Ninjai's still famous!

The Essentials: Ninjai

Welcome to The Essentials, a weekly column at ANImosity spotlighting cutting edge animation that paved the way, started a movement, or is just plain too awesome to miss.

Face it. Ninjas are played out. We've been bombarded with ninja movies, tv shows, video games, ninja advice columns, ninja Facebook applications and countless ninja t-shirts so much that they're no longer a badass icon, but rather a washed out pop culture joke.

But not all is lost, some seek to restore the ninja to it's former fabled glory. Ninjai is a series that tells the story of a young ninja who has lost his memory and sets out to find his purpose. Along the way he runs into a few friends and a few enemies. Well, mostly enemies.

ninjai_moon.jpgThis brings us to hallmark number one of the Ninjai series: the violence. Yes, thecharacter of Ninjai may only be 8 or 9 years old, but nearly every episode has him decapitating at least one foe in full digital glory. The actionis fast and extremely stylized, to the point where you might wonder which big Hollywood director had a hand in the action scenes. Even the orchestral music is original and sounds like something off the big screen and has a distinctly oriental flavor. There's also a great mix of humor and quiet moments that really add some depth to each episode and remind you that, even though he just killed a horde of enemy ninjas, Ninjai is still just a child.

takabath.jpgAs the series goes on, you'll gain a little (and I stress a little) more of the backstory, but what really drives the plot is the fight for survival that goes on in nearly every episode. Most episodes (or chapters, as they call them) leave the door open for the next episode while completing the subplot from the last one. Sadly the series is incomplete and currently ends on a cliffhanger after the 12th episode. Even after enjoying some airtime on cable TV's G4, the creators still haven't finished off the series, however they still claim to be interested in doing so.

Ninjai really sets the watermark high for all action cartoons, online
or otherwise. There's lots of ninja cartoons out there, but Ninjai
really sets itself apart with it's fantastic art, fast action,
professional caliber music and it's charming characters. If you're into action, if you're into ninja's, if you're into anime, if you're into animation at all, this is one of the defining works of animation, NOT done by big studios, but a group of people who just wanted to make something cool.

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Of course don't forget to watch your daily Ninjai Chapter