Shinobi no Kuni @ TJFF (MAJOR SPOILERS)
Last night I was fortunate enough to be able to go see Ohno’s new movie, Shinobi no Kuni at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival. I really enjoyed it and decided to write a little review about it. There will be MAJOR plot spoilers, so if you don’t want to know anything, don’t read this. If you have read the manga, you’ve already been spoiled xD The movie follows the manga pretty damn well, and any changes made are pretty minor, and are due to missing characters, or just minor location changes.
I’ll be, honest, when I first saw the trailers for Shinobