Highlights
- Despite high expectations, Ninja Kamui’s finale fell flat in delivering a satisfying conclusion.
- The show’s animation quality and staging lack cohesion, hindering viewer engagement.
- While some characters shined, overall, the potential of Ninja Kamui felt wasted in its underwhelming conclusion.
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Show Title |
Ninja Kamui |
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Director |
Sunghoo Park |
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Studio |
E&H Production |
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Episode Air Date |
5/4/2024 |
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Ninja Kamui, Episode 13, now streaming on Max.
It doesn’t feel right to call Ninja Kamui‘s ending a disappointment per se, because, from the very beginning, this story didn’t have the foundations for an engaging story. What it did have was an acclaimed director and the promise of a particular power fantasy to carry what would otherwise be generic and bland into the territory of sick and/or awesome, if not particularly deep.
The ending is paramount – or so they say – and though it might not have been fair to expect much from the last episode, last week’s review was fair in asserting it had to be more than just “okay.” If the action or the performances were able to punctuate the finale in a cathartic way, at the very least the conclusion would have felt fun, and when all is said and done, that can be enough.
Ninja Kamui’s Finale Was Not Fun
The author of this review would like to avoid beating a dead horse when discussing the animation quality of this series, nor do they want to seem as though they simply detest CGI in anime. This industry has only gotten better and better at implementing 3D in innovative ways that not only push the medium forward but preserve the aesthetics that draw people to anime in the first place. Ninja Kamui simply does a terrible job at making it work here.
Even ignoring the animation itself, the 3D elements are never in harmony with the rest of the show’s art design. It’s as if the background artists and the 3D animators never even spoke. Even the most elementary principles of good framing feel abandoned in any shot that isn’t almost entirely filled by a character in a CGI suit. Look at the shot below and compare it to a similar one from Kekkai Sensen and think about the purpose of these shots.
A Brief But Important Comparison
Notice how, in Kekkai Sensen, both subjects are clearly visible, and the one on the left – the protagonist – is positioned higher, suggesting power over the antagonist on the right. Now look at Ninja Kamui, where Yamaji – the villain – is barely visible behind the rubble. Not to mention Dilly’s corpse, which is practically set-dressing and serves no purpose in the scene other than to remind the viewer how wasted her character was.
It’s small, sure, and plenty of viewers might not think about this kind of staging while watching a show for fun, but whether these details register or not, there’s a science to catching a viewer’s eye. That shot from Kekkai Sensen? It’s actually the end of a panning shot that starts with the frame below, where, funnily enough, there is a character obscured by rubble, like in Ninja Kamui. But in the case of Kekkai, it’s another protagonist who is notably defeated.
Things that are shown to the audience should mean something and, more often than not, Ninja Kamui‘s shots mean nothing because of a lack of cohesion between 2D and 3D elements. And just for fun, look at one more wide shot from Kekkai Sensen where both protagonists are lit and at the same elevation, suggesting that they are equals. The characters aren’t that detailed from a distance, but it’s a very pretty and effective shot nonetheless.
Back to Ninja Kamui
As harsh as this comparison is going to sound, there were times during the final fight when this show felt reminiscent of that infamous Crunchyroll Original, Ex-Arm. If there is any leeway that can and should be given to Ninja Kamui, it is that it most certainly is not as bad as Ex-Arm, but the fact that the comparison crossed the mind should be very telling.
It is evident upon watching the action unfold that there had to be a mix of motion capture and/or pre-viz used as a reference for the animators. Sadly, the movements are a bit too slow, sluggish, and lacking a sense of weight to carry any meaningful emotion in a final fight. Even when Zai shows up, it’s hard to feel anything but one’s eyes glazing over the screen.
Episode 11 is still probably the best one, but it’s also possibly the worst thing to happen to the show right behind the Gusoku Gears because it gave the viewers who were hooked from the start hope. They had hope that the final fight might not be entirely relegated to a visual style and power fantasy that evokes not even the slightest idea of a ninja.
At one point, Zai calls Higan “the embodiment of a true shinobi” and it just comes across as a bald-faced lie. There is nothing about Ninja Kamui that feels true to what audiences think of when they hear the words “shinobi” or “ninja,” unless one’s definition is limited to “cool guy with a sword.” In the early episodes, Higan would throw out random ninja powers one after the other, but after Episode 5, viewers were lucky to even see someone use a secret art.
Was There Anything Good About the Ending?
There was a bright spot through all of this: Mike Moriss. Mike was the most likable character up to the very end, with a genuinely satisfying conclusion to his arc. As if it wasn’t obvious enough that this story had eschewed any faith in the ninja concept, its best arc was about an FBI agent holding to his belief in justice and not giving in to vengeance. This character, who initially felt like an accessory to the main plot, had a better resolution to his revenge story than the main character.
Mike finds out that Joseph was directly responsible for Emma’s death, and his brief beatdown of the CEO felt more impactful than the main fight the entire show was building up to. Sure, Joseph didn’t die, but he was rendered pathetic, and Mike promised he’d kick his ass no matter how many times he got out of jail. It’s not the most profound of conclusions, but it was more fulfilling than anything else this ending had to offer.
A full review of the series will follow soon, but it should be obvious by this point that there’s not much good to say. This season finale had to work very hard to make this already-uneven journey worth it, and it barely accomplished any of what was needed on that front. If anything productive was gained from this analysis, hopefully, it was a pleasant reminder that Kekkai Sensen exists. Otherwise, Ninja Kamui felt like a waste of plentiful potential.
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