This review contains spoilers. 120287120316120307120321120326 120302120314120303120310120321120310120316120315120320... Every once in a while I like to chill on my porch with a cigarette in one hand and a can of pisscheap energy drinkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MonsterEnergy in the other and ponder random stuff like a pseudointellectual geezer from an oldschool movie. So one day while inhaling my favourite cancerinducing chemicals I began to wonder: have I become too cynical and critical about anime? Maybe I need to loosen up be more openminded turn off my brain and have mindless fun as they say. Considering that it might be the case I let out a big sigh took a swig of that delicious carbonated diabeteslike beverage headed to my room and booted up the absolute joke that is Ninja Kamui to get those silly thoughts out of my head. Cutting it some slack and being less judgmental? Do not make me laugh. Even though it did suffer from some issues behind the scenes that does not mean that we ought to overlook its bullshit. But I am getting way ahead of myself so I should take a step back take a deep breath and dissect this stinky corpse of an anime to find out what kind of gruesome inhumane crime we are dealing with. 700https://i.ur.com/W9OINVV.png Ninja Kamui kicks off with what can only be described as an absolute sugar rush of a premiere. Blood splattering all over the place like a bunch of confetti from a pinatahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PiC3B1ata blades striking against shiny armour plates kickass insert songshttps://www..com/watch?v=GhhS0GnkxU blasting in the background with their intense and energetic notes and a surprisingly wellputtogether wellcoordinated and wellthoughtout fight choreographywith fight scenes like that peppered throughout the first episode it is no wonder why so many folks were hyped to see what else the anime had in store for them. While I do not find the episode that impressive on its ownit feels like half a dozen episodes condensed into one and a lot of its emotional beats are fundamentally hitormissits vigour and confidence are very contagious and it hooks you in without breaking a sweat. If the show had maintained thislevel of excitement and energy throughout its run it couldhave been a fun undemanding and easytodigest popcorn flick. But alas that did not happen as this is where the positives come to a screeching halt. Yes the second the first episode wraps up the rosetinted glasses of hope and promise come off and the grim reality hits you in the face like a brick. The initial bombastic nature of Ninja Kamui almost immediately wears off which leaves us with a mishmash of random events and halfbaked ideas sellotaped with not a speck of cohesion in sight. You see the show struggles with a severe identity crisis it basically cannot figure out what it wants to be. Does it aim to be a bloody and gory revenge story about an exiled ninja seeking payback for his familys murder? Or does it desire to be a tad bit more complex and intricate mystery thriller with whodunnithttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whodunit undertones? Or perhaps it strives to be a CGI mechahttps://anilist.co/search/anime/Mecha clusterfuck with humansized robots duking it out and some international conspiracies sprinkled on top? It tries to be all these things at once and let me tell you the outcome is anything but pretty. I genuinely despise it when series go down that road because more often than not it ends up feeling like too many people are tampering with the script turning it into this bizarre amalgamation of completely unrelated visions and aspirations. Of course there are numerous examples of anime that have arcs that are very different tonally and conceptually from the rest of the content Frierenhttps://anilist.co/anime/154587/SousounoFrieren/ is a great recent example of that but the key difference between them and Ninja Kamui is quite subtle yet crucial: decisiveness. While Frieren or other shows are extremely confident in their genre shifts and allocate just enough time to make them work Ninja Kamui does everything in a very halfassed manner as it offers no breathing room for both its ideas to fit smoothly and flow with grace and for its viewers to get accustomed to the changes. Here the transition from one genre to the other is as seamless and smooth as munching on a pile of dirt and washing it down with a glass of sewage water. In episode 1 it is all about the ninjas and their brutal battles to the death. By episode 2 we are already ballsdeep into an FBIled investigation into a spree of murders that are linked to the mysterious organisation we quickly learn about. Then by episode 5 we are forced to watch clashes between clunky humanoid trashcans with some of the weirdest blocking and choreography I have seen in a while. Once all the pieces of the puzzle are in action Ninja Kamui decides to blend them all and feed the viewers that disgusting mushy and slightly sticky slop. Nevertheless at this point there is legitimately no incentive to care about anything happening on