Nanbaka

Episode 7

Sometimes, you just need to troll your audience. This week's Nanbaka seems to promise a probing look at Jyugo's backstory, building up on the revelations from last episode. There are revelations and a sad backstory for sure—but not for Jyugo. Instead, the goofy guard Mitsuru interrupts and announces we'll be rewinding the clock for another inmate. As the other characters insist that they'd rather get on with the story, we're sent spiraling back to Tsukumo's past.

That's right: Tsukumo. Did you forget about him? I did, until this moment. He's the ninja-themed inmate who first joined the cast a few episodes ago. He had a brief moment in the spotlight before the madness of the New Year's tournament arc took over. Episode 7 zeroes back in on him, exploring his life before he came to Nanba. This includes the story of how Tsukumo became a ninja.

I enjoyed this episode far more than I thought I would. It seems silly and anticlimactic at first, a backstory episode for a character we barely know who's barely part of the current arc. Luckily for him, that "current arc" has become repetitive and stale. A shift in gears was exactly what Nanbaka needed emotionally, and presenting it as a form of trolling makes it all the more fun and unexpected.

So what is Tsukumo's deal? He's full of rage at a woman he describes as his mother, a famous director who used him as a child star. In truth, she is not his mother at all. She found him at a ninja training camp while scouting locations and stars for her ninja movie. Little Tsukumo revealed that he'd been abandoned by his parents, so he was training to become the best ninja in the hopes that they would return to him. His "mother" was an actress before she was a director, so she turned on all her skills to convince Tsukumo that she was his long-lost mother. This causes him to break down, hugging her, while her assistant keeps the sad truth to himself.

She worked young Tsukumo like a dog to play as many roles as he could throughout her movies. In the process, he became a lot like her, always better at pretending to be other people than he was at discovering his own identity. This comes out in his final scene with Jyugo, where he's embarrassed to show his real face, quickly putting on his ninja mask and resuming the act. Rather than seeing this as a skill or asset, Tsukumo deeply resents the person his "mother" has made him into. That's why he resists his manager Hattori's insistence to get through his prison term soon so he can get back in front of the camera. Tsukumo resists Hattori's lie for him, insisting that he tell the truth that Tsukumo is in prison, even if it hurts his career. Tsukumo doesn't want to go back to that kind of life. For him, prison is an escape.

The plot is pretty simple and silly, just like the backstories for every other inmate we've met in Nanba. What's different is how well the show sells it emotionally. You really do feel for Tsukumo and the way he's been robbed of his identity throughout his life. His resentment toward his "mother" is so palpable and even relatable. It's the kind of emotional storytelling that you rarely see on a goofy comedy like Nanbaka—and to think it's all part of the show's own way of "trolling" its audience.

The best kind of trolling denies your expectations to give you something that you never knew you wanted. That's why Nanbaka excels this week. In our breather from the endless, plodding New Year's tournament arc, it delivers a surprisingly satisfying story we never saw coming. Next week, we'll be back in the fray, ready to explore Jyugo instead. Episode 7 gives me renewed hope that Nanbaka might actually pull off more surprises.

Rating: A-

Nanbaka is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rose is a music Ph.D. student who loves overanalyzing anime soundtracks. Follow her on her media blog Rose's Turn, and on Twitter.