Go ninja, go ninja go! Here comes my review of Shuriken Sentai Ninninger Shinobi 2: ‘Become the Last Ninja!‘
Now that we’ve established that Granddad isn’t dead, he takes them on a tour of their new dojo where they’ll learn sweet new ninja moves and Takaharu assumes that Granddad will be the one teaching them the aforementioned sweet new ninja moves.
Which is exactly not what Granddad is going to do. It’s up to them to raise their Nintality and the best one will become the Last Ninja.
Granddad bounces after taking Takaharu to the mat, leaving Uncledad with the younglings. He starts book-learning them, but that doesn’t do too well, so they go out into the field with the 5-Element Ninshuriken that Granddad left for them.
This ends up being better in theory than in practice because everyone is basically horrible at it, all of their attacks hitting Fuuka in amusing ways. Well, except for Cloud Cloud the wizard.
He’s quite skilled with the Ninshuriken, telling his cousins that wizard school is like totally harder than this and magic is way cooler than ninjutsu.
Takaharu is unimpressed with Yakumo’s magic tricks, and they have it out about ninjas being interesting. Taka regales Yakumo about all of the legendary stuff Gramps has done. Yakumo tells him to stop telling tall tales about their Granpappy and get the net- Ninjas are, in the words of Hilary Duff, so yesterday, and no matter how cool Takaharu seems to think they are.
The chorus of froggy guns interrupt and alert them to the birth of a new yokai, a fire extinguisher slash kappa throwing people around. Our good friend, the fox-masked yokai is there to catch the juices what is that stuff I’m running out of PG things to call it.
Our team arrive on the scene and transform, everyone charging forward except for Ao Ninger. He just hangs on back like he just got his nails done, watching them.
Aka Ninger and Kappa sumo wrassle, the others trying to help Takaharu when he’s knocked back, but ultimately failing. Yakumo finally shows his face, sending Kappa packing with one attack.
Takaharu and Yakumo go at it again because Yakumo thinks he’s clearly the best one among them and should be the one to beat the bad guy. Nagi and Fuuka try to defuse the situation, and Cloud Cloud decides to go Kappa hunting all alone because he’s the only one who’s good at Shuriken Ninpo anyway and takes off.
Kasumi follows him and they talk. Yakumo doesn’t really care about being Last Ninja or even learning ninja stuff, but since he’s from a ninja family, he’s going to be a ninja. Kasumi wonders if he thinks that because he can’t be better than Takaharu, which makes rustles his jimmies because he’s better at ninpo, damnit, and he’ll prove it. He storms off again.
Meanwhile, the Kappa starts shit again, and Yakumo is quick to find him. They face off and this time Kappa overpowers Yakumo’s fire attack. As Kappa goes in for the kill, Takaharu gets in front of Yakumo and fends off Kappa’s ice blast easily, knocking him back.
Obviously, Yakumo is taken aback because earlier Takaharu sucked at ninpo. Takaharu laughs it off and tells him that he’s better at it when it’s for
realsies and he should stop talking shit until he’s better than Granddad.
The gang rallies and transforms. Yakumo and Takaharu take point and fight Kappa while the others fight the smaller yokai. Working together, they defeat Kappa.
With some yokai sorcery from our mysterious friend, Kappa is brought back and all grown up.
The Ally Ninja are summoned and combined into Shurikenjin. They start out strong, but Kappa flies away. Shinobimaru attempts to chase after, but Dragomaru has to save his ass and Shurikenjin re-configures into Shurikenjin Drago with Yakumo in the high chair. Shurikenjin Drago easily overpowers Kappa and turns him into dust.
Takaharu scoops up the cleansed Sealing Shuriken, Kasumi wonders if Takaharu is a good ninja because he doesn’t worry about things or if he’s just a dumb.
Yakumo tells Takaharu that he still doesn’t give a flip about ninjas, but he’s going to be better than Taka and the old man and be the Last Ninja.
The fox-masked yokai uses her jug of liquid to awaken the 1st Spear of the Kibaoni Army, Gabi Raizou.
FINAL REVIEW
Episode 2 or The One where Yakumo is a pretty big dickhead and in the end is still a dick, but I guess not as much.
This is a pretty basic second episode. Last episode we were saturated with all of Takaharu’s Takaharu-ness, so we properly introduce his foil, the icy wizard ninja, Yakumo. I wonder if we’ll see Yakumo come to happily embrace his ninja heritage or just be a stick in the mud the whole time.
I’m not also sure of what to make of Kasumi right now either, is she the wise older sister type? I really do hope she gets focus sooner rather than later.
This season is really pulling out all of the stops with slick visuals. The last transformation is probably one of the most cool looking I’ve seen in recent
years, especially for an episode so incredibly early in the season.
What else can I say? The fightwork was great, the overarching story is trucking right along, we got to know another Ninninger, and another Sealing Shuriken is recovered. All in a good days work.
I give this episode 3.3 shuriken out of 5.
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Ninja Vanish!
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