Ninja Slayer From Animation

Wasshoi! Domo. Ming desu. Yeeart! Heh. First they gave us a pirate hunter who hunts pirates (looking at you Roronoa Zero). Then they have assassins hunting down other assassins (looking at you flower shop guys in Weiss Kreuz). And now we have a ninja who hunts down other ninjas in the name of revenge. Ah yes. Ninja Slayer From Animation from the looks of it sounds like some sort of mishmash of the old ninja ways mixed with the futuristic cyberpunk style about an ordinary salaryman left for dead but given a second chance to become a ninja and goes on a relentless quest to kill all ninjas in hopes of finding that very ninja responsible for his wife and child’s murder. So whether you’re an innocent ninja or not, too bad. It is collective punishment. You’re a ninja, you die. Well, initially I didn’t really want to watch this anime seeing that perhaps ninja action isn’t my personal preference. But after seeing the final words on the synopsis… “Ninja Slayer takes on the ninjas in mortal combat”… OMG… My favourite game… MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!! (Trying to imitate that annoying but catchy techno sound effect of that song).

Episode 1
Kenji Fujikido is left for dead. He is about to be killed by a couple of ninjas when he revives and starts beating the crap out of them! He doesn’t care if they are ninjas or what, he just kills them! YEEART!!! Because you are ninja, you die!!! Later he remembers about himself. A spectre named Naraku Ninja appears before him and mentions that he is a ninja that kills ninja. Fujikido has been given a chance to join his revenge quest as Ninja Slayer. He agrees because he remembers ninjas killed his wife and son. The Soukaiya organization with its cross katana emblem is the one responsible for his family’s death. They think they are the strongest and kill people as they wish. Now they shall pay. Fujikido then faces off with another ninja. Realizing he is from Soukaiya, he goes into killing mode. Not even the enemy can land a scratch on him! Of course when word reaches the big bad boss of Soukaiya, Laomoto Khan he wants him eliminated.

Episode 2
Arson from Soukaiya disrupts some illegal exchange with thugs to show them their place. Then he gets back into his limo which is being driven by Fujikido. When he realizes this isn’t the real driver, Fujikido drives the limo to smash it into a building. Nobody is dead yet. Now they’re both out and ready to fight. YEEART!!! Long story short, Arson gets killed. Then a blimp starts shooting missiles at him. Since Fujikido dodges them, Laomoto’s patience is getting thin so the blimp driver unleashes another ninja with jet packs and technology to deal with Fujikido. Ninja Slayer is defeated so Naraku mocks his pathetic state. Fujikido will not be down yet so Naraku possesses half of him to revive and kick ass, defeating both the hi-tech ninja and the blimp. Laomoto is certainly not pleased. Fujikido is found by this black guy on a jet ski. Perhaps he was so intimidated by this ninja, he quickly takes him to the nearest doctor as ordered and promises to change over a new leaf and even convert into Buddhism. Karma? You reap what you sew.

Episode 3
Koki Yamoto is about to get killed while her friend, Asari is about to get rapped. An apparition named Shi Ninja appears before her to give her the necessary powers. She revives and kills those thugs. At school, they notice another fellow high school student, Shougo Maguchi beating up and killing a local gang causing trouble. Although he is taken in by the cops. But he is bailed out by this guy who is willing to take the blame for his crimes. When Shougo lets his guard down, this guy transforms into his true form and beats him up. He is Sonic Boom, one of the 6 ninjas of Soukai Six Gates. He gives him a choice to join the syndicate or die here. Shougo is then visited by this spirit, Punk Ninja who wants to give him powers. But Shougo wants to die but he is not allowed to do so. Yamoto teaches cocky bullies their place as she ponders who similar Shougo is to her. Shougo manages to scrap through beating all those small fries. Sonic Boom hands him his new nickname, Suicide and also now he will be his godfather. For his first mission, his target is this female ninja, Yamoto. Seems they both tried to commit suicide. Somehow they both survived as they both possessed Ninja Soul. The funny thing is that they both became ninjas and also transferred into the same high school.

Episode 4
While Yamoto is hanging out with her friends, she notices Shougo. She knows he is looking for her. Shougo still can’t believe all that has happened especially she turned into a ninja too. He warns her about Soukaiya trying to force her to join or death. That is when Sonic Boom arrives to persuade her to join the syndicate because there is nowhere else she can go. After all, she killed her own parents. Shougo can’t take this sh*t anymore and holds back Sonic Boom to let Yamoto escape. Shougo is beaten up badly and the reason he doesn’t want Yamoto to become like him is because she is different and has friends. After Yamoto lets her friends escape, she stays back to settle things. She transforms into her ninja version. Sonic Boom notices she is the psychic type but will show her that karate types are the best ninjas. She loses when Sonic Boom and his agents overwhelm here. But have no fear, Ninja Slayer is here. He knows all about Sonic Boom as he is on his target list. Time to fight. YEEART!!! With Yamoto’s giant origami move, Sonic Boom is finally defeated. Fujikido finds out she did this all by herself although they attacked her first. Naraku then wants Fujikido to kill her because she is a ninja. Fujikido won’t do it as he is going to fulfil his own goals and not his greedy desire. He lets Yamoto escape before anything bad happens. Yamoto returns to Asari who is glad to see she is safe. But Yamoto says her goodbye as she thinks staying put will bring her more trouble but promises to protect her always.

