Ninkuu

In the glorious 90s, when Disney Afternoon and Cartoon Network were enjoying the peak of their existence, anime viewing was few and far between. However, when the newly launched AXN channel decided to put an hour block exclusively for anime, I couldn't help but take a peek.

As a result, Ninku came into my life. I'd venture so far as to say that Ninku (along with DBZ) introduced me to the world of anime. The story was never the show's strong suit. It's your average Hero's journey story.

The art and sound are fairly well done for their time. In particular the slightly western themed ... battle music which I found to be pretty epic. The characters are mostly unidimensional, you have your headstrong brawler, the idiot kid who's actually the most powerful of the lot and the somewhat balanced and intelligent fighter who keeps the team together. Add an annoying woman with a heart of gold and a flatulent penguin with superhuman strength, and you've got yourself the team of Ninku.

The depiction of the fighting prowess of a Ninku fighter (especially the captains) is well executed. My only complaint would be that not all the Ninku captains are revealed. Even if they were killed, some background as to their whereabouts and their ultimate fate would have been appreciated. The side characters and villains are well balanced and keep the fighting and plot interesting (for the most part).

Given that this anime was shown in the mid-90s. It came at a time when shows like Flame of Recca and Yu Yu Hakusho dominated the fighting anime genre. But still the lovable characters and well-executed fight scenes helps this show hold its own against the heavyweights of it's time.

I'm not going to bother writing a synopsis since you've probably already read the one provided on here. So I'm just going to jump right into the review. This is going to be a long one. Strap yourself in.

- Plot

The plot of this Anime is extremely straight forward and rather basic. Main character is on a journey to find his mother that was kidnapped when he was a a toddler, during his journey he meets up with old comrades and they embark on a quest to save his mother and take down the Imperial Army and liberate the Country. A long the way Challenges are ... overcome, many interesting people are met, former Ninku companions are discovered. There are some neat things a long the way to keep your interest.

So if you're looking for any plot twists or an intricate plot, you won't find this here. But what you will find here is a fun adventure, with good world building, fun characters and decent action. The plot isn't complicated but it doesn't have to be because the main cast and the world are what really make this Anime enjoyable in my opinion.

- Pacing
Since it is an adventure Anime a bulk of the time is allocated to side stories, so the pacing isn't going to be fast, but unlike other Shonen Anime these Side Stories are actually pretty well done and the outcome of them aren't always happy endings. The thing that surprised me the most is how the writers did such a good job at building the world and people that live within it by using these side stories. You really start feeling immersed into this world and it makes you want to keep learning more and more about it.

- Characters

Main Cast

Fuusuke: Rat Ninja and Former captain of Ninkuu's squad 1. His specialty is Air techniques. Pretty impressive resume for a 12 year old huh? He always has his good friend Hiroyuki Penguin by his side.

Touji: Snake ninja and former captain of the 6th Ninkuu squad. He specializes in ground based abilities. He has a younger sister named Rihoko and has fought alongside Fuusuke and Aichou during the war and they have known each other since before then as well.

Aichou: Rooster ninja and former captain of Ninkuu's squad 10. His abilities include being able to jump extremely high into the air and being able to soar in the sky. Not quite flying, but very damn close. He's hot tempered and is often brash and can be kind of a dick at first but he lightens up later on.

Rihoko: The sister of Touji. She is not a combatant but she is shown to be able to use the substitution technique.

Hiroyuki: Fuusuke's best friend. He is a Penguin with a lot of character.(which is expressed very well through gestures and the like since he cannot talk)

Conclusion: The way these main characters interact with each other is probably one of the things I enjoyed the most about them. The interactions feel real and they talk to each other and act as friends would in real life. They are all able to express different emotions and characteristics and it never feels forced or out of character. Overall their characters aren't deep or complex but they are fun, likable and ithe way they interact with each other and the world around them is well done.

- Villains

I don't want to spoil the villains but I will list their names and give a basic description then talk a little about what I liked about them and what could have been improved on.

- Kisumi (1 of the 3 colonel's in the Imperial Army, He has Long Blonde hair and has an Elegant, Feminine look to him.)

His character was ok. His motivations made sense if not very original but I do wish they spent more time building his character. He is absent for a lot of the series and his character arc ends leaving a lot to be desired and falls kind of flat.

- Ajirada (1 of the 3 colonel's in the Imperial Army, A big man with a sophisticated yet imposing presence)

I really felt burned with Ajirada. They could have done so much more with his character. I really wish they expanded more on his back story, and there was a chance to give him a small character arc about half way through the series but for whatever reason they decided to not do it. He had the potential to be one of the most interesting characters in the show. Disappointing.

