Post by Nobu Narukami on Mar 29, 2020 21:03:06 GMT -5
I’m honestly surprised no one has actually done a review for Senran Kagura Shinovi Master – Tokyo Yoma-hen since it came out in October of 2018 and ended in December of that same year.
I actually wanted to kick the year off with this, but it didn’t happen due to mostly laziness and I felt I needed to be as concise about my opinions as possible, so I checked over it meticulously.
You see, after my birthday in January, I decided to revisit this anime series, and state my opinions of it. I might do something similar for other entries in the Senran Kagura franchise, but that’ll depend on whether I feel like it or not, or if I'm still alive, provided this coronavirus going around doesn't kill me. Right now, I want to get this off my chest.
I thought this series would be something akin to an adaptation of the mobile game Shinobi Master Senran Kagura: New Link. Well, it wasn’t entirely the case. It was its own story, from what I can see, and there's no telling if this canon because there's no official word as far as we know. There’s so little we know about New Link because it’s Japanese only, and I don’t know if many people have played the game or cared enough to share what information that we could understand. From what I know, players need to form a five woman team to compete for the ‘Shinobi Crown’ or something of that nature. Like New Wave, you use cards to do battle. I think there might be Dating Sim elements in too, but that’s probably just me.
Naturally, I can only assume Shinovi Master shares very little traits with New Link, aside from its characters, especially the three that debut in the game, whom I will be discussing at length later.
On to the review! Spoilers ahead for anyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled. And if you do like this series for what it is, that's great. This is all my personal opinion.
Story
I’ll be honest; the story was kind of a mess, and doesn't make much sense. It felt rushed and confused, and it didn't know what it wanted to be. We spend the first six episodes on the mystery behind Gekko, Senko, Fubuki, and the Shinobi Masters tournament, while rescuing the Hanzo girls, with Asuka moving about in the shadows to prevent said tournament from happening. The rest is dealing with Fubuki, her connection to Yumi, and the threat of the Yoma. That’s pretty much it.
There didn’t seem to be much urgency for the Hanzo girls being missing in action. Instead of training for the big tournament, the other teams seemed content to relax until further details about the Shinobi Masters happen to fall into their hands. Best exemplified with the Gessen and Crimson girls enjoying themselves a bath house. The Hebijo girls aren’t really doing anything.
Gekko and Senko are first antagonists of the series, and their main focus is to antagonize the Gessen girls because they claim to be true followers of Kurokage's philosophy while they weren't, and making a bunch of noise about how they'll make a world that is "pure" by stamping out all Evil and anything that associates with Evil, all of which is utterly nonsensical to me, and I'll discuss that at length later.
In the midst of this narrative chaos, Asuka attacks Yumi and Homura at two separate points to keep them from entering. She injures the latter, thus keeping the Crimson Squad from entering.
The tournament begins, with Gessen, Hebijo, and the Mikagura Sisters, plus Kagura & Naraku competing against one another. For a tournament, we aren’t given anything spectacular. We get naked party games, and Team Hebijo and Team Mikagura are eliminated, leaving Team Gessen the victorious team, but the team captain Yumi and Asuka have to face Gekko and Senko. They win, and the final round immediately begins, Yumi vs. the mysterious Fubuki. Due mostly to exhaustion and her opponent being stronger than predicted, Yumi loses, followed by Fubuki revealing her alliance to the Yoma, in the form of the intelligent Rasetsu, and their genocidal plans for all Shinobi, because she feels that they’re all hypocrites for how they treat the Yoma, and Yoma start attacking the city.
On the flip side, the rest of the Hanzo girls are rescued. Neat!
Gekko and Senko attempt to commit suicide after Fubuki abandons them, but Yumi prevents this from happening and offers them a chance to redeem themselves, and I don't know or care why she would considering what these two have done so far. Attacking Asuka and kidnapping her friends, and claiming to be better Kurokage's fangirls while actively spitting on his legacy should not endear his granddaughter enough to sympathize with them.
During the Yoma attack, Asuka does a thing with a Dangerously Forbidden Technique called Fuma Korin to seal off a Kaiju Yoma. Awesome! Things get stagnate again when it’s revealed that the door to the Yoma world will open at a hot spring at some unknown time and for no specified reason, so the girls, plus Fubuki, decide to relax and wait until the action starts. During this time, Fubuki reveals herself to be a love child between a human male and Yoma female, and they died/got sealed away to protect her from the Shinobi who were already poised to kill her anyway for simply existing. She was later brought to Kurokage by Rasetsu, and subsequently adopted by him, thus becoming his granddaughter and Yumi's big sister. I guess this was done to give the girls a short breather before getting back to work, and give an explanation for Fubuki’s hatred of the Shinobi and her affection toward the Yoma, as well as her connection to Yumi.
It is also revealed by Fubuki that Yoma are capable of sentience, and can feel emotions like love, because she is the love child of a male shinobi and a Yoma. WHAT?!
Apparently, no one cared about enough to actually find this out because they really wanted to kill them for no justifiable reason. Or maybe it was because the Yoma were active threats to humanity any way you look at it, and never really showed signs that they were capable of sentience beyond a thirst for blood, destruction, and mayhem, and no one mentions why this is such a horrifically stupid plot twist that really screws with the series lore!
Asuka learned of this new fact about the Yoma as well, and she decided it was too cruel to kill them based on this fact, so she wants to seal all the Yoma she can, though at the expense of her life, as that what using that Fuma Korin does. Kill the user upon use... or slowly kill the user upon multiple uses...? I don't know. They don't really explain how this thing works. I mean, we see a male Shinobi use it, but he dies instantly, while Asuka uses it multiple times to seal away the Yoma and she's perfectly fine, until an evil boob rash appears.
The final battle ensues, and Asuka is able to seal away a large group of Yoma before it’s revealed that using Fuma Korin, which by the way was taught to her by Kagura, can slowly kill the user. And since Asuka has used it several times already, the deadly effects start to kick in real fast. Asuka's decision making in this series will an issue I'll address later.
Meanwhile, Yumi elects to settle accounts with Fubuki. The fight seems almost one sided until Yumi calls out to her ‘Big Sister’.
Rasetsu joins the fray against Asuka and co. When she realizes she’s losing ground, she trades her intellect for a major power boost, reducing her to a mindless beast like Orochi before her. In order to win, Asuka, with Homura and Miyabi, all use Fuma Korin to seal the mad Yoma away. By the way, this is a massive Deus ex Machina, because Homura and Miyabi conveniently are able to use Fuma Korin now. Homura just says that anything Asuka can do, she can do just as well, and does it near instantaneously, and Miyabi suddenly remembering she could use the technique too, despite it never being foreshadowed since her debut in SV. With Homura and Miyabi's contribution, this makes it the single most bonkers finish to a final battle I've seen in SK, and I am unable to stop groaning at how utterly ridiculous the whole thing is.
Feeling her only ally lost, Fubuki goes all out against Yumi. All seemed lost, but Yumi makes a comeback and wins the day, while also setting Fubuki free of her hatred.
Fubuki, Gekko, and Senko depart for places unknown, while Gessen and Hanzo celebrate a long awaited Christmas party, Hebijo just sort of hang out watching Miyabi train, the Mikagura group do a thing with a snowman and fireworks, and the Crimson Squad work on the holiday. The End.
What a mess! This was such a fever dream of a twelve episode series.
I feel this plot would’ve done better as an actual game instead of an anime, because Senran Kagura is mostly a character driven series of games, with plot coming second, and fan-service for the most part, third. If you want to get the full story, you have play through whichever game, complete levels, view cutscenes, and read through detailed expository monologues presented to you by the characters themselves. Games take years to make, and the length of the story, and how the characters fit in is integral to how much care went into production if the game’s story is character driven. An anime with twelve episodes won’t cut it in the long run, because of the contrived and forced plot and lackluster character focus and development, not to mention a really dumb plot twist that actively contradicts the series lore. I have yet to finish the first anime, Ninja Flash, but I think Ninja Flash handles its characters and story better because there isn’t such a large cast by comparison.
The Dubbing
This might be one of Funimation’s less than graceful outings. Most of this just comes from someone who’s used to hearing the Japanese voices from the games, since they’ve never been dubbed in English. The dub for Shinovi Master isn’t terrible, just a little subpar, and has some decent performances. I think Tia Ballard is a great match for Ryona. While not as high-energy as MAKO, but she still gave a good show as a gleeful masochist, and seemed to have fun with the role. Leah Clark is also a fine match for Shiki, if you fancy the trendy party girl.
There are some that doesn’t quite match up, though. Emily Fajardo as Minori didn’t sound as childish as Hiromi Igarashi, just a little too mature.
Kristen McGuire as Murasaki, while certainly low enough for her to sound like an emo teen, came across as a little too deep and flat at times. For Sayuri Yahagi, she had certain amount softness in her voice that used to convey Murasaki’s shyness. And then, there are the screams of anguish and instability when Root of Calamity takes over.
While I’m discussing the dub, I think I should re-examine what I said here: I said “It was odd that Funimation's Mallorie Rodak didn't come in to reprise her role as Yumi, but if you ask me, I like Megan's Yumi voice a little more. They're both good, but I think Megan does a better job with Yumi's cool demeanor.”
After comparing the two a little more, I came to the conclusion that Megan is indeed the better Yumi. Mallorie was a bit too soft as Yumi in Shinovi Master, and sometimes her voice would dial down a bit to the point in some scenes she’s barely raising her voice. Megan on the other hand, while still using a similarly soft tone of voice, carries a cool edge similar to Yumi Hara’s take on the character, and sounded much more natural in the role. Mallorie couldn’t exactly replicate Yumi Hara’s take, and she seemed to struggle at times to find the right pitch. I’m not saying Mallorie is bad voice actress, I just think she could have done better.
Animation
I feel like the animation for this anime is a step back in quality. I mean, visually, it’s not bad; it’s just not super good in most places, because there are some off-model moments from time to time and the action sequences get dull sometimes. I will say this though; Episode 12 had the best action in the series, but it doesn’t quite make up for it.
In comparison the traditionally 2D animated opening sequences of the games, the animation quality of Ninja Flash, and the Estival Versus OVA, it feels like there wasn’t much effort but into Shinovi Master’s animation.
The Ops had stunning visuals. The characters were fluid, the animation was superb, and it told us who the characters were with the visuals and fluid animations alone. The best Op in my opinion is Estival Versus, which seamlessly blended 2D and 3D animation together, creating something visually beautiful.
I watched some of Ninja Flash, and I think it had the better animation between the two anime seasons. The fan service wasn’t as overblown as in Shinovi Masters, and there were relatively few off-model moments that I could find.
