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EP. REVIEW: Ninja Slayer From Animation


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residentgrigo



Joined: 23 Dec 2007
Posts: 2596
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 9:57 am Reply with quote
I hate Inferno Cop, gave up on it quickly and don´t like the second half of KLK first of all.
I am further unsurprised that this turned out to be a motion comic but they should have used real cardboard cutouts and have them glued to sticks for a better effect. The soundrack sound like a borderline parody of the one from Naruto...

That said i may finish this anime and now gave it a "decent" as it´s basically Shinobi or similar stylish action games but without the gameplay and Ninja Gaiden (Nes) "quality" of animation. I am one of "these people" who will can get behind a dumb game story so this is right down my alleyway and the moe discussion proved to be worthless too. Surprise?
I real anime in the style of Ninja Slayer: Kills would have gone over better with most of us but boring it was not. The producers will need to cut 2 episodes into one next year when they air it on tv as the 10+ minute format isn´t working as of now and airing the "show" over half a year is a mistake in my eyes. I am surprised how polite the Ninja Slayer is as he isn´t like this in the manga.
Are there any news on Lupin btw? Domo.
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Cptn_Taylor



Joined: 08 Nov 2013
Posts: 925
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 11:21 am Reply with quote
Brack wrote:
Ninja Slayer is simply honest where other anime try to deceive you.

Anime is limited animation, and will often use tricks to hide its limitations. The long static pans, dialogue spoken by characters with their backs to the camera, recycled footage, and so on.

Ninja Slayer will not lie to you, its limitations are there on the screen for all to see, and they make the moments of exaggerated movement even wilder in comparison. It is the mechanics of anime construction laid bare.


For christ's sake. Bad animation is bad animation. And Trigger is synonym for crap animation. Kill la Kill exemplified this. This studio, either doesn't have the money or the talent or both to come up with a 2015 standard animation quality. Maybe they should be inspired by Xebec to see how to do quality animation.

You're right, Ninja Slayer won't lie to you. It says "we don't know how to animate". If you enjoy this be my guest. There are a lot of worthier animes this season to waste time with this show.

I bet 100 $ had this anime been "animated" by another studio we would hear statements like "what crap, how can this be done in this day and age etc...". Trigger is a substandard studio. Nothing they have produced stands above mediocrity in the animation department.
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gpanthony



Joined: 18 Dec 2013
Posts: 242
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 12:40 pm Reply with quote
Quite possibly. But I'd rather take my $100 and line the pockets of Studio Trigger with it, because in the end, they're making stuff that suits my tastes and I love them for that. Even if they're animation isn't always the highest caliber, what they do works for the stories they want to tell and when it is good it's really, really good. Little Witch Academia has gorgeous animation throughout the entire project, though.
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Jayhosh



Joined: 24 May 2013
Posts: 972
Location: Millmont, Pennsylvania
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 1:12 pm Reply with quote
Cptn_Taylor wrote:
For christ's sake. Bad animation is bad animation. And Trigger is synonym for crap animation. Kill la Kill exemplified this. This studio, either doesn't have the money or the talent or both to come up with a 2015 standard animation quality. Maybe they should be inspired by Xebec to see how to do quality animation.

You're right, Ninja Slayer won't lie to you. It says "we don't know how to animate". If you enjoy this be my guest. There are a lot of worthier animes this season to waste time with this show.

I bet 100 $ had this anime been "animated" by another studio we would hear statements like "what crap, how can this be done in this day and age etc...". Trigger is a substandard studio. Nothing they have produced stands above mediocrity in the animation department.


While I'm inclined to agree with you about Ninja Slayer, like I said earlier, at least Kill la Kill used its budget creatively. And there were many legitimately well animated scenes in the show too. Also, the limitations were at the time understandable considering Trigger was still a relatively new studio. But this is just "bad" animation in an insulting way to me. I'm not saying it's particularly offensive or anything, I just find it odd how so many people are already praising it for its deep implications. Also, Little Witch Academia was animated beautifully, so your claim that they've produced nothing above mediocrity isn't really true.