Episode 5
A narration about some poor chap, Shigaki who lost his right arm in some company accident and replaced with a bulky and old cybernetic arm. But it costs him a lot to maintain it so when he heard some sort of a job, he wants in. Meanwhile Fujikido is fresh off killing another ninja, Bandit. Laomoto is discussing with some guy that some tofu company is refusing purchase of their clone yakuza. Because of that, Laomoto will initiate attack. Dark Ninja reports Bandit is missing but Laomoto says the mission cannot be delayed and give mission orders to Beholder instead. Beholder rallies disgruntled ex-employees of this tofu company to go against them. Shigaki is one of them. Since their drink is drugged, they become enraged and violent as they storm into the factory. Shigaki fights his way into the main office and after disposing the executives, he thinks he can retire from this violent life with this money. He will also change his cybernetic arm to the latest one as he can’t control its strength. When Beholder praises his work, Shigaki fears he is from Soukai Yakuza and begs to be let off the hook. But Beholder hypnotizes him to be his subordinate. That is when Fujikido enters the scene to attack Beholder but Shigaki protects him and is thrown away. Beholder’s ability is to freeze time but Fujikido is able to break free. This ability is circumvented when Fujikido walks backwards! Moonwalking? He beats the crap out of Beholder to make him spill details about the Soukai Six Gates. Before he can get information out of the ninja who killed his family, Dark Ninja kills him off. Fujikido goes to engage him in midair combat.

Episode 6
Laomoto is pleased the clones can defeat organisms but cannot defeat ninjas because it will be troublesome if ninjas turn against him. So he sends his Soukai Six Gates men, Huge Shuriken to join Earthquake to set fire on Dragon Dojo. While Shuriken arm twists (more like finger breaking) people for the dojo’s location, he bumps into Ninja Slayer. He barely escapes with his life and rendezvous with Earthquake. Fujikido is hot on their tail and initiates attack but is defeated by Hellkite. The Soukai Six Gates duo barge into Dragon Dojo, the last place where real ninjas exists. The leader is Dragon Gendousou and Yukano is his granddaughter. Shuriken initiates a sneak attack to kill the other ninjas. Although Yukano slashes him, she becomes Earthquake’s hostage. Ninja Slayer barges in for his revenge. He is partially possessed by Naraku. Flashback reveals Naraku mocking him for another pathetic display. His sweet words convinced Fujikido to let him take over. Although Fujikido manages to regain himself back, he cannot defeat Earthquake and resigns to his fate. Gendousou won’t give up and teaches him some ninja lesson. In lightning speed, they throw a thousand shurikens to kill him. Fujikido wonders why he saved him twice. He saw some glow in his soul which is fated to rise to the top of Kinkaku Temple. He will guide him there. However Shuriken shoots and paralyzes Gendousou with some anti-ninja virus. The place is then set on fire with a massive atomic explosion! Fujikido takes Gendousou and runs as fast as he could.

Episode 7
Detective wannabe Nancy Lee is trying to investigate somebody. She gets shocked when she sees his dead body in a room. She is then attacked and bitten by a poisonous snake belonging to Cockatrice. He knows all about her because her tipoff is in the hands of Soukaiya. Before he could question her, here comes Fujikido to fight him. Cockatrice is confident his giant snakes as his arms would constrict and end the game but Fujikido destroys them and sends him to hell. He gives Nancy an antidote and tells her to give up playing detective. Seek asylum somewhere else and do not underestimate the syndicate. He leaves without answering her question. She believes that the word ‘Tanuki’ written by the dead guy would lead her to the truth as she continues her mission. Fujikido is resting at some shrine when he is startled by the appearance of its old keeper, Tomihide Sugawarano. Fujikido hopes he would forget seeing him but Sugawarano assures he will not report him because he believes he is not a bad person. He then shows him his family photo. His wife died and his son who failed some exam left and is now working in some cosmetics company. Although he sends money back, he wishes he could spend time with him. As he didn’t want to bother him, he eventually gave up. The small talk ends as Fujikido excuses himself.

Episode 8
Nancy and Fujikido team up to take down a yakuza clone factory. After disposing the yakuza clones and sneaking inside, they are shocked to see the clones inside the tubes. Nancy’s plan is to install some virus and steal some information on Tanuki. Before she can proceed, she is kidnapped by Forest who wants to make her his wife. Fujikido thinks he is from Soukaiya but he explains he was a security personnel of this plant and just quit his job. The reason why security is lax is because Forest dispatched them all. The duo still fight but before Fujikido can nail the finishing blow, Forest is collected by Frogman. He then faces off with Disturbed and Notorious. After Nancy does her bit, she returns to help fight them. Frogman collects his comrades before they could finish them off. They claims they are bio-ninja test subjects. They are sick of taking orders from those weak scientists. That is why they’ll quit their jobs to obtain true freedom. They will be called Survivor Dojo. Fujikido wants the data Nancy has as promised for the virus cure but she has to analyze it first.

