Ninja Kamui

I can't stand when anime is rated differently from movie or TV shows, why do basic standards get lowered just because it's anime? I had really high hopes that it would be a really cool show about an assassin, it's visually beautiful, but everything else is such a let down. Here's why:

1. The storyline is so basic and slow. I'm 7 episodes in and nothing has any real purpose. It's just a guy looking for revenge in the most boring way possible, sprinkled in the typical dumb cop that thinks his gun will eventually work against ninjas running at 200mph.

2. The main character is boring. You cant connect with him. There's nothing about him that's interesting, he just wants revenge. He's too much of the teenage silent, but edgy trope.

3. The other characters are just there. They offer nothing of worth to the show. They don't have any personality that makes you route for or against them. Some flashbacks are meant to be sentimental, but, again, there's isn't a character worth putting emotion into.

What made people like John Wick were the fight scenes. There are some cool fight scenes, but more talking about nothing than fighting or interesting background information.

This had a really strong start but unfortunately it swayed away from what I originally thought this series would be.

When I watched the first 4 or 5 episodes I was super excited thinking that I finally ended up finding a Ninja themed anime series that takes place in a modern time. Unfortunately the series ends up with a big focus on Mecha armor which is used heavily by both antagonists and protagonists. I suppose some folks might not be bothered by this but once the sci-fi armor action began it really started feeling like I was watching action scenes from a completely different series. I personally enjoyed the action a whole lot more when it was folks battling each other without fancy Iron Man-esque suits. I'd also like to mention that these suits are CGI drawn which, in my opinion, doesn't look or move as great as the hand drawn animation in this series.

The only other nitpick that kept coming to my mind is that after the first 2 or 3 episodes we only seem to see the supporting cast speak about what to do next or what they should do against an opponent. They barely gave any attention to the main character when it comes to suggesting a plan or even share his thoughts about the situations. Thankfully we do get to see a lot more from him in the flashbacks we see throughout. Though I will admit a lot of the other characters we see are super charismatic and felt very unique.

While I found the story a bit entertaining I must admit that it wasn't exactly anything out of this world. It starts off as a normal revenge story but unfortunately the longer it went the more it seemed like the creators were trying to cram way too many different concepts into 1 package. I actually found myself enjoying the flashbacks more than what was occurring in the present.

If you wish to see 'turn-off your mind' action I'd say give it a chance, the action in the first half of the series is great in my opinion. If you're expecting regular ninjas without Iron Man suits then you may end up disappointed once the Sci-Fi kicks in. I honestly would've rated this higher if it didn't shift from 'Modern day Ninjas' to 'Mecha-Ninjas'.

The anime is very promising and it's interesting that HBO is producing it but the story falls very flat and the plot is nothing new: vengeance and lots of action. Basically a John Wick anime ripoff. This is not entirely a bad thing if well executed but so far it does not impress: the animation is top notch but the voice acting is ATROCIOUS. It definitely breaks the immersion. Also, the characters are kinda flat, we are 5-6 episodes in and I simply do not care for any of them, the vendetta motive of the main character is just not enough to make me excited. Hopefully this series will improve with the next episodes.

It was amazing at the start. Great concept, decent story, great fight scenes and simply beautiful animation. I gave it 10/10

Then, I don't know what happened. They got tired? Ran out of budget or lost interest? But the characters weren't properly developed. I couldn't bring myself to care about the cop, the main character got flatter as the story progressed and they killed off the one character I cared about.

Worst part? The animation and fight scenes that were one of the major selling points got worse. It became a nauseating, fake-looking CGI fest. I quit halfway through episode 13 because I just couldn't stand it anymore.

The 7/10 rating is entirely due to the first few episodes, the rest deserve a 5 at best and 3 if I continue watching it. I hope they fix up.

First, I am not a manga or cartoon watcher. I saw this on HBO and it appealed to me.

I started watching and it had a good start with action and the normal good story telling. There was like 2-3 minutes in the middle part that I wondered if it was gonna be slow from there on out.

But it did not let me down and it continued to deliver content and some great slash scenes.

I like this type of story telling, for "normal" shows when they set a boundary for what is possible they have to explain all "out of the ordinary" things as to not break the boundaries.

Here, it does not matter, there are no boundaries, we know how this works, the producers know it and the delivered a great EP1, it felt like my fantasy world when reading a really good shogun manga, will be back for more.

Ep3 update: Ep2 was OK, it contained some valuable storyline items. But after ep3 I am not so sure, it sure had storyline, but I dunno, something lacked, can't put my finger on it. Rating went from 9 to 7, I am not looking forward to the next episode as much as I looked forward to ep2.

Ep5+6 update: My hopes for the series died in the previous two episodes, but apparently it went for charging, the 5ep and 6ep was fantastic episodes, now I look forward to the next one!