning the yuri goggles on full power and still having to squint, I need to write about something with *actual* yuri in it.

2×2 Shinobuden, the Nonsense Kunoichi Fiction, is just the thing to cure my “where’s the yuri?” blues.

The plot of Shinobuden can be summed up in two words – “Wackiness ensues.” While this is not my favorite plot in the universe, Shinobuden is a cute example of this very tired breed.

Shinobu is a young, well-endowed female ninja (the Kunoichi of the title) in training. She lives in a compound with a host of male ninjas and their master, a yellow ball with the name of Onsokumaru. The combined intelligence and maturity of all the ninjas and Onsokumaru appears to be about that of a 12 years old boy. The guys are all typical incompetent peverts, Shinobu is the typical sweet, clueless innocent. Wackiness ensues.

The yuri interest is Shinobu’s friend Kaede. For a change, Kaede is not engaged in a one-sided love for Shinobu, it’s the other way around. Shinobu hopelessly tries to entice Kaede to, you know, get closer, so they can, you know, be better friends, but Kaede’s a bit stuffy and doesn’t seem to be even remotely interested. In fact, she seems downright turned off by the idea of snuggling with Shinobu. Kaede is, however, the only really intelligent and competent character in the show, so when she comes over, wackiness ensues.

(There is one other seemingly intelligent and competent character, the master of the female ninja school, but as we learn that she is in love with Onsokumaru, her “intellgent” score drops pretty low on my scale. And *why* Shinobu doens’t go to the all-girl school is not really explained in the middle of all the wackiness ensuing.)

Poor Shinobu is really quite sweet and innocent so, although her desire for Kaede is apparent, it’s not like she’s going to come right out and be blunt. And, let’s be real, this is all played for laughs anyway. If one watches this show hoping for the girl to get the girl, one is deluding one’s self. :-)

This series gets filed under cute, sweet, goofy parody yuri.

Ratings:
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Art – 7
Music – 7, but highly sticky
Yuri – 8

Overall – 7. If you like farce and slapstick, this is a winner. Me, not so much.

My favorite bit of the entire show is the end credits which is done with puppet animation. I think that it’s exceptionally well done and funnier than the rest of the show.