Ninja Slayer From Animation

Episode 5

Forget everything you thought you knew about Ninja Slayer From Animation, because it all changes in this episode. Well, not everything changes. Actually, it's largely the same, except for one big wrinkle: the whole Inferno Cop aesthetic, where two static frames face off in a battle of non-animated proportions? The bit that fans on both sides of the Pacific moaned about, fearing it would steal into their homes in the dead of night, like true ninja, and yank away the possibility of hot, crazily-animated Imaishi-directed action? It's totally absent in this episode.

That's not to say that Ninja Slayer doesn't do a lot of its ninjitsu using cheap, weird animation. It still does that, with background characters hilariously sliding and jerking all over the place. But the sloppy trickery is less evident, and the big fight animation is once again packed with special ninja magic. In this episode, the viewer again meets a seemingly minor player, a hard-luck literati painter named Shigaki. Armed with a malfunctioning cybernetic battle gauntlet (read: a giant gold fist), he ekes out a living at the tofu factory. But suddenly, danger happens: an attack against the factory is staged by the Soukai clan, because the company won't join up with their ninja yakuza keiretsu!

It's always a fun exercise to spot the panoply of goofy orientalist terms, and this episode's no exception. Still, though, I have to wonder: with the series already leaning heavily on sushi (Shigaki seemingly eats nothing but tamago), ramen, and tofu, what's next? My guess is sake. In the meantime, Ninja Slayer continues his merciless hunt for the Six Gates, the cabinet of officers that direct the Soukai organization at the bidding of the evil and giant-fisted Laomoto Khan. There's Bill Gates, Daryl Gates, Gates McFadden… actually, the real character names are even better. One of 'em is named Hugeshuriken. I wonder what his gimmick is?!

The first thing Ninja Slayer (the character, not the show) does is kill a bad guy ninja named Bandit, who is an obvious, palette-swapped swipe of the many ninja from Mortal Kombat. It makes perfect sense that this archetype would show up here; the MK franchise has been quietly amassing an army of ninja for over twenty years. MK's attempt to frame their gimmicky ninja (my favorite has to be Scorpion, who spears his enemies with a grappling hook and yells “Get over here!” because as this show teaches us, lots of ninja speak excellent English) with a story is also interesting. As the video game tells it, ninjitsu is actually a shadow art developed by the Chinese Lin Kuei clan and brought to Japan centuries ago. It's an interesting (and not entirely false) idea, and another great example of the show's peculiar two-way cultural silliness. The ninja of Mortal Kombat are a crude, compelling photocopy, and Ninja Slayer is a photocopy of a photocopy.

Sadly, we never get to see Bandit's Fatality; a shuriken to the eye triggers a massive explosion. “Sayonaraaaaa!” he screams, dramatically. Later, Shigaki is poisoned by the Soukai clan's nefarious energy drink, along with most of the tofu plant's other workers. (Much like Black Dynamite's Anaconda Malt Liquor, this energy drink does not actually give you WOOOOO!! In this case, it just makes you irritable and crazy.) Another super ninja, a grinning, wheelchaired man, tries to use his powers of ninja hypnosis on Ninja Slayer. Needless to say, the good guy's method of defeating the bad guy is completely surprising and remarkably elegant.

Ninja Slayer from Animation is still all over the place—new characters are introduced and killed off briskly, and we still haven't gotten a really good look into the motivation of the bad guy ninja, Darkninja. (We do get a good look at him this episode, making for another chance to debate the merits of his weird, purple costume versus the more elegant, steely look he has in the novels. What do YOU think?) The episode's battle is joined with a long chain of yeearts, and the hapless Shigaki tries to make off with a pair of comically bulging suitcases of money. This series is still reliably cheesy and entertaining—I've read about some viewers expressing frustration with the show's jagged pacing and weird animation, but these people don't quite have the patience of a true ninja. Ninja Slayer From Animation really needs to start building momentum and coming into its own soon, but for now it's still a lot of ninja fun. “Ride on, Ninja Slayer,” proclaims the ED by 6EYES, “ride into Hell!”

Grade: B

Ninja Slayer From Animation is currently streaming on Funimation.