Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof

Episode 11

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am constantly impressed by how this series makes use of continuity. Instead of pressing the magic reset button each week and returning to the status quo, this show takes the after effects of its gag-based situations and plays them completely straight. This, in turn, allows for some serious character development—and this week's episode is a prime example of this.

Last week, we had Konoha transformed into a kid, growing from baby to school-aged child in just a few days. While she's back to her normal age, she's now got two sets of memories—one set that drove a teenage girl to become a nearly emotionless killing machine and one set that had her grow up in a loving environment… with Satoko as her mother. While that's no doubt messing with her head, that's only the start of it.

Even before the de-aging incident, Konoha was getting close with Satoko—around the same level Konoha and Roboko reached. This means she already had a vital position in Konoha's life. Combine these two things together—and add on top the fact that Konoha was already coming to not want to kill those close to her even when being assigned the job—and it's no surprise that she wants nothing more than to indulge in a normal life with the people she cares about.

Of course, in reality, that normal life is still far out of reach. It seems that you can't give up being an assassin anymore than you can give up being a ninja. So if Konoha just stops killing, assassins will soon be sent after her—in which case she'll be in the same kill-or-be-killed situation as Satoko is.

Worse still, while Konoha still has the same skills she had before she met Satoko, her new personality is getting in the way. It's causing her to overthink instead of acting on instinct. After all, how many times have we seen Konoha kill a ninja while they're monologuing or otherwise distracted. Now Konoha is the one who is lost in her own thoughts leaving her open to attack.

On the other side of the story, we have Satoko wanting to support Konoha more. Unfortunately, what Satoko doesn't seem to understand is that support comes in many different forms. All her cooking, cleaning, and body disposal are support—and so is their friendship. Emotional support is just as important as support in battle.

In fact, Satoko fighting and getting injured in a battle she probably shouldn't have been fighting is actively hurting Konoha. It's caused the assassin to make choices based on emotion and has left her distracted at key moments.

So, here we are at the final cliffhanger of the series. Konoha is on a dangerous mission and distracted by her worries for Satoko. Meanwhile, Satoko is back at home and actively planning to get into more dangerous fights—with a now-child Marin as her only protection. We'll just have to tune in the for the final episode next week to see how everything pans out.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Satoko isn't even phased by losing a tooth and an eye (and she even changes her texting icon to show both).

• I'm kind of shocked Marin would allow her friend to be down an eye. Even if she couldn't get her sister to fix it biologically, I'm surprised she wouldn't make Satoko a robot eye.

• I'm happy the big “breakup” fight of the episode only lasted a few minutes before both realized it was just emotions running high. It feels so much more realistic than when similar events happen in anime and the characters don't talk for weeks after.

• Gotta love finding a secret torture dungeon basement.

Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.