The Estival Versus OVA was similarly well crafted, but not to the extent of the Ops and Ninja Flash.
It must have something to do with the different studios and low budget that the quality of animation is somewhat unbalanced. TNK is the studio behind Shinovi Masters, and if you weren’t aware, they were previously the ones that brought the first three season of High School DXD into the world, before the anime moved to Passione. DXD had beautiful animation and attention to detail, especially where the fan-service and Ecchi scenes were concerned, so what happened with Shinovi Masters? Why was there a drop in animation quality here? Why does Shiki’s eye look shriveled up in a flashback scene? Why is it that Shiki’s mole doesn’t stay visible in some scenes? Why do the breasts not stay consistent in shape and size? What happened to the care and attention to detail that DXD had?
Senran Kagura anime should just stick with one studio, so at least that way there won’t be as much issues with animation quality. Like I said, it isn’t bad, just not great.
Fan-Service
As for the fan-service the series provides… I’m not one to complain about fan-service, but I think there was a little too much in some areas. The Shinobi Masters tournament is a perfect example of that, and it was nothing special. Instead of a proper tournament structure between the three teams, four if Asuka had not injured Homura prior, we get these silly games like ‘naked dodge ball’ or ‘naked cavalry battle’, and whoever the team captain was getting eliminated results in the team losing. Whichever team scores the least out of the three present, is out of the contest, and the last team standing wins. Their final challenge comes from Gekko, Senko, and Fubuki, and the fights are more in line with what an actual tournament fight should look like. I honestly didn’t see the point of all that and I can’t say I care because it killed any tension or interest in the tournament itself.
Also, I don’t think it was necessary to bring back PBS in the second episode. After all, you could always go back to the PBS game if you want to splash a girl’s swimsuit off. I believe the hype for the game was probably gone by the time this episode aired, so there was no need for it be shoehorned in, outside of killing time in-universe I’m assuming, or the writers just didn’t have any ideas on what to do with the episode. I mean, this is like the third time the girls have been invited to a water park via arrow message. Come up with something new.
I do like the third episode’s hot spring scene, but like I said before, there was no reason for them to go to another hot spring outside of the Yoma Invasion starting from there, since we already got it in episode 03.
Of course, the show’s subpar animation quality also contributes to some of the fan-service being… almost less appealing in some parts.
Characters
Because there’s a large cast and a short number of episodes to fit a plot in, twelve episodes in all, not a lot of characters get much time to shine, which does nothing to help flesh them out. The only ones getting any focus are Yumi, Asuka, Kurokage, Gekko and Senko, and Fubuki.
Yumi is the main protagonist of this anime, since most of the focus goes to her. She has come a long way from how she and the other Gessen girls were introduced in SV, from someone who was cold and almost unapproachable, unwilling to forgive evil and wanted to eradicate evil Shinobi to honor her deceased grandfather/or dying grandfather and avenge the deaths of her parents, to someone more open and compassion to the feelings of others, a little awkward in social interaction, and her obsession with “Cute is Justice”. She believes that people can change for the better if given the chance, and as a Yumi fan, I absolutely love that. She’s a prime example of changing for the better, even if you could say she's become an Asuka 2.0, but that's just how much of a positive influence Asuka had on her, and I genuinely think its a good thing. Unfortunately, that compassion is wasted on Gekko and Senko, two people who really don’t deserve it. I don’t know why she felt compelled to sympathize with these girls. Maybe because people can change if you give them a chance, sure, but seriously, why sympathize with Gekko and Senko? Their actions before the attempted suicide should not have done anything to endear her or anyone else toward them. I’ll get to that in a little bit.
Her relationship with Fubuki is quite fascinating. In the past, she and Fubuki briefly grew up together as adoptive sisters under Kurokage's care, before Fubuki disappears. Because she was really young, Yumi doesn’t remember at first until they exchanged blows in the tournament, years later into the present. They’ve reunited after so many years apart, but on opposite sides, because Yumi is a Shinobi and Fubuki sides with the Yoma and is consumed by hatred of the hypocritical Shinobi, as well as her Yoma instincts partially being a factor. Yumi reaches out to her long lost older sister, knowing that hatred has yet fully consumed her. Her warmth and compassion gets through to Fubuki, and she’s well on her way to redemption.
This I can buy, because they have a history together. Gekko and Senko on the other hand… oh boy…
Gekko and Senko, these two characters, along with Fubuki, originally debuted in the SK mobile game New Link, but the twins are the starter villains of Tokyo Youma-hen, by setting the Shinobi Masters Tournament for Gessen, Hebijo, the Crimson Squad, and later the Mikagura Group to compete in. I’m just going to come out and say it; I hate these two characters. I hate them and everything they stand for, or claim to stand for, because it’s all bullshit. I have a number of reasons why I hate them and I’ll now explain why. This is going to be quite long, because for the most part, it’s going to be a lengthily rant, and of course, there’s going some, if not a lot of personal biased. You have been warned.
Reason 1: There motivation for the first half of the anime is utterly nonsensical. Gekko explains that she and her sister Senko felt a deep emptiness and longing for more than being praised for being perfect. Here’s why I think; they were bored. They don’t have a tragic or compelling back-story to back up their motives or beliefs, like everyone else does. They were just bored with their meaningless lives and wanted something fun to do instead of the repetitive daily routine of being praised as perfect students. And then they conveniently stumble upon Kurokage’s Dairy, which detailed his numerous Evil Shinobi kills and his ideology on how all evil must be eradicated so only all the good in the world can exist. That’s when they thought “Hey, this looks fun! Let’s do what this guy did, and make others see our stupid and nonsensical way of thinking as the only way to think!”
I think this, because it wasn't developed in the same way as other characters in the series. It tells us nothing else about them, other than their worship of Kurokage and how they took to his beliefs like butterflies to a lantern.
Gekko sugarcoats it like it was the most beautiful thing in the world and that they found their purpose in life, but I see it for what it really is; a tale of madness told by an idiot, so I can't help but laugh and groan at how ridiculous this entire backstory is. Honestly, the elated teary-eyed face she makes after she tells her story to Yumi aggravates me. It is not endearing in any way shape or form, because it’s clear she’s delusional. It’s very hard to take her seriously with this deluded mindset. It’s also aggravating that Yumi sheds tears with her, because she can relate. Okay yeah, she can relate to the fact that she wanted to make Kurokage’s old dream come true and she had the proper motivation to do so, but she should know that this is not what he wanted, and Gekko is just spouting out nonsensical reasoning! This is not a well developed backstory, it is delusional nonsense, pure and simple!
Reason 2: I find it hard to reconcile Kurokage’s beliefs and ideology with their pretentious garbage. Kurokage had a reason for doing what he did. His parents were killed by Evil Shinobi, and he wanted revenge. The Gessen girls had a reason to hate Evil Shinobi and wanted to kill them off too, and they had the motivation, because they wanted to honor their dying grandfather figure’s lifelong wish before/or following his passing and avenge their families deaths. But, while he still wanted them to do good in the world, he clearly didn’t want them to make his mistakes, especially if it ended in his beloved granddaughter’s death. By the end of SV’s Gessen story-line, he was happy that they found their own way and passed onto the afterlife.
Gekko and Senko on the other hand… well, I only can imagine Kurokage spinning in his grave because of what these two zealot fan girls are doing in his name. Because they have an underdeveloped motivation and backstory, these sisters don’t have a legitimate reason for anything. For setting up the tournament, for wanting to wipe Evil out. Nothing. As far we know, their parents are probably alive and well, or they’re dead too, and they were just forgotten about thereafter. They didn’t suffer in any way because of Evil Shinobi. They never knew Kurokage personally, they only know of his discarded ideology, and arrogantly delude themselves into thinking it’s they’re calling and right to follow his discarded ideology and make his old dream of a “world of light”, or a “world that is pure” in their words, where only Good exists, when in reality, they have no right to do anything. If they did meet the man personally, I wouldn’t be surprised at him freezing them solid for how irritating and arrogant they were thinking that their actions would impress him. And why did nobody tell them that Kurokage was done with his crusade and changed his ways after living peacefully with his granddaughters? Probably because plot needs to happen, and the characters need to be stupid.
Reason 3: Correct me if I’m wrong, but how they go about honoring his legacy and making a “world that is pure” is also quite hypocritical at best. Their first on screen action was to brutally attack the Hanzo girls for starting the trend of befriend Evil, and mocking the philosophy of the “Sword and Shield” that protects people. That’s something a villain, or at the very least, a really nasty person would do. These girls are nasty people. Their actions are evil when you think about it. An unprovoked, unjustified attack on people who know what’s right and wrong, is something only a truly Evil person does. I don’t think they even know the different between good and evil. Being middle schoolers without a clue about the world is not an excuse. They’re that stupid and narrow minded.
As far we know, Kurokage never did that, outside of hunting down as many Evil Ninjas as he could. Sure, he deemed his bosses Evil for threatening to punish Hanzo and Yume in his place for a screw-up, and later, getting into a fist fight with Hanzo over their beliefs, but that's it. Kurokage ultimately cared about others, which was partially why he went to his extremes; to ensure no one went through a loss like he did. He eventually realized his error and stopped hating Evil, to the point where he was even cordial to a Yoma of all things when he took Fubuki in.
Gekko and Senko don’t seem to care about anyone other than themselves and Fubuki. Kurokage believed in justice, yeah, but True Justice is Power? Maybe he did believe that to an extent too, but not in the way they think. For him, and just about anyone with the right mindset, power is just a tool to use to achieve your goals, whatever they may be, whether your fulfilling your duty as a Shinobi, or achieving a dream of some kind. Just having power for the sake of power and using it to beat someone senseless is not justice. It’s more like bullying, but to much worse degree. What sort of “Justice is Power” are these two zealots preaching about? I’m assuming it’s the power to dominate others and being a toxic influence to those watching. Yeah, I do believe that’s what they’re going for. All they want is to dominate and bully those they view as weak, belittle other Shinobi with more sensible morals and goals, while infecting others with their toxic ideology, and they’re using Kurokage’s old ideology as justification to do that. They display sadistic relish in beating Asuka to within an inch of her life in the first episode, and showing the other Hanzo girls off to the other main characters like trophies in the following episode, and threatened to kill them if the other teams don’t compete in their tournament. That’s pretty EVIL right there! That’s what Evil people, I mean, REALLY EVIL people do! At least Evil Shinobi teams like the new Team Hebijo and the Crimson Squad had enough decency to challenge Team Hanzo directly to one on one fights. These two did far more evil shit, which is actually impressive compared to the Evil Shinobi they want to exterminate. And they call themselves Good Shinobi?
