Shuriken Sentai Ninninger Episodes 33-38

You'll have to forgive the lack of any fancy or meandering intro this week as I'm aiming to cover quite a few episodes with this batch, mainly to get em outta the way for more seasonal fare. Most of em are of the stand-alone variety with one lil arc wedged in the center. Let's kick it.

Episode 33

Poor Yakumo. As if it wasn't bad enough having a Peter Tork Haircut and prison bitch lips now he has to deal with the love of a wasp woman. Yes sir, another evil ninja shows up and poisons a few members of the team. The only chance at getting the antidote lies with Yakumo's ability to manipulate wasp lady's crush on him. Guess it's time to reference the old Romeo & Juliet playbook. You know the scheme. First pretend you've betrayed your affiliated group for love, then convince the opponent to do the same. Finally though a stunt fight with your friends, accidentally become poisoned in order to secure the antidote.

For a Yakumo focused tale this one actually fares nicely. It'll most likely go down as his best episode though there's still some issues. The action is tight, especially the final face-off with wasp chick. Both the drama and comedy are handled nicely too. Once we switch to giant robot mode however, things get a little too cheeky and the narrative balance is lost. Still a far cry better than that damn lawnmower story.

Episode 34

Within the first few seconds of this episode we get a tiny cameo by the current blue power ranger. Don't let it go to your heads PR fans, the guy only gets like 3 seconds of screen time. The more notable cameo here is the appearance of Jiraiya from the old Metal Hero franchise. Like so many superhero team-ups gone by, he assumes our team to be trouble makers at first just so we can be treated to a quick fight. After that he helps them battle a yokai who saddles people with their elders in the literal sense. Yes he actually stacks people on top of each other. Taking him out wouldn't be so difficult a task if not for a ninja council instituting new rules about what ninja are allowed to do in public. Jiraiya is supposed to be the president of this council but he hides from his responsibilities. After helping out our kids, he decides to finally be a proper head of his organization.

Overall I liked this one except for it having one of the corniest endings I've seen in quite some time. It's a total cheese overload that kinda spoils this otherwise fine adventure.

Episode 35

Remember way back in episode.....27 maybe, when I mentioned how Kinji's arm wound from the wolfman would become a plot point one day? Now is that day. Thanks to the aforementioned gouge, Kinji is slowly turning into a new wolfman. In his desperation he searches out Kyuuemon, still alive by the way. They team up in order to find a demon sword, the exact same one Nagi's been researching. Before you can say synergy, everybody's scrambling through a mystical office maze while fighting a power strip centipede, or is it a millipede? Does it really matter when they're part office equipment?

Despite what you may think from the plot, this is actually a Nagi focused tale. Like many of those it's pretty solid and even has a damn fine fight where he gets to try out the transcendent armor. The story doesn't end here though since the demon sword doesn't work as described, forcing Kinji to go full wolfman.

Episode 36

The inherent drama of a teammate turning into a beast should provide plenty of fodder for good storytelling. Too bad this entry screw things up right off the bat with the quick and unexplained resurgence of the old ninja allies that were destroyed during the last story arc. I guess they were repaired but really they just come outta nowhere only to be smacked down once again.

Other than mystery repairs, this is all about Kinji dealing with his impending transformation which has been made worse thanks to the demon sword. The rest is just lots & lots of fighting. You should be able to guess that everything works out fine and victory is assured with the use of a golden pancho and shiny new sword. Oh and another powerfully cheesy ending. The first part of this arc had potential, but I don't feel like this lived up to that promise.

Episode 37

In what is probably the best episode of this batch Even more focus is placed on Nagi as he leads the team into an RPG based on the exploits of the last ninja. Decent humor, good action, and even a little story progression help push things along and we also get a small preview of the end shuriken when Nagi gets to take it for a small test drive.

On two side notes, the evil demon lady is sickly and Kinji's taken to having solo trips into the woods for some reason.

Episode 38

Ready for a return trip to Yakumo's love life? No? Would you any more willing if I mentioned this one has a creepy pedobear vibe to it? Yea, let's talk about it anyway.

A visitor from England stops by the dojo, one by the name of Elena. She was a former classmate of Yakumo's back at magic school with a major crush on him. Did I mention she's like ten years old? She wants to see this super team he claims to be the leader of, and he pretends it's a magic based sentai as he can't bring himself to destroy her dream of marrying him once he becomes a great wizard. General creepiness ensues before the girl is disappointed in his new ninja style and gets her dumb ass kidnapped by this weeks monsters.

Thank god we get a cameo from Magiyellow who's apparently a teacher of theirs. He takes Elena back home after she learns to respect Yakumo's magic ninja lifestyle and inform him of her new boytoy.
For a cliffhanger, demon lady gives birth to a son. A very interesting new development which leads to some good stories, but that's next time.

I'll be seeing you guys soon enough as a mystery box is heading towards home at a steady pace, also got an odd Christmas discovery to share with everyone. Stay tuned.