the screen. Those interested in the ninja stuff did not appreciate the genre switch and left. Fans of the more detective work scenes seeing that they were a onetime gimmick quickly bailed. The few people who genuinely respected the shows direction and welcomed the mechas and the shady businesses of AUZAhttps://anilist.co/character/327163/Joseph had nothing to chew on and were sorely disappointed by its sheer clumsiness and emptiness. The charactershttps://anilist.co/anime/151639/NinjaKamui/characters do not fare any better. They come across as a bunch of runofthemill caricatures without any visually appealing characteristics understandable motivations or compelling traits to speak of. The antagonists are like those onedimensional Saturday morning cartoon baddiesthey exist solely to spout the same annoying oneliners over and over again and be total dickheads to the protagonisthttps://anilist.co/character/326717/Higan until they are inevitably and soundly defeated by him. They are utterly devoid of personalities goals or ideals and better yet the show desperately tries to humanise them at the eleventh hour as a lastditch effort to artificially raise the nonexistent stakes and inject some emotionality into the fight scenes. How cheap Of course it is not just the villains the rest of the cast grapples with a very similar set of issues. Higanhttps://anilist.co/character/326717/Higan always conveniently finds a way to be rescued and obtains the powerups required to overcome his adversaries Marihttps://anilist.co/character/326723/Mari somehow receives more screen time than other supporting characters vital to the plot despite being dead for the entirety of the story Emmahttps://anilist.co/character/326719/EmmaSamanda meets her end in the most hilarious way imaginable and every other character associated with Higan is a cardboard cutout with a singular purpose. How can I be invested in the narrative when these are the characters I am stuck with? Perhaps it would be easier to overlook their lack of quality and refinement if the narrative itself had some substance yet as you have already determined that is not the case here. The frequent genre shifts and the overabundance of ideas are a massive roadblock for the series and they halt its progress time and time again. However to suggest they are the only thing holding it back would be quite naive. The anime constantly attempts to punch above its weight pretending to be far grander and smarter than it truly is but these feeble efforts are pitiful at best. AUZA the ninja organisationhttps://anilist.co/character/327169/Yamaji and every single theme they represent are portrayed in such a dishonest and unconvincing fashion that I struggle to see them as anything more than a cheap way of adding depth. The motifs of loyalty family foreign influences nationalism honour and all that jazzfascinating and compelling in a vacuumare rendered absolutely eyerollingly insipid and illfitting to an extreme degree. News flash: themes become commendable and respectable when thoroughly explored and permitted to thrive by treating them as mere additives the narrative takes a massive hit. Seriously though not every show needs to be chockfull of thoughtprovoking or striking ideas to be effective and efficient. Truth be told all it needs is to understand how to strike a good balance between its various components or fully embrace its plainness and keep things simple and basic. Nonetheless Ninja Kamui shits the bed on both of these fronts it is neither a fun nobrainer nor a brainy actionpacked thriller. It is merely a gigantic failure that betrays your feelings and lets you down. 400https://i.ur.com/qelfevn.jpeg When it comes down to it the shows gravest offence is how unfathomably boring it is. Despite advertising itself as an exhilarating and undemanding escapade it is actually a far cry from what was initially promised. No matter what it threw my way I remained entirely disinterested. From the fights to the conversations between the characters to the lengthy exposition dumps everything was extremely painful to watch. Funnily enough I even dozed off in front of my laptop not once but twice while watching it which might be the biggest criticism I can ever direct towards an anime. Bravo Ninja Kamui you are not only horrible but also utterly unwatchablewhat an achievement Well you could say that it is at least good at wasting your time. Ah I have no clue what more can be said about Ninja Kamui and its antics. It is genuinely dreadful but in a peculiar way. You cannot quite put your finger on what exactly makes it so rubbish yet deep down you sense that something is fundamentally wrong with it. It tries to juggle too many things at once and falls flat on its ugly face as a result. Just skim through a few of its earlier fight scenes on YouTubehttps://www..com/watch?v=QBLuvgu3lc and call it a day. There is no point in subjecting yourself to this mess. Now if you will excuse me I am off to watch something actually worthwhile. ...120309120316120319120319120310120303120313120306 120306120325120306120304120322120321120310120316120315.