- Mekira (1 of the 3 colonel's in the Imperial Army, a Red head with short hair and a tom boyish look) Again, Another villain that left much to be desired. (do you see a pattern here?) She had an interesting back story that they could have used to explore the world outside of the Country the story takes place in but they just choose to not do anything with it. They also chose to not do much with her character either. She comes into the show late and doesn't really do much of anything. Her character arc concludes okay, but they could have done more with her.


- Kouchin (Leader of the Imperial Army, Tall and wears garbs of a Priest)

He also suffers from what the rest of the villains in this show suffer from. Not enough screen time to develop them enough. Kouchin however has even less time than the others and makes him the most boring villain of them all. His character is so text book, just like his motives. Yeah at the end we get a few reveals about him and why he's doing what he's doing but we're so disconnected from him by the end of the story that it's hard to care.

Conclusion: The villains are by far the weakest part of this Anime. They aren't utilized enough. You have a 55 episode Anime and they don't do much of anything. Or have that big of an influence on the plot itself. They tend to show up then disappear for an extended period of time which I feel really shouldn't be happening.

- Music
The Opening and the 3 Ending songs are fantastic. I loved them. They're all full of emotion and have a wonderful sound and vocals.

The insert songs themselves aren't anything special but do a good job at fitting the tone of each scene. They also borrowed one specific insert theme from Yu Yu Hakusho. They could have used more from it that I missed but I doubt it.

- Voices
The cast here all did a great job with the voices. I have no complaints. For our Main cast we have Rica Matsumoto as Fuusuke who is known for the voice of Ashe Ketchum or Satoshi from Pokemon. Megumi Hayashibara as Rihoko, who is also Lina Inverse from Slayers. Jurota Kosugi as Touji who also has voiced Asuma from Naruto, Arlong from One Piece and Jonathan Jostar from Jo Jo. Then finally we have Mitsuaki Madono as Aichou who has voiced Kon from Bleach. They are all experienced and delivered their lines amazingly.

- Art

The character designs are nothing to write home about, almost all of them have the same kind of faces aside from Fuusuke, Mekira and Kisumi. I did like though how much effort was put into Rihoko's wardrobes though. Nearly every other episode she had a new outfit for the ENTIRE run of the show. Which is impressive. Character designs overall got the job done though. They were following the Mangaka's art, so no complaints. Oh yeah, there are literally no frames in which characters look off character or goofy, which is extremely surprising.

The backgrounds, and environments are beautifully drawn. Very Colorful and vibrant. Something that only hand drawn Animation cells can achieve. I really enjoyed looking at all the lush green countrysides and towns, snowy mountains, big blue oceans and skies. Just very nice to look at. I can't praise it enough.


-Animation

The animation is fluid and there were no reused animation sequences. You can clearly tell they had a good budget with this series. The fights are well done, regular movement is well done, Vehicle movement is well done. This is just a well animated show.


- The setting
The story takes place in more of a Western setting. If I had to guess likely the early 1900's since there are planes, trains, automobiles, telephones and other kinds of early technology. The technology in this Anime is actually very consistent.You won't find anything that will break immersion here. In terms of locations you'll see everything from countrysides, deserts, islands, snowy mountains, small villages, small towns and huge cities. There's definitely a lot variety here.

- The World building
The world building is excellently done here. The people that live in it have real problems and feel like real people. We get to see how the aftermath of the War has affected these people through each episode and it really immerses you into the world and care about the people in it. Definitely the strongest point of this series was how this is handled.


- Overall enjoyment

I really enjoyed Ninku. The World was great, the main cast was great and aren't preachy like in a lot of Shonen Anime. However I do wish that there were more fights but the fights it did have were well animated and didn't drag. I also would have loved if more time was spent on developing and using the cast of villains they had as well as made the plot a bit more tight.

Overall I think this Anime is really underrated. For the World Building alone and Main cast I really recommend this. If you're a fan of Naruto it's also a treat to see where Kishimoto the author of Naruto drew a lot of his inspiration and ideas from.

If you're a fan of Shonen give this a shot but be warned this is not a battle Shonen, Characters aren't going through training arcs, tournament arcs, or getting power ups and having long dragged out battles. So if that's what you are looking for you won't get it here. However if you want a different kind of Shonen that is different from the norm I really suggest you watch this.

- Final Thoughts

It's really a shame that a show that had so much money and effort put behind it just couldn't take off the way they expected it to. Cause this Anime had great production value for its time and even had several video games and other merchandise. I'm guessing kids couldn't really connect with some of the adult themes in this Anime like they could with other shows at the time.

Ninku really is an interesting piece of work. I've never seen a Shonen Anime that made the world and characters all feel so.. well real. Truly a lost gem in my opinion even with its flaws.

