Ninja

And, Scene! Ninja Kamui Ends on Cool Note

Aside Roderick J "Jay" Friz Anime, Anime Reviews , , , , , , , ,

Ninja Kamui Ep 13 Review 

It’s over, people. After three months of watching Higan’s quest for revenge, we have reached the end of the road. And Ninja Kamui managed to go out on quite the bang, if I do say so myself. With the Ninja now poised to conquer the US, and Joseph ready to blow the AUZA reactors to oblivion, things were looking desperate. But in a final battle fought on multiple fronts, Higan, Morriss, and Jason not only stop Yamaji and Joseph. They prove that the former’s views on the Ninja being cold, uncaring killers is wrong. 

Joseph Finally Gets his Just Desserts

On the first front, we have Agent Morriss and Jason as they go after their main target, Joseph. After escaping Yamaji’s Ninja for the moment, the cowardly CEO of AUZA attempts to smuggle himself out of the country. On a plane stuffed with pigs. But Morriss isn’t having any of it. Thanks to his instincts and Jason’s hacking, they manage to ruin his ride out of the US. More importantly, Jason manages to hack the satellites that would’ve let Joseph blow the nearest reactor sky-high. The end result is pure cathartsis for Emma’s death, as Morriss proceeds to beat the smug CEO’s face in. Then, when the man boasts how he’ll be out of jail in no time, Morriss pulls a move that would make Batman proud.

For a while, the anime makes it appear that Morriss lost his temper and proceeded to kill Joseph. Given how he killed Emma and committed who knows what other crimes, no one would’ve held it against Morriss. Instead, the Veteran FBI Agent stays true to his moral code and simply makes the cowardly man so scared for his life, he wets himself. Furthermore, hearing Morriss promise Joseph that he’ll come find him if he ever tries to escape justice is pure, unadulterated badass. Knowing Morriss, he’ll be happy to sacrifice his retirement to follow through on that promise. Go ahead and enjoy it, though, Morriss. You’ve earned it.

Yamaji Just Another Would-Be Despot

The big draw of the episode, though, is the fight that’s been built up the entire series: Higan vs. Yamaji. A fight between a Ninja and a former Ninja over the fate of their entire clan. The fight is, naturally, impressive to watch, but what cinches it is how it boils down to a fight of ideals. Yamaji, for his part, continues to insist that his way of thinking is right and that with the Ninja watching over the world, there will be true peace. In other words, the same self-serving spiel that many wannabe conquerers spout; I could feel my eyes rolling as I heard him go on and on about it. While he does get a brief flashback that hints at how he developed his way of thinking from witnessing the horrors of war, it doesn’t matter. Yamaji’s so blinded by anger that he chooses to shut himself off from the world, and thinks that that’s best for everyone.

As Higan and Zai prove, he’s wrong.

Yamaji Proven Wrong, Dies. 

As I hoped, Zai does return for the final battle, and, at a crucial moment, he turns on Yamaji, choosing his friend over the man who turned him into a weapon. It costs him an arm, but it was still nice to know that Mari’s hopes for Zai came true. More importantly, it gives Higan the chance he needs to rally. Spurred on by the memory of his wife and her philosophy on living, with the anime’s OP playing in full, Higan wastes Yamaji.

And, to sweeten things, we get to see those who remained loyal to the former head of the Clan like Emma take down their brethren. Thus, the threat of the Ninja has ended. Whether or not this means the end of the Ninja as a whole, though, is left up for debate.

Time to Put the Ninjas Behind us

For Higan, though, that doesn’t matter.

Higan started this journey for one reason and one reason alone: to bring down Yamaji and his former clan. In the process, he also managed to reconnect with his old comrade, Zai, and convinces him to find a new purpose in life outside of being a weapon. Having done all he set out to do, Higan heads off for parts unknown, wandering the earth as the series comes to an end.

It’s the kind of ending that would make the likes of John Wick proud, and I personally loved it. While I do think that the action lagged at certain points in the story, I still think that Ninja Kamui was a pretty fun anime to watch. While there are some deeper, philosophical questions about life that it seems to pose, I’ve decided that that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. All we wanted was to see Ninjas doing cool Ninja things, and we got that in spades. I just might have to binge-watch the entire thing on Max next chance I get. 