Episode 9
Fujikido thinks he cannot trust Nancy as he believes she is only using him to further her own agenda. She disagrees. It’s just that she has a run of bad luck. He has no choice but to trust her as Nancy is able to dive into the virtual world to get some information to get into some building. Then there is this Daedalus who keeps infiltrating the cyber space despite Nancy always kicks him out. But multiple logins has her cornered. Even though they have been traced, Fujikido is able to kill the yakuza clones. The duo make some headway and enter the building. Forest and Notorious are also here but they noticed some other team is already here before them and have to move fast if they are to get some bio-ingot to make some infinite energy so they can fight forever without the need to resupply. Fujikido hooks Nancy up to the internet again. She manages to get some password and back out before they get crushed by some net trap.

Episode 10
Deep inside the building, Nancy hooks up to the mainframe. Forest and Notorious have arrived. Seeing Nancy lying defenceless on the ground, they are cautious this may be a trap. Forest got distracted by her defenceless boobs and that is when Fujikido kicks in. Then he fights Notorious and finally kills him. Forest fights him but realizing he is no match, he retreats. Meanwhile Nancy is facing off with Daedalus and his clones. Every time he comes back, Nancy disposes of him. It’s never ending. I don’t know what this alien dude wants but all I can think off this guy is sexually harassing her and wants to f*ck her! Just when Nancy is overwhelmed with all the clones, suddenly Fujikido appears to save the day. I don’t know what technique he used to dive into the virtual world without even hooking up but with the duo’s might, Daedalus is no match and is finally defeated. Nancy then hooks up to the final room. She has 1 minute to enter the correct password and an error means death. She thinks it is Tanuki but something inside her hesitates. When she hears her ex-informant’s voice, she calms down and realizes the hint to the password: Furinkazan. Fujikido is amazed she is able to go this far for her beliefs. She thanks him and the rest of those who helped out. This makes Fujikido question himself if revenge is all he seeks. Because right now he wants to save Nancy and Gendousou.

Episode 11
Fujikido brings the antidote to Yukano. Suddenly the place is ambushed by Dark Ninja. Seems Fujikido didn’t realize he had been tailed. Dark Ninja is here to kill him as he has become a threat too large for Soukaiya to ignore. Dark Ninja is clearly superior and whatever tricks Fujikido does, it is easily overcome. Before Fujikido gets killed, Gendousou revives to fight Dark Ninja. However from the way he says things, the old fart is going to sacrifice himself. And he did just that. And he just got cured… Fujikido is left to reminisce about his family when Dark Ninja’s familiar killing stance has him remember that he is the bugger who killed his family! Now he is mad. Naraku coaxes him to give his body and he shall have his revenge. However Gendousou tells him not to listen. He must not let the Ninja Soul master over him. He must draw out his own Ninja Soul the right way. Gendousou’s last word is to take care of Yukano for him. Fujikido revives and breaks Dark Master’s sword. And with a ridiculous amount of YEEART super punches (GWAAARGH!!!!), Fujikido is able to defeat Dark Ninja. But reinforcements arrive so Fujikido has no choice but to escape.

Episode 12
Lobster just killed off some guy who killed off another guy for doing something. Nancy has been caught and tied up in bondage style. Of course Fujikido is here to save the day and slays Lobster to save Nancy. He didn’t stay around to hear her thanks. Meanwhile Dark Ninja still lives. The moment he revives, he starts killing and burns down the ship he was recuperating in. Then he meets Master Tortoise who gives him his broken sword that he retrieved during the last fight. He was also the one who rescued him. He tells Dark Ninja to see Thunder Forge to forge his sword. No other blacksmith will do. A mad scientist picks up Lobster’s pincher and vows revenge on Ninja Slayer. Once again, Nancy is kidnapped (bondage position again?) as bait for Lobster (now a talking pincher?) to lure Fujikido. Of course he comes and fights off the yakuza clones as well. To his shock, Lobster is fused with the scientist who is hell bent on his revenge. But Fujikido kills him off. This time he feels guilty for getting involved. She warns him about a man’s revenge which could be deadlier than a ninja’s revenge.

