Go ninja, go ninja go! Here comes my review of Shuriken Sentai Ninninger Shinobi 3: ‘The Vicious Gabi Appears‘!
Our intrepid padawan ninja are in the midst of a training exercise. Obviously, Takaharu and Cloud Cloud turn it into a competition, trying to one-up each other, Nagi trying to keep up and the girls bringing up the rear, even though this is supposed to be a lesson in teamwork.
Takaharu is the first to grab the target scroll, but he ruins it all when he blows their cover with his victory yell.
Kyuuemon revives the First Spear, Gabi Raizou.
When they get back to the dojo, Fuuka lets Takaharu have it for messing up their exercise. Grandpa’s there, sipping on some coffee. Taka tries grade-grubbing, but Gramps swats him away, telling him he’s a dope who got a zero and that the mission isn’t over until they get home, this is like lesson one, get with it.
Now that Gabi Raizou is back, Kyuuemon tries to get him to gather fear to free Kibaoni, but he just tells her to step off and goes off to have fun wrecking stuff.
Nagi’s a butterfly in the sky, one that can go twice as high and learn ninjutsu because he takes a look, in a book READING RAINBOW.
The newest yokai, Kasha, is born from a pair of sweet rollerblades. He causes some trouble on some nice people enjoying this open expanse of concrete, but our team is quick to respond.
A quick transformation and role call later, Kasha calls out some Hitokarage and everyone throws down. Taka and Cloud go after Kasha, once again in competition. Nagi doesn’t want to be left behind, so he follows. He manages to surprise Kasha from behind, but Kasha easily dodges Nagi’s attack and runs away laughing.
Cloud rides him for just relying on books and if he can’t hack a practical, then maybe this isn’t his thing. Nagi tells him that he’s gonna fix this and runs off, Takaharu on his heels.
Nagi, using his big ol’ brain, figures out where Kasha’s heading. Being right, he finds the yokai, transforming and getting in a good hit. Kasha taunts him and challenges KiNinger to a race. Nagi accepts and rides his Ninja #1 Sword Billy Madison style after Kasha.
Takaharu shows up after Nagi and Kasha take off. He transforms and follows after him, using his Ninja #1 Sword as a surfboard. He laps Nagi and Kasha easily and runs into Kyuuemon. She introduces herself and slips away easily as Taka tries to transform and fight her.
Our yellow bookworm ends up at a construction yard, Kasha nowhere to be seen. Until he’s right behind him. Kasha has a truck go all Maximum Overdrive on Nagi, chasing him around relentlessly. He gets handcuffed to the truck as it careens around, the driver passed out in the cab.
The ladies and also Cloud finally catch up as Nagi flies right by them. They start to chase but are stopped by Kasha. They transform and charge him.
Kasha is knocked to the ground and Gabi Raizou appears. Kasha is glad that he’s come to help, but Gabi doesn’t do help and strikes Kasha down.
On the road again, Nagi’s still flailing around. He finally notices the driver. He’s flipping out because this wasn’t in his textbooks.
Gabi Raizou swats the other Ninninger down easily, lamenting that there is no stronger opponents around and goes to destroy them, when Takaharu finally shows up and blocks the attack.
The cousins tell Takaharu about Nagi and he sends them off to go save him and he’ll fight Gabi.
Taka gets fired up about how strong Gabi is and transforms. They clash.
Nagi is still wigging out on the truck, but is trying to think of a way to get free and save the driver, asking himself “WWTD?”. Realizing that Takaharu is a bonehead and doesn’t think, Nagi acts quickly, freeing himself, and with some quick ninjutsu, saves the driver, but still ends up hurling himself off the cliff.
Luckily for him, Kasumi is there with Byunmaru to catch him.
Taka and Gabi are still going at it, obviously Gabi being stronger than him. Takaharu unleashes his finishing move, actually bringing Gabi to his knees. This doesn’t kill Gabi, but oh, does it excite him. Now he really wants to fight.
Kasumi appears, covering the whole area in a haze, telling Takaharu that they need to get the fuck out of here right now because this is too much. He tries to resist, but goes with her because she’s right, that guy’s literally and figuratively a monster.
They regroup with the others and Kyuuemon shows up, turning the cleansed Sealing Shuriken into a Gashadokuro.
Time to summon the Ally Ninja and get to work. The Gashadokuro seems pretty strong, but with Nagi’s hard-won experience and teamwork, they knock it down a peg or two, combining into Shurikenjin to finish the job.
The day is saved thanks to the Powerpuff Girls and Nagi decides to pack up his books because his cousins are better examples than his textbooks, even Taka, besides he read them all already. Gramps appears to them in a balloon and tells them that they’re still far from becoming Last Ninja.
Nagi thinks that he could totes be Last Ninja now, and Fuuka and Cloud decide that Kasumi is the real hero here because Taka is not the sharpest shuriken. Speaking of Taka, he’s fired up again.
FINAL REVIEW
I still don’t really know what to think of this show?
Anyways, this is Nagi’s focus episode, even though Takaharu got a pretty big part in it. Hmm.
I’m trying very hard not to be so harsh on this show, seeing how this is only episode three, but the hype was so strong.
Nagi’s the bookworm, okay. I just really hope he doesn’t get shoehorned into being third fiddle behind Taka and Cloud Cloud. They’ve gotten so much focus for so few episodes.
I guess you could say that’s my biggest problem with this episode, like it was fine, but it’s obviously supposed to be a Nagi focus episode, and while Nagi did have more focus than previous episodes, Taka still got cooler stuff to do, you know getting an evil rival and all that.
The show is still very pretty and seeing a Gashadokuro made me think of Kakuranger and gave me a small sad.
I give this episode 3.1 Shuriken out of 5.
As always, I’ve been Amber/pan2dapan!
You can find me @pan2dapan on Twitter/Tumblr/Instagram/Facebook
Ninja Vanish!