It's over! Not only is this the end of
twelve straight months of recaps but it also marks the completion of
a small personal challenge to review one whole series Realistic
goals, folks. As far as achievements, it's up there with snorting
Pixie Stix for money only without the burning sensation. Now that I'm
done flexing over slim accomplishments, let's take a look at the
final episode of Shuriken Sentai Ninninger.
When we left off last week, the End
Shruiken had been activated and our heroes powers had been
diminished. Two big obstacles stand in the way of saving the world,
Kyuuemon is his new jacked up form, and his papa Gangetsu. Sadly,
neither battle proves to be all that big a challenge though the first
offers up some solid emotional beats.
Alright, so round one against Kyuuemon
is fairly basic other than an excess of explosions. The real meant of
fight lies in the debate as to whether Grampa had ever cared about
Mr. Fox. Takaharu and the team hold on to the belief that the
despicable traitor could have returned to their clan. They also
regain their powers while talking up the benefits of competing with
each other and working together as a family. After winning this
fight, they're proven right once it's found that one of grampa's
shurikens was meant for Kyuuemon should he return and become a green
ranger. Foxy and Kinji even wrap up their relationship by noting they
had the same struggle of being orphans who found a place within the
Igasaki clan.
Kyuuemon's death is stretched out a
little further as his daddy absorbs his power and goes jumbo size for
the final battle. The team summons their second-generation robots and
continue to talk up the value of teamwork, friendship, etc. This
allows Kyuuemon's spirit to escape, thus weakening Gangetsu which
gives the team the chance they need to finish him off.
Beating the enemy isn't quite the end
though as there's still the matter of what to do with the End
Shuriken, oh and the thousands of yokai currently destroying Earth.
As the entire team has become a new embodiment of the last ninja,
they make a decision to fix the damage and wish away the end
shuriken, removing any reason for there to ever be another last
ninja.
Everything safe at least, the kids
decide to part ways. Kasumi stars her career in science, Nagi goes
back to school, Yakumo teaches a mix of ninpo and magic at wizard
school (totally not Hogwarts), Fuuka tries to become an idol (thought
she gave up on that after the Dracula episode), Kinji opens a food
cart in Europe, and Takaharu starts teaching kids the art of
ninjitsu.
And that's it. Ninninger leaves us in
much the way it ran. Decent enough but not much more. It's a little
sad since the show wasn't terrible, yet it never took any risks or
veered further into drama or comedy. It just stayed a basic, fairly
entertaining action series. It wasn't completely devoid of merit.
Let's take a look at some of the ups and downs
Things that worked:
Action: Morso than other Sentai was the
quality of fight scenes. Choreography was top notch, with a crew of
stunt people fully capable of pulling it off. Even some of the robot
sequences were a step-up from previous series. This lapsed a little
towards the end with more battles involving pyrotechnics and CG.
Still; for a show with a thin story, the fights were usually enough
to hold everything together.
Fuuka/Yuka Yano: I've praised Fuuka for
a while now and it's not that she's a particularly well-written
character. She's not. Overall her characterization is pretty thin.
What made her shine was a combination of some of the best episodes
along with the enthusiasm of Yuka Yano. She's not what you'd call the
best actress around. Some of her line delivery was a little weak, but
through it all there was boundless enthusiasm that only comes from
someone who enjoys their job.
Gramps: While a good share of the
characters were fairly shallow, the old man provided the best
emotional moments and always felt like a fully developed personality.
Throughout the series he was judgmental, yet guilty. Crass, yet
loving. If even half the team had this level of depth, the series
would have been a serious contender.
Stuff that sorta worked:
Yakumo, just not his episodes: Yakumo
was definitely one of the more rounded members of the team and his
actor wasn't half bad either. However; for as good as the character
could be, nearly all of his focused episodes rank as low points for
the series. Remember the lawnmower? How about the one with the little
girl who wanted to marry him? Poor guy couldn't catch a break.
Stuff that didn't work:
Villains not named Kyuuemon: Let's face
it. Most of the baddies were more bark than bite. There were one note
monsters who proved to be more terrifying threats than the main
villain. None of them had compelling stories or hidden agendas. Only
Kyuuemon offered anything more than empty threats, and even he seemed
fairly aimless until about the halfway mark.
Theme: The concept of ninja who break
from tradition by being loud and colorful had plenty of potential,
yet the series failed to fully embrace this theme. More often than
not, something odd would be tossed into the proceedings without any
payoff. Like what was the point of the UFO and surfer robots? They
didn't tie into any stylistic choice or story line. Or take Kinji for
example. The idea of a cowboy ninja was fully in line with breaking
tradition but it was all just empty window dressing right down to his
hamburger transformation device. When you consider a series like
Kamen Rider Gain where every element of theme relates to the
storyline and characters, the antics of Ninninger were just
confounding.
While the show may be over, Ninninger
will return a few more times in the future. January saw the release
of Ninninger vs. ToQger which should be subtitled this Summer. Around
that time, there's going to be a straight to video special
introducing another girl to the team. Next year will bring yet
another movie as well. Fans of this franchise will be happy to know I
plan to cover the next series at least once as I want to try out a
new style of recaps. Whether I continue beyond that point is up in
the air. Look for that sometime next month when the show has a few
episodes under its belt.
Wrapping up Ninninger isn't the only
change to the site this week. You may have noticed a few additions
around the joint. First up is Disqus which I hope will make keeping
up with comments much easier. I'd actually hoped installation would
prove to be more difficult. After all, nothing quite matches up the
feeling of success you get when overcoming a technical challenge.
Instead it proved to be one of the easiest web projects I'v ever
undertaken.
Now for the less popular part of
running a website. I'm talking about ads. Finally went all the way
and joined up with Adsense along with renewing the Amazon Associates
widget. Don't worry folks, this isn't a doomsday siren for the blog.
I like to use this space as an educational experience so it's a good
idea to fiddle with these programs. Not to mention I've never asked
for a penny in the close to three years I've been posting. Expanding
my web development knowledge and setting up an opportunity to make a
buck or two is only natural.
That's all for today. Mid-Michigan is
in the midst of what could be the coldest weekend of the year. If you
can think of a better reason to do nothing, I'd like to hear it.
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