Episode 13
A punk goes on a shooting spree. He is killed off by Silver Karasu who then takes a picture of his corpse. What about innocent witnesses? Kill her. Out of bullets? No problem. Cut her head off! He returns to his employer, Warai Jii-san who is very happy with his work. Silver Karasu is some sort of vigilante for hire killing petty criminals caught in the act. This is how he makes his living. When not donning his silver armour, he goes by the name of Tanaka Kagi. While doing his laundry, he meets Yamoto and they speak for a while before he leaves. Shortly, Nutscracker from Soukaiya comes in to kill Yamoto. Obviously she is not match for him. Kagi returns to kill the ninja. Flashback shows the doctor told him that he has not long to live because of some black spots invading his lungs. He should use his remaining days to do what he wants or settle unfinished business. Thus, Kagi left his sexy girlfriend to take Yamoto in and teach her his fighting style since her karate skills are insufficient. One night after coming back from another mission, he starts vomiting blood. Yamoto is very worried but he tells her is to mind her own business and that this wound is not from the fight. All she can do is just cry. Then Warai Jii-san contacts him with another target. A female ninja…

Episode 14
As you may have guessed, Yamoto is the target. So Kagi teaches her his sword skills and the rest she has to figure it out herself. Then when he tells her Soukaiya would still come after her, she got the idea and packs her stuff to leave. Kagi’s illness is getting worse. Soukaiya has sent Third Eye the ninja and Sword Dancer the bounty hunter to hunt down Yamoto. Sword Dancer tried to ambush Silver Karasu but gets into his trap. In the end, his 2 sword wielding style is no match for Silver Karasu’s single sword and kinetic vision. Yamoto faces off with Third Eye and uses all that she has learnt to defeat him. Then the inevitable showdown between Silver Karasu and Yamoto. It’s time to show what she has learnt. While fighting him, she cannot stop crying because she knows who he is. Eventually she cannot kill him and he is left with regrets thanks to her so he will shut up and go to hell quietly. Yamoto escapes from the yakuza clones and all she carries is Kagi’s cigarette box.

Episode 15
Omura is going to sink a city to turn it into a dam. Of course the residents protest and have turned into a resistance force and barricaded the area. But Omura sends his giant powerful mechas, Motoryab to destroy all resistance. Surrender or not, you get killed. Explosive and the Motoryab mechas invade the resistance’s main base. He faces off with Rapture the ninja. Female ninja Amnesia comes to his aid but is no match for Explosive. Till Fujikido turns up. It is revealed that Amnesia is actually Yukano. She has no memories of her past. Rapture is trapped in Explosive’s fireworks. Knowing his time is up, he sacrifices himself. Fujikido tells Amnesia to take the resistance leader to safety while he fights off Explosive. Fujikido turns the table on Explosive and lets him have a taste of his own medicine. Explosive is scared and pleads for his life. He will tell him what he wants. Unfortunately Fujikido doesn’t want to know anything from him. Goodbye. In the aftermath, Amnesia leaves a message for Fujikido that she has no recollection of her past. She was saved and taken in by a revolutionary group, Ikki Uchikowashi and will continue to pay her debt there. She was romantically involved with Rapture and thanks him for avenging his death. Now that she is a different person than before, there is nothing she can do for him.

Episode 16
Fujikido joins Ikki Uchikowashi as an agent to see for himself what kind of organization this is. This is part of his pledge to Gendousou to look out for Yukano. After talking with the boss, Answerer, Fujikido and Flickshot head to intercept a train believed to be owned by Soukaiya. The lowly comrades got burnt away by Prominence. Flickshot fights him until Fujikido makes his entrance. As Fujikido pins Prominence down, the revolutionaries ransacks the train. Despite there are innocent young children and teachers on the train, Flickshot becomes a bully because he believes these are bourgeois elites of the capitalist pigs. Fujikido cannot tolerate this and attacks Flickshot. He considers this his betrayal as the revolutionary group surrounds him. As Flickshot attacks him with his pachinko shots, the train safely escapes. Fujikido easily kills all the comrades and then lectures Flickshot about their meaningless violence as killers and human sentiments. Not even Prominence can interrupt. He died while doing so. And Flickshot got strangled to death. Answerer notes the interesting man Fujikido is but Amnesia believes he must be punished for betraying and humiliating the organization.

Episode 17
Yamoto takes refuge at a church when she meets this zombie ninja, Genocide. He is not her enemy as he buries the body of an old woman believed to be the owner of this place, passed away via natural causes. Mad scientist, Dr Lee is not amused that Genocide destroyed his lab and escaped when he awakened. He needs his zombie back or the stress is killing him. But his lovely assistant, Fubuki has taken the liberty to create another zombie ninja, Manticore to retrieve Genocide. Yamoto and Genocide become strange bedfellow friends. The place is then under attack by yakuza clones. Heh. It’s like they all come here just to get killed. Grenadier of Soukaiya fights off Genocide and Manticore joins in the fight. When Yamoto and Grenadier introduce themselves, I guess Genocide uses this chance to kill him off! The duo team up to take down Manticore. Dr Lee is so stressed that Manticore is dead but at least he collected some good data. Yamoto part ways with Genocide. It is best she leaves the place before the enemy will regroup. Genocide tells her his brain is rotting so the next time they meet, he might not remember her. She shakes his hand.

