Shuriken Sentai Ninninger (2015)

So, this is probably one of the weakest sentai seasons out there... it had great potential at first, but it ended up as shallow as it started.
I mean, the first episode was great! Really fun and with nice effects, despite de uninteresting characters and amateurish acting (wich is okay and totally expected for a sentai at the start), but then episode 2 came, and was still nice, but nothing so new there, and it went on without any story and character progression up until Star Ninger is introduced.
After they all became allies, it continued the same lame pacing and no story progression as it was before, and went on until the ending, without any real game changer. Just boring to watch, as nothing happens, and characters remain the same as they were in the very first episode.

My advice: watch it if you really like ninjas and don't care about story, because some fights are cool. If not, there's better stuff around.

Read More

To be honest, the series was quite decent. Not too bad nor too silly, contrary to what some people might claim the series to be. And in terms of acting, I don't see that to be any worse issue compared to any other Sentai series before or after Ninnin. Even for the actor playing Takaharu. Also for people who still question Nishikawa Shunsuke's acting ability, he IS a good actor honestly as you could see in later episodes where Takaharu's personality totally change whenever enemy monsters get up to their tricks. Or if you disliked the idea of a cowboy ninja, dude, Kinji's already is a Japanese cowboy prior so having him embracing his new ninja side shouldn't be weird.

Just because you have a biased opinion on the show or disliked how the characters were written, doesn't mean you can shit on the casts.

As with any other sentai series, as the episodes progress so does the acting as the cast gets more in tune with their roles. And to be honest, I wouldn't call any of the plot pieces to be 'bad' or 'boring'. Each Ninninger gets their own character arcs in turn and kept growing stronger as the episodes progress. And as they get stronger in power, so does their familial bonds. I wouldn't call the writing to be shabby when there's a lot of consideration placed on each of the members to allow them to grow as a team. By the end of the day, you'll see how each of the Igasaki family members overcome their own difficulties and grow stronger and much closer as a family of ninjas.

Ninninger is your usual super sentai show featuring fights with kaijin and monsters with ninja (and ninja cowboys) as its main theme. The show also had the elements of family (as it focuses on a clan of ninjas who are family) as well as an evil feudal warlord as the main villain. As someone who had seen a lot of old and new sentai series, Ninninger didn't fall too far from using the usual common tropes and writings that are prevalent than any other sentai series in general yet can still be entertaining, as well as wholesome.

Just because ninjas and family theme is not your cup of tea, don't be too brash to claim that the show was bad because you didn't like it. Or else you'll find quite a number of sentai series that by rights shouldn't appeal to you as well due to the similar themes and tropes that were present in their respective series.

Read More