In case you didn't know, Ninku was one of my first anime ever seen on TV as a child and is not that bad to be honest, the Male protagonist, Fusuke does look like a kid but he has skill, enemies tremble when they realize he is the captain of the first division, also known as Ninku No. 1

By heart Fusuke is very kind and sweet and always fights to protect his friends and for the right cause, so you grow fond of Fusuke and the other characters very easily.

the fights are quite good, comedy is well timed and overall the anime wont be a ... let down if seen.

Ninku it's a really fun and incredibly underrated series. Well-choreographed fighting scenes, awesome soundtrack, a gorgeous and colorful animation, a simple plot and with some mistakes, but still very well written and a combo of friendly, goofy and captivating characters. Ninku is awesome, seriously, I really enjoyed this anime and recently watched it for the 2nd time lol.

I think the strongest point of the series for me is the fact that they reinforce that Fuusuke is still just a little boy looking for his mother, and that even though he's strong, fights well and performs countless incredible feats, he still needs to be helped by ... others. One of the things I like most about Ninku is how awesome the character design is, while Fuusuke and his friends wear normal and casual clothes (which something really cool), the villains are all stylish. The world building is also great, the 20th century Spanish setting mixed with a bit of feudal Japan is very good and original. The dictatorial post-war scenario is also very interesting and realistic, which leads to some very tragic moments. Much more happens throughout the anime and the best part is that we will not always have a happy ending at the end of each episode, which makes the experience even more immersive. When I watched Ninku for the first time I was really surprised that they covered these themes in an anime made for a younger audience. The interaction between the characters is very good, especially between our protagonists. Their conversation is something so natural that make it seem like we're in a circle of friends listening to some nonsenses.

The anime's plot is completely different from the manga, where only a few chapters were adapted with some minor changes. Both are very episodic, but the anime has a focus, different from the manga, which the author himself admitted that he didn't really know what to do with his characters, and because of this he decided to start the story over again in the middle of the serialization, thus creating "Ninku: Second Stage". Kouji Kiriyama liked the anime so much that he even made a special chapter based on the OVA "Knife no Bohyou", which is also very good. Btw, if you're undecided about whether or not you should give Ninku a chance, I recommend starting with this OVA. It's really cool and has a awesome animation which remains consistent until the last episode of the anime.

Despite having praised it so far, I need to talk about the series' flaws and negative points. The plot has some HUGE inconveniences, with miraculous solutions that appear out of nowhere in the most crucial moments. Like characters that could have been introduced before and that only appear to help at that specific moment and nothing more. There are also some repetitive jokes that sometimes work, but more because of the reaction of the characters who are also tired of it. And we have the main villains who could have been used more, but were all left aside. Mekira, for example, had enormous potential for being a foreigner, they could have explored her past and homeland more. At least they're all cool and unique, with Kouchin being the most generic among them.

Well, I'm sure that if this had been broadcast here in Brazil along with Yu Yu Hakusho and Dragon Ball it would also have been a hit among kids. If I had watched this during my childhood, I'd be playing as Fuusuke at school and my grandma's yard every day (the clothes I wore were exactly the same as his haha).

Then that's it, I really recommend Ninku. And since my ratings are based on how much fun I personally had watching or reading something, I'll easily give Ninku a 9/10! It's one of those animes that makes me want to be a kid again. If you like a good fighting shonen, then go for it and give this series a chance, I'm sure you'll be very well rewarded.

This show is just boring, it's the very first anime I had to drop for a reason.

Story takes place in a post-war world, the main characters are part of a group of ninjas called Ninku who fought in WWI but eventually disbanded and all of them are being persecuted by a corrupt goverment. Sounds cool in paper but most of the time is about them going to one place and helping people. I like episodic/monster of the week shows like InuYasha, Ushio and Tora, etc. but unlike those, none of the minor problems felt very compelling enough to be memorable.

The bigger story also gets very ... predictible and boring with them trying to gather their other members and find some magic dragon or something. The only good thing here is the worldbuilding, with how the corrupt goverment's army is portrayed. Such a shame that this anime has nothing to do with the manga.

Another problem when compared to other shows like this, is that the characters are very one-dimensional, Fuusuke is just the happy go lucky kid, like Gon Freecs or Naruto Uzumaki would eventually be, except he doesn't really have anything that made those two interesting. The other characters are very one note. Aichou is angry, Touji is laid back and Rihoko is one of the most annoying, useless female characters in any anime, all she does is scream, and Hiroyuki is sometimes cute, that's about it. Not to mention the kinds of jokes that are repeated over and over again get old very quickly and are very unfunny (Touji's plane breaking and Hiroyuki farting.)

Being a Studio Pierrot anime, the opening and endings are amazing but that's about it. Overall it's a very bland anime that gets boring very quickly. Even Naruto, as poorly written as it is, is still more entertaining than this slog, despite being the show that inspired it. Or y'know, for something good just watch Hunter x Hunter.