Under Ninja vol. 3

The saga of the Schlong Slicer comes to a climax here after Junna brings the foreigner back to her apartment, with all hell breaking loose shortly thereafter.  What should’ve been an easy takedown by experienced ninjas winds up being a three-way free-for-all involving a drone as the foreigner proves to be more capable than initially expected.  Yet why were the three ninjas, including Kurou, competing against each other here?  It turns out that the ninja organizations that work under the Japanese government aren’t as unified as you’d think they are and there’s some inter-organization conflict between them.  Which is bad news for them as they’re going to have to work together to take out the Under Ninja – the organization opposing them – with Kurou leading the way as he infiltrates the high school built atop their old base.

Three volumes in and this series continues to be entertaining in its own oddball fashion.  This includes a fight sequence that feels more awkward and far less stealthy than anything else you’ve seen in a story involving ninjas (who weren’t also doctors).  There’s also a lot of casual talk and hangout scenes, and a lot of focus on Kurou’s entrance exam and interview which suggests mangaka Kengo Hanazawa wanted to write a slice-of-life story instead.  Is all this stuff about ninja just nailed onto the side of the series to allow him to do that?  Could be, but it all feels charmingly awkward rather than irritating at this point.

Working against the series, however, is its anime adaptation.  I did enjoy it, as the series’ appeal was translated well enough to animation, even if the animation itself was jank most of the time and its first half was obsessed with telling the main story via many flashbacks.  The anime followed the plot of the manga pretty closely and that means I was aware of all of the twists vol. 3 had to offer before it served them up.  I’ll keep reading to see how things go, but it looks like I might have to wait until 2026 before publisher Denpa gets to the point where we’re past what the anime covered.