Ninku

Genre: Martial Arts / Adventure
General Audience
1995-1996. Koji Kiriyama (creator). Studio Pierrot. Fuji TV.

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Firesenshi's Description:
The Ninku are a very powerful group of extinct warriors. Though he is judged as funny in appearance because of his tongue sticking out o_O, Fusuke is one of the top warriors of the Ninku and is actually a captain in the first troop. He utilizes the wind. Together with his rather 'farty' penguin, Hiroyuki, he met a girl named Rihoko who is in search of her brother, Toji. Toji is also a Ninku captain with superstrength. In the course of time, they met another Ninku captain named Aicho whose power is to jump very high to join them. Together they must find the threat that caused the downfall to the Ninku and it seems, the enemy has found them already.

(55 episodes)

It came out to be interesting in the later parts. >>> by firesenshi
I must admit I was turned off with a character like Fusuke, who is hardly bishounen nor cute and had with him at that time, a penguin whose power to fart actually helps him. Silly, that was my word in fact. But like the people in the story who judged Fusuke by appearance, I was wrong. Well, that was probably since I saw the others characters come out until I thought the story was picking up. My favorite was Aichou, although I didn't like his power. Toji dressed up in all but a loin cloth and that seemed pretty weird to me.

Ok, ok, enough with appearances. How it became interesting is indeed the introduction of new characters. Not only were the other members of the Ninku very interesting, the villains were just as great as well. There is a Ninku warrior I love who slept all the time but was actually great in using fire! (Fire, my favorite element!) And then, there is a sexy villain who never failed to carry a wine glass with her being drunk most of the time but was actually a huge threat to them. Unlikely bunch you might say but totally unpredictable. Diversity in characterization always scores high with me! The confrontation between them should be very good, don't you think? I guess not so much. I expected something more. Well, the battle scenes in the entire movie ranged between exciting to so-so, unpredictability could only get so much.

Individual Rating: Art/Animation 6; Story 8; Characters 8; Sounds 8