I Give “Episode 13” a 4/5

Yamaji is Out to Conquer the World!

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Ninja Kamui Episode 12 Review

There comes a time in every nation or big organization where the way things work stops working. When they need to chart a new course, evolve, or else they die. In the worst cases, a disillusioned member of that group could decide to burn the whole thing to the ground and start fresh. And, as the penultimate episode of Ninja Kamui indicates, the Ninja have reached that point under Yamaji. And the only one who can bring him down for good is Higan. Otherwise, the whole world will be swallowed by the shadows of the Ninja.

Time to Burn it All Down

As Higan continues to rest from his fight with Zai, he’s visited by the same old doctor who treated his wounds in Episode 2. Except it’s revealed that he isn’t just any elder. His true identity is that of the former Chief of the Ninja before Yamaji seized power. And much like Higan, Aska, Mari, and many others, he thinks its time for the Ninja to either end or be born anew.

This episode delves deeper into the backstory of the Ninja as an organization, and how they defended their native Japan for centuries from the shadows. However, as Japan prospered, they stopped relying on the Ninja to aid them in favor of other groups. The Chief saw the writing on the wall: if they didn’t adapt, they would die out, but he couldn’t see another path beyond the cold, rigid code the Ninja followed. Until he saw Higan, Mari, and Zai embrace their emotions to make them stronger. And he thought that, maybe, that was the future the Ninja could take.

Yamaji is a Stubborn Fool

Yamaji, though, thought the opposite. Instead of embracing change, Yamaji led a coup, nearly killed the Chief, and decided to double-down on their strict code, which led them to work for AUZA. But as the series has demonstrated, that way of thinking won’t help them survive, but hasten their doom. 

Case in point, Dilly, the Ninja protecting Joseph, grew to admire his crazy plans to change the world, and chose him over Yamaji. Ultimately, the conflict of Ninja Kamui could be boiled down to a conflict of tradition vs. change. And in this case, the traditionalists like Yamaji are in the wrong.

It might be too late to save the Ninja from themselves, though.

Joseph, AUZA, and the Ninja Just got Busted

Joseph may have gotten away with his life thanks to Dilly’s sacrifice, but AUZA just got backed into a corner. While he was busy running, James managed to blow the whistle on AUZA by uploading all the dirt Emma/Aska had on them. Illegal activities, the Ninja, the names of high-ranking government officials, everything. And Morris is able to use that to turn the FBI on AUZA. 

Then, Joseph ups the ante by threatening to rig his companies’ reactors to blow sky-high unless the government calls off the hunt for him. And to add even further to the chaos, Yamaji makes his move. Using an army clad in Gusoku Gear, the Ninja drop all forms of stealth and openly attack the US Government. And that’s only the start. Once they’re done in America, they’ll move onto the rest of the world, and with their Gusoku Gear, the world will fall.

The Final Battle is at Hand!

Bravo, E&H Production, Sola Entertainment, and Sungwoo Park. This is the kind of stakes that I have been wanting to see. An army of evil Ninja out for world domination? Using mech suits? That is all kinds of awesome! It’s actually a pity that next week marks the finale to Ninja Kamui, because it just got really, really good. I’m looking forward to seeing the finale, though!

I Give “Episode 12” a 4.5/5

Whoa! Yamaji Just Played Everyone!

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Ninja Kamui Ep 11 Review

The story of Ninja Kamui is coming down to the wire, and things are getting desperate for all sides. Higan and Zai are settling their grudge match, the FBI is hunting Morris, and James is working on getting access to the intel that Emma/Aska stole from AUZA. On the other side, the tension between AUZA’s Joseph and Yamaji ends in the only way it could: with both turning on each other. And by the time the episode ends, the only one in control of anything is Yamaji himself.

A Meeting of Fists and Ideals

There can be more to fighting than an exchange of fists and weapons. Fighting can be about the ideals, the motivations behind the people who are doing it. And much like Naruto and Sasuke’s numerous clashes, the fight between Higan and Zai is less about winning and more about whose side is right. Was Higan right to abandon the Ninja? Was Zai right to remain loyal to Yamaji despite him taking them away from their original ways? Their fight is as much a battle of ideals as it is their fists, and it is epic.