Episode 18
Naraki sees Maname before the big public demonstration starts. Walking through the sea of crowd, Naraki meets this guy, Buster Tetsuo. Naraki seems to understand what this march is about but Tetsuo asks if this will really change the world. Then he gives some zombie example that makes Naraki scared about the turn of events. His fear comes true when a student is killed supposedly by the police. But Naraki saw Maname was the one who shot her golden arrow. With the public getting restless, a police is killed (Maname again?) and this is when all hell breaks loose. Fujikido then drops down to tell everyone to scram. Don’t want to mess with a ninja, eh? So the public and police clear the streets so that Fujikido can have his fight with Jotunn of Ikki Uchikowashi. As Naraki is reeling from the chaos, he sees Maname who is no other than Amnesia (who is actually Yukano – who is Gendousou’s daughter). She tells him about the necessary sacrifice for their struggle and thus gathered people and made them fight. Fujikido then confronts Amnesia about her ways. Seems this is the path she has chosen (Tetsuo is her comrade) and clearly hates the past self whom he speaks of. Jotunn tries to interrupt but he gets killed off! Fujikido tells her to leave as Ikki Uchikowashi is his enemy. Without answering, she just left. Naraki takes over Maname’s role as he recruits other students in this vicious cycle.

Episode 19
Nancy is in trouble again. Basilisk managed to get through her traps and catch her off guard. His hypnosis paralyzes her. Trufflehog comes by and wants to keep her alive as bait for Ninja Slayer. From the way he says things, looks like some ninjas of Soukaiya are going to rebel and overthrow the current ruler and form their own organization. Meanwhile, Maria Agata is being beaten up by her abusive husband. Morita from next door comes in to beat this guy up and makes him swear never to come back. As he leaves, Maria doesn’t want him to go. It seems Morita is Fujikido in disguise. He gets a coded message from Nancy the coordinates and time of Laomoto’s whereabouts. Fujikido can now assassinate him. The next day as he sneaks into a building, he realizes too late it is a trap because this Laomoto is just a dummy. The bomb goes off and Fujikido is faced with several Soukaiya ninjas. Before Fujikido could finish his greeting, they ambush him. He wonders if Nancy has betrayed him with this false information. He doesn’t think so and this could only mean she has been captured. He gets serious and kills all the ninjas.

Episode 20
With the help of Warlock, Trufflehog snuffs out Fujikido/Morita’s hideout but he is already long gone. Nancy seems to be in the virtual world. Baba Yaga wants her to do something for her so she can’t die yet. When she wakes up, seems her kidnappers are a bit in a panic after finding out something. They run for it but Fujikido stands before them. How did he know their whereabouts? One of the dead ninjas he interrogated. Basilisk will take him on and wants Trufflehog to continue the mission. Basilisk poisons Fujikido with his shuriken and is clearly superior. But Fujikido turns the tables and uses the bike mirrors to reflect his beams. Then he steals his bike and makes haste. Meanwhile Trufflehog presents Nancy to Laomoto and claims she is the one cooperating with Ninja Slayer to take Soukaiya down. He thinks of using her against Ninja Slayer. Suddenly Trufflehog is cut into half by Dark Ninja. Similarly, Warlock is killed off by Gatekeeper. I guess Laomoto saw this coming from a mile about their trap. When Fujikido arrives, Laomoto takes Nancy as hostage. Laomoto’s giant gold name card defeats Fujikido?! After Dark Ninja toys with him a bit, Laomoto gives his farewell present to him: A missile! Ninja slayer defeated?! Maria sees Fujikido injured on the sidewalk. She takes him in but Fujikido is adamant he needs to go to the final showdown.

Episode 21
Fujikido wants Naraku to give him strength without being taken over. Since Naraku refuses, Fujikido does it by force. Maria is shocked to see him transform into Ninja Slayer before her eyes. With the news report that Laomoto is going to run for governor, Maria knows Fujikido must go and do his job. He enters Soukaiya’s building again but is surrounded by yakuza clones. Then Laomoto’s Voice greets him and wants him to join their side in which of course he refuses. Voice then mocks how Laomoto is getting his way with Nancy and orders him to be killed. But of course you know those clones are just there to get killed off just to show us his supremacy. Fujikido makes Voice spill some details before killing him. He is then ambushed by Forest. However he has no intention to fight him because he is going to retrieve Nancy and make her his bride. The duo start racing but are faced with several huge ninja exterminator robots. They cooperate to take them out. Before they can settle each other, Dark Ninja stabs Forest from the back and gets rid of him. Now it is time for the second showdown between Fujikido and Dark Ninja.

Episode 22
Fujikido gets beaten up so Naraku again bugs him to be possessed. Again Fujikido rejects because he wants to settle the score by his own hands. And so he revives to match Dark Ninja’s fight. When Dark Ninja uses his sword, Ninja Slayer got slashed but still lives. That is when Master Tortoise and Master Crane pop up to tell Dark Ninja this isn’t the way and it is time to serve a new master. Fujikido tries to get back in the fight but the duo spam him with paralyzing shurikens. Then they wonder why Dark Ninja has not forged his sword as told and his answer is that place is under the control of Zaibatsu Shadow Guild and he is still on a mission from Laomoto. On the verge of another death, Gendousou visits him once more to tell him the way of the Furinkazan. Not sure if it is the breathing technique because after doing that, Fujikido breaks out. As he wants to resume the fight, the monsters don’t want Dark Ninja to waste his time and whisk him away. Fujikido then goes to find Nancy and breaks her out from her cage. To replenish all that energy, Fujikido eats a tray of sushi! Almost done, there is this kid named Fujio telling them to get out of his room. They do so to avoid any trouble. He is one of many of Laomoto’s sons. Nancy can help Fujikido this time if she hacks into the cyber room. That is where all of Soukaiya’s evil deeds are stored and will be downloaded into her brain backup.

