Shinobi no Ittoki

I mean it's about NINJAs so of course, I gave this show at least 3 episodes to get the feel and vibe. And, it is a little disappointing, to say the least. The show and plot have the potential to be a good anime. I would even give the animation a solid pass (no cgi and doesn't distract you from the show) even though it doesn't compare to the top-budget animes. The trailer was what introduced me to the anime.

The problems:
VERY GENERIC - no real interesting characters besides the Kousetsu who has a pretty sick design and a personality that matches the show. The ... rest of the characters have very non-dynamic personalities and designs for the most part. Especially the MC, which I find to be the biggest turn-off to a show. He was a very common unrealistically nice and innocent personality. I can't stand it because well it doesn't feel real and earnest. And, he had the most basic design as well. And the rest of the characters aren't any better or unique. So I don't feel any real connections with any of the characters

PLOT - Had the potential to see how ninjas live in the modern age and show some plot between clans. Instead, it turned into a mecha suit for people who just fight because why the hell not? You can replace the word ninja with fighters and the show would not be any different. Nothing to do with stealth, missions, techniques, or any of that sort. The only stealth or disguise are ninjas pretending to have other jobs.

IDK, I just feel like this was not well-written and too basic. Like I could have made a better story with just the common knowledge of ninjas as a middle schooler. Nothing of the show screams ninja. Wish they put more thought into the show and had better characters for a show that could have been a unique anime for the season...

During the first episode of *Shinobi no Ittoki*, future ninja clan leader Ittoki is approached by a female classmate named Tsubaki and asked out on a date, which culminates in him being invited up to her room where she dresses scantily and tries to seduce him (keep in mind, they’re in middle school). When Ittoki rebukes her attempts, he plays it off like some kind of joke and nervously chuckles as he checks under her bed to see ninjas lying in wait to kill him. They attack and cut his face, but even with this having just happened, he asks what kind of prank she’s ... pulling. It turns out that she was indeed on a mission to end him, and after being rescued by childhood friend Kousetsu and his uncle Tokisada, Ittoki is told by his mother Yumika that he is to be the next legitimate heir of the Iga Clan of ninjas. This, by every odds-defying and implausible circumstance, catches Ittoki off-guard.

*Shinobi no Ittoki* is a masterclass in how to ruthlessly tank the viability of a main character, or a series as a whole, in the first twenty-four minutes. The show’s universe establishes that the way of the ninja has lasted all the way through to the modern day, and that they have managed to weave themselves into companies and other corporate megastructures in order to blend more seamlessly into everyday life. For a layperson who does not know any better, this is certainly very surprising information to learn and opens the door to an entire underworld they never knew of.

The catch is that as presented within the show, the expositing of information clashes horribly. To begin with, there is no justifiable reason for Ittoki to not be privy to this information his mother tells him about. Gymnastics is evidently something that Ittoki is gifted for, although the various stunts that he pulls when trying to get to cram school and dodge a truck that nearly hits him certainly seem on par with ninjutsu instead of the parallel bars or pommel horse. As far as his physical dexterity is concerned, there is no cause for alarm. But as far as his place within the Iga Clan, what logic could there possibly be in Yumika leaving your son, the legitimate heir to your Clan, in the dark as to what is happening?

Even if the narrative wanted to operate under the assumption that Ittoki’s father and Yumika were doing their best to keep Ittoki “protected” from the Iga Clan lifestyle, the fact that the rival Clan that tried to kill Ittoki (the Kouga) had been causing problems “recently” should have raised an alarm somehow. Rather than actually keep her son protected by telling him earlier of his secret lineage (instead insisting that Ittoki not go out with Tsubaki without adequately explaining why), she waited until he nearly got killed and he was shocked at the numerous revelations. Instead, by having the first episode waffling around with the “crush” going on between Ittoki and Tsubaki, it only succeeds in making Ittoki seem too woefully out of his element. It’s to such an extent that one could reasonably call him “inept.” This inability to handle worldbuilding, character building, and expositing is a recurring problem that *Shinobi no Ittoki* never properly rectifies.

