Shinobi No Ittoki is probably the most mediocre of the anime series that I’ve watched this season. It’s not bad, it’s kind of “mid”

The premise of Shinobi no Ittoki is that the main character, Ittoki, is the child of the leaders of the Iga ninja clan, in modern-day Japan. In this series, ninjas have continued to operate in Japan secretly under the service, with their skills and techniques developing as technology has developed as well. Ittoki has originally been raised ignorant of his background and is only thrust into the world of the various covert power struggles between different Ninja clans when he is nearly killed in an assassination attempt.

At this point, Ittoki is bundled off to Ninja School, while the Koga ninja clan – the long-time rivals of the clan, and whose current leader, Kid? Minobe, blames the Iga for the murder of their previous leader (with it being pretty clear that Minobe had something to do with the killing, with the mystery being in what way he was involved).

The animation in the series is generally fairly well done – Studio Troyca has been handed a series that serves as a balance between pretty standard school life series, and some novel fight scenes as the series move towards its conclusion. The character designs of the characters are generally pretty standard, and Isamu Suzuki, who is also the Chief Animation director – hadn’t done character designs before this show. The designs here are fine, but they also feel – again – pretty mediocre. Nothing completely grabs me about the art design of the characters in the show.

It’s been a while since I watched a show as it was airing that felt like an “extruded anime product”, and this kind of was that. It’s like the anime equivalent of Shasta soda – it doesn’t taste bad, and will quench your thirst, but if you’re going back to it, it’s because it’s what’s there.

Shinobi no Ittoki is currently available for streaming on Crunchyroll.

If you enjoyed this blog post and would like to help to support the site, please consider backing my Patreon. Patreon backers get to access my reviews and Let’s Plays up to a week in advance.

If you want to support the site, but can’t afford to pledge monthly, please consider tossing a few bucks into my Ko-Fi instead.