They said Asuka’s naïveté is bad for the Good Shinobi community. Their way of thinking is much more dangerous than the one who redeems evil individuals and helps change the narrow minded world views of others for the better. Gekko claims that Yumi is a disgrace to Kurokage’s legacy. I say the arrogant delusional bitch is the disgrace for thinking that she had any right can make Kurokage’s dream come true, and I’m sure the man is still spinning in his grave because of that dishonor!
Reason 4: The worse part of all this is, Yumi, the one who should be outraged the most by their stupidity and disgrace to her grandfather’s legacy, sympathizes with them. She even dissuades them from committing suicide after Fubuki makes it clear she never gave a shit about them as she reveals her plan to kill off all Shinobi in the world. Why would you want to sympathize with naïve zealots making a mockery of your grandfather’s memory? Who attacked your friend and kidnapped her classmates? Who have mocked you repeatedly? Who thought they were superior to you for holding onto your grandfather’s old ideals, when really they were delusional and had no right to do anything? Despite all of that, you help them out of their funk? I honestly don’t see the logic in that, and I do not care. You do not want to associate with these kinds of people. EVER!
If I was in Yumi’s shoes, I would’ve just let them jump to their deaths, so that way I wouldn’t have to deal with them and their crap anymore. I’m sorry, but that’s how I feel about them. I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. I don’t care if their delusions about the world were crushed, or if they were abandoned by the one person they admired. The deaths of these sisters would give the show a plus for me.
Hell, I bet my fan made character Haruo (from Yumi and Haruo: Birthday Date) would understand Kurokage’s motivations better than these two, and he hates the old guy’s guts for killing his parents. If Haruo heard Gekko and Senko’s story, he would laugh in their faces, call them idiots bored with their meaningless lives that have no clue as to what they’re preaching, and whatever interest he had in what motivated them to follow in Kurokage’s footsteps would die in that moment, just like it did for me.
Reason 5: Did also I forget to mention they got off Scot-free for their actions? Yeah, that happens. First Yumi sympathizes with and stops them from committing suicide, then the Hanzo girls also forgive them for the attack at the very beginning, which they should NOT! Speaking of which; why did the Hanzo girls lose so easily to middle schoolers?! High school Shinobi students, especially third years close to graduation should not have lost so easily to middle school students! I’m assuming it was for plot convenience, because the antagonists need to set up a conflict for the other characters to react to, and the writers didn't want to focus on so many characters right off the bat. Still too convenient for my taste.
In-story, they chalk it up to just being “unprepared” or “not strong enough” to beat them. Sorry, but not good enough. The Hanzo girls are not to blame. It is Gekko and Senko’s fault entirely. There’s no justification for what they did, and there should be no forgiveness. There should be some form of punishment for attacking the Hanzo girls unprovoked and organizing what is presumably an unsanctioned competition between Shinobi, which subsequently allowed Fubuki to declare war on the Shinobi World, and begin her Yoma Invasion. So when you think about it, just about everything in the latter half of the anime is their entire fault. But, no punishment is issued as far as we can tell and it makes their un-likability worse.
Let’s talk about Gekko and Senko individually. Of the two, I find Gekko the most annoying. She kind of reminds me of Mana Inagawa from Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni. Actually, she might be worse than Mana. Mana started off as a decent character until her ambitious nature got the better of her and she wound up becoming arrogant and cruel. Not helping is the AV Virus making her instinctively more aggressive. It’s still not a good excuse for her deplorable treatment of the other characters, especially her former partner, Momo. Surprisingly, sometime later, I got over my hatred for her after I cleared the game. Gekko, on the other hand was a bad apple from the start. Her arrogance is much worse than Mana’s, and she doesn't have the poor excuse of a virus making her abnormally aggressive. Did I forget to mention, she's delusional and stupid?
Senko annoys me the least, because, compared to her sister, she doesn’t seem to have any personality for me to be annoyed by. She’s just there, with Gekko just serving as a separate mouth piece. She battles with what appears to be boxing, which is rather unique, but it doesn’t win her too many points.
Okay, I think I talked long enough about the twins. I no doubt went hyperbolic going through this, but these are my feelings about the two. If you find some likability in Gekko and Senko, I won’t argue with you about it, just don’t expect me to find any reason to like them any time soon. Maybe their story is different in the New Link game and there’s information I missed or skipped over entirely, but don’t expect my opinion on these two characters to change.
So, that’s enough of that. In the midst of my rant, I delved into Kurokage, and I think he’s the best written character in the anime, despite being a dead by the time we get to see his flashbacks. He has a believable and established back-story, his journey takes him from being narrow minded youth filled with hatred of Evil, to a more world-weary man, with the hatred that filled his heart gone. He changed his ways, and he made it his goal to teach the Gessen girls to know what it means to carry out justice, on top of everything else I covered, so I don’t think I need to say any more about him.
Let’s discuss Asuka, as she is the deuteragonist this time around. She’s rather confusing in this anime. She is characterized in the games as an All Loving Heroine, content with helping others with their problems, being able to guide them away from a dark path they’ve taken, and being all around cheery and nice girl. After the tremendous loss and kidnapping of her classmates at Hanzo, she understandably feels bitter and feels she has to handle her problems alone. But, it still feels so out of character that she would try to hurt her closet friends and rivals to keep them out of the Shinobi Masters. A lot of complications could have been avoided if she opened up about her problems and plans to rescue her classmates, keep her friends safe, and deal with the Yoma.
Also, her decision to seal away the Yoma just because it’d too cruel to kill something that can potentially feel emotions like love is rather heavy handed, and honestly really dumb. I doubt most Yoma even care for the pity of a human, since the vast majority of Yoma seen are malevolent monsters. Plus, she’s not just risking her career as a ninja; she’s also risking her health. Using Fuma Korin, the powerful Yoma sealing technique, can potentially kill the caster upon use, and obviously using it repeatedly is a bad idea, because you’re slowly killing yourself by sealing up a Yoma ever chance you get. It seems she inherited her grandmother’s tendency to slowly kill herself when sticking to her guns.
Asuka, bless your kind soul, but even if your heart is in the right place, no matter how noble your intentions are, killing yourself to show kindness to creatures that won’t stop attacking humanity won’t endear everyone to your cause. Your classmates and best friends might be sympathetic to your decision, but there’s no guarantee others with more common sense will share the same opinion. You’re also ignoring the feelings of those who have a legitimate reason to hate these creatures. You know one of them personally. You know that Miyabi’s mother was killed by a Yoma when she was young, and thus she has every reason to want to have all Yoma exterminated. You know this, but you’re sticking to your decision, anyway. I can’t help but think that this decision you’ve made is illogical and incredibly insensitive. It’s kind of hard to get behind that. Let’s not forget that you may one day be forced to take human life as part of the job too. If you can’t kill a Yoma, I doubt you’re going to make it very far in the Shinobi World.
What're you going to do when you come across a human foe that is potentially just as bad if not worse than the Yoma? Seal them away? Sure, there’s convincing them to change their evil ways, but not all of them are going to so easily swayed, so you either detain them, or as a last resort, put them down to ensure they never harm innocent people again. It's a hard moral dilemma, but sometimes hard choices must be made. Actually, given that its apparently going to be the darkest entry in the SK series, this could be a good plot point in 7even, where Asuka has to make a decision to take a human life, and it'll help develop her character. I would like to say that.
Now for Fubuki, the main antagonist of this season. Fubuki is much more believable to me than the idiot twins. She had a back-story, an actual motivation for her villainy, and a good contrast to Yumi. Fubuki wants to kill off all Shinobi and make a place for Yoma. Why? Because her parents were a human male ninja and a sentient female Yoma, and they were forced to use Fuma Korin to seal the mother away, and the father had to kill himself to do so in order to protect their human/Yoma hybrid daughter. Rasetsu, her Yoma companion hands her over to Kurokage for protection until she recovered and returned for her. Kurokage introduced her to Yumi as her new older sister. It was a rough start, with Fubuki initially refusing to take part in her new family because of the bitterness and trauma of her parents sacrifice. Eventually, she formed a sisterly bond with Yumi, but Fubuki leaves with Rasetsu and is never seen again.
Now in the present, Fubuki declares war on the Shinobi World. She feels that all Shinobi in the world are hypocrites and plans to wipe them all out and make a place for the Yoma. This is because of how they were indirectly responsible for her parents’ fate. Fubuki could have found peace living in Kurokage’s family, but she couldn’t let go of her hatred, allowing her Yoma instincts to take over, and thus she is on a genocidal warpath. Her motivation doesn’t just end with her avenging her parents. Because Fubuki’s mother was a Yoma capable of feeling love, she believes any Yoma can feel that emotion if given the chance, but the Shinobi never gave them that chance, which is where the belief that all Shinobi are hypocrites come to mind. For all their talk of justice and desire maintain peace, they never extended any peace to the Yoma, preferring to exterminate them instead. Well, considering that the Yoma seen so far have only attacked people and are malevolent in nature, you can hardly blame them for defending themselves.
After her final battle with Yumi, Fubuki sees the light and goes on her merry way, with Gekko and Senko at her side, for reasons I cannot comprehend. Also, she doesn’t face any punishment for her crimes either, like Gekko and Senko. Okay, the head Shinobi are willing to punish Kurokage for going overboard on Evil Shinobi hunting, but you let these three girls off with a slap on the wrist? These guys can’t be that incompetent or biased, can they? Or, maybe she and the twins are renegades now after the stunts they pulled. There’s no clarification on that, but it is implied that Yumi and Fubuki will fight again in the future, so it’s possible. Either way, you just can’t instantly change how you feel so quickly. Maybe Fubuki still has some hatred in her heart she can’t so easily purge. Only time will tell if her path is different or if she’ll fall back.
Okay, as much as I praised Fubuki's character, there are issues with her as well, I feel I should mention. She says all Shinobi, and humans in general by extension, are hypocrites, making noise about justice and protection, but never showed kindness to Yoma, and thus should pay for not showing that kindness. I do understand that she is angry about her mother being sealed away from the human world and that the Shinobi of that time nearly broke their promise to her father not to harm her after he sealed away his lover and sealed his fate (assuming that's what was really going to happen, I mean, those ninja just stood there ominous looking before Rasetsu jumped in). It's understandable that she would be bitter after this, but why does she want to go through with this? Shouldn't her rage toward humanity's two-faced nature be tempered by genuine kindness shown to her by a young Yumi and her grandfather, who adapted her into their family, make her second guess her opinion to some capacity? I guess we wouldn't have a plot otherwise, so the thirst for revenge and destructive Yoma instincts have to be the driven force of her motivation. Also, apart from a scene where she comforts a lone Yoma, she never elaborates on how Yoma can feel emotions or gain sentience, nor does she mention any distinction between Yoma that could be Good or Evil regardless of this aspect. She just repeats the same thing: Shinobi are bad, and must pay for hunting Yoma down... et cetera, et cetera. Also, why did she tell Asuka about the Yoma at the start of the series? To screw with her? This really backfire on her later, when Asuka decides she'll protect the Yoma instead, which really derails her plans in the end after she seals away all the Yoma in the area, including Rasetsu. There have been silly moments in this series, but this was really silly of Fubuki to do. But, once again, plot needs to happen, and for that to happen, characters need to be stupid.
As for the other girls, there isn’t much to say. The Gessen group are the focus of the story and help drive the plot, and provide comedic mischief when needed in some parts, while also contributing to solving the mystery of Gekko and Senko and helping thin out the Yoma. The Hanzo girls, minus Asuka, are relegated to damsels in distress and only appear briefly in the first two episodes until they are rescued five episodes in, and even then, they don’t contribute much beyond Katsuragi coming up with a admittedly funny plan to trap the army of Yoma.
The Homura Crimson Squad gets the second most focus behind the Gessen girls, as they're the ones who discover Rasetsu guarding the the rest of Team Hanzo. They're also the ones behind most of the comedy in the series, even if the jokes don't quite land at times. Homura has some nice interactions with Yumi as they reminisce on their experiences with Asuka from their respective debut games, and how her positive influence changed them for the better. And of course, during the final battle, the power of Ass Pull helps Homura learn how to use the Fuma Korin to seal Rasetsu. She's seen Asuka do it numerous times, so Homura figured out how it worked, because that makes sense.
Team Hebijo contributes very little, other than jokes at Ryona’s preferred expense. I do like that one sense where Ryona pretty much establishes herself as the mood maker of Hebijo, because her perverted antics help soften the blow of their humiliating lose in the Shinobi Masters. Other than that, they’re really out of focus here, barring Miyabi towards the end. She makes it known that she does not agree with Asuka's decision to seal away the Yoma instead of outright killing them like they're suppose to. Let's not forget, her mother died because of the Yoma, so Miyabi has legitimate reason to hate them as much as she does. That doesn't last long, because Miyabi’s contribution to the climatic fight against Rasetsu comes in the form of her conveniently forgoing her hatred of Yoma and revealing that she can use Fuma Korin too, because her deceased mother taught it to her for some reason. As I said before, this is a Deus ex Machina, and its the most maddening, bonkers thing I've ever seen in SK to date. Her desire to avenge her mother's death and hatred of Yoma are important parts of her character. You cannot change that so easily to make way for an easy win, because it feels cheap and lazy, and it cheats on the character in question, especially when she had nothing of substance to do up until that point in the story. Oh, but don't worry, Miyabi has a new goal now! To be the Ultimate Shinobi!
Oh yeah, and there’s Kagura. She remains fairly static throughout this anime. I have no idea why she agreed to teach Asuka the Fuma Korin. I guess, once again, plot needs to happen, and it only makes sense to teach her such a dangerous move. It was interesting that she found her match in Fubuki. Their fight before the second invasion was a nice watch, and the fact that Kagura lost gives us a clear indication as to how powerful Fubuki is. It seems that they’re setting her up as an antagonist in a future installment of the series, because unlike the other main characters, she stays true to why she was created: exterminating Yoma.
By the way, Naraku and the Mikagura Sisters were there too, they just didn't contribute much to the plot, outside of episode 9, where they create a Shinobi Barrier where everyone has to fight the Yoma in Frenzy Mode.
I think it’s time to discuss the Yoma, because they’re pretty important to the story. It’s revealed that some Yoma can be sentient and have feelings, something that was never heard of before. So because of that, and what Fubuki told her, Asuka decides it’s wrong to just kill them, so the next best thing is to have them sealed away from the Earth using the Fuma Korin, the aforementioned dangerous sealing technique that could potentially kill her, as demonstrated by when she used it to seal a powerful Yoma in episode 9. Is anyone else confused as to why this plot twist came up NOW? I mentioned before that this is a horrendous plot twist, and here's why: Because in the games prior to Shinovi Master, the Yoma have been described as bloodthirsty malevolent entities fueled by the blood and negative emotions of humanity. Orochi, the first Yoma introduced in the series, was portrayed as a near mindless beast bent on destruction. It fed on the negative feelings and emotions of the Crimson Squad after absorbing them. It only gained some manner of intelligence afterword, and it still attacked Asuka. Sure, the idea of Yoma being sentient is interesting on paper, but the idea of sealing them away because it was wrong to kill them because they have feelings feels like an arbitrarily forced way of showing them in a sympathetic light. And how the Yoma being sentient and how they can feel emotions is poorly or never explained at all, and they focus solely on the fact that Yoma can feel love and nothing else to make them sympathetic. So what if they can fall in love? Any living creature can do that. It doesn't mean they're all good.
Yes, Fubuki’s mother may count as sympathetic since she seemed pretty pleasant, and she made the decision to allow herself to be sealed away by her lover so that their child may live, but all other Yoma that been presented so far before her and Rasetsu were immediately hostile to the main characters, so sympathy for them is more or less moot. Although, Dogen was behind most of the actions of the Yoma, on their own, they still pose a threat. Shin is the biggest and most powerful of them all, and it must be dealt with when it awakens, and I doubt sealing it up is going to help, because Shin’s seal about to break at some point.
Additionally, just because they can gain a varying degree of sentience doesn’t necessarily mean we need to sympathize with them. An intelligent Yoma is still potentially more dangerous than the mindless ones. Also, a Yoma that can feel emotions like love must be a rarity among them, considering, and this bears repeating, all we’ve seen are basically demonic monsters that want to kill anything that moves.
So think about this: what if an intelligent and powerful Yoma decided to rally the other lesser Yoma in an attack against humans? What if during a fight, an intelligent Yoma could outclass the Shinobi it was fighting by way of strategy and skill alone, and not just brute strength? What if a particularly sadistic Yoma decided to play mind games with their opponents? Or worse, get enjoyment from torturing their victims to death? And how many evil Yoma outweigh the rare good Yoma?
Regardless of intellect or emotional feeling, Yoma are still driven by a thirst for blood and destruction, thus still making them a threat to humanity. Sure, sealing them away is a viable option, but doing so to every last one of them isn’t, especially where your health is concerned, as I mentioned above. There are potentially thousands of these things and sealing them all up would be nigh impossible. Before they can cause any damage, eliminating them is the default option, and if that doesn’t work because the Yoma in this instance is too strong to kill, then sealing it away and barring it from entering the human world should be the last option open. We may not know much of the inner workings of the Yoma, but it is clear that they are, at the end of the day, still a threat to humanity, and much dealt with by any means necessary. Are we supposed to be expecting the characters to try and befriend Yoma now? Because, with everything I’ve stated, I think it might be impossible.
The Senran Kagura series has prided itself on showing different layers of the characters regardless of them being good or evil. That rule didn’t exactly apply to the Yoma for much of its run, because they’re always seen on Chaotic Evil scale of alignment. Because of this plot twist, we now know that Yoma can feel emotions, but what does that mean? Why do we need to sympathize with the Yoma because of this and the fact that they can fall in love? How are we supposed to know what Yoma are good, or evil? And why do we need to seal them away before making that distinction or verifying the threat level?
Okay, I might be going on and on here, and I might be making a bigger deal out of this then I should, but there's this part of my brain that ticks and I can't turn it off. If I was able to turn off my brain, I wouldn't be so bothered by what this plot twist has wrought.
Still, like I said before, an intelligent Yoma is an interesting idea, for a villain at least. Rasetsu was a cool character on her own. Her motivation revolved around Fubuki and Fubuki’s mother. Fubuki’s mother saved her life once, and this earns Rasetsu’s loyalty, to the point of taking care of a young Fubuki in her place after she was sealed away. For the next couple of years, Rasetsu remains loyal to Fubuki, to help her achieve of her goal of wiping out all Shinobi to repay the debt she owed to Fubuki’s mother. She was even willing to sacrifice her intelligence for more power to win her final fight with Asuka, Homura, and Miyabi. In the end, she was sealed away by their combined efforts. She and Fubuki definitely seem to have a genuine bond, if Fubuki’s angry reaction to Rasetsu being sealed away is anything to go by.
If the series creator, Kenichiro Takaki, introduced a character like Rasetsu in the upcoming 7even, but as a much darker and more sinister addition, that would be astonishing. (God forbid if Sony really does neuter this game or future games to come, I hereby renounce whatever respect I had for the company when it comes to game localization. Switch version for life)
So, that's all the characters, in much of their flawed glory. Again I say this series is character driven, so a large cast of this size is bound to hit a few snags. Many drove the plot forward, many got left out, and many were poorly developed. But, we still love these characters and know their quirks and flaws. Baring Gekko and Senko for me, I will never stop hating them.
Music
The music from the games are usually pretty memorable, particularly the character themes, because they pertain to the personality traits and quirks of the characters they represent. As for SM, I’m pretty ‘Meh’, about its musical score. I guess its fine, if a bit bland. I do like the opening theme “Scarlet Master” by Sayaka Sasaki.
Final Verdict!
Pros
Passable animation, despite obvious flaws
Some positively written characters and their arcs (Kurokage and Rasetsu)
Nice opening theme song
Cons
Uneven, confused, and nonsensical plot
Underdeveloped characters (Almost everyone)
Unintentionally unsympathetic characters (Gekko, Senko, Asuka, most of the Yoma)
Nonsensical reasoning or motivation (Asuka’s decision to seal away the Yoma at the cost of her life because having the potential to feel emotion automatically makes them sympathetic, Gekko and Senko’s piss poor attempts at following Kurokage’s path)
Terribly dumb plot twist (The Yoma being sentient enough to feel emotions like love. WHAT?!)
In Between
Fight Scenes (somewhat boring, but could be better)
Fan service (good, if not overblown, or unappealing at times)
Bland, but passable musical score
Humor (some jokes chuckle worthy, others… meh…)
Recommendation Value
Is this a bad anime? No. At least, not entirely. It’s certainly an odd addition to the series, and how it is debatable as to how canon the story is, but you might get some enjoyment out of it like I did. There are just problems here and there that are likely to grate on you like they did for me. Like the short number of episodes, mindless action and fan-service, disconnected and jumbled plot points, bad characterization or underutilized characters with no development, and that god awful plot twist!
Bottom line, this anime might’ve fared better with a bigger budget, more episodes to make a cohesive plot, and better management of the characters, since this is a character driven series. Let's not forget, better animation to help the fan-service shine. In fact, if it were a game, it would be better.
