When Ninja Kamui debuted, anime fans hoped it would be a modern masterpiece. We’ve seen the ninja genre plenty of times before, but this series could’ve offered a more mature take, with far darker violence and a grim message.
The first four episodes of Ninja Kamui were brilliant, with clean animation and a solid premise that looked like it was building up to something epic. However, after those initial episodes, we have never seen a series fall off grace this fast in a long time.
It’s as if the writers had a draft of what they wanted Ninja Kamui to be, and then someone else took over. Ironically, that’s what happened to the animation. Recently, the series got renewed for Season 2 and 3, but does it deserve to?
What caused the downfall of a promising anime series like Ninja Kamui?
When a series has the word “ninja” in it, you would assume it centres on ninjas rather than mechs. The protagonist, Higan, is a former one after all, until he had to run from his clan and go into hiding with his wife and son. Yamaji then ordered assassins to find and kill his family, which set Higan on a path of revenge.
Ninja Kamui then became an unlikely combination of John Wick and Samurai 7, for the first few episodes. It worked, and fans were hyped by the premise since it was as dark and gritty as promised. However, this all fell off when a ninja turned up in a full mecha suit, rather than traditional attire or a modernized version of it.
It was an unnecessary addition to the series, but it only became worse when the mecha aspect began to abandon the ninja aspect. The initial episodes and fights had emotional weight to them, which was quickly thrown away for flashiness.
It became unrecognizable as the Ninja Kamui we started off watching, and disrupted the pacing. That’s not the only flaw fans found with Ninja Kamui, unfortunately. The animation was one of the biggest criticisms the series faced.
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The studio, E&H Production, is a relatively new company, created by former MAPPA animator Sunghoo Park. He’s also the director of Ninja Kamui and animated the initial episodes. However, the rest were created with poor 3D CGI without any effort.
Seasons 2 and 3 of Ninja Kamui have to correct these mistakes if they don’t want to be known as a failure
We could give the series some grace if we consider how amateur the animators are. However, taking on a project that ambitious and failing to do it right is one of the worst things a studio can do to an anime.
Ninja Kamui was doomed by its studio and writers. There was no reason it had to change genres. It could have seamlessly blended high technology with an action-packed, classic ninja story. However, it chose to overthrow one genre for another and disrupt the flow it had.
So, for Adult Swim to announce a second and third season is jumping the gun and being overconfident in their own abilities. This isn’t the only anime they’ve ruined, either, with their production issues, since that was the likely reason Ninja Kamui fell off so quickly.
Overall, the series could’ve been a masterpiece from the beginning if it had stuck to the solid premise of revenge. Higan’s journey could’ve been one of emotional growth, but choosing to focus on the mecha aspect doomed its narrative.
Ninja Kamui can currently be streamed on Adult Swim.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