Episode 23
Nancy narrates Fujikido’s battle with the Soukai Six Gates. She describes the ninjas’ abilities but Fujikido easily kills them all with Nancy’s hacking help. He meets some challenge with Hellkite but again with Nancy’s assistance, Hellkite is defeated. Though, he is not dead and goes to warn Laomoto. In the final room, Fujikido faces off with Gatekeeper and meets his match. But it doesn’t take long before Fujikido finally gets the better of him. Sayonara. On the way to the next level, Fujikido experiences some trauma that his family, master and all those ninjas he have killed are blaming him for everything. His killings did nothing. Fujikido strengthens his mind, believing this is a trap from the enemy and blows them away. Now he arrives at the final floor.

Episode 24
Laomoto beats up Hellkite for his late report. Looks like he will have to settle the score with Ninja Slayer first. When Fujikido arrives, Laomoto sets his geishas upon him. No matter what hidden guns, swords or bazookas they pull, they’re not match for Fujikido as they take each other out. Now facing off with the big man himself, Laomoto warns him he is the mightiest ninja ever because he has 7 Ninja Souls. The reason he has this and even the Soukai Six Gates was to stop pests like him because every time if he has to take care of such annoyance, it would be a waste of business productivity. Time is money. Yeah, Fujikido also has no time to hear his ranting. Let’s get this sh*t done. Laomoto dons his golden samurai armour to fight. Fujikido is clearly weaker and takes a pounding. But he won’t give in and when it seems he is succumbing to use Naraku, he is just actually feeding on Naraku’s energy while maintaining his sanity. Fujikido revives and fights back. Their fight now takes to the rooftop for ‘more space’. However Hellkite sneakily helps Laomoto and this throws Fujikido off. Before he could finish him off, Dark Ninja appears and stabs Fujikido. But… they realize this body is a double. Then standing behind them is ghostly Naraku.

Episode 25
WTF?! What the hell is this best of Ninja Slayer segment?! The final review before the fight? Actually these are montages of short clips of the fights Fujikido against other ninjas that we have never seen. Because they aren’t in chronological order, we are left wondering what the hell these fights are supposed to mean other than Fujikido raking up the ninja body count. Since I won’t list every darn clip as they mainly last a few seconds each, I’ll specify the ‘memorable’ ones. Like the first one whereby Fujikido is burning some cactus ninja alive and we have the agony of hearing the poor soul scream “Aaarrghh!!!!” for 1.5 minutes!!! Gwargh indeed. Then I’m not sure who this Yakuza Tengu dude is. Is he some anti-hero? Then there is the fight between Yamoto and Sonic Boom. In the midst of it while Shougo was left for dead, he is picked up by some mysterious dude. The funniest part is when Fujikido is in a shogi battle with another ninja. After a while he just topples the board and beats the crap out of him because he realizes he isn’t here to play shogi! Another funny clip is Nancy dressing up in some mustard mascot and killing yakuza clones! And what’s this? Fujikido saving a little cow? Finally, Fujikido facing off with Dark Ninja to demand answers why he killed his family but Dark Ninja doesn’t have time for this and flies away on his jet with Fujikido not ready to let him go yet.

Episode 26
This hideous form of Naraku beats up Laomoto like there is no tomorrow while Fujikido is trapped in his own mind being forced to relive memories of his family. Of course Naraku starts to weaken since Fujikido’s body is at his limit and thus it is Laomoto’s turn to go on an offensive. This is also partly Fujikido is trying some zen meditation that deprives of the hatred that Naraku is feeding on as power source. Naraku tries to convince him to give him his body but Fujikido has achieved his ultimate zen. Instead of rejecting Naraku, now he accepts him because he was the one who summoned him after being left for dead. He accepts this dark side of his and at the same time won’t let Naraku take over his body. With both sides accepting each other, they revive and transform into a cool version of Ninja Slayer! Ermac?! Anyway, both take turns using the body as they fight Laomoto. Although Hellkite (where the hell was he all the while?) holds him back for Laomoto to unleash all his powerful missiles, Fujikido can still avoid them all and continue his attack. Too bad Hellkite died for nothing. After everything is destroyed, the duo are only left as they continue to trade punches. But Laomoto knows it is his loss and admits defeat. He will give him anything he desires. What does Fujikido desire? His life! Yeeart! A single powerful punch that finally sends Laomoto flying off the tower. Fujikido then wakes up in Maria’s care. She won’t ask what happened but knows that it is over. He has suffered so much so it’s time to take back his life. Suddenly he is zapped out from this dream state because Nancy injected some adrenaline shot to wake him up. As proof Fujikido has defeated Laomoto, there lies his broken body on the ground. But the effect of their battle is that the entire city is now in flames!