This problem also unfortunately weaves its way into Ittoki being a pallidly conceived and developed main character, which manifests in the anime’s primary throughline in two ways; firstly, the show tracks Ittoki’s growth by sending him and Kousetsu to Ninja Academy. From here, the show adopts an approach most-similar to schooltime slice-of-life, meeting friends and going to class. Considering that the Kouga’s presence and influence in the school is already widespread, Ittoki’s allies are few and is left alone even-moreso than he might have been otherwise to learn about ninjutsu training. Because of his character nature as a well-intentioned bumbler, he reads as incompetent-at-best and stupid-at-worst, especially when everyone else already knows many of the basics of ninjutsu.

Not helping is that his biggest ally, Kousetsu, seems to spend more time chastising him than earnestly helping him. This shouldn’t really come as much of a surprise; Ittoki’s family did an abysmal job of introducing him to the world of ninjutsu, so to expect their son who has a target on his back to all of a sudden “get with the program” is laughable. If Ittoki’s survival is so important, it begs the question of why they would send him to a ninja school full of strangers and where the Kouga are more entrenched. Considering that the Iga Clan’s village is not exactly the smallest location, and that the members most likely need to keep their skills honed, was there no alternative to the school option? Ittoki’s inability to understand the basics of what’s going on, coupled with the Clan’s decision to ship him off to a more-unsafe location, makes following him as an outsider terribly unengaging at the fundamental level.

If there is one feature of this show’s universe that exacerbates this problem, it’s Ninja Gear. Part of what makes ninjutsu an intriguing form of martial arts is the ability to train one’s body to the point where quickness and espionage are the dominating factors rather than the sheer brawn of other arts. *Shinobi no Ittoki*, in its effort to make ninjutsu more relevant to the modern day, opts to give every one of its major characters science-fiction oriented Ninja Gear. Naturally, Ittoki does not know what this is, and Kousetsu curtly insults him and leaves him stuck with his Ninja Gear motionless in their first real exam.

As a result, Ninja Gear’s inclusion actually impedes itself into the sense of drama that the show is attempting to convey. Tension during the course of the “Academy Arc” is less about physical and mental dexterity against your opponent because it now has to involve hoping that the Ninja Gear worn by Ittoki does not malfunction or get damaged. The consequence is that ninjutsu as a martial art feels stunningly demystified, something that’s portrayed as quaint and that just about anybody could learn if they shill out enough money for Ninja Gear and train their bodies a little. Compounding the problem is that Ninja Gear is not merely present here, but makes appearances throughout the rest of the show. Nearly everyone has one.

But Ninja Gear’s inclusion does help bring the other characters and the larger-overarching plot into the fold, which transitions to the second way Ittoki’s character doesn’t work; the cast of characters and story he surrounds himself with or gets involved in are not interesting on their own either. He therefore has nothing that he can earnestly bounce off of to contribute to his growth. Each student comes to the Ninja Academy for their own purposes, whether it be for revenge or otherwise, but none progresses in a way that’s gradual or meaningful. Events in the plot happen with little buildup or substantive foreshadowing (if not downright-flimsy logic), leaving larger events devoid of characterization or gripping implication. Whether it involves betrayal, reconciliations, or revelations that are supposed to change the status quo, the characters undergo change because the story says or claims that they have done so, mostly (since Kisegawa is an exception) in lieu of being able to witness and experience that change for ourselves.

And Ittoki embodies this aspect the worst of all. By the time the series is over, Ittoki’s self-assuredness in himself and his own potential feels completely undeserved. His growth is spurned more by the power of friendship rather than truly undertaking the journey of coming into his own as a ninja and joining the Iga Clan proper. Given the extent of battle or actions sequences that occur in the show starting from the “Academy Arc” onwards, this undeserved sensation rings pointedly true. Ittoki, by the time the series is over and the climax has arrived, inspires no confidence either as a ninja or as a thoughtful, calculating leader. The reason being that it’s as though the narrative suddenly decided that he was a completely new character altogether from how he was first presented, capable and shouldering the burdens placed upon him. We see the endpoints, but not the trail. The exposition from episode one never properly oriented Ittoki in the story, and the result is that it makes his moments of rising up read as vaporous.

Perhaps all of this could be forgiven if the aesthetic of the series was adequate, but it cannot succeed there, either. There are a handful of decent explosions or uses of set pieces, yet the color palette employed is oddly washed-out, and the attempts to be darker and brooding as it leans more into the science-fiction conspiratorial technology plot don’t work. Between being musically unadventurous and not succeeding in either or its dramatic or comedic portrayals due to the weak characterization, *Shinobi no Ittoki* feels devoid of an identity. The series does not know what it wants to be, but the writing makes the mistake of thinking that doing a little of everything translates to a grand story.

