If the previous episode of Ninninger
were a food item it woulda been something like your basic hot dog:
tasty, none too filling, with a distinct taste of hog anus. Sure it's
enjoyable but nothing much you can report on after the fact. Today's
story is more like a chipotle burrito in how it's almost dangerously
overloaded with goodies. Of course this show isn't as nutritionally
beneficial so maybe throw some Twizzlers in that burrito to make the
analogy work. Now enough about food, we've got a lot to discuss.
First on the agenda is further
conversation about the former apprenticeship of Kyuuemon under
gramps. Apparently the kid had some major potential until self-doubt
and second guessing led them down the wrong path. Oh, and we still
don't get any solid answers on that whole gender question since
gramps uses lingo like “they” throughout his tale. The old man
relates this directly to Kinji's current situation as the guy is
getting too friendly with the grandkids to kill them. According to
oldie, since there can only be one last ninja, they must be willing
to do whatever it takes without hesitation. It's very much the nut up
or shut up mentality.
Meanwhile. Kyuuemon is busy bring
another general back from the depths of hell. This time it's
Tsugomori Masakage. He's the strategist and kind of a creepy dude.
Like he's a bug with a partial human mask on. According to him the
big bad's almost ready to return as well. We get several villain
scenes throughout this ep, leading up to the last one where Tsugomori
reveals that he knows Kyuuemon is lying about originally being part
of their group but he doesn't really care so long as (s)he proves to
be useful.
As for the team. They get themselves
wrapped up in a ninja competition masterminded by the baddies. We get
some light action and comedy bits as Starninger tries to kill them
during different challenges. Eventually it all shifts focus to Nagi
and Kinji and the show tries to work out one of it's lingering
problems. All this time, Nagi hasn't really had a set role or
personality but now we finally learn that he's the nice guy whose
good at getting everybody to work together. Not the most complicated
role to play but at least it marks him as a decent guy. We also get
the backstory on that family photo Kinji keeps with him. Seems both
his father and older brother were also yokai hunters who died when or
cowboy was just a lil shit. That's why he set out to be the best
hunter around and learn from the last ninja himself. Getting back to
that whole Nagi's good at teamwork thing though. It ends up coming in
handy when half the team is kidnapped and the only way to save them
is a three legged race against a cheating monster made out of track
shoes. This is still sentai after all.
After the token action scenes both big
and small we arrive back at the dojo where Kinji stands by his
decision to no longer help the team out so much, lest he become weak.
Then grandpappy shows up to reveal that with a new evil guy on the
loose, the team must find a flying ninja ally. Whoever finds it first
will receive the end shuriken as their prize.
Whew! Like I said before, this one was
just bursting with content. It's kind of amazing how it served as a
main plot line, self contained, and character focused episode all at
once and still did most of it fairly well. It would be nice for Nagi
to get a story truly focused him for once. Poor kid can't catch a
break. Overall, I'd rank this as one of the top episodes so far. Very
close to number eight but that one had lots of Fuuka to bump it up a
notch. Speaking of which, she's the focus for episode fourteen. Be sure to come back for that one.
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