Hey guys what is up welcome back to my blog I’m so thankful that you guys took the time out of your day to read my blog post. You guys already know that I really like Lookism. Who doesn’t love ninjas so when I saw a show about ninjas in modern day I was excited and the first few episodes left me disappointed to say the least but the story picked up so good I was amazed. LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD.
Sakuraba Ittoki is a common boy in high school who has an over protective uncle Tokisada and childhood friend Kousetsu. Having never understood why others around him were so protective of him he lives his life with his widow mother Yumika. A proposal and a date lead to an attempt on Ittoki’s life and only then does he understand that he comes from the Iga clan of ninjas and that his mother is the head of the clan. A whirlwind of events lead to Ittoki adjusting in his new life as a shinobi and to find out that his father’s death was no accident and that the politics of the Shinobi world specifically the agression by the Koga clan are all happening because of forces conspiring to claim something the Iga protects. On a journey that develops him from a young carefree boy to a true shinobi, Ittoki will take actions that will affect the entire ninja world.
Sakuraba Ittoki is a shinobi from Iga, he’s the type of main character that many people hate because he’s compassionate, his motivation is to save others and all he’s trying to do is to understand what being a ninja is. His ideology is one that will get him hate however for me I personally think that it was just incomplete. Yumika is the Iga head and Ittoki’s mother and my 2nd favourite in the series, that’s all I can say without spoiling too much. Kousetsu is a childhood friend and another Iga ninja that has secrets so deep their unmasking will leave you amazed. Tokisada Kaga, my favourite in the series, nicknamed, Tokisada of the Carnage and Tokisada the Demi god, he’s a loyal and smart shinobi who absolutely deserves his very own spinoff. There’s tons of more characters like the acting chied of Koga, Kido. Ban Suzaku, another amazing character from the Koga clan, Kirei, Ryoko and many more. The series has strong characters but they are few and I feel that the haphazardous beginning to the story could have been greatly used for character development.
The series has some pretty good animation and it only improves till the last episode, the animation also serves to make the action better and the high tech ninja stuff is impressive but also adds to the combat greatly and it truly makes the series feel like a ninja story set in modern day. Another great strength of the story was the clan politics of the series that again reinforced that the story is set in modern day. The series starts out weak and takes a very different direction from what one might expect, it manages to set the world well in those 4 bad episodes enough that everything after episode 5 is good however sitting through those 4 episodes that make the plot feel very random might not be possible for some people. The series also missed out on the heavy potential of world building that again could have been used in the first few episodes.
Someone will always have a different ideology from you and accepting that to lead a life of co existence is what the anime showed truly in my opinion because the primary conflict came from a broken ideology of a broken man and even Ittoki who stands agajnst this ideology doesn’t have an ideology that is complete and rather feels very surface level. As people we however need to be better, to understand ourselves better, so that we can see where our values lie.
The anime is 12 episodes long and has a finale that makes the entire first 4 bad episodes totally worth it. The modern day ninja series has amazing animation, cool fights and most of all hype moments even then considering the bad start and the slow pacing that could have 100% been better I’ll give the series a 7/10, it’s something that pays off only if you sit through the bad stuff.
So that is it for this post guys hope you got some value from this. Thank you guys for reading to the end hit me up on Instagram and Twitter with your thoughts and if you have any ideas on what I should write about. Stay safe from the COVID-19. Thank you again and I’ll see you all next week.
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