I know that I have been particularly critical of this series, but I do not want to be completely cruel to it, either. I surmise that the ultimate fault with the series comes down to one factor more than any other: the series composition was handled by Takano Minato, and this was their very first credit for working on an anime. Make no mistake; writing for television is hard, and especially considering that *Shinobi no Ittoki* is an original work as opposed to an adaptation of a larger-scale work, she was, to use a phrase, essentially thrown into the lion’s den. It’s impossible to know how much of what transpired in the writing was her idea versus someone else involved in production insisting on working certain element in. Alas, the writing as presented is awash with abysmal character and worldbuilding, a slumbering exercise that moves through plot moments without strong thread to connect them all.

I hope Minato gets a better chance soon, because *Shinobi no Ittoki* is a mess.

We’ve been blessed with quite a few good to great anime original series in this decade so far, ranging from Odd Taxi, to Lycoris Recoil, and even Do it Yourself this anime season. I suppose this is a grim reminder that not every single original can be done at an elite level, but even so, this show was quite the abhorrent showing, oozing of generic storytelling, mixed with a lot of contrivances, questionable ideas, and very inconsistent character writing. I’m not one to lambast things often, but this show needs to have its fair grilling.

STORY:

You’ll see this in the synopsis already, but essentially, Ittoki, the ... main protagonist, is just living his daily life, although heavily surveyed by his mom, Kousetsu, his childhood friend, and Tokisada, his uncle. Someone called Tsubaki tries to seduce him and kill him in the process, but he is protected by ninjas? The shocking truth is then revealed that he is the supposed heir to the Iga ninja clan, and to train up at a ninja academy immediately. The moment I found out an academy would be involved, I just rolled my eyes and waited for Ittoki to probably get a harem, and to gain insane levels of plot armour. Did that necessarily happen? Not exactly, but the plot got more disappointing to me than that.

Turns out, the ninjas aren’t your typical ninjas, with the jumping, the shurikens, the mental dexterity, but instead, “ninjas” are powered by ninja gear, something resembling mechs. I thought this show was about ninjas! Yep, with ninja gear, you can be a ninja whenever you feel like it, how about we just don’t train at all? Then what was the academy even for, to learn how to beep boop beep boop and press buttons???

Honestly, this show just doesn’t have any sort of identity, it’s simply a story about “ninja” wars, with contrived plot twists, or twists that had NO prior build up to it. It even sort of gave up and just gave us a beach episode in the middle of the series. “Hey Ittoki, which of us is hotter?” Imagine if anyone even cared to discuss that.

ART:

The animation was not very impressive overall, very bland and boring. The character designs for the most part were generic, perhaps only Kousetsu had the passable design.

MUSIC:

Except for the ED which is fine, the OP and the soundtrack are very bland as well. Just a poor showing of audiovisual direction overall.

CHARACTERS:

Needless to say, the characters were also very laughable and not memorable at all. Ittoki is your typical dumb protagonist, with a sense of justice and morality I bet no one else would even care about, and did I mention he was kind of dumb? He’s constantly out of the loop, whether it’s with the ninja gear, or the knowledge of ninjas in general. So why didn’t y’all just tell him about the ninjas from the very beginning if he’s the heir of the Iga clan? Now this poor child has to figure it out all on his own with that brain of his.

Now to the girls. Ryouko is just kind of there, the cutesy girl who knows all the academy stuff, and of course ends up liking Ittoki. Kirei is also just kind of there, with some twists and turns of her own. Kousetsu is also just there, though the ED would signal she has a bit more depth to her character.

Now to the villains. LOL, imagine the political discourse was actually interesting. Yeah, I’m going to be honest, I forgot who the villains were. Some bozo from the Koga clan or something. Not even going to discuss this.

ENJOYMENT:

It really had potential, but not only was it rushed, any sort of twist wasn’t very well done.

THEMATIC EXECUTION:

Like I said, these ninjas aren’t really even ninjas, so any sort of ninja theme was a failure. There were some weird rules around the “way of the ninja”, and they say that rules are meant to be broken, but yeah, there weren’t any real rules were there? Any sort of romance was a waste of time as well.