Yeeart! Yeeart!!!! YEEEAAARRRTTT!!!
Wasshoi! Yeeart! Well, I don’t know if you could call this a proper or good ending. Because it feels like everything else is incomplete but as long as the big bad boss is dead, then it is particularly over, right? Now that Laomoto is dead, what will be of Fujikido? Where will his soul go now? Will his soul rest in peace? Or will he continue to hunt other ninjas and other forms of evil? And what will the city be since thanks to the power fight, it is left destroyed. A sign that it will be built up from scratch, free from all that corruption? This and much more questions still ringing in my head after the series ends but I suppose when it ends, it just ends. You don’t need to know anything more as long as you know Fujikido has achieved his goal of revenge. Yeeart!

One thing that displeases me about this series is the disconnecting episodes. Because in almost every episode, there seems to be a gap in what happens at the end of one episode and the next. So much so you wonder how much they have skipped or what has happened in between. This makes it hard especially for viewers like me to grasp what is going on as I will be wondering what in the world did this happen to end up like this. That is why I believe they show that penultimate episode as somewhat a reminder about the gaps of the plot and story in between the episodes. But even so, that itself is not enough to do justice to the entire series. Because showing a few ‘important’ clips here and there isn’t going to make things better seeing there are so many happenings, it hardly makes sense if you try to put things together. Everything is all over the place. I know there are lots of ninjas to kill (assuming he killed every last one of them before his showdown with Laomoto) and that you can’t show them all but skipping things like this? Not good. Yeeart!

This leads me to my next point on what I dislike about the series. Some of the supporting characters. It makes you wonder what those characters are really for. And I mean characters like Yamoto, Amnesia/Yukano, Shigaki, Forest, Genocide, Dr Lee, Fubuki and even Dark Ninja himself. What I am saying is that there is no closure for these characters. The loose strings don’t seem to tie up for them. At least from my point of view. Many of these characters are shown their short whereabouts in the final montage of the last episode. Like Yamoto continuing to battle yakuza clones, Forest still surviving from his deadly fall, Dark Ninja watching over things and the rest just bumming around. It doesn’t mean much.

I mean, so what? What will be of Amnesia/Yukano now that she has firmly continued to stay with the organization? I thought Fujikido was supposed to help look after her till the end? So who is this Dark Ninja serving now? Shouldn’t this guy be Fujikido’s top hit list since this is the guy who killed his family? Who are this Master Tortoise and Master Crane anyway? Are they another true badass villains? What happened to Laomoto’s son(s)? Whatever happened to Survivor Dojo? How come Forest is the only one left? Maybe the rest got killed off in an unseen footage but shouldn’t it be better to just kill him off instead of leaving us with that cliff-hanger? What was the significance of Yamoto meeting Genocide for if that zombie isn’t going to have any major impact in the series? Who the heck is this Maria chick? Is she just a figment of his imagination? Man, I thought this would be his new love of his life to move on after everything ended. So you see, the disconnecting plot between the episodes and the very unsatisfying character development of these characters make the series less enjoyable and confusing to watch.

At first I thought I was going to be disappointed when I first saw the art and animation style of the series and thus compounding to my overall dissatisfaction of the series. Looking at the paper craft style of the animation, I thought the producers were just cutting corners in animating the scenes. Because especially during many of the action and fight scenes (and certain drama scenes too), this cheap paper craft style will come into play. So instead of spending money to animate all the cool ninja movements and attacks whatsoever, they just use a still picture of the ninja that never changes throughout the series and just move them just like as though we are watching some sort of paper puppet play. Are they taking us for suckers?! I thought you only see this kind of animation style in picture dramas that you find as bonuses on DVDs? But of course, I eventually got used to it and although I can’t say that I really like this art style, at least it gives the series its uniqueness. But still, not my kind of artwork for an anime series.

But I have to say that the designs of the ninjas can sometimes range from being unique and just silly. With so many enemy ninjas in the series, some that come and go so fast that if you blink, you might miss on how that ninja look. Therefore it feels like as though the producers threw everybody some sort of challenge to come up with different ninja designs no matter how absurd some of them look just to make up the numbers because seriously, you aren’t going to care about those dead small fries, right? While many look like steam cyberpunk ninjas that just came out of some cosplay convention, some like Dark Ninja have quite a good design. Speaking of Ninja Slayer himself, he too looks pretty cool and I thought he is actually worthy design for another ninja character in Mortal Kombat. Especially that final combined form of his. MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!! Yeeart! Get over here!

The general plot is simple and confusing both at the same time. Because in every episode, you can feel that it is more or less the same thing. Fujikido goes around looking for a Soukaiya ninja to kill. They meet. They always greet as a proper etiquette way of the ninja (usually Fujikido’s introduction will have superb explosion effects in the background). They fight. Yeeart! Yeeart! Yeeart!!! The sound of Fujikido or other ninjas unleashing their attack. Gwargh! Argh! Abbah! The sound of the ninjas being hit or taking a massive blow. Now read your death haiku. Sayonara! Ninja dies. Cue for life-like explosion to kill off the ninja. Move on to the next mission. This is the simple part of the series. And if there were plots in the background whatsoever, I’m sure it was hell of a confusing to me so I’m definitely not following.