Higan and Zai both put everything on the line as they fight for their ninja ways, with Zai making it known how betrayed he felt by Higan and Mari leaving him. In return, Higan says that they wanted to one day see there could be a life outside the Ninjas, but he was too blinded by anger to listen to them. Mari even hoped that seeing their son would make him realize this. 

Ultimately, the battle itself ends in a draw with neither dead. Given how Zai walks away and starts pounding his fist into ground and crying, though, it’s safe to say that Higan won the argument. Zai has spent his whole life blinded his anger and pain, and pushed away the two people who cared about him as more than just a weapon. Yamaji and the other Ninjas, in contrast, not only berated Zai for not stopping them, but scarred his face as punishment. That’s messed up!

Yamaji Played AUZA Like a Fiddle

Meanwhile, even as AUZA needs its plans to control the world from the shadows, schisms have already formed between them and the Ninjas. Having become aware of Yamaji planning to manufacture the Gusoku Gear on their own, Joseph tries to put them in their place by killing them all. 

Yamaji, in return, makes it painfully clear who the Devil is in their deal, and it’s not Joseph. 

If the previous episode didn’t make it clear, this episode does: Yamaji was just using Joseph and AUZA to make the Ninja more powerful. They only wanted the resources to make the Gusoku gear for themselves, and now that they have it, they’re leaving. And they come close to killing Joseph as they do so. As big of a jerk as he is, a part of you can’t help but feel a little bad seeing him panicking when his bodyguard, Dilly, seemingly throws him out a window. He survives, but still. 

They Have to Leak the Documents!

In the c-plot of the episode, we also have James and Morris finally unlocking the intel that Emma left for them. And it was all thanks to the drawing that Moriss’ daughter made for him having her fingerprints. However, to buy time, Moriss gets caught by the police. If they can’t expose AUZA now, then Moriss can look forward to spending his retirement in prison. 

There are two episodes left after this, and things are coming down to the wire. Will any of the characters make it past the finish line? Will Higan avenge his wife and son? The tension is building, and I don’t know if it can be resolved in the short time the show has left.

On a side note, Toonami took the time from this episode to promote the upcoming prequel game, Ninja Kamui: Shinobi Origins. The game looks to be an action side-scroller, and for $24.99, it looks decent. The game releases May 30th, so the anime will still be fresh in people’s minds. Maybe I’ll give it a try.

I Give Ep 11 a 4.5/5

Someone Dies at the End

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Ninja Kamui Ep 9 Review

As if we didn’t need another reason to hate AUZA, they managed to sink our expectations even lower than they already were. With Higan, Aska, Morris, and Jason poised to hit AUZA where it hurts, Joseph, the guy running the shots at AUZA starts to grow more unhinged. And what he does this episode puts him straight at the top of everyone’s hit list. While the teaser for this episode implied someone would die, it also proved to be a red herring. Someone does die, but it’s not the person everyone was expecting.

Joseph Has no Respect

With Higan and Aska having escaped AUZA not once, but twice, last episode, Joseph is starting to lose it. AUZA is close to finishing their plans to control the world from the shadows, and Higan threatens to undo everything. As a result, he starts coming down hard on Yamaji to do something about Higan. He also chews out Big D for not killing them when he had the chance (he doesn’t care), and tries to coax Zai into going after Higan the first chance he gets. The majority of the episode is him yelling at everyone at how they’re going to ruin everything.

From the outset, the anime made it clear that Joseph is a horrible person. He’s arrogant, rude, and condescending to everyone around him, and it’s clear that Yamaji doesn’t respect him. The fact that Joseph threatens to make the former commit seppuku for his failures only highlights how ignorant and uncaring the man is towards the ways of the ninja. Yamaji even lampshades that ignorance by pointing out seppuku was never a ninja thing. That was the Samurai! 