OVERALL:

Probably one of my least favourite anime from this entire year, as this was not only generic, but thoroughly contrived, uninteresting, and the entire premise of ninjas was squandered by horrid ideas. There is nearly nothing to praise here at all, and I’m glad my watching of this has come to an end.

Oh, and did I mention Ittoki is not a good ninja? Don’t remember if I did.

MC is deliberately kept in the dark about his situation for no good reason, and his "childhood friend" bodyguard interacts exclusively in passive-aggressive comments, insults, and violence. The entire show consists of MC being clueless, being attacked for reasons beyond his comprehension, then everyone around him insulting him for not knowing what's going on.

Apparently MAL wants me to add more information to this review now, since it apparently abhors brevity. So I'll point out that the writing continues to get worse as time goes on, with each episode only adding weight to the weak foundations the show has been built on. At no point ... does anyone actually explain anything to MC, and there is a (Albeit relatively short) time skip and everything after he goes to school!

I have no idea how this show is about Ninja?

Shitty world building with silly characters especially the Kakashi girl, and why there's no Sharingan?

Useless MC, surrounding by beautiful girls

It can be worse than Boruto,
+
I really don't understand the point of the Mecha suit? seriously
If you trying to build a Ninja world don't ever use make-up shits like this, It should relevant to the Ninja culture
... The show can be good without it

I dropped it after the 4th ep, I really enjoyed the animation of the show, but there is no point in the story...

Watch only to waste time, or if u look for med-Sakuga

Story: 1
OST: 0
Chars: 3
Animation: 10

5 episodes in and my first impression still has not changed at all. The concept of this show is exhilarating and unique, ninjas and their role in the modern world. However, it was a complete disappointment that these so-called "ninjas" are just bulky Power Rangers that look like absolute jokes. On top of that, it's just completely generic and none of the characters (with the exception of Kousetsu) really stand out and just feel like overgeneralised tropes.

The main problem with this anime's cast is the MC, Sakuraba Ittoki. He's demonstrated to be idealistic, optimistic, and nice, the problem is that none of these traits resemble ... that of a ninja's. This causes him to say some of the cheesiest things out of context and makes the viewer want to look away in embarrassment (I had to do that a couple times, unfortunately).

To further talk about the story of this anime, the concept is something we haven't really seen before, but it's absolutely awful that all the ninja talk is really never used as anything more than a marketing ploy to catch your eye. You could literally change the "ninja" in the title to any other fighting-related career and nothing would be changed at all.

TLDR; It's nothing special, just a very generic and boring anime that pretends to be about ninjas. Maybe that will change in the remaining 7 episodes, but I wouldn't bet on it.

i enjoyed the first episode but after that it went down hill for me its extremely bland and predictable.

Scores are 0-10 (10 being very good and 0 being very bad)

Animation 5/10 looks ok nothing flashy but still clean and easy to watch.

Plot 5/10 cool plot idea but poorly executed and will get very boring after the first couple of episodes.

setting 4/10 its a school nothing new or inventive.

... characters 4/10 very dry and cookie cutter


Conclusion
I would skip this anime unless you really like ninja school anime after the first 2 episodes you will lose interest.

A warning to those who hate when characters make stupid decisions. All the characters, although some are likable, have one major flaw. They are dumb. The plot only moves forward due to the characters making dumb choices and/or following dumb rules that this world has.

The world could have been interesting but those elements are skipped over in one or two episodes.

Should you watch the show or not? It really depends on your patience level, as I said, before the worst part of the show is the character stupidity, and the rules that the world is based on that are terrible and make no ... sense. Characters continually lie to each other, and no one suspects.

Also, I do not forgive the last episode that pulls the - there was a secret stuff happening all this time behind the scenes - trope.

After reading the synopsis and watching the trailer I was interested in seeing if Shinobi no Ittoki is going to bring something fresh or remotely interesting to the table.