It took a while, but I finally managed to get this review out. I had fun with this, and I hope whoever read it found it meaningful. If you think I did or didn’t do a good job, let me know in the replies. Have a good day.
I actually wanted to kick the year off with this, but it didn’t happen due to mostly laziness and I felt I needed to be as concise about my opinions as possible, so I checked over it meticulously.
You see, after my birthday in January, I decided to revisit this anime series, and state my opinions of it. I might do something similar for other entries in the Senran Kagura franchise, but that’ll depend on whether I feel like it or not, or if I'm still alive, provided this coronavirus going around doesn't kill me. Right now, I want to get this off my chest.
I thought this series would be something akin to an adaptation of the mobile game Shinobi Master Senran Kagura: New Link. Well, it wasn’t entirely the case. It was its own story, from what I can see, and there's no telling if this canon because there's no official word as far as we know. There’s so little we know about New Link because it’s Japanese only, and I don’t know if many people have played the game or cared enough to share what information that we could understand. From what I know, players need to form a five woman team to compete for the ‘Shinobi Crown’ or something of that nature. Like New Wave, you use cards to do battle. I think there might be Dating Sim elements in too, but that’s probably just me.
Naturally, I can only assume Shinovi Master shares very little traits with New Link, aside from its characters, especially the three that debut in the game, whom I will be discussing at length later.
On to the review! Spoilers ahead for anyone who doesn’t want to be spoiled. And if you do like this series for what it is, that's great. This is all my personal opinion.
Story
I’ll be honest; the story was kind of a mess, and doesn't make much sense. It felt rushed and confused, and it didn't know what it wanted to be. We spend the first six episodes on the mystery behind Gekko, Senko, Fubuki, and the Shinobi Masters tournament, while rescuing the Hanzo girls, with Asuka moving about in the shadows to prevent said tournament from happening. The rest is dealing with Fubuki, her connection to Yumi, and the threat of the Yoma. That’s pretty much it.
There didn’t seem to be much urgency for the Hanzo girls being missing in action. Instead of training for the big tournament, the other teams seemed content to relax until further details about the Shinobi Masters happen to fall into their hands. Best exemplified with the Gessen and Crimson girls enjoying themselves a bath house. The Hebijo girls aren’t really doing anything.
Gekko and Senko are first antagonists of the series, and their main focus is to antagonize the Gessen girls because they claim to be true followers of Kurokage's philosophy while they weren't, and making a bunch of noise about how they'll make a world that is "pure" by stamping out all Evil and anything that associates with Evil, all of which is utterly nonsensical to me, and I'll discuss that at length later.
In the midst of this narrative chaos, Asuka attacks Yumi and Homura at two separate points to keep them from entering. She injures the latter, thus keeping the Crimson Squad from entering.
The tournament begins, with Gessen, Hebijo, and the Mikagura Sisters, plus Kagura & Naraku competing against one another. For a tournament, we aren’t given anything spectacular. We get naked party games, and Team Hebijo and Team Mikagura are eliminated, leaving Team Gessen the victorious team, but the team captain Yumi and Asuka have to face Gekko and Senko. They win, and the final round immediately begins, Yumi vs. the mysterious Fubuki. Due mostly to exhaustion and her opponent being stronger than predicted, Yumi loses, followed by Fubuki revealing her alliance to the Yoma, in the form of the intelligent Rasetsu, and their genocidal plans for all Shinobi, because she feels that they’re all hypocrites for how they treat the Yoma, and Yoma start attacking the city.
On the flip side, the rest of the Hanzo girls are rescued. Neat!
Gekko and Senko attempt to commit suicide after Fubuki abandons them, but Yumi prevents this from happening and offers them a chance to redeem themselves, and I don't know or care why she would considering what these two have done so far. Attacking Asuka and kidnapping her friends, and claiming to be better Kurokage's fangirls while actively spitting on his legacy should not endear his granddaughter enough to sympathize with them.
During the Yoma attack, Asuka does a thing with a Dangerously Forbidden Technique called Fuma Korin to seal off a Kaiju Yoma. Awesome! Things get stagnate again when it’s revealed that the door to the Yoma world will open at a hot spring at some unknown time and for no specified reason, so the girls, plus Fubuki, decide to relax and wait until the action starts. During this time, Fubuki reveals herself to be a love child between a human male and Yoma female, and they died/got sealed away to protect her from the Shinobi who were already poised to kill her anyway for simply existing. She was later brought to Kurokage by Rasetsu, and subsequently adopted by him, thus becoming his granddaughter and Yumi's big sister. I guess this was done to give the girls a short breather before getting back to work, and give an explanation for Fubuki’s hatred of the Shinobi and her affection toward the Yoma, as well as her connection to Yumi.
It is also revealed by Fubuki that Yoma are capable of sentience, and can feel emotions like love, because she is the love child of a male shinobi and a Yoma. WHAT?!
Apparently, no one cared about enough to actually find this out because they really wanted to kill them for no justifiable reason. Or maybe it was because the Yoma were active threats to humanity any way you look at it, and never really showed signs that they were capable of sentience beyond a thirst for blood, destruction, and mayhem, and no one mentions why this is such a horrifically stupid plot twist that really screws with the series lore!
Asuka learned of this new fact about the Yoma as well, and she decided it was too cruel to kill them based on this fact, so she wants to seal all the Yoma she can, though at the expense of her life, as that what using that Fuma Korin does. Kill the user upon use... or slowly kill the user upon multiple uses...? I don't know. They don't really explain how this thing works. I mean, we see a male Shinobi use it, but he dies instantly, while Asuka uses it multiple times to seal away the Yoma and she's perfectly fine, until an evil boob rash appears.
The final battle ensues, and Asuka is able to seal away a large group of Yoma before it’s revealed that using Fuma Korin, which by the way was taught to her by Kagura, can slowly kill the user. And since Asuka has used it several times already, the deadly effects start to kick in real fast. Asuka's decision making in this series will an issue I'll address later.
Meanwhile, Yumi elects to settle accounts with Fubuki. The fight seems almost one sided until Yumi calls out to her ‘Big Sister’.
Rasetsu joins the fray against Asuka and co. When she realizes she’s losing ground, she trades her intellect for a major power boost, reducing her to a mindless beast like Orochi before her. In order to win, Asuka, with Homura and Miyabi, all use Fuma Korin to seal the mad Yoma away. By the way, this is a massive Deus ex Machina, because Homura and Miyabi conveniently are able to use Fuma Korin now. Homura just says that anything Asuka can do, she can do just as well, and does it near instantaneously, and Miyabi suddenly remembering she could use the technique too, despite it never being foreshadowed since her debut in SV. With Homura and Miyabi's contribution, this makes it the single most bonkers finish to a final battle I've seen in SK, and I am unable to stop groaning at how utterly ridiculous the whole thing is.
Feeling her only ally lost, Fubuki goes all out against Yumi. All seemed lost, but Yumi makes a comeback and wins the day, while also setting Fubuki free of her hatred.
Fubuki, Gekko, and Senko depart for places unknown, while Gessen and Hanzo celebrate a long awaited Christmas party, Hebijo just sort of hang out watching Miyabi train, the Mikagura group do a thing with a snowman and fireworks, and the Crimson Squad work on the holiday. The End.
What a mess! This was such a fever dream of a twelve episode series.
I feel this plot would’ve done better as an actual game instead of an anime, because Senran Kagura is mostly a character driven series of games, with plot coming second, and fan-service for the most part, third. If you want to get the full story, you have play through whichever game, complete levels, view cutscenes, and read through detailed expository monologues presented to you by the characters themselves. Games take years to make, and the length of the story, and how the characters fit in is integral to how much care went into production if the game’s story is character driven. An anime with twelve episodes won’t cut it in the long run, because of the contrived and forced plot and lackluster character focus and development, not to mention a really dumb plot twist that actively contradicts the series lore. I have yet to finish the first anime, Ninja Flash, but I think Ninja Flash handles its characters and story better because there isn’t such a large cast by comparison.
The Dubbing
This might be one of Funimation’s less than graceful outings. Most of this just comes from someone who’s used to hearing the Japanese voices from the games, since they’ve never been dubbed in English. The dub for Shinovi Master isn’t terrible, just a little subpar, and has some decent performances. I think Tia Ballard is a great match for Ryona. While not as high-energy as MAKO, but she still gave a good show as a gleeful masochist, and seemed to have fun with the role. Leah Clark is also a fine match for Shiki, if you fancy the trendy party girl.
There are some that doesn’t quite match up, though. Emily Fajardo as Minori didn’t sound as childish as Hiromi Igarashi, just a little too mature.
Kristen McGuire as Murasaki, while certainly low enough for her to sound like an emo teen, came across as a little too deep and flat at times. For Sayuri Yahagi, she had certain amount softness in her voice that used to convey Murasaki’s shyness. And then, there are the screams of anguish and instability when Root of Calamity takes over.
While I’m discussing the dub, I think I should re-examine what I said here: I said “It was odd that Funimation's Mallorie Rodak didn't come in to reprise her role as Yumi, but if you ask me, I like Megan's Yumi voice a little more. They're both good, but I think Megan does a better job with Yumi's cool demeanor.”
After comparing the two a little more, I came to the conclusion that Megan is indeed the better Yumi. Mallorie was a bit too soft as Yumi in Shinovi Master, and sometimes her voice would dial down a bit to the point in some scenes she’s barely raising her voice. Megan on the other hand, while still using a similarly soft tone of voice, carries a cool edge similar to Yumi Hara’s take on the character, and sounded much more natural in the role. Mallorie couldn’t exactly replicate Yumi Hara’s take, and she seemed to struggle at times to find the right pitch. I’m not saying Mallorie is bad voice actress, I just think she could have done better.
Animation
I feel like the animation for this anime is a step back in quality. I mean, visually, it’s not bad; it’s just not super good in most places, because there are some off-model moments from time to time and the action sequences get dull sometimes. I will say this though; Episode 12 had the best action in the series, but it doesn’t quite make up for it.
In comparison the traditionally 2D animated opening sequences of the games, the animation quality of Ninja Flash, and the Estival Versus OVA, it feels like there wasn’t much effort but into Shinovi Master’s animation.
The Ops had stunning visuals. The characters were fluid, the animation was superb, and it told us who the characters were with the visuals and fluid animations alone. The best Op in my opinion is Estival Versus, which seamlessly blended 2D and 3D animation together, creating something visually beautiful.
I watched some of Ninja Flash, and I think it had the better animation between the two anime seasons. The fan service wasn’t as overblown as in Shinovi Masters, and there were relatively few off-model moments that I could find.
The Estival Versus OVA was similarly well crafted, but not to the extent of the Ops and Ninja Flash.
