The Spring 2025 Anime Preview Guide

A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof

Satoko is a naive kunoichi (female ninja), and Konoha is a high school girl assassin. Satoko escapes from the ninja village and meets Konoha, and they start living together a life full of danger and excitement.

A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof is based on the Ninja to Koroshiya no Futarigurashi manga series by HundredBurger. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.

I knew I was going to love A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof from its very first scene, which sees our hapless heroine Satoko fleeing from her ninja clan in a sequence that looks ripped right out of a late-80s anime caper, except with more moe ninja girls that you'd likely have seen back then. Any comedy that is willing to be so playful and confident with its stylistic switchups right off the bat is bound to get my attention.

Then, as Satoko gets embroiled in the bloody world of assassination that Konoha is currently climbing the ranks within, we see that A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof is a proud graduate of the “Nichijou School of Animating the Dumbest Possible Shit in Glorious, Gorgeous Detail.” This, as I have explained many times before, is an incredibly reliable recipe for good comedy. The contrast between the lush production values and the deadpan editing that shows Konoha straight up murdering all of Satoko's former clan-mates is just inherently funny—and it never really gets old across the entire premiere.

Thankfully, the show has plenty of other jokes to turn to on top of all of the murder—and this anime absolutely benefits from the variety of gags on display (especially since nearly all of them land). I cackled when Satoko got disgusted looks and mocking jeers from onlookers as she casually sniffed out the underwear-stank trail that led her to Konoha's school. I giggled when Konoha went on an impressively improvised a needlessly convoluted to explain to her friend why she's suddenly living with a crazy girl who goes around dressed like a ninja. I snorted with delight when Konoha discovered that her next target was that same friend's father—and then immediately proceeded to assassinate him without a second thought. I tittered pretty much every time Satoko turned a corpse into a pile of leaves with her ridiculous ninja magic.

In a season as stacked as this one is, I was wondering how many other premieres would manage to stand out amongst all of the stiff competition. Go ahead and add A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof to the unusually large pile of "Anime That You Should Definitely Check Out This Spring." I know everyone's watchlists are getting bulky, but I promise that this show is a keeper.

SHAFT! It's been a while, hasn't it? You've been so busy with your franchises, you haven't had time to poke your head out and greet the people who aren't entrenched in Monogatari or Madoka Magica fandom in… Wow, it's been two and a half years already! Glad to have you back!

Although, I have a feeling that A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof is not going to be a top-shelf SHAFT title. If it works really hard, it may end up b-tier or maybe a cult favorite. I mean, it definitely has the sauce when it comes to animation (it is a SHAFT title after all). It's not the most splashy work from the studio, but it does have some fun stylistic flourishes here and there—with some fantastic smear frames . The character designs are cute and simple without quite coming across as sexualized baby-women in battle lingerie; if anything, they remind me of the character design in Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, where the characters were adorable but undeniably adults.

These memorable character designs are why my jaw dropped when Konoha murdered Satoko's pursuers from her home village not once, but twice. That level of distinctiveness is usually reserved for a recurring foe who limps away declaring her revenge! They can't be the butt of ongoing jokes if they've been stabbed and turned into leaves! The startling break from formula woke me up from my sleepy assumptions about how things would go… Literally, since I watched the episode at 7 am. I wouldn't call it a show with teeth exactly but it's certainly a warning against complacency.

And it would be easy to get complacent, because otherwise the situation plays out pretty much as you'd expect for a yuri-tinged sitcom about a pair of opposites in violent professions. Satoko is a terrible ninja but great at cleaning up, both in the “getting rid of evidence” sense and literally cleaning the house; Konoha is a competent assassin but her inability to clean up after herself holds her back. They're opposites! Foils! Complementary! I can't say I didn't have fun, but other than the unceremonious murders, it wasn't anything particularly special or surprising, either.

Well, what a pleasant surprise this episode of anime was. I knew nothing about this one going in—I don't even recall watching the trailer for it—but I laughed quite a few times over its 22-minute runtime.

The title makes it clear from the start that this is a light-hearted yuri rom-com between a ninja and a professional assassin—and while it is that, it also does a great job at subverting genre expectations. Take a similar show like Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. Nearly each time a new dragon appears, they start as an antagonist before becoming part of the main cast. I mean, each is so wonderfully designed, it's not like they'd be killed off moments after appearing, right?

Well in A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof they sure would be. We see not one but two meticulously designed ninja girls get murdered in short order—their bodies turned into leaves and scattered to the wind. What's more, neither our titular ninja or assassin seem to care about the killing of Satoko's former companions—it's a punchline and nothing more (and it's hilarious).

In most anime of this type, it's the characters' hidden feelings—who they are underneath—that draws them together. In this anime, it's the opposite. It's Satoko's practical skills—body stashing and homemaking—that appeal to Konoha. And the show also gets a lot of mileage out of how unimportant Konoha views Satoko's contributions to her everyday life and how little it takes for Satoko to become overjoyed.

And then there are the production values. It feels like there are double or triple the amount of keyframes on the screen compared to usual. The direction is stellar both when it comes to action and getting the most out of the comedy. Shaft has really brought their A-game this time around and it shows.

When it comes down to it, your enjoyment of this anime depends on two things: 1) if you enjoy yuri and 2) the humor. As I enjoy both immensely, I'm in for the long haul with this one. I can't wait for more.

There's just one question you have to ask yourself before watching this episode: How funny do you find clumsy ninjas? If the answer is anything approximating “lots,” you'll probably enjoy this show. Of our two protagonists, klutzy ninja Satoko is the more prevalent, or at least the one with the louder personality. Assassin Konoha is suitably subdued and blasé about everything, not only taking her job seriously but also stoically accepting anything and everything that comes her way. Ninja not as dead as she assumed? Whatever, she'll feed her. Another ninja or two show up to murder Satoko? She'll kill them first. Nothing fazes this girl, and the contrast between her and Satoko is the basis for the humor, at least so far.

It does work, even if I found myself growing weary of it as the episode dragged on. The expediency with which she disposes of the second ninja (?) to show up gunning for Satoko's blood is both impressive and entertaining, and the same goes for her realizing that her next job is the father of her one school friend and then just going for it anyway. A girl's got to eat, you know, especially since she's taken on an assistant. I don't think Konoha means to do evil, either – she's just doing her job and taking everything in stride. It's almost admirable.

Satoko, on the other hand, is a combination of a walking disaster and terribly endearing. Again, as with Konoha, this can only feel fresh and funny for so long, and Satoko has the additional barrier of being the louder of the two girls to overcome. To her voice actor's credit, she never ends up being shrill or squeaky, and even her screams (which make up almost the entire soundtrack for the opening scene) aren't awful. It may be damning it with faint praise, but this could have been a whole lot worse in so many ways.

I can't summon up any particularly strong feelings about this, which is a problem since I'm meant to be writing about it. It has a couple of nice visual moments, like the old-school style for the prologue and the first time Satoko turns a corpse into leaves, but it's otherwise just as middle of the road there as it is on all other fronts. I think this is perfectly adequate, which is both the best and worst I can say.