Unfortunately after the first 4 episodes the show has yet to give us an actual reason for its existence. It starts off fine with the first episode introducing us to the MC and some of the supporting characters as well as the conflict at hand. Instead of building up more on the ninja clans lore and introducing an intriguing premise, the MC gets sent into a generic school setting, but with ninja activities. Honestly I wouldn't have ... had a problem with that if the protagonist was even remotely interesting. He is extremely generic and bland that even a bystander can outshine him in terms of personality. The saving grace of the show for now is the supporting cast and a behind the scenes conflict that is slowly brewing. If the show builds up on that it might become pretty enjoyable, but for now it's just too mediocre and uninspired for me to recommend. Who knows, it might end on a high note, but I highly doubt it.

This anime come in league with "Happy Sugar Life". The Character developments of the character is none. The MC is a pussy and a true believer of talk-no-jutsu. Basically there no background story for any character just a minute of introduction. there are many anime which have outdone themselves in 12 episodes but this anime is a piece of shit not a piece but whole anime.
The plot could have been great with the side character like his uncle. the maker choose not to such a shame




Antagonist : 10/10
MC : -10/10
Animation : 8/10
Story : ... -10/10
Side character: 2/10

Not at all recommended. Go ahead if you want to waste your time.
Recommended for masochistic.

I never wanted to mention this but,
Here we go.

Main issue in my opinion is character and story is quite bland I feel like cold in mind
Especially Ittoki as you can see he is to nice that got me not interest mode.
Also don't remember well but, when he transfer to ninja school with no experience
I m like ha or what is this suppose to mean.
Also first 3 episode I was very unsure.
Sound is good and art is very average.
I think the developers should took their time to do the story part but
... unfortunate it did not go well and not well written.
End of the day this is my rating
Story 2/10
Character 2/10
Sound 7/10
Art 5/10
I would save my time watch something else.

Episode 8, 12:28. I have unfortunately died of cringe... Some of the cringe throughout the show was bearable, but I reached a breaking point and had to drop... rip
The beginning episodes were fine, just some stupid fun with decent action. Pretty basic, but can still be enjoyable. Some lackluster villains and basic characters, but EVERY one of them had some kinda tragic heavy backstory. They never feel relatable and they end up just value signaling all the time. Maybe watching the show without sound could work? Plot elements often feel convenient and annoying too :(
There are too many characters, because this show throws a bunch ... of different parallel story elements at the viewer, so everything is rushed and their conclusions never feel satisfying. The characters, even the main ones, end up only having one distinguishable trait (i.e. 1-Dimensional).

At first, I was excited about the new ninja anime with excellent animation, and yes the first couple of episodes were exciting and promising. That concludes everything good about the anime. Now let us talk for real. isn't the I am a good guy that will forgive anyone no matter what they did and I won't kill people -even tho what I do death and killing is normal- trope is just really really dull and cringy and is hard to see, I can't really remember last time I saw an mc like that that I actually enjoyed watching. So the mc is terrible and what ... next.
This anime is another example of a story that is really promising but falls short because of lazy writing and an mc that I wish never existed. The ending was rushed and had the omg even tho the situation is like very very very very bad somehow stuff is working out fantastically with a sudden power up yeeeeh. NO like why just why, this is an anime original so people didn't give their thoughts on it before the anime but like cant the producers and the writers see that it is lacking in every single way and form. Honestly, it has such a cool premise at first and one cool ass clip but that is just it.
Disappointing ......

I was hopeful and excited about this anime before it released. Ninjas? Awesome! Ninja school? Even better!

.......too bad it fails to generate any excitement from episode to episode. I'm about to watch the 8th episode and it still has not shown much of anything worth continuing to watch this series. There is almost zero action......at all. What action that is shown is very brief and boring.

The "ninja suits" might sound like a cool theme, but they look stupidly bad, the appearance is the same as one another, and still has not shown much difference in capabilities despite being told that there can be differences ... in abilities.

As much talking as there has been in this anime, and that's 99.999% of the show, it somehow still does not not make me care too much about the characters or the plot. I'm generally the type of person who doesn't mind lots of dialogue..........but it at least has to be interesting dialogue.

The characters themselves just feel uninspiring, if not odd. You have your MC whose personality is bland as a wooden board, the masked girl(who is also bland)..........a bunch of grandpas and grandmas wearing ninja suits(just feels weird seeing the elders be ninjas)........and the predictable bad guy that is evident from the first episode.

This is not a good anime and unless there's at least 24 episodes to build up to something, I would suggest you hard pass on it.

