House of Ninjas

In a world where ninjas reside a dysfunctional family of ninjas who have hung up their swords come out of retirement and have to brush up on their rusty skills to combat a rogue rival clan. The Fuma clan have orchestrated an attack and it's up to the Tawaras to thwart them and stop their evil ways. It is an interesting idea but the plot moves a little slow and too many scenes are filmed with low lighting which I personally dislike. Kento Kaku plays Haru Tawara the second son and is the main lead but his entire family have interesting back stories and at just eight episodes it is short but may still have been better as a movie.

I'm just on episode 1, and the show's looking pretty cool and interesting. A bit of janky wire work (jumping into a building), but nothing too bad. Atmospheric and stylish in a Netflix kind of way.

But the music! It's like they thought the story was a bit dark and wanted to lighten the tone to appeal to a wider audience by adding a stupid score that constantly undermines what's happening. Little comic glockenspiel style runs, oompah oompah beats, clarinet trills. Even when trying to be serious, the music gives the whole thing a cheap, B-movie feel. It gets very irritating.

But maybe others like it. I could be missing something, and there *are* some comedic elements (though usually deadpan).

On the whole, very promising. Just put on some headphones while reading the subtitles.

Loved it! Liked it even more than I was expecting to, and I had been keeping an eye on this show ever since it was first announced. I lived in Japan for a while and have long been a fan of Japanese classic samurai/ninja cinema. It is so awesome to see this show bring back some of the great shinobi tropes, themes, lore, etc. From the great classic shinobi films of the 1960s (which are largely little unknown outside Japan). I particularly REALLY liked the depth of character/family development here, the emphasis on the human element of being a shinobi/ninja, and to see excellent martial art action that is done in a very grounded, realistic manner. The action was fast, visceral and not over the top, which made it all the more impactful.

The show is not perfect of course, but on the whole very entertaining and well done... The acting, production quality and action are all top notch and this is the exact kind of high quality drama series that I've been waiting to come out of Japan for a while now. There are so many original, interesting things Japan could be doing with TV/streaming series incorporating unique, rich cultural elements and the unmatched cool factor of samurai/ninja history, lore, etc. We will hopefully see even more productions in the future along these lines!

I really hope House of Ninjas gets a season 2! The first season has wonderfully established a world, a unique style/aesthetic, characters we care about, interesting themes and realistic badass action which could really be expanded upon in future seasons. More please!

This series will be one-starred as boring by hard-core action lovers. And by anyone who detests painfully corny music, which almost ruined the whole series for me. (It might even have been a 10 star for me but its theme song "My House" is so nauseating that I wore out my mute button. But I did find the story unique and absorbing and all the veteran actors were superb. Episode 5 was the game changer that got me hooked, culminating in a scene that had a Jesus-wandering-in-the-desert vibe. Really striking scenery. Btw, If you are a Japanese drama fan, you will recognize the Shinobi ninja hero father from Rurouni Kenshin movies. Meanwhile the the evil cult leader of the Fuma Clan was the protagonist of the cool Japanese series "The Naked Director". He is menacingly terrific here. I can't place the Shinobi mom, but her acting was intense but subtle/spot-on perfect. Like Michelle Yeoh, she may be an aging Asian beauty but she's a total scene stealer.

Family grief is posistioned as 1 of 2 major themes. Coupled to purpose and sacrifice of freedom towards duty of Shinobi. Much insight is provided into grief ang guilt impacting the family unit. Great use of music, but slow burn till 1/3s in. The secondary theme is glory. Here the opposing Fuma clan and their super natural leader enter. The Fuma fight against the traditional function of the Shinobi, which is military special forces killing machine, embodied by the Hattori family.

Atlast the true purpose of the Fuma clan is revealed after multiple plot twists. Past pacing issues and if you buy into the marriage with the supernatural, nicely done.