It must have something to do with the different studios and low budget that the quality of animation is somewhat unbalanced. TNK is the studio behind Shinovi Masters, and if you weren’t aware, they were previously the ones that brought the first three season of High School DXD into the world, before the anime moved to Passione. DXD had beautiful animation and attention to detail, especially where the fan-service and Ecchi scenes were concerned, so what happened with Shinovi Masters? Why was there a drop in animation quality here? Why does Shiki’s eye look shriveled up in a flashback scene? Why is it that Shiki’s mole doesn’t stay visible in some scenes? Why do the breasts not stay consistent in shape and size? What happened to the care and attention to detail that DXD had?
Senran Kagura anime should just stick with one studio, so at least that way there won’t be as much issues with animation quality. Like I said, it isn’t bad, just not great.
Fan-Service
As for the fan-service the series provides… I’m not one to complain about fan-service, but I think there was a little too much in some areas. The Shinobi Masters tournament is a perfect example of that, and it was nothing special. Instead of a proper tournament structure between the three teams, four if Asuka had not injured Homura prior, we get these silly games like ‘naked dodge ball’ or ‘naked cavalry battle’, and whoever the team captain was getting eliminated results in the team losing. Whichever team scores the least out of the three present, is out of the contest, and the last team standing wins. Their final challenge comes from Gekko, Senko, and Fubuki, and the fights are more in line with what an actual tournament fight should look like. I honestly didn’t see the point of all that and I can’t say I care because it killed any tension or interest in the tournament itself.
Also, I don’t think it was necessary to bring back PBS in the second episode. After all, you could always go back to the PBS game if you want to splash a girl’s swimsuit off. I believe the hype for the game was probably gone by the time this episode aired, so there was no need for it be shoehorned in, outside of killing time in-universe I’m assuming, or the writers just didn’t have any ideas on what to do with the episode. I mean, this is like the third time the girls have been invited to a water park via arrow message. Come up with something new.
I do like the third episode’s hot spring scene, but like I said before, there was no reason for them to go to another hot spring outside of the Yoma Invasion starting from there, since we already got it in episode 03.
Of course, the show’s subpar animation quality also contributes to some of the fan-service being… almost less appealing in some parts.
Characters
Because there’s a large cast and a short number of episodes to fit a plot in, twelve episodes in all, not a lot of characters get much time to shine, which does nothing to help flesh them out. The only ones getting any focus are Yumi, Asuka, Kurokage, Gekko and Senko, and Fubuki.
Yumi is the main protagonist of this anime, since most of the focus goes to her. She has come a long way from how she and the other Gessen girls were introduced in SV, from someone who was cold and almost unapproachable, unwilling to forgive evil and wanted to eradicate evil Shinobi to honor her deceased grandfather/or dying grandfather and avenge the deaths of her parents, to someone more open and compassion to the feelings of others, a little awkward in social interaction, and her obsession with “Cute is Justice”. She believes that people can change for the better if given the chance, and as a Yumi fan, I absolutely love that. She’s a prime example of changing for the better, even if you could say she's become an Asuka 2.0, but that's just how much of a positive influence Asuka had on her, and I genuinely think its a good thing. Unfortunately, that compassion is wasted on Gekko and Senko, two people who really don’t deserve it. I don’t know why she felt compelled to sympathize with these girls. Maybe because people can change if you give them a chance, sure, but seriously, why sympathize with Gekko and Senko? Their actions before the attempted suicide should not have done anything to endear her or anyone else toward them. I’ll get to that in a little bit.
Her relationship with Fubuki is quite fascinating. In the past, she and Fubuki briefly grew up together as adoptive sisters under Kurokage's care, before Fubuki disappears. Because she was really young, Yumi doesn’t remember at first until they exchanged blows in the tournament, years later into the present. They’ve reunited after so many years apart, but on opposite sides, because Yumi is a Shinobi and Fubuki sides with the Yoma and is consumed by hatred of the hypocritical Shinobi, as well as her Yoma instincts partially being a factor. Yumi reaches out to her long lost older sister, knowing that hatred has yet fully consumed her. Her warmth and compassion gets through to Fubuki, and she’s well on her way to redemption.
This I can buy, because they have a history together. Gekko and Senko on the other hand… oh boy…
Gekko and Senko, these two characters, along with Fubuki, originally debuted in the SK mobile game New Link, but the twins are the starter villains of Tokyo Youma-hen, by setting the Shinobi Masters Tournament for Gessen, Hebijo, the Crimson Squad, and later the Mikagura Group to compete in. I’m just going to come out and say it; I hate these two characters. I hate them and everything they stand for, or claim to stand for, because it’s all bullshit. I have a number of reasons why I hate them and I’ll now explain why. This is going to be quite long, because for the most part, it’s going to be a lengthily rant, and of course, there’s going some, if not a lot of personal biased. You have been warned.
Reason 1: There motivation for the first half of the anime is utterly nonsensical. Gekko explains that she and her sister Senko felt a deep emptiness and longing for more than being praised for being perfect. Here’s why I think; they were bored. They don’t have a tragic or compelling back-story to back up their motives or beliefs, like everyone else does. They were just bored with their meaningless lives and wanted something fun to do instead of the repetitive daily routine of being praised as perfect students. And then they conveniently stumble upon Kurokage’s Dairy, which detailed his numerous Evil Shinobi kills and his ideology on how all evil must be eradicated so only all the good in the world can exist. That’s when they thought “Hey, this looks fun! Let’s do what this guy did, and make others see our stupid and nonsensical way of thinking as the only way to think!”
I think this, because it wasn't developed in the same way as other characters in the series. It tells us nothing else about them, other than their worship of Kurokage and how they took to his beliefs like butterflies to a lantern.
Gekko sugarcoats it like it was the most beautiful thing in the world and that they found their purpose in life, but I see it for what it really is; a tale of madness told by an idiot, so I can't help but laugh and groan at how ridiculous this entire backstory is. Honestly, the elated teary-eyed face she makes after she tells her story to Yumi aggravates me. It is not endearing in any way shape or form, because it’s clear she’s delusional. It’s very hard to take her seriously with this deluded mindset. It’s also aggravating that Yumi sheds tears with her, because she can relate. Okay yeah, she can relate to the fact that she wanted to make Kurokage’s old dream come true and she had the proper motivation to do so, but she should know that this is not what he wanted, and Gekko is just spouting out nonsensical reasoning! This is not a well developed backstory, it is delusional nonsense, pure and simple!
Reason 2: I find it hard to reconcile Kurokage’s beliefs and ideology with their pretentious garbage. Kurokage had a reason for doing what he did. His parents were killed by Evil Shinobi, and he wanted revenge. The Gessen girls had a reason to hate Evil Shinobi and wanted to kill them off too, and they had the motivation, because they wanted to honor their dying grandfather figure’s lifelong wish before/or following his passing and avenge their families deaths. But, while he still wanted them to do good in the world, he clearly didn’t want them to make his mistakes, especially if it ended in his beloved granddaughter’s death. By the end of SV’s Gessen story-line, he was happy that they found their own way and passed onto the afterlife.
Gekko and Senko on the other hand… well, I only can imagine Kurokage spinning in his grave because of what these two zealot fan girls are doing in his name. Because they have an underdeveloped motivation and backstory, these sisters don’t have a legitimate reason for anything. For setting up the tournament, for wanting to wipe Evil out. Nothing. As far we know, their parents are probably alive and well, or they’re dead too, and they were just forgotten about thereafter. They didn’t suffer in any way because of Evil Shinobi. They never knew Kurokage personally, they only know of his discarded ideology, and arrogantly delude themselves into thinking it’s they’re calling and right to follow his discarded ideology and make his old dream of a “world of light”, or a “world that is pure” in their words, where only Good exists, when in reality, they have no right to do anything. If they did meet the man personally, I wouldn’t be surprised at him freezing them solid for how irritating and arrogant they were thinking that their actions would impress him. And why did nobody tell them that Kurokage was done with his crusade and changed his ways after living peacefully with his granddaughters? Probably because plot needs to happen, and the characters need to be stupid.
Reason 3: Correct me if I’m wrong, but how they go about honoring his legacy and making a “world that is pure” is also quite hypocritical at best. Their first on screen action was to brutally attack the Hanzo girls for starting the trend of befriend Evil, and mocking the philosophy of the “Sword and Shield” that protects people. That’s something a villain, or at the very least, a really nasty person would do. These girls are nasty people. Their actions are evil when you think about it. An unprovoked, unjustified attack on people who know what’s right and wrong, is something only a truly Evil person does. I don’t think they even know the different between good and evil. Being middle schoolers without a clue about the world is not an excuse. They’re that stupid and narrow minded.
As far we know, Kurokage never did that, outside of hunting down as many Evil Ninjas as he could. Sure, he deemed his bosses Evil for threatening to punish Hanzo and Yume in his place for a screw-up, and later, getting into a fist fight with Hanzo over their beliefs, but that's it. Kurokage ultimately cared about others, which was partially why he went to his extremes; to ensure no one went through a loss like he did. He eventually realized his error and stopped hating Evil, to the point where he was even cordial to a Yoma of all things when he took Fubuki in.
Gekko and Senko don’t seem to care about anyone other than themselves and Fubuki. Kurokage believed in justice, yeah, but True Justice is Power? Maybe he did believe that to an extent too, but not in the way they think. For him, and just about anyone with the right mindset, power is just a tool to use to achieve your goals, whatever they may be, whether your fulfilling your duty as a Shinobi, or achieving a dream of some kind. Just having power for the sake of power and using it to beat someone senseless is not justice. It’s more like bullying, but to much worse degree. What sort of “Justice is Power” are these two zealots preaching about? I’m assuming it’s the power to dominate others and being a toxic influence to those watching. Yeah, I do believe that’s what they’re going for. All they want is to dominate and bully those they view as weak, belittle other Shinobi with more sensible morals and goals, while infecting others with their toxic ideology, and they’re using Kurokage’s old ideology as justification to do that. They display sadistic relish in beating Asuka to within an inch of her life in the first episode, and showing the other Hanzo girls off to the other main characters like trophies in the following episode, and threatened to kill them if the other teams don’t compete in their tournament. That’s pretty EVIL right there! That’s what Evil people, I mean, REALLY EVIL people do! At least Evil Shinobi teams like the new Team Hebijo and the Crimson Squad had enough decency to challenge Team Hanzo directly to one on one fights. These two did far more evil shit, which is actually impressive compared to the Evil Shinobi they want to exterminate. And they call themselves Good Shinobi?