Shinobi no ittoki is yet another bland and uninspired anime original from Troyca with characters equal parts annoying and one dimensional. While it does take a somewhat interesting turn towards the end, it ultimately fails to consistently pick up any steam and ends as one of the more forgettable shows of the year.

I generally have a low bar to pass in terms of anime pleasing me. I can tolerate a lot of things that many people can not and find most things enjoyable, but I just could not get with the MC of this series at all. From the very first episode, I damn near ... wanted to throw my shoe at the screen. The titular Ittoki is a whiny, annoying and entitled brat who makes you want to root for the bad guys just by virtue of how dumb he is. His mom and the other side characters were the best parts of the show and that’s not saying much at all considering how bland they were.

The story itself is simple enough. Very predictable up until about episode 9 or so when a major plot twist tried to shake things up, but by that point I was so over the show I didn’t really care what happened to the characters. I think if Troyca had made the MC go from the whiny brat to capable quicker it would have helped the story tremendously. Instead, what we ended up with is one of the more mediocre shows in recent memory.

The Animation is OK at best. For a show about Ninjas, there was surpassingly little good ninja action scenes. If anything, the show leans much heavier into the political aspects of the Ninja world, which would be ok if you had interesting characters, but as these were not, it did not land very well with me.

Overall, I would say Shinobi no Ittoki is definitely a show you can pass on. It doesn’t do much of anything correctly other than introduce a couple of waifus and fail to properly flesh them out. There’s better shows out there from a stacked Fall 2022.

Shinobi no Ittoki gets 5 Ninja cores out of 10.

My Score: 4/10.

What I Liked: The character development of our MC was handled well, the ending few episodes really was a lot good than the starting and the middle episodes, the plot was good.

What I didn't like: other characters should also have been treated well, in their roles and development, which could have made this series more enjoyable.

Overall Opinion: The story at the end was good and meaningful and it made a lot of sense, the art style and animation was decent, more development/screen time should have been given to other characters also which would have made this series good. The starting and the middle ... episodes were the downfall if it was improved then the series would be a lot better. The action shown was less, but if it had been improved it would have a better ninja feel. But the overall season was decent for me.

This show starts out decent like any other show, but like in the last episodes around after episode 5 this gets extremely boring. I actually forced myself to finish this. The story is decent but dragged out. Please don't watch this. This show is too bad and predictable. The characters had no depth in them. I guarantee that you will hate this show. The only reason I watched this was that it was a ninja story like naruto but this doesn't even come close to it and it is not a ninja show. The only good part about this show is its fighting, it is ... decent.

I will keep it short and straightforward. It starts off with a pretty standard and ok premise which made me actually go on to continue to watch this show. BUT, later on, it becomes an absolute clusterf*ck. What I think is the biggest problem is that the show tries to make some game of thrones intrigue plays which doesn't work at all. The characters make some overcomplicated plots just for the sake of the "aha I knew it all" moment which doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
Additionally, I have to say that worldbuilding is not only purely lacking but not present at all.

Maybe if the ... show had more episodes and had more time to develop the plot, world and characters it would've been worth a peak. But like this... I can't really recommend it.

One Word to describe the anime : "Cringe",
Cringe MC, cringe protagonist, cringe antagonist, cringe plot, cringe battle scene, cringe everything.

It was interesting to have some brand new action anime with a lot of deaths, but I just dropped it because the MC's personality is so annoying. This anime would be much better if it having badass characters, badass battle scenes, and badass death scenes. Really dissapointing that the creator of this anime didn't have any courage to did that.

You cannot create a harem with the cringes, Sir. If you think you successfuly create it with the cringes, then your harem or your audience ... is cringe too. You want to create a cringe generation of audience or something???

TLDR: started with a premise full of potential, ended with a whimper.

I really tried with this one. I did. By the last 3 episodes I was just waiting for it to be over. The writing was terrible. I watched the dub so depending on how the dialogue was adapted the sub experience may be different, but I doubt it will make it a much better show. If you are considering watching this anime, give it the 3 episode test and if you are unsure about proceeding, stop there. It will not get better, only worse.

The show has possible art and animation. Do not expect ... the sound to be much better, though it was also barely adequate. The dub was pretty good, I felt like most of the voices matched the characters, though I felt some were phoning it in a few times here and there.