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Adult Swim recently announced it would release two new anime series. Along with the popular spin-off of Rick and Morty, they added a new original anime, Ninja Kamui. Adult Swim recently added many original animes, and it seems they don’t plan on stopping. It is a big company that never skips on talent, but in the case of the Ninja Kamui, they really pulled out all the stops. The people they have directing, producing, and animating the show are the best in the business, with resumes that include some fantastic shows. Pair that with their pitch for the series, and we’re in store for one impressive show.
The Ninja Kamui anime was just announced on May 19th. While the Rick and Morty title announced at the same time will likely get more attention from fans, it wouldn’t be an underestimation to speculate on the fact that Ninja Kamui will be just as good as everyone hopes Rick and Morty will be. Though it will probably be eclipsed by the bigger title, hopefully, it will prove itself capable of meeting expectations once it comes out. What’s even better is that it’s doubtful many people are even aware of the potential of this series.
To put it simply, Ninja Kamui is the unexpected show waiting to knock your socks off.
Why Will Ninja Kamuibe Be So Impressive?
The thing that will make this series so great is its stellar crew brought on to spearhead the project. The director Adult Swim got for the show is Seong-Hu Park, a man known for directing the animes The God of High School and Jujutsu Kaisen. Most notably, he recently directed Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie, which did very well. It became the 7th biggest anime film of all time and landed 15th on Japan’s list of highest-grossing films of all time. Needless to say, this is a fairly good sign for someone who’s only directed four TV shows previously. One can only wonder what Ninja Kamui will be like placed in such capable hands. The movie was based on Park’s show Jujutsu Kaisen which is about a boy who becomes possessed by a demon and enters a shamanic school in order to find the means to exorcise that demon.
Character design for the series will be headed by Takeshi Okazaki, who has worked on iconic projects such as Afro Samurai, Star Wars: Visions, and Batman Ninja. If you haven’t seen any of these shows, they are worth seeing for the art alone. Samuel L. Jackson voices the Afro Samurai, who is on a journey to find the man who killed his father and claim the number one headband. Fighting assassins, ninjas, and cyborgs, this stone-faced killer with too much hair conquers every challenger in astounding fight scenes that will have viewers jumping out of their seats; a cult classic, to be sure.
Okazaki only worked on one episode of the Star Wars: Visions anthology, but it is far and away the best. Keeping in line with the samurai themes Star Wars was born from, his episode "The Duel" follows a mysterious visitor to a small town that is certainly dressed up in the aesthetic of feudal Japan. We don’t learn much about this Force-sensitive character except that they are not Jedi. The fight in the episode will blow you away and is worthy of ranking among the top lightsaber fights of all time. Batman Ninja is similarly astounding, but for different reasons. The art frames Batman in all types of anime tropes and imagines the hero no different than how he is in America, save for him fighting in this anime world. In a movie that becomes a parody of both genres, it is everything you want from Batman combined with everything you want from ninjas.
All three of these projects showcase fantastic artwork and character design that fits the plot description of Ninja Kamui perfectly. Okazaki seems to be the right man for the job judging by his ample repertoire of ninjas, samurai sword fights, and evil cyborgs.
What Will Ninja Kamui Be About?
Adult Swim released this blurb about the series:
"Ninja Kamui follows Joe Higan, who is a Nukenin - a former ninja who escaped his clan and is hiding from his violent past in rural America with his family. One night, he is ambushed by a team of assassins from his former organization who exact a bloody retribution on Joe and his family for betraying their ancient code. Rising from his seeming “death,” Joe will re-emerge as his former self - Ninja Kamui - to avenge his family and friends. Kamui is a 21st century ninja, a shadowy anachronism who pits his ancient skills against high-tech weaponry with brutal finesse. He must face off against trained assassins, combat cyborgs, and rival ninjas to bring down the very clan that made him."
So the anime is indeed perfectly matched for the staff’s qualifications. And aside from that, it’s a modern take on a story typically set in days of old. Everyone loves a cyberpunk ninja. It sounds like a wonderful story capable of generating a serious amount of drama and along with it, seriously incredible fight scenes. The poster released in Adult Swim's announcement makes it seem dark and bloody, and the wide spatter of blood makes one think the animation will have a lot of quick movements filled with elements of water and air. The auspices for this particular anime definitely seem good, and hopefully, Ninja Kamui will deliver.