The Fall 2022 Preview Guide

Shinobi no Ittoki

As the next leader in an established ninja village, Ittoki Sakuraba has mixed feelings about taking such a responsibility as his family hid this information from him until their hand was forced by an opposing village. He's suddenly introduced to Kosetsu, who barges into his space without warning and takes her job to protect 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 second year student—asks him out on a date. However, Satomi reveals her true murderous intentions, she's part of the Koga ninja clan, continues with her crazed plan to assassinate Ittoki for revenge.

Shinobi no Ittoki is an original anime and streams on Crunchyroll on Tuesdays.

Richard Eisenbeis
Rating:

To me, a 2.5 star rating exemplifies the most bog-standard anime in their specific genre—which is why I'm giving Shinobi no Ittoki that rating. This first episode of Shinobi no Ittoki is so paint-by-numbers that it basically writes itself. A (not so) average boy is suddenly thrown into a world beyond his imagination only to learn that he is, in fact, the chosen one. And not only that, everyone around him already knew what was actually going on, with him alone left out of the loop. Be it ninjas, monsters, psychics, or secret societies, this basic framework is a staple of fiction—especially in anime.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with sticking to a tried-and-true setup as long as the anime has something to make it stand out from its peers. Shinobi no Ittoki doesn't. There is nothing surprising or unpredictable in this episode—not the ninja girl in his class protecting him, nor the fact the pretty random girl that wants to have sex with him is actually an assassin out for his blood.

That said, I'll be the first to admit that the animation in this episode is spectacular. The lighting is great and the action is both fluid and well-choreographed. I also liked that it's obvious that the main character is still being kept out of the loop—that there is more going on than some random ninja group attacking him for no reason (even if he's too dumb to recognize it). Shinobi no Ittoki could still turn out to be great or garbage, but this premiere episode, on its own, is about as bog-standard as you can get.

What I ended up enjoying the most about Shinobi no Ittoki were a lot of the incidental details that have almost nothing to do with the ninja action that is ostensibly the main incentive to tune into the show. Things like the little awkward shuffle that our titular hero does when he backs up to parkour himself a shortcut to school; the way that the shot with him talking to his gymnastics teacher includes a cut of another student practicing in the foreground; or the little character animation of the secretly evil ninja cop adjusting his bicycle just a bit while he pulls a ruse on the kid he's going to try and kill. Even though the art of Shinobi no Ittoki is generally rather flat and kind of dull, it's these small but meaningful flourishes that give me cause to think that there really is a lot of care and attention going into the production.

Then there's Ittoki himself, who is a fairly likable and believable kid, all things considered (despite the show committing the all-too-familiar sin of writing and animating a bunch of middle-schoolers as if they were just weeks away from graduating as seniors). Given the title of the series, it's not like the eventual ninja twist is a surprise or anything, but the premiere takes its time to allow Ittoki to live his normal life and to establish a solid tone before getting its ninja warrior on, which I respect.

The only downside is that this feels like a series that will ultimately be less than the sum of its parts. There's potential here for a solid, if average, action romp, though it's equally likely to devolve into completely forgettable pablum. Also, the ninja outfits kind of suck. Still, this premiere is worth a watch for anyone who needs a decently entertaining way to kill a half hour; just don't blame me if it falls by the wayside when your time ends up consumed by the season's array of blockbusters.

A few days ago, I criticized Berserk: The Golden Age Arc - Memorial Edition for obviously being a recut movie that wasn't properly paced for episodes in 25-minute chunks. Now, between Management of a Novice Alchemist and Shinobi no Ittoki, I regret my words and deeds.

In order to get to the big reveal at the end, both shows plod along, dragging out their exposition and setup, spending way too long on boring details and half-hearted foreshadowing that could be established in half the time. Ittoki has to take a ton of lessons despite his mom working in a grocery store, and his masked childhood friend tails him from school to ensure that he goes? Why, whatever could be going on? That girl who he never spoke to before asking him out and then trying to get him to take his clothes off on the first date isn't at all suspicious. What, Ittoki is the descendant of a ninja clan? Le gasp! I never suspected!!

Ittoki never caught on that something was strange either, which makes me suspect he's not the sharpest shuriken on the belt. For a guy who looks like Lelouch, he's kind of a weenie; I'd probably grouse just as much if he suddenly pulled out a bunch of 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, another five minutes getting saved from being murdered repeatedly, and the last five minutes making the surprised Pikachu face at finding out his family's true lineage. His charisma-free everyman nature makes him an unengaging protagonist as he slogs through the rhythm of his totally normal life.

I get the feeling, however, that things will pick up quite a bit in the next episode now that the big reveal has happened. “Ninja turf war” is a good concept for a schlocky action series, and I sincerely hope that the upcoming episodes shake off the tedious pace.

You know a guy has to be pretty darn unkillable if Truck-kun fails. And given the story thus far, I don't think we can discount that someone didn't destroy both of the truck's front tires in a bid to knock off Ittoki, our hapless protagonist, because unknown to him until the last moments of the episode, he's actually the heir to the famed Iga ninja clan. Suddenly his mother's insistence on him studying gymnastics makes sense.

Well, for a given value of sense, anyway. While there's something to be said for having Ittoki unaware of his exalted ninja status, I also can't help but feel bad for the guy, because there's not much good that appears to come of his hidden history right now. He's stuck in a punishing cycle of school and afterschool lessons for no reason that he can understand, and the minute he's confessed to, his mother turns into a vicious tyrant, forbidding him from dating the girl. Of course, it turns out that mother really does know best, because Satomi is actually an assassin from the rival Koga ninja clan, but cluing her son in before people were literally out for his blood might have been the better approach.

Questionable parenting tactics aside, this first episode hovers somewhere around the “okay” mark. Watching Ittoki jump and flip his way home from school is pretty great, but it's undercut by the way he's blindsided by the truth of his life and the fact that he very nearly never shuts up. Seriously, I kept turning the volume down on the episode 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'd be uncomfortable in most of the situations he finds himself in, the whole thing has the unpleasant feel of being mean to him specifically and annoying on the sound front. He's a nervous talker, but it's still a bit much.

He also may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, because while his mother is good at keeping the family secret, his bodyguard Kousetsu emphatically is not – everything about her simply screams “ninja bodyguard.” He's book smart for sure, but as his mother points out, he can't lie to save his life and he may not be particularly good at putting the clues together when the situation isn't academic. All of this very well may come together to form a good fish-out-of-water action comedy, but I can't really say that the episode has left me all that intrigued.

Nicholas Dupree
Rating:

“This really should be better than it is.” That's the thought that kept scrolling through my brain as I watched this premiere. This show has the ingredients to be, if not an actually good series, at least an entertaining one. Ninja have never really gone out of style, but they're having a bit of a resurgence recently, and adding high-tech weaponry to modern shinobi should be a great mix for some 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, you even have schlocky stuff like an enemy ninja trying to seduce our protagonist before attempting to murder him in her underwear. This should be at least a little bit of schlocky fun, but like Engage Kiss from last season, they've miraculously found a way to make it all feel bland and dull.

I mostly blame our hero, Ittoki, who is easily the most insufferable part of it all. He spends most of this episode either blanding it up as a timid harem-protagonist-in-training, or constantly yelling in confusion as ninja things happen around him. He's got no real personality and contributes nothing to the actual plot beyond his physical presence, meaning we spend 95% of this premiere following a talking duffle bag. It's especially tiresome in the portion of the episode before they let the other shoe drop, as it's painfully obvious that his new girlfriend is tricking him and there's a big secret, but since he doesn't know about the whole ninja heritage and shadow war, he just stumbles into the plot dick-first.

Granted, that's also the fault of the second-worst character in this premiere, Ittoki's mom, who insisted on not telling him about being the next leader of their ninja clan for reasons I cannot begin to fathom. I guess she figured as long as he took gymnastics and martial arts, he'd eventually be ready to handle being a ninja? Because who needs to know anything about the history or political situation of an underworld of armed assassins already on the verge of war? It's a rock stupid 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 skill across the course of the show, but it actively makes the characters and plot less credible as a result. More immediately it makes this entire episode a drag to follow because our main character has no agency or effect on anything that happens.

So yeah, there are elements here that could have been fun. The production is solid so far, and what little Ninja action we see looks pretty good. But instead of constructing anything even mildly interesting, this show just painted the portrait of a bottle of skim milk in front of a beige wall. In a much weaker season, this might be worth sticking it out for a cool fight or two, but there's way better uses of your time right now.