The Fall 2022 Preview Guide – Shinobi no Ittoki

What is that?

As the next leader in an established ninja village, Ittoki Sakuraba has mixed feelings about taking on such a responsibility, as his family hid this information from him until forced to intervene by an opposing village. He is suddenly introduced to Kosetsu, who bursts into his room without warning, taking her job of protecting him very seriously. However, Ittoki’s life changes when he receives a love letter in his shoe box. To his shock and surprise, Satomi Tsubaki – a sophomore – asks him out. However, Satomi reveals her true murderous intentions, she is part of the Koga ninja clan and continues her insane plan to murder Ittoki for revenge.

Shinobi no Ittoki is an original anime and will continue to stream crispy roll on Tuesdays.

How was the first episode?

Caitlin Moore

Valuation:

A few days ago I criticized Berserker: The Golden Age Arc – Memorial Edition for apparently being a re-edited film that wasn’t paced right for episodes in 25-minute blocks. now between Management of a novice alchemist and Shinobi no IttokiI regret my words and actions.

To get to the big reveal at the end, both shows drag on, drag out their displays and setup, and spend far too much time on boring details and half-hearted foreshadowings that could be created in half the time. Ittoki has a lot of classes to take, even though his mother works in a grocery store, and his masked childhood friend is tailing him from school to make sure he leaves? Why, what could be going on? The girl he never spoke to before asking him out and then trying to get him to undress on the first date is not at all suspicious. What, Ittoki is the descendant of a ninja clan? Le wheeze! I never had any suspicions!!

Ittoki also never realized anything was odd, which leads me to suspect he’s not the sharpest shuriken on the belt. For a guy who looks like Lelouch, he’s kind of a pushover; I’d probably grumble just as much if he suddenly pulled out some badass moves, but at least the episode would be fun. Instead, he spends over half the episode fumbling around, completely clueless as to why his activities are being restricted, being saved another five minutes from being repeatedly murdered, and the final five minutes making the surprised Pikachu face than it is the real one find out his family lineage. His charismatic, everyday nature makes him an uninvolved protagonist who struggles through the rhythm of his normal life.

However, I have a feeling things will improve quite a bit in the next installment after the big reveal has taken place. Ninja Turf War is a good concept for a lanky action series, and I really hope that the upcoming installments will shake off the boring pace.

Rebekah Silberman

Valuation:

You know a guy must be pretty damn immortal for Truck-kun to fail. And given the story so far, I don’t think we can rule out the possibility that someone didn’t destroy both of the truck’s front tires to knock out Ittoki, our unfortunate protagonist, because until the last moments of the episode he didn’t know he is actually the heir of the famous Iga ninja clan. Suddenly, his mother’s insistence that he learn gymnastics makes sense.

At least for a given value. While there’s something to be said for Ittoki not being aware of his exalted ninja status, I also can’t help but feel sorry for the guy because not much good seems to be coming out of his hidden history at the moment. He’s stuck in an agonizing cycle of school and afterschool for no apparent reason, and the moment he’s confessed, his mother turns into a vicious bully who forbids him from dating the girl. Of course, mother really knows best, as Satomi is actually an assassin for the rival ninja clan Koga, but finding her son before people were literally out for his blood might have been a better approach.

Questionable parenting tactics aside, this first episode hovers somewhere around the “okay” mark. Watching Ittoki bounce and bounce home from school is pretty awesome, but it’s undercut by the way he’s caught unawares by the truth of his life and the fact that he almost never shuts up . Seriously, I kept turning the episode down and my sister could still hear it from the other room, and her hearing is significantly less sharp than mine. While it’s perfectly understandable that he’s uncomfortable with most situations he finds himself in, the whole thing has an uncomfortable feeling of being specifically mean to him and annoying on the soundfront. He’s a nervous speaker, but it’s still a bit much.

He might not be the sharpest tool in the shed either, because while his mother is good at keeping the family secret, his bodyguard Kousetsu is specifically not – everything about her just screams “ninja bodyguard”. He’s literally smart, but as his mother points out, he can’t lie to save his life and he may not be great at putting the clues together if the situation isn’t academic. All of this could very well make for a good fish-on-water action comedy, but I can’t really say I was that intrigued by the episode.

Nicholas Dupree

Valuation:

“This really should be better than it is.” That’s the thought that kept running through my mind as I watched this premiere. This show has the ingredients to be, if not a great series, at least an entertaining one. Ninja have never really gone out of style, but they’ve been enjoying a bit of a resurgence lately, and adding high-tech weaponry to modern shinobi should be a great mix for excellent action. You’ve got the classic setup of a kid with a secret destiny discovering his super important lineage and the dangerous world it entails. Hell, they even have curly stuff like an enemy ninja trying to seduce our protagonist before attempting to murder him in her underwear. This was supposed to be at least a little bit of fuzzy fun, but I like it engage kiss from last season, they miraculously found a way to make everything seem dull and boring.

I mostly blame our hero, Ittoki, who is by far the most unbearable part of it all. He spends most of this episode either posing as a shy harem protagonist in training or constantly screaming in confusion while ninja stuff is happening around him. He has no real personality and contributes nothing to the actual plot other than his physical presence, which means we spend 95% of this premiere following a talking duffel bag. It’s particularly tiresome in the part of the episode before they drop the other shoe, as it’s painfully obvious his new girlfriend is tricking him and there’s a big secret, but since he doesn’t know anything about the whole ninja legacy and the shadow war knows he just stumbles into the plot tail first.

Granted, that’s also the fault of the second worst character in this premiere, Ittoki’s mother, who insisted on not telling him she’s going to be the next leader of her ninja clan for reasons I don’t even begin to understand. I guess she thought as long as he was doing gymnastics and martial arts he would eventually be ready to be a ninja? After all, who needs to know about the history or political situation of an underworld of armed assassins already on the brink of war? It’s a stone-dumb plot device that only exists to make Ittoki a relatable everyman who can have everything explained to him and then amaze the world with his meteoric rise in ninja skills as the show progresses, but it does this makes the characters and plot less believable. More immediately, it makes this whole episode a drawn out experience because our main character has no control over anything that happens.

So yes, there are elements here that could have been fun. The production is solid so far and the little ninja action we’re seeing looks pretty good. But instead of constructing anything remotely interesting, this show just painted a portrait of a bottle of skim milk against a beige wall. In a much weaker season, it might be worth hanging on for a cool fight or two, but there are much better ways to use your time right now.