In contrast to this, though, Big D proves that even though he’s on AUZA’s side, he has more respect for the ninja way. He refused to kill Higan when he wasn’t at his full strength, and he pointedly ignores Joseph’s grilling while he gets his haircut. More to the point, when he and Higan do face off in their Gusoku suits this episode, he doesn’t want anyone to interfere. So when AUZA troops show up to try and kill everyone, he objects. Moreover, when Higan does win, he takes the defeat with grace and is willing to die at his hands. He’s got more respect for ninjas than Joseph ever does. A fact that’s made clear by Joseph rigging Big D’s suit to self-destruct in a last-ditch attempt to kill Higan!

It doesn’t work. But it does take someone else’s life besides Big D.

F in the Chat…for Aska.

Based on the previews for this episode, it looked like Agent Morris was going to die. The fact that he’s about to retire, his daughter is dead and his wife has left him all seemed like death flags to me. However, he manages to survive the episode. Tragically, there is someone else who dies thanks to the explosion: Aska. She isn’t able to get out of the blast in time, and spends her final moments being comforted by Higan, Morris, and James. 

This was such a massive shocker to see. Considering how close she came to dying a few episodes ago, this caught me off-guard. And as the three are cremating her remains, you can tell how done they are with AUZA. Aska was the reason that Higan managed to survive the attempt on his life, even if his family didn’t. James respected her as a hacker. And Morris admits that he thought of her as a second daughter. Imagine getting a second chance to be a parent only to have that ripped away from you? 

At this point, there are three episodes left, and the trio are ready to burn AUZA to the ground. This anime hasn’t been the most action-filled you could find, but it’s still been a good show to watch. And I’m hoping that before it’s done, Joseph is lying on the ground wetting himself while they make him pay. 

I Give “Episode 9” a 4/5

A Warrior’s Life is a Lonely One

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Ninja Kamui Ep 4 Review

I can’t speak from personal experience, but it seems like working in a profession that involves violence can be hard on one’s loved ones. From those in the military to those working in law enforcement, there’s always the worry that you or your loved one might not come home one night. Some people make peace with that in their way, but others aren’t able to. And as this episode reveals, both Higan and Moriss have this in common.

Tragic Backstory Time

The episode picks up where things left off, with Higan getting a call from an unknown person. The only hints as to their identity are that they know Higan’s a ninja, and they know a poem only other ninjas know. However, that takes a backseat when it segues into some of Agent Moriss’ backstory. As it turns out, the man once had a wife and daughter, and they loved each other very much. Then Moriss started putting his job first, which meant that he was late getting the news that a sleeping driver killed his daughter. As a result, his wife couldn’t take him from being there anymore, and they presumably went their separate ways.

This moment does a lot to show why Moriss is so devoted to his job, even to his detriment. Losing his daughter, who looked up to him as her hero, took a significant toll on him, to the point where he kept a drawing she made on him at all times. He’s doing all of this to avoid his grief and to atone for his failure to be there for his family, similar to what Higan went through in the first episode. 

As the episode continues, we get another flashback, this time to the life of Higan, his future wife, Mari, and their comrade, Zai, in their lives as ninjas. Besides swearing to uphold a code of never betraying their clan or revealing the secret technique they each get, they also swore to detach themselves from everyone, even their comrades. However, Higan fell in love with Mari, and the two broke the code. It’s a nice contrast to Agent Moriss and how he chose his role as an FBI Agent at the cost of his family. When you look at it like that, he and Higan are like two sides of the same coin. Both are skilled and driven, but one chose his job over his family, while the other chose his family over his job. Yet both ended up having tragic outcomes. Maybe they were meant to become allies.

Infiltration of AUZA City

While this episode shows us more of AUZA’s inner circle (who are as eccentric as that of Shinra’s board of directors), the person who stands out the most is Zai. We get a glimpse of how cold and ruthless he is when he kills his former swordmaster, but there’s more to it. The flashback reveals they swore oaths of loyalty to each other over cups of sake. In Japanese culture, exchanging sake cups is considered a way to foster loyalty and celebrate significant milestones. So, it’s likely that when Higan and Mari left the clan, Zai took that as a personal betrayal.

Now, Higan’s actions have cost him Mari and their son. And the only way to bring down his former comrades is to get inside AUZA City.

Higan’s infiltration of AUZA City reminds me of the most challenging stealth missions in games like Assassin’s Creed, made even more complicated when he can’t kill anyone without tipping off the guards. That doesn’t matter in the end, though. Right as he’s about to get into the city, Zai’s there to stop him. And the episode ends at that.

