First off, today’s review is brought to you by Sergio Aviles, who sent me this as part of my holiday beg-a-thon. (And, once again, should *you* desire to sponsor a review, feel free to pick something from my Amazon Wishlist. It will be greatly appreciated and you will be thanked!)
It’s standard operating wackiness (S.O.W.) in Ninja Nonsense, Volume 1. As I commented in my original review of Ninin ga Shinobuden, the entire plot of this series can be summed up as “wackiness ensues.”
It all begins when high school student Shiranui Kaede is sitting around not studying for her finale exam when female ninja-in-training Shinobu enters her room, and her life. Shinobu is on a quest for schoolgirls’ underwear in order to pass her ninja exam. And that’s about the way the whole series goes. ^_^ Something normal (flower viewing) is complicated by something silly (monsoon) and then something inexplicable happens (crocodile eats Onsokomaru.)
The whole series is a parody of just about everything you can imagine, from the expected ninja tropes to pervy otaku behavior. Shinobu’s master, Onsokomaru, is a yellow sphere with major “Id” control issues, and her partners in training are a pleasant pack of pathetic ninjas who are all called Sasuke, for ease of identification.
Despite the constant threat of severe pervification, there’s really only a little bit of nudity, butt jokes and related potty humor in the series. Onsokomaru and the ninjas are representative of a 15-year old’s worldview. So the humor is crude. Very.
In the Yuri department we have Shinobu, who early on develops a raging crush on Kaede. In her own incompetent way she pursues Kaede – on the one hand, it won’t come to much, on the other, she gets further than most boys do in non-hentai anime, so…take your pick. ^_^ This is typical one-sided “comedy” yuri.
What makes this series worth watching is how darn silly it is. I was re-watching this volume with the above-mentioned Serge and his lovely wife, and we were all giggling like crazy. It’s S.O.W. but it’s *funny* S.O.W. With some Yuri, too.
Ratings:
Art – 7, but irrelevant, as it’s a goofball series
Story – 7 – ditto
Characters – 7
Yuri – 6
Service – 6
Overall – 7
As a ninja story, it fails utterly. As a series to take your brain off-line with, fine and dandy.
The Ninja Boys I feel were the third star of the show, following Shinobu + love interest/buddy comedy partner. These guys were able to put forward the otaku character while still being cool and whacky… and devoid of all negative stereotypical LFB attributes (unhealthy/isolated/uncool). After all, when are Ninjas NOT awesome?
Yeah, I luv’d ’em. Cool whacky Ninja Boys. Juvenile, but a sense of youthful innocence without being too lewd (At any given point they could be doing ninjatastic ninja stuff… or sitting in front of a TV commenting on the quality of anime animation consistency. LOL!)
Digressing, I thought the Ultimate Secret why Shinobu was in the Boys Camp and not the Girls was because Shinobu was in fact born a boy, but raised girly (leading to an interesting debate on the definition of Yuri). Shows what I know.
I agree with the insight about the Sasukes, but I’m less convinced about Shinobu. :-)
Shinobu, i believe is a girl. lesbians r cool.
shinobu is a girl.
Anonymous – Yes, Shinobu is a girl, which is why I refer to her as a “female ninja in training” and “she/her” and why this anime is being reviewed on a Yuri blog.
As for “lesbians r cool” I can only imagine that you haven’t met too many of us. We are rarely cool.
“Onsokomaru and the ninjas are representative of a 15-year old’s worldview. So the humor is crude. Very.”
First I want to say: I’m a 15 year old boy. Maybe that’s because why I tottally don’t agree with this statement. I REALLY liked the humor, cause it tottally doen’t makes sence.
Anon – thanks for proving my point.