They said Asuka’s naïveté is bad for the Good Shinobi community. Their way of thinking is much more dangerous than the one who redeems evil individuals and helps change the narrow minded world views of others for the better. Gekko claims that Yumi is a disgrace to Kurokage’s legacy. I say the arrogant delusional bitch is the disgrace for thinking that she had any right can make Kurokage’s dream come true, and I’m sure the man is still spinning in his grave because of that dishonor!
Reason 4: The worse part of all this is, Yumi, the one who should be outraged the most by their stupidity and disgrace to her grandfather’s legacy, sympathizes with them. She even dissuades them from committing suicide after Fubuki makes it clear she never gave a shit about them as she reveals her plan to kill off all Shinobi in the world. Why would you want to sympathize with naïve zealots making a mockery of your grandfather’s memory? Who attacked your friend and kidnapped her classmates? Who have mocked you repeatedly? Who thought they were superior to you for holding onto your grandfather’s old ideals, when really they were delusional and had no right to do anything? Despite all of that, you help them out of their funk? I honestly don’t see the logic in that, and I do not care. You do not want to associate with these kinds of people. EVER!
If I was in Yumi’s shoes, I would’ve just let them jump to their deaths, so that way I wouldn’t have to deal with them and their crap anymore. I’m sorry, but that’s how I feel about them. I have no sympathy for them whatsoever. I don’t care if their delusions about the world were crushed, or if they were abandoned by the one person they admired. The deaths of these sisters would give the show a plus for me.
Hell, I bet my fan made character Haruo (from Yumi and Haruo: Birthday Date) would understand Kurokage’s motivations better than these two, and he hates the old guy’s guts for killing his parents. If Haruo heard Gekko and Senko’s story, he would laugh in their faces, call them idiots bored with their meaningless lives that have no clue as to what they’re preaching, and whatever interest he had in what motivated them to follow in Kurokage’s footsteps would die in that moment, just like it did for me.
Reason 5: Did also I forget to mention they got off Scot-free for their actions? Yeah, that happens. First Yumi sympathizes with and stops them from committing suicide, then the Hanzo girls also forgive them for the attack at the very beginning, which they should NOT! Speaking of which; why did the Hanzo girls lose so easily to middle schoolers?! High school Shinobi students, especially third years close to graduation should not have lost so easily to middle school students! I’m assuming it was for plot convenience, because the antagonists need to set up a conflict for the other characters to react to, and the writers didn't want to focus on so many characters right off the bat. Still too convenient for my taste.
In-story, they chalk it up to just being “unprepared” or “not strong enough” to beat them. Sorry, but not good enough. The Hanzo girls are not to blame. It is Gekko and Senko’s fault entirely. There’s no justification for what they did, and there should be no forgiveness. There should be some form of punishment for attacking the Hanzo girls unprovoked and organizing what is presumably an unsanctioned competition between Shinobi, which subsequently allowed Fubuki to declare war on the Shinobi World, and begin her Yoma Invasion. So when you think about it, just about everything in the latter half of the anime is their entire fault. But, no punishment is issued as far as we can tell and it makes their un-likability worse.
Let’s talk about Gekko and Senko individually. Of the two, I find Gekko the most annoying. She kind of reminds me of Mana Inagawa from Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni. Actually, she might be worse than Mana. Mana started off as a decent character until her ambitious nature got the better of her and she wound up becoming arrogant and cruel. Not helping is the AV Virus making her instinctively more aggressive. It’s still not a good excuse for her deplorable treatment of the other characters, especially her former partner, Momo. Surprisingly, sometime later, I got over my hatred for her after I cleared the game. Gekko, on the other hand was a bad apple from the start. Her arrogance is much worse than Mana’s, and she doesn't have the poor excuse of a virus making her abnormally aggressive. Did I forget to mention, she's delusional and stupid?
Senko annoys me the least, because, compared to her sister, she doesn’t seem to have any personality for me to be annoyed by. She’s just there, with Gekko just serving as a separate mouth piece. She battles with what appears to be boxing, which is rather unique, but it doesn’t win her too many points.
Okay, I think I talked long enough about the twins. I no doubt went hyperbolic going through this, but these are my feelings about the two. If you find some likability in Gekko and Senko, I won’t argue with you about it, just don’t expect me to find any reason to like them any time soon. Maybe their story is different in the New Link game and there’s information I missed or skipped over entirely, but don’t expect my opinion on these two characters to change.
So, that’s enough of that. In the midst of my rant, I delved into Kurokage, and I think he’s the best written character in the anime, despite being a dead by the time we get to see his flashbacks. He has a believable and established back-story, his journey takes him from being narrow minded youth filled with hatred of Evil, to a more world-weary man, with the hatred that filled his heart gone. He changed his ways, and he made it his goal to teach the Gessen girls to know what it means to carry out justice, on top of everything else I covered, so I don’t think I need to say any more about him.
Let’s discuss Asuka, as she is the deuteragonist this time around. She’s rather confusing in this anime. She is characterized in the games as an All Loving Heroine, content with helping others with their problems, being able to guide them away from a dark path they’ve taken, and being all around cheery and nice girl. After the tremendous loss and kidnapping of her classmates at Hanzo, she understandably feels bitter and feels she has to handle her problems alone. But, it still feels so out of character that she would try to hurt her closet friends and rivals to keep them out of the Shinobi Masters. A lot of complications could have been avoided if she opened up about her problems and plans to rescue her classmates, keep her friends safe, and deal with the Yoma.
Also, her decision to seal away the Yoma just because it’d too cruel to kill something that can potentially feel emotions like love is rather heavy handed, and honestly really dumb. I doubt most Yoma even care for the pity of a human, since the vast majority of Yoma seen are malevolent monsters. Plus, she’s not just risking her career as a ninja; she’s also risking her health. Using Fuma Korin, the powerful Yoma sealing technique, can potentially kill the caster upon use, and obviously using it repeatedly is a bad idea, because you’re slowly killing yourself by sealing up a Yoma ever chance you get. It seems she inherited her grandmother’s tendency to slowly kill herself when sticking to her guns.
Asuka, bless your kind soul, but even if your heart is in the right place, no matter how noble your intentions are, killing yourself to show kindness to creatures that won’t stop attacking humanity won’t endear everyone to your cause. Your classmates and best friends might be sympathetic to your decision, but there’s no guarantee others with more common sense will share the same opinion. You’re also ignoring the feelings of those who have a legitimate reason to hate these creatures. You know one of them personally. You know that Miyabi’s mother was killed by a Yoma when she was young, and thus she has every reason to want to have all Yoma exterminated. You know this, but you’re sticking to your decision, anyway. I can’t help but think that this decision you’ve made is illogical and incredibly insensitive. It’s kind of hard to get behind that. Let’s not forget that you may one day be forced to take human life as part of the job too. If you can’t kill a Yoma, I doubt you’re going to make it very far in the Shinobi World.
What're you going to do when you come across a human foe that is potentially just as bad if not worse than the Yoma? Seal them away? Sure, there’s convincing them to change their evil ways, but not all of them are going to so easily swayed, so you either detain them, or as a last resort, put them down to ensure they never harm innocent people again. It's a hard moral dilemma, but sometimes hard choices must be made. Actually, given that its apparently going to be the darkest entry in the SK series, this could be a good plot point in 7even, where Asuka has to make a decision to take a human life, and it'll help develop her character. I would like to say that.
Now for Fubuki, the main antagonist of this season. Fubuki is much more believable to me than the idiot twins. She had a back-story, an actual motivation for her villainy, and a good contrast to Yumi. Fubuki wants to kill off all Shinobi and make a place for Yoma. Why? Because her parents were a human male ninja and a sentient female Yoma, and they were forced to use Fuma Korin to seal the mother away, and the father had to kill himself to do so in order to protect their human/Yoma hybrid daughter. Rasetsu, her Yoma companion hands her over to Kurokage for protection until she recovered and returned for her. Kurokage introduced her to Yumi as her new older sister. It was a rough start, with Fubuki initially refusing to take part in her new family because of the bitterness and trauma of her parents sacrifice. Eventually, she formed a sisterly bond with Yumi, but Fubuki leaves with Rasetsu and is never seen again.
Now in the present, Fubuki declares war on the Shinobi World. She feels that all Shinobi in the world are hypocrites and plans to wipe them all out and make a place for the Yoma. This is because of how they were indirectly responsible for her parents’ fate. Fubuki could have found peace living in Kurokage’s family, but she couldn’t let go of her hatred, allowing her Yoma instincts to take over, and thus she is on a genocidal warpath. Her motivation doesn’t just end with her avenging her parents. Because Fubuki’s mother was a Yoma capable of feeling love, she believes any Yoma can feel that emotion if given the chance, but the Shinobi never gave them that chance, which is where the belief that all Shinobi are hypocrites come to mind. For all their talk of justice and desire maintain peace, they never extended any peace to the Yoma, preferring to exterminate them instead. Well, considering that the Yoma seen so far have only attacked people and are malevolent in nature, you can hardly blame them for defending themselves.
After her final battle with Yumi, Fubuki sees the light and goes on her merry way, with Gekko and Senko at her side, for reasons I cannot comprehend. Also, she doesn’t face any punishment for her crimes either, like Gekko and Senko. Okay, the head Shinobi are willing to punish Kurokage for going overboard on Evil Shinobi hunting, but you let these three girls off with a slap on the wrist? These guys can’t be that incompetent or biased, can they? Or, maybe she and the twins are renegades now after the stunts they pulled. There’s no clarification on that, but it is implied that Yumi and Fubuki will fight again in the future, so it’s possible. Either way, you just can’t instantly change how you feel so quickly. Maybe Fubuki still has some hatred in her heart she can’t so easily purge. Only time will tell if her path is different or if she’ll fall back.
Okay, as much as I praised Fubuki's character, there are issues with her as well, I feel I should mention. She says all Shinobi, and humans in general by extension, are hypocrites, making noise about justice and protection, but never showed kindness to Yoma, and thus should pay for not showing that kindness. I do understand that she is angry about her mother being sealed away from the human world and that the Shinobi of that time nearly broke their promise to her father not to harm her after he sealed away his lover and sealed his fate (assuming that's what was really going to happen, I mean, those ninja just stood there ominous looking before Rasetsu jumped in). It's understandable that she would be bitter after this, but why does she want to go through with this? Shouldn't her rage toward humanity's two-faced nature be tempered by genuine kindness shown to her by a young Yumi and her grandfather, who adapted her into their family, make her second guess her opinion to some capacity? I guess we wouldn't have a plot otherwise, so the thirst for revenge and destructive Yoma instincts have to be the driven force of her motivation. Also, apart from a scene where she comforts a lone Yoma, she never elaborates on how Yoma can feel emotions or gain sentience, nor does she mention any distinction between Yoma that could be Good or Evil regardless of this aspect. She just repeats the same thing: Shinobi are bad, and must pay for hunting Yoma down... et cetera, et cetera. Also, why did she tell Asuka about the Yoma at the start of the series? To screw with her? This really backfire on her later, when Asuka decides she'll protect the Yoma instead, which really derails her plans in the end after she seals away all the Yoma in the area, including Rasetsu. There have been silly moments in this series, but this was really silly of Fubuki to do. But, once again, plot needs to happen, and for that to happen, characters need to be stupid.