If we want to see what happens next, we must wait a week. But when the time comes, Higan will have to run a gauntlet of foes. Even more ninja battles are coming!!

I Give “Episode 4” a 3/5

Did I say Abstergo? I Should’ve Added in Shinra!

Aside Roderick J "Jay" Friz Anime, Anime Reviews , , , , , , , , ,

Ninja Kamui Episode 3 Review

Ninjas, as the popular imagination came to know them, are said to have first appeared in Feudal Japan. They served as spies, saboteurs, and assassins, either for their feudal lords or as mercenaries for hire. And while it’s doubtful that any of them could walk on water or create shadow clones, plenty of fictional works depict them as capable of such. Now imagine what it would be like if modern-day ninjas existed and relied on the most advanced technology, and you have the premise of Ninja Kamui. A fusion of the ancient and modern-day, serving their lord’s interests. It just so happens that said lords are also a global megacorporation in the vein of Abstergo Industries and the Shinra Electric Power Company. 

This is the group that Higan is going up against, and they are everywhere.

A Bunch of Crazy Ninjas

The episode opens up in bloody fashion as we see Lil, a foul-mouthed ninja from Higan’s former clan, assassinating a man. Afterward, he clarifies how turned on he gets by his violence, acting like Deadpool if it wasn’t as funny or spouting out pop culture. He’s essentially the antithesis of Higan and someone who has little to no respect for what ninjas are likely supposed to be like. And if he and the man who killed Higan’s family are the norm under AUZA, it’s not hard to see why Higan and many others left. The whole group might be corrupt now.

Corrupt or not, a ninja’s still a ninja, which means they’re dangerous. That’s best shown when another ninja, Zai, takes down his former mentor, who had left like Higan. The mentor tried to slice Zai up with blades made out of air, and the man impaled him without the former realizing. That’s scary! At least they can be punched or stabbed, though. AUZA, as a corporation, can’t, and that’s what makes their influence so scary.

Abstergo Fused with Shinra

The previous episode clarified that AUZA has enough pull in the authorities to cover up their attempts to kill Higan. In this episode, Agent Moriss is frustrated when the FBI claims the attack at the restaurant was part of some gang war. The audience doesn’t buy it, and neither does Moriss. Despite the subtle warning from his former partner to let it go, Moriss’ sense of justice won’t let him. In true Jim Gordon fashion, he chooses to keep looking. And thanks to his temporary alliance with Higan and the technical know-how of Emma Samanda, he and the audience learn how much power AUZA has. 

As a side note, Samanda is starting to grow on me as a character. It helps that she’s voiced by Lucy Christian, the dub voice of Nami from One Piece and Uraraka from My Hero Academia. However, Samanda is tech-savvy enough to turn her car into a mobile computer. Her being a redhead makes her feel like an Expy of Barbara Gordon. 

AUZA City, Here We Come!

Thanks to some exposition from Samanda, the show confirms what we already knew: AUZA is the show’s equivalent to Abstergo, though their motives are more in line with Shinra from FF7. They’re motivated by greed and the desire to expand their influence, and, presumably, thanks to the ninjas, they’re on the verge of controlling the world from the shadows. To further the comparisons to Shinra, they even have their own private city, AUZA City! 

Much like Shinra, though, it seems that not everyone in AUZA is on the same page. A meeting between an AUZA higher-up and the head of the ninja clan, Yamaji, has the latter chew the former out for what happened at the restaurant. They’re working together, but Yamaji hates it as much as Higan did. 

This episode was primarily focused on exposition, but when it got to the action, it cooked. After another ninja comes after Higan, we get another epic fight complete with the same kind of rap insert song we got from episode 2. So, it’s pretty epic.

Once the fight is over, it’s clear that Higan needs to head to AUZA City. The problem is that it’s impossible, even for someone like him, to get in there without getting caught. However, he seems to get a lucky break when he gets a call from an anonymous person that knows his name. We have no idea who they might be, but I’m looking forward to finding out. Plus, I want to see what AUZA’s equivalent to Midgar looks like. 

This is getting interesting!

I Give “Episode 3” a 4/5