Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Ninja Kamui
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v1cious
 Posts: 6227 Location: Houston, TX |
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Loved the first episode. The music was kind of cringe, but that was the only sore point. So far this is the best original effort I've seen from Toonami.
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Aura Ichadora
 Posts: 2302 Location: In front of my computer |
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The opening scene had me curious, but by the end of it had me hooked. I quite look forward to seeing how this is going to unfold. I'm a bit lost right now in terms of the whats and whys, but I expect we'll figure out the mystery soon enough. Also, really loving the fluid animation with those fights. Very impressive!
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Farhanawesome
Posts: 243 |
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Any thoughts about the english dub ? How is it ?
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11588 |
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Overall, not a bad debut. The dub was ok, though I wasn't sold on Logan's voice. But that's ok, since we probably won't hear him again. Higan's voice works much better (kinda telling that Kenjiro Tsuda just effectively changed up his voice for the two identities rather than needing a different actor, huh) . Luci did great as Emma, and the FBI guy is pretty good. The insert song was weird, since it started as if Joe was singing it about an octave higher and sweeter than his speaking voice. The coldrain ED is fire, as expected.
The action was pretty spectacular, though a lot went by too fast for me to grasp what was going on. It took me several rewatches frame by frame to figure out where the damn collar came from. I can see that it was set up in multiple places (the electrical fx on the wife and son, the single frame closeup of whatever the other guy was whipping at him, and a couple other clues I can't remember now), but it was hard to piece together on a single viewing. And like, did he get some kind of power-up from the needles in his neck during the first attack? Did the bad guys impale him, or did he activate them himself? I still can't tell. If the former, why didn't that wreck his collar then? But someone please, please, please teach Tom and the announcer how to pronounce "Kamui." Everytime I hear "Kuh MOO ee" I wince and almost physically recoil. smdh |
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 377 |
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My take is that it was pretty good except for Joe's kid, who sounded a bit stilted but I can't figure out if it was actually stilted or if I'm too used to anime kids sounding over the top and exaggerated like Anya Forger for example (also it's been a while since I've watched any show with a kid dubbed) so a more normal one is throwing me. But, well, it doesn't matter really, 'cause he is toast pretty early so aside from a flashback, any acting from him doesn't really matter, does it? Anyway I really liked the show. I heard a friend say it was a real throwback to some 80s/90s anime that were more style over substance, and so far I'd say I might agree because it was a little comical how many death flags the family were throwing up but man those action scenes whipped ass, so I'm totally in for now. Excited to seen Ninja John Wick go on his revenge spree. edit: also that one main ninja was just straight up Sundowner from Metal Gear Rising Revengance and all I could think of was his lines whenever the ninja guy was on screen. |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3994 |
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Fantastic action, just as I'd been hoping for/looking forward to from this director having loved a bunch of his previous shows, and some cool music to kick things off in the premiere. Excited for the revenge mission. Thought the dub was off to a good start as well.
Nice designs and art style too. Hope they can keep up this high quality animation as this looks like it could successfully pull off a lot of spectacular fight scenes to balance out the familiar revenge story. |
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jr240483
 Posts: 4448 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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it was pretty obvious that the artist is an uber fan of sundowner. i mean his art design was pretty obvious. at least he didn't make joe look like jack the ripper aka raiden or his family like rose and their son! |
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4624 |
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On the one hand, it is laying it on pretty thick with those inspirations with "totally not Sundowner" and "definitely not that scene out of John Wick," but at the same time, I don't much care when the action looks that good.
I'm hoping that Sunghoo Park at the helm means that it will remain consistent with that part of things. Garo: Vanishing Line's first episode was maybe the last time where the action spectacle on screen made me say, "Oh wow" out loud, so here's hoping. |
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InfiniteNothingness
 Posts: 187 |
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Between losing his family to the clan he defected from and how gruff a man Joe is, this series is right there with Metallic Rouge in terms of feeling like a throwback, albeit to the ultraviolent and gory action flicks of the 90s in this case. Very boilerplate catalyst, I almost wanted to roll my eyes at how obviously the death flags were being thrust into the ground if not for how well directed it was.
But I went in knowing I'd have my reservations, and those are about the scope of my current issues with it. So very, very down for what this is putting up, eagerly anticipating more brutally remorseless bloodshed and sick action scenes. I do somewhat hope Joe picks up even another companion, however limited, though, just to possibly counterbalance everything else. Man, this brought a lot of smiles. |
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3994 |
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Oh yeah, they really showed off in the first ep for that show, it was so cool. |
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Greed1914
Posts: 4624 |
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I have to think the expansion that led to bringing in non-Japanese as ninjas was really selling out to Auza. If it is really just that the prior role of ninja got big enough that they needed to recruit from outside, then Higan was probably in the wrong for leaving and putting his family at risk over something like that. Higan leaving because he realized that "peace keeping" was actually killing to promote corporate profits, then it makes more sense.
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jr240483
Posts: 4448 Location: New York City,New York,USA |
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or it could be something similar to the ninja assassins storyline where his old clan resorted to evil and he did not wanted any part of it. hence why he and his family was marked for death. the real question right now is will those two feds live long enough to even tell their tale? |
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InfiniteNothingness
Posts: 187 |
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Basically the only thing I disliked about episode 3 was Lil walking the path to "deceased predatory gay guy," unless it's really just violence that gets him going and fights to the deaths are the best vehicle for that, which I sure pray is the case. Otherwise? That was pretty neat and still fun! Ninja Kamui is not operating in new territory and every episode feels so very familiar, yet not in how it's still trying to be its own thing and is at least (seemingly) cognizant of being made in the 21st century. I understand why Taylor found so much of the expositional frontloading disagreeable -- it wore on me on occasion too, though broadly went down easy since most everyone as a character is fun to follow or listen to. The alliance-building sequence definitely could have been cleaner, with stuff like Mike putting into explicit words what his superior was hinting at being demonstrative of the better parts of those scenes. A more even mix of implications and ambiguity and on-the-nose statements would work better I feel, though I largely don't mind.
I also like how this show seems to be posturing towards something greater than a simple, ultraviolent, gore-filled revenge fest (but I would have been plenty happy with that too all else equal), building off of what came before. It's not deep, but there's additional meat to work with so far, and the AUVA CEO saying some grossly innovation-at-all-costs, technology as the future managed to feel blatant enough to be uncomfortable but not so excessive that the line about being the "one and only" didn't make me grimace. This exact sort of businessman antagonist is, personally, just utterly gross (so here's hoping him and his meet a gloriously awful end). The fight was enjoyable too, exciting to follow based on such lovely kinetic direction alone, on top of the sense of space and breakneck pacing continuing with aplomb. And while it was shorter, there were also nugged I found wickedly fun on their own: The high-flying action, Higan mimicking the assassin toy's multiple arms because ninja arts, and most especially how he flicked through the missiles like flash down in some weirdly fun old Flash game. I can't not love that, lol. More enemy blood would have been welcomed, though. Regardless of anything else, this has been a fairly hopeful first three episodes, and as someone that was already on board thanks to this more than scratching my exuberant animated violence itch alone, this is a pretty fun ride. Do hope any future lore drops are closer to clean deliveries than being dumped in front of me, though, for sure. |
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Dr. Wily
Posts: 377 |
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I just wanna know how Higan's gonna fight the head ninja guy now that we know he can apparently just use the Force.
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tintor2
 Posts: 2116 |
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I feel like I'm watching Darker than Black but Even darker
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