Ninin ga Shinobuden Volume 2 wins, hands down, as the manga with the most use of the words “boobs” and “boobies” that I have ever read. And given the number of shounen manga I read, that’s pretty much a feat.

There’s very little ninja-ing going on in Ninja Academy in this volume (something the author comments on in one of the author’s notes, in fact.) And the wackiness has sort of solidified into “Onsokomaru and the ninjas try to be pervs, but fail at everything.”

At one point, after Onsokomaru’s language was a little rough, I checked the age rating on this manga. It’s rated at 13+. I thought about that for a bit and decided that, yeah, that was about right, since the guys all exhibit 15-year old behavior. (It’s a standard of mine that all written works, magazines, manga, books, etc, are designed for people two to three years younger than the protagonists of the work or the stated audience. No seventeen year old, for instance, would be caught dead reading Seventeen magazine. But you’ll see plenty of 14-15 year olds with copies.)

So, bad points – the misbehaving wackiness gets a little tiring after a while – something that Kaede notes first, and Miyabi soon after. Mostly because I’d like to see more of Shinobu and Kaede, and less running around screaming.

Good points – the best point had to be when all the ninjas voted Kaede as the best ninja in the group. ^_^ Also, there’s notably less actual service with the girls than in the anime, for all the underwear flying through the air.

There’s a teeny weeny bit of Yuri in the love potion chapter where, despite not having taken the love potion, Shinobu “falls in love” with Kaede and a few moments with the dream monster where Shinobu is unable to say the right thing to support Kaede, because she likes the monster’s taste in maid costumes. All other moments are similar one-panel gags. Yup, Shinobu’s got a crush. Nope, nothing comes of it.

Ratings:

Art – 7 pretty good, actually, for what it is
Story – 5 there’s only one story, with different set-ups
Characters – 5
Yuri – 3
Service – 3 yes, there is some service, but there’s more lambasting the fanboy than there is catering to him.

Overall – 6 and I am being generous

Also, for no reason at all except that it just occurred to me – do manga artists take classes on writing incredibly dull author’s notes? ‘Cause, wow…I really needed to know about the stray cats wandering around the creator’s new home…