Ninja Slayer From Animation

Episode 7

This installment of Ninja Slayer opens with Nancy-san, the mysterious blonde from the opening credits, investigating the activities of the Soukai Syndicate. But then, she's ensnared by a snake-controlling ninja, Cockatrice. In lovingly animated detail and high motion, the show depicts the reptile describing a perfect figure-8 around her boobs… before it all falls straight back to the crappy animation. This show gets better and better at playing this transition for laughs, and it still gets me every time.

I'm glad we're finally getting a look at Nancy-san, and her mysterious partner Jose-san. Nancy appears to be from the “mysterious American secret agent paramour” school of ninja lore, which was writ large in Tecmo's classic Nintendo Entertainment System game Ninja Ryūkenden, released in these parts as Ninja Gaiden. Nancy seems a bit more aggressive than Ninja Gaiden's coy Irene Lew, but she's still definitely taken with the title character when he appears. “Just passing through,” proclaims Ninja Slayer to Cockatrice in his gravelly voice, “...but I will kill you!” Not surprisingly, Ninja Slayer evokes comparison to the Nintendo era's Ryu Hayabusa, though the latter ninja seems to share bad guy Laomoto Khan's affinity for eating multiple pieces of sushi at once.

Further mysteries abound: a splash of blood, used to write a mysterious word: tanuki. Later, an ominous flock of crows comes to rest on Ninja Slayer's massive, flowing scarf as he restlessly slumbers. Ninja Slayer is confronted by a mysterious old man. Despite a great joke about tea ceremony, this is where the episode hits a speed bump-- the entire second half is a stilted conversation between the pair. We're not far from the halfway point of this show, and I'm hoping that director Akira Amemiya regains some momentum in the next installment. There are still plenty of bad guy ninja to deal with! It's also here that the Ninja Slayer soundtrack lays its first egg-- “Ninja Prayer” by Shinichi Osawa has an apt title, but it's a piece of elevator music that completely fails to be evocative or catchy.

One last positive to take from the episode, though? The way the scenery explodes in flames every time Ninja Slayer introduces himself. It happens two or three times this episode, and it's an increasingly obvious homage to Ninja World War Jiraiya, a late-80s tokusatsu ode to gimmicky ninjas from around the world. Ninja Slayer himself wears the same red outfit that Jiraiya does, and looks strikingly similar. It's important to remember that, while Ninja Slayer is an homage to goofy western ninja lore, it's just as worshipful of homegrown ninja camp. This episode's pokes at Ninja Gaiden and Jiraiya are proof of that.

The dubbed version of episode two continues the fine work of episode one -- don't miss it. Re-watching the show without the subtitles hanging around at the bottom of the screen also serves to hammer home the sheer number of good action animation cuts in Ninja Slayer-- the problem is, most of them are over in about a second! Sabat's take on Ninja Slayer as a disguised chauffeur growls, “This car will get you where you're going! You're going… to Hell!” before the character beheads five Yakuza clones with a single shuriken. The first series of English-language renditions of the show's trademark “Aieeee” cry is also pretty magical. Overall, the broadcast dub is a really fun supplement to the series, and I'll continue to watch it as it comes out. It's getting past time for Ninja Slayer to start getting really good again, though.

Grade: C+

Ninja Slayer From Animation is currently streaming on Funimation.