As for the other girls, there isn’t much to say. The Gessen group are the focus of the story and help drive the plot, and provide comedic mischief when needed in some parts, while also contributing to solving the mystery of Gekko and Senko and helping thin out the Yoma. The Hanzo girls, minus Asuka, are relegated to damsels in distress and only appear briefly in the first two episodes until they are rescued five episodes in, and even then, they don’t contribute much beyond Katsuragi coming up with a admittedly funny plan to trap the army of Yoma.
The Homura Crimson Squad gets the second most focus behind the Gessen girls, as they're the ones who discover Rasetsu guarding the the rest of Team Hanzo. They're also the ones behind most of the comedy in the series, even if the jokes don't quite land at times. Homura has some nice interactions with Yumi as they reminisce on their experiences with Asuka from their respective debut games, and how her positive influence changed them for the better. And of course, during the final battle, the power of Ass Pull helps Homura learn how to use the Fuma Korin to seal Rasetsu. She's seen Asuka do it numerous times, so Homura figured out how it worked, because that makes sense.
Team Hebijo contributes very little, other than jokes at Ryona’s preferred expense. I do like that one sense where Ryona pretty much establishes herself as the mood maker of Hebijo, because her perverted antics help soften the blow of their humiliating lose in the Shinobi Masters. Other than that, they’re really out of focus here, barring Miyabi towards the end. She makes it known that she does not agree with Asuka's decision to seal away the Yoma instead of outright killing them like they're suppose to. Let's not forget, her mother died because of the Yoma, so Miyabi has legitimate reason to hate them as much as she does. That doesn't last long, because Miyabi’s contribution to the climatic fight against Rasetsu comes in the form of her conveniently forgoing her hatred of Yoma and revealing that she can use Fuma Korin too, because her deceased mother taught it to her for some reason. As I said before, this is a Deus ex Machina, and its the most maddening, bonkers thing I've ever seen in SK to date. Her desire to avenge her mother's death and hatred of Yoma are important parts of her character. You cannot change that so easily to make way for an easy win, because it feels cheap and lazy, and it cheats on the character in question, especially when she had nothing of substance to do up until that point in the story. Oh, but don't worry, Miyabi has a new goal now! To be the Ultimate Shinobi!
Oh yeah, and there’s Kagura. She remains fairly static throughout this anime. I have no idea why she agreed to teach Asuka the Fuma Korin. I guess, once again, plot needs to happen, and it only makes sense to teach her such a dangerous move. It was interesting that she found her match in Fubuki. Their fight before the second invasion was a nice watch, and the fact that Kagura lost gives us a clear indication as to how powerful Fubuki is. It seems that they’re setting her up as an antagonist in a future installment of the series, because unlike the other main characters, she stays true to why she was created: exterminating Yoma.
By the way, Naraku and the Mikagura Sisters were there too, they just didn't contribute much to the plot, outside of episode 9, where they create a Shinobi Barrier where everyone has to fight the Yoma in Frenzy Mode.
I think it’s time to discuss the Yoma, because they’re pretty important to the story. It’s revealed that some Yoma can be sentient and have feelings, something that was never heard of before. So because of that, and what Fubuki told her, Asuka decides it’s wrong to just kill them, so the next best thing is to have them sealed away from the Earth using the Fuma Korin, the aforementioned dangerous sealing technique that could potentially kill her, as demonstrated by when she used it to seal a powerful Yoma in episode 9. Is anyone else confused as to why this plot twist came up NOW? I mentioned before that this is a horrendous plot twist, and here's why: Because in the games prior to Shinovi Master, the Yoma have been described as bloodthirsty malevolent entities fueled by the blood and negative emotions of humanity. Orochi, the first Yoma introduced in the series, was portrayed as a near mindless beast bent on destruction. It fed on the negative feelings and emotions of the Crimson Squad after absorbing them. It only gained some manner of intelligence afterword, and it still attacked Asuka. Sure, the idea of Yoma being sentient is interesting on paper, but the idea of sealing them away because it was wrong to kill them because they have feelings feels like an arbitrarily forced way of showing them in a sympathetic light. And how the Yoma being sentient and how they can feel emotions is poorly or never explained at all, and they focus solely on the fact that Yoma can feel love and nothing else to make them sympathetic. So what if they can fall in love? Any living creature can do that. It doesn't mean they're all good.
Yes, Fubuki’s mother may count as sympathetic since she seemed pretty pleasant, and she made the decision to allow herself to be sealed away by her lover so that their child may live, but all other Yoma that been presented so far before her and Rasetsu were immediately hostile to the main characters, so sympathy for them is more or less moot. Although, Dogen was behind most of the actions of the Yoma, on their own, they still pose a threat. Shin is the biggest and most powerful of them all, and it must be dealt with when it awakens, and I doubt sealing it up is going to help, because Shin’s seal about to break at some point.
Additionally, just because they can gain a varying degree of sentience doesn’t necessarily mean we need to sympathize with them. An intelligent Yoma is still potentially more dangerous than the mindless ones. Also, a Yoma that can feel emotions like love must be a rarity among them, considering, and this bears repeating, all we’ve seen are basically demonic monsters that want to kill anything that moves.
So think about this: what if an intelligent and powerful Yoma decided to rally the other lesser Yoma in an attack against humans? What if during a fight, an intelligent Yoma could outclass the Shinobi it was fighting by way of strategy and skill alone, and not just brute strength? What if a particularly sadistic Yoma decided to play mind games with their opponents? Or worse, get enjoyment from torturing their victims to death? And how many evil Yoma outweigh the rare good Yoma?
Regardless of intellect or emotional feeling, Yoma are still driven by a thirst for blood and destruction, thus still making them a threat to humanity. Sure, sealing them away is a viable option, but doing so to every last one of them isn’t, especially where your health is concerned, as I mentioned above. There are potentially thousands of these things and sealing them all up would be nigh impossible. Before they can cause any damage, eliminating them is the default option, and if that doesn’t work because the Yoma in this instance is too strong to kill, then sealing it away and barring it from entering the human world should be the last option open. We may not know much of the inner workings of the Yoma, but it is clear that they are, at the end of the day, still a threat to humanity, and much dealt with by any means necessary. Are we supposed to be expecting the characters to try and befriend Yoma now? Because, with everything I’ve stated, I think it might be impossible.
The Senran Kagura series has prided itself on showing different layers of the characters regardless of them being good or evil. That rule didn’t exactly apply to the Yoma for much of its run, because they’re always seen on Chaotic Evil scale of alignment. Because of this plot twist, we now know that Yoma can feel emotions, but what does that mean? Why do we need to sympathize with the Yoma because of this and the fact that they can fall in love? How are we supposed to know what Yoma are good, or evil? And why do we need to seal them away before making that distinction or verifying the threat level?
Okay, I might be going on and on here, and I might be making a bigger deal out of this then I should, but there's this part of my brain that ticks and I can't turn it off. If I was able to turn off my brain, I wouldn't be so bothered by what this plot twist has wrought.
Still, like I said before, an intelligent Yoma is an interesting idea, for a villain at least. Rasetsu was a cool character on her own. Her motivation revolved around Fubuki and Fubuki’s mother. Fubuki’s mother saved her life once, and this earns Rasetsu’s loyalty, to the point of taking care of a young Fubuki in her place after she was sealed away. For the next couple of years, Rasetsu remains loyal to Fubuki, to help her achieve of her goal of wiping out all Shinobi to repay the debt she owed to Fubuki’s mother. She was even willing to sacrifice her intelligence for more power to win her final fight with Asuka, Homura, and Miyabi. In the end, she was sealed away by their combined efforts. She and Fubuki definitely seem to have a genuine bond, if Fubuki’s angry reaction to Rasetsu being sealed away is anything to go by.
If the series creator, Kenichiro Takaki, introduced a character like Rasetsu in the upcoming 7even, but as a much darker and more sinister addition, that would be astonishing. (God forbid if Sony really does neuter this game or future games to come, I hereby renounce whatever respect I had for the company when it comes to game localization. Switch version for life)
So, that's all the characters, in much of their flawed glory. Again I say this series is character driven, so a large cast of this size is bound to hit a few snags. Many drove the plot forward, many got left out, and many were poorly developed. But, we still love these characters and know their quirks and flaws. Baring Gekko and Senko for me, I will never stop hating them.
Music
The music from the games are usually pretty memorable, particularly the character themes, because they pertain to the personality traits and quirks of the characters they represent. As for SM, I’m pretty ‘Meh’, about its musical score. I guess its fine, if a bit bland. I do like the opening theme “Scarlet Master” by Sayaka Sasaki.
Final Verdict!
Pros
Passable animation, despite obvious flaws
Some positively written characters and their arcs (Kurokage and Rasetsu)
Nice opening theme song
Cons
Uneven, confused, and nonsensical plot
Underdeveloped characters (Almost everyone)
Unintentionally unsympathetic characters (Gekko, Senko, Asuka, most of the Yoma)
Nonsensical reasoning or motivation (Asuka’s decision to seal away the Yoma at the cost of her life because having the potential to feel emotion automatically makes them sympathetic, Gekko and Senko’s piss poor attempts at following Kurokage’s path)
Terribly dumb plot twist (The Yoma being sentient enough to feel emotions like love. WHAT?!)
In Between
Fight Scenes (somewhat boring, but could be better)
Fan service (good, if not overblown, or unappealing at times)
Bland, but passable musical score
Humor (some jokes chuckle worthy, others… meh…)
Recommendation Value
Is this a bad anime? No. At least, not entirely. It’s certainly an odd addition to the series, and how it is debatable as to how canon the story is, but you might get some enjoyment out of it like I did. There are just problems here and there that are likely to grate on you like they did for me. Like the short number of episodes, mindless action and fan-service, disconnected and jumbled plot points, bad characterization or underutilized characters with no development, and that god awful plot twist!
Bottom line, this anime might’ve fared better with a bigger budget, more episodes to make a cohesive plot, and better management of the characters, since this is a character driven series. Let's not forget, better animation to help the fan-service shine. In fact, if it were a game, it would be better.
It took a while, but I finally managed to get this review out. I had fun with this, and I hope whoever read it found it meaningful. If you think I did or didn’t do a good job, let me know in the replies. Have a good day.