Aside from all those opinions though, what I've always admired about Trigger over pretty much every other anime studio is their unique sense of art design and creativity in the medium of animation. Maybe there are a lot better anime out this season (I wouldn't have a hard time believing that at all), but I don't think any of them look particularly creative in their visual design. Because for me, "good," fluid animation doesn't always equate to a work having a lot of creative ambition behind it.
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DangerMouse



Joined: 25 Mar 2009
Posts: 3994
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 1:16 pm Reply with quote
Also, even if in a few spots there were times where it was obvious KLK was pushing it's budget (like Gurren Lagann did at times too), a good portion of the show looked fantastic and even those parts with less "actual animation" were so detailed/atmospheric and skillfully or creatively "filmed" that it didn't matter much and at times was timed so well it even added to the mood or comedy. Overall in my opinion Kill la Kill looked fantastic.

MarshalBanana wrote:
Going into this I knew of 2 possible outcomes.

1, a show like Kill La Kill
2, a show like Inferno Cop

I'm not really a fan of Inferno Cops animation. I applaud them for doing something completely original, it's almost like those parodies where they use sprites from 16bit games. But the animation is just too bad, I will continue watching it since there is entertainment to be had. But the fact we aren't getting anything more like KLK is disappointing.


Pretty much this.
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MarshalBanana



Joined: 31 Aug 2014
Posts: 5511
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 1:57 pm Reply with quote
Cptn_Taylor wrote:
For christ's sake. Bad animation is bad animation. And Trigger is synonym for crap animation. Kill la Kill exemplified this. This studio, either doesn't have the money or the talent or both to come up with a 2015 standard animation quality. Maybe they should be inspired by Xebec to see how to do quality animation.


Trigger has some pretty good talent, what they don't have is money. Their problem is knowing how to spend a budget, which is why they have very uneven animation. I certainly hope they don't get "inspired" by Xebec. Triggers animation has a sense of weight and motion to it. I liked Mnemosyne, but the animation was nothing special. Give Trigger the same amount and they would give you something better.

Sure Ninja Slayers animation is absolutely terrible, but the director clearly has talent.
person#56302
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Valhern



Joined: 19 Jan 2015
Posts: 916
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 2:15 pm Reply with quote
I literally don't feel this insult people are talking about. I don't feel either deceived nor that they are showing me 'truth', instead, they're just doing whatever they wanted to do, and I find that fun, nothing more, nothing less. It's a comedy, so it's supposed to be fun, and it's fighting oriented so it's supposed to have lots of action, and if they did THAT part wrong I'd feel like actually wasting my time. To give an example, ONE's Onepunch Man webcomic is drawn horribly yet the author CAN draw very well, but I still find it funny and epic at the same time because that's what they intended to do.

I laughed, and that's what they wanted me to do, so it worked out just fine. The 'jarring' scenes when completely normal animation goes to 2-D MAD level animation, as much as anticlimatical it is, it is also funny to me.

And as far as Trigger goes, I actually like their style most of the time, though this style does have quite many weaknesses.
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EighteenSky





PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 2:52 pm Reply with quote
Surprised this got a positive first impressions really, I shouldn't be since everything Trigger do seems to be held up with different standards than other series. I certainly agree that it's an acquired taste though just like their last 2 original series.

Honestly don't know if I can finish this series, I suffered through Inferno Cop and Kill la Kill but this may be a step too far even for me. The OP and ED are the only positives of the first episode. You can feel the shoddiness everywhere. Them purposefully doing it badly doesn't make it remotely acceptable.

To be fair this is only the first episode, while it has left a severely bad taste in my mouth it has 25 episodes to redeem itself.
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kotomikun



Joined: 06 May 2013
Posts: 1205
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 3:12 pm Reply with quote
I'm not really understanding the complaints about this. I mean, yes, it looks horrible, and it's full of jarring transitions. That's part of the humor. It's like those stupid-looking cutout sequences in Monty Python; the crude animation only makes it funnier. You weren't really expecting a show with such a camp cliche concept to be serious, were you?

I guess this is going to be a love-it-or-hate-it thing. For me, this is about as good as "so bad it's good" gets, and that's actually a pretty hard thing to pull off intentionally. I don't know if I'll sit through the entire series, but I watched the first episode last night and I still can't stop laughing, so I think it's done its job.
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Selipse



Joined: 04 Sep 2014
Posts: 216
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 3:48 pm Reply with quote
It's not a nanar if it's done on purpose.

