Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Shuriken Sentai Ninninger Episodes 16 and 17


Sorry if it's been too long since the last post. Perhaps I should make that a question. Has it been too long since the last post? July hasn't provided much breathing room for blogging I'm afraid. This is in no small part due to me taking on several different projects like cleaning out the basement, getting back to exorcising. Lots of fun stuff, not to mention cleaning out my boardgame collection which involves playing a crapload of them to see if they're any good. What does any of this have to do with superpowered ninja exactly? Glad you asked. All this sorting and cleaning has led to an alteration of sorts. From now on, ninninger recaps will all be two episode affairs in order to make room for some other types of articles. Don't view this as a bad thing, dear reader. I'm not giving up on the show. Merely making space for a wider variety of items. Now let's get on with the show.

I'll be very upfront about episode 16. It's a big heaping hunk of cheese. Not a rancid cheese like limburger, more of an underwhelming one like brie. It's all about Takaharu and Fuuka's dad who actually has a name though I can't remember it for...(just remembered I'm on the internet) Tsumuji! that's his name! Anyway, it's fathers day and the old boy's feeling down. The baddies are trying to find the location of the family dojo and resort to almost tricking him into showing them the way. He reveals to his kids that back in the day he was a real ninja badass with a tornado technique that was second to none. One day his powers went belly up and that was it. His ninja career was over. After some silly antics were the team tries to trick the monsters into believing Tsumuji's still an asscracker the usual battle scenes kick in along with the cheese. The kids are just getting their assess beat this time and it's up to the old boy to summon up his strength and save the day with one well placed tornado. Yeah it's all equivalent to a mother lifting a Volkswagen off her baby, only this time it's a demonic umbrella off some ninja.

It may sound like I'm being cruel about this one but it was really corny. Sorry for changing foods on ya but I've already got a massive craving for cheddar. Sure the sentiment behind it all is nice enough but we've seen this kind of thing before. Not to mention an episode like this brings up some questions about the extended family. I mean it's father's day so where's grampa? Also I keep wondering...Tsumuji's wife is dead, right? And his mom, she's dead too? Who are his other siblings by the way? I mean they're also decedents of the last ninja so aren't they in the running to replace him?. We've met Yakumo's mom (where's his dad? Don't tell me he's dead too!) but Kasumi and Nagi are mysteries. For a show about family we either have a very unsocial group or one with a large investment in gravestones.

In total it's not the worst tale this series has given us but if you felt the need to shave an episode off for time, this would make a strong candidate.

Episode 17

Getting back to the main plot, this one's all about Kinji's deadline to defeat the team in order to become gramps student. We find he's down to the wire and the pressure’s really starting to get to him. Guy even accidentally leaves his family photo at the dojo, which didn't do much more than give Nagi a reason for listening in on Kinji's personal ramblings. Later that night, Kyuuemon shows up to check on his/her offer of a team up. Kinji pushes the offer back for a few more hours in case he can actually manage to take out the kids in time.
The next morning, all the team has prepared challenge letters so they can give old Kin his best shot. As you might expect, an evil inflatable raft with control over fear dimensions shows up just in time to screw everything up. Oh...you didn't expect that? I thought fear rafts were in all the shows these days. Thanks to our baddie we get to visit Kinji's past where his dad and brother are killed by some kinda coyote monster. The team arrives in time to help, after they learn of Takaharu's fear of peppers. Peppers...really? Sure they taste like hot garbage, but something to be afraid of? Let's chalk that up to different strokes.

So the kids let Kinji know that he's just as good a competitor for last ninja as they all are, so he should stick around and do his best to beat them. First they need to kill the monster of the week which involves some decent action scenes and a new robot that grants the team surfing powers.

After the battle, Taka and Kinji commence their duel when grandpa steps in to announce the time limit is up. Turns out Kin had his calendar still set for U.S date and time, ouch. Poor kid sets off towards home in the new surfer bot (he's not gone for long, trust me) while Gramps reveals his relationship with Kyuuemon to the team. They all look pretty disappointed with how everything turned out but nobody has the stone to tell the old man he's a busted cunt. I nearly forgot, we also learned the purpose of the end shuriken as well. Turns out it's one of those classic items that wipes out the current world allowing it's user to create a new one of their own design. Sounds spiffy.

Overall a decent episode but it seemed like their was something missing throughout. Best I can figure is the flashbacks to Kinji's past trauma could have been given much more love & care instead of goofy raft monster antics.


That's all from ninja town for now. Stay tuned for...well I honestly don't know. There's several items waiting to be written about already and lord knows I might find something silly while cleaning out the basement. Or get crushed under a mound of avon boxes. Wish me luck.

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