It was freaking amusing and perhaps the trademark of this series for our ninjas especially Fujikido to scream the “Yeeart!” call. Initially I find it very funny while watching the first few episodes and was laughing my ass off each time the ninjas start screaming this. I guess to make up for the lack of ‘intelligent’ dialogue, they replace this with some muscle head cry. Sure, there are some pretty slick names of the moves, but I don’t really understand nor do I really want to remember what it is. After all, I’m having a good time laughing at all the “Yeeart!” and all the “Argh!” in reaction to that. If this series is going to be remembered for a long time, this trademark cry will definitely be it. Yeeart! (Note: I believe there is a post thread that keeps count the number of times “Yeeart!” is said in an episode! Can you count how many times I’ve said “Yeeart!” in this blog too?). Speaking of speeches, I believe that many of the other cheesy one-liners from this series can be turned into memes. Really. Yeeart!

So you will either be amused or disappointed, depending on your style of action and how it is being displayed here in this series. There is enough ninja action to keep you preoccupied but as said with the paper craft style, sometimes it takes away the fun as you have to be contented with the cheap style of animating action. Sure, there are some action scenes where they are properly animated but it pales in comparison with the paper craft one. With many bad ninjas dying, blood spilling and explosions, I’m sure this is your typical cliché of what is supposed to be an action genre.

When you have a series in which every episode guarantees a ninja being killed off no matter how long or short his appearance is (even lasting just a pathetic 1 second!), then you cannot expect to have great character development as I have said. I wasn’t hoping for it anyway. Fujikido’s drive for revenge is just a setting and motivation for him to go around hunting and taking down a variety of ninjas that serve to be added to his list of ‘victims’. Thus many of those Soukaiya ninjas are just pathetic brawns who has never feared nor faced death till they meet Ninja Slayer. Yeeart! Some may be funny but a big majority aren’t that memorable to begin with.

The only reason why Nancy is in this series is to provide some sexy fanservice after all that mindless violence of ninja killings. I mean, when you are already dressed in that sexy catsuit that for some reason exposes her sexy thighs and butt, can you not hold in your horniness especially when sometimes the camera starts to zoom in on those delicious areas? To make matters worse, she has this penchant of being kidnapped and being the bait for Fujikido to rescue her. Despite the temptation of wanting to cast her as a dumb blonde (especially when she starts screaming her trademark “AIIEEH!”, Nancy can also hold her ground. Well, if she is connected to the internet. What is amusing is the modem that she connects to is the one of the very old type. You know, the one in the early days where they give out that annoying beeping sound each time it tries to connect to the internet. Ah, those nostalgic memories. And funnily too when she is in this connected state, she has this vulnerable stupefied look on her face. Like as though in an after sex. No, really.

Another unique thing about this anime is that it has a different ending for each episode. Although many are hard rock based, there are some variations in some of them too. The bad thing is that with the songs only featured for a single episode, it is hard for them to stick in my mind. There are some good ones though as I have noted like the third episode’s Gekijou Shihainin No Theme by The Pinballs. Well, just have to put up with lots of screaming. Suicidal Bunny by Taffy for the eighth episode isn’t bad too. Then there is the reggae-like Ninja Prayer by Shinichi Osawa in the seventh episode and the video game-like Hide by 80KIDZ for the ninth episode. Tear Of The Pierrot by Mine for the seventeenth episode sounds like a carnival with all those drums in the background making it sound like a drum festival. The nineteenth episode’s Alone by Scam Circle is interesting because it is a xylophone instrumental. Sick Hack Ninsatsu Version by Memento Mori for the twenty second episode is weird because it sounds like a drunk guy singing this rock piece. Generally, the ending themes are really varied and some of them are interesting to hear but mainly if you are into those hard rock genres, you will find many to your liking. But the opening theme is only one and it is totally sung in English, the rock piece of Back In Black by Boom Boom Satellites.

The other unique thing about the ending credits animation is that you can tell whether a character in that episode dies or not. It is like an indicator whether a character lives or dies. Featuring all characters except Fujikido that appeared for that particular episode, as we scroll up the narrow alleyways, characters that are killed off are in monochrome colour and covered in their own red blood. Whereas characters that continue to survive will be in their full bright colour. Only the final episode lacks any of such ‘indicators’. After all that blood, gore and mess, I think leaving it blank would be the best idea.

Overall, if you just consider this ninja series as just purely from an entertaining point of view, then it passes with full colours. Because it is just so silly that it is just so awesome. I am sure at this point veteran anime viewers can name better cyberpunk animes that are worth the watch. Yes, you shouldn’t watch this anime if you really want high reasoning and logic. Because just like one of the lines in the series goes, absurdity kills reason! How true. So have you recited your death haiku? Gwargh! Sayonara. Boom! Yeeart! Yeeart! YEEEAAARRRTTT!!!