This is simply glorious. It's Inferno Cop meets Kill la Kill. The culmination of all things Trigger (although it's missing Little Witch Academia, but that wouldn't fit in).

It's funny seeing all these people saying Trigger has "lost their way" or that "it only gets a pass because it's Trigger" now that they're big. You know that Inferno Cop was what introduced us to Trigger, right? That's what "saved the industry" first.

Also, even though Kill la Kill sold quite well, Inou-Battle sold horribly (1.2k). It probably didn't even break even (too bad, I quite liked it). So they're not exactly in the situation of "hey, now that we did some shows, we have more than enough money to do awesome high-quality stuff!" people think.

The TV version airing nex yeart is probably going to be fully animated, so just wait for that if you don't like Inferno Cop.
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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 5:47 pm Reply with quote
kotomikun wrote:
I'm not really understanding the complaints about this. I mean, yes, it looks horrible, and it's full of jarring transitions. That's part of the humor. It's like those stupid-looking cutout sequences in Monty Python; the crude animation only makes it funnier. You weren't really expecting a show with such a camp cliche concept to be serious, were you?


There's nothing wrong with cutout animation. But those Monty Python sequences are full of intricately detailed art with lots of comedic exaggeration, as well as interesting and dynamic shot composition, and carefully considered slapstick movement. Really, that's a great example of why Ninja Slayer doesn't work. You have to be a really good animator with a deep understanding of visual humor to actually effectively be intentionally "bad". Ninja Slayer can't begin to grasp this. It's just dull, flat, cheap and lifeless. It is the anti-Monty Python.
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Themaster20000



Joined: 05 Aug 2014
Posts: 871
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 6:47 pm Reply with quote
ikillchicken wrote:

There's nothing wrong with cutout animation. But those Monty Python sequences are full of intricately detailed art with lots of comedic exaggeration, as well as interesting and dynamic shot composition, and carefully considered slapstick movement. Really, that's a great example of why Ninja Slayer doesn't work. You have to be a really good animator with a deep understanding of visual humor to actually effectively be intentionally "bad". Ninja Slayer can't begin to grasp this. It's just dull, flat, cheap and lifeless. It is the anti-Monty Python.


I think the animation fits when looking at it's source material,which is nonsense just like the show http://otakumode.com/sp/ninjaslayer/novel
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ikillchicken



Joined: 12 Feb 2007
Posts: 7272
Location: Vancouver
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 7:36 pm Reply with quote
I don't see how. Boring and static is the antithesis of gleeful nonsense.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
Posts: 13620
Location: In Phoenix but has an 85308 ZIP
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 7:59 pm Reply with quote
If they could make it at least 20-22 minutes, I think more that more people might enjoy this more because of how shore the episode was.
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kotomikun



Joined: 06 May 2013
Posts: 1205
PostPosted: Fri Apr 17, 2015 8:25 pm Reply with quote
ikillchicken wrote:
There's nothing wrong with cutout animation. But those Monty Python sequences are full of intricately detailed art with lots of comedic exaggeration, as well as interesting and dynamic shot composition, and carefully considered slapstick movement. Really, that's a great example of why Ninja Slayer doesn't work. You have to be a really good animator with a deep understanding of visual humor to actually effectively be intentionally "bad". Ninja Slayer can't begin to grasp this. It's just dull, flat, cheap and lifeless. It is the anti-Monty Python.


Well, there's no use arguing about whether it "works" when it obviously did for some people and not for others. Comedy is very subjective. Then this discussion just turns into that other Monty Python thing with the lethally funny joke in nonsensical German, and the interrogator who tries to deny that it's funny but literally dies laughing anyway.

It's a parody of stereotypes about anime and Japanese ninjas, as the review already explained better than I can. The humor isn't exactly the same as Python, but it's similar in that it's really weird and incomprehensibly stupid on the surface, while actually being more complex than it looks. Commenting on police brutality with a random scene of static cop sprites swarming all over a static "drunk guy" sprite (it actually looks like a mild-mannered businessman tilted sideways) with no justification, and bouncing on him like he's a trampoline, is very Python-esque.
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