Conspiracy and secrecy ramp up in Ninja Kamui
In a previous issue, I reviewed the first two episodes of Ninja Kamui, an original anime for the “Adult Swim” Saturday block on Cartoon Network. The first episodes were fire, telling the story of Joe Logan aka Higan, a revered ninja who left his clan after they became mercenaries killing targets and innocents without mercy. After his family is murdered, Higan begins his quest for revenge and ultimately peace from his past life.
Episode 3 begins with a right-wing politician being escorted from his mansion by his bodyguards due to an assassin attempting to kill the politician. Once escorted into his car, the politician prays from protection from the assassin but is ultimately killed. The assassin is revealed to be Lil, a mercenary afflicted with dwarfism who uses various technologies to carry out his attacks. Meanwhile, Mike, barely recovering from the aftermath of the assault on the Chinese restaurant, continues his investigation of the connection between Higan’s murdered family and the Chinese restaurant attack.
During his investigation, Mike discovers that the FBI and the police are covering up the 
attack, blaming the owner with ties to organized crime. Mike continues to move forward and meets Higan at an abandoned construction site that he is using as a hideout. After they agree to a temporary alliance, they make plans to meet with Emma to discuss new leads. When they meet, our heroes are attacked by one of Lil’s ninja robots that leads to Emma driving to evade the ninja only to be hit by dump truck, causing her and Mike to become unconscious.
Elsewhere, Yamaji meets with Joseph Evans, CEO of the influential AUZA technology group, and warns him not to act against Higan without his consent. Higan battles the ninja and is victorious and discovers Lil’s hidden camera on the ninja. He tells Lil that he will kill him when they meet. After Higan makes his escape, he receives a call from an unknown person offering help to infiltrate AUZA City to gather information on the rogue ninja clan.
Episode 4 starts off with Higan visiting Mike and Emma at the local hospital while they recover from injuries suffered in the rogue ninja attack. During their meeting, Emma finds a lead on a former AUZA software developer who has bad blood with AUZA, and the group decides on a plan where Higan goes to AUZA City to meet the person offering to assist him.
During our heroes’ separate journeys, Yamaji and his top ninjas hold a meeting with Joseph and his bodyguard/secretary Dilly to discuss future plans to stop Higan. Big D, a cybernetic ninja, steps forward to challenge Higan stating if Higan lays a finger on his sharp hair style, he’s dead on arrival. Lil becomes upset stating he saw Higan first and wants to take revenge. Yamaji tells them that they will get their chance and to continue to focus on the main objectives. Elsewhere, Higan gets in AUZA City and with the help of the mysterious stranger. Higan gets inside and bypasses the multilayer security for the city, barely breaking a sweat until he unknowingly triggers a hidden alarm that alerts armed guards. Higan avoids the guards and comes face to face with Zai, a former comrade who is also hunting rogue ninjas and commanded by Yamaji to avoid battle with Higan.
Episodes 3 and 4 were like the previous two, straight fire. I wasn’t disappointed with the action despite the lack of fighting scenes. The story evolves perfectly with new characters joining the stage, each with their own agendas explaining why this strange venture of high-tech business and ancient Japanese martial arts formed. The animation and characters like Lil and Big D were comical and at times puzzling but if you follow Takashi Okazaki’s work, he showcases his love of action films and hip-hop culture and it’s fully on display here. Okazaki showed out creating Big D as the only black ninja who has no problems sending hands to those who would try to mess with his style.
The music remains top notch, and the insert music during Lil’s and Higan’s fight was pure hip-hop inspired without being clownish. William Street and Sentai Studios again did excellent work on the voice casting of the main characters but also deserve recognition for casting Brandon Hearnsberger as he brought out Lil’s perverted and killer ways, Joseph Palmore for making Big D believable as a Black ninja and Elissa Cuellar as Dilly who did not hesitate to put Lil in his place for his rude behavior.
Will Higan and Zai settle their reunion without bloodshed? Can Mike and Emma recruit the disgruntled AUZA employee to their cause to stop AUZA’s growing overreach? We’ll find out as Ninja Kamui continues.
Brandon Beatty is editor-at-large of Gaming Insurrection. He can be reached by email at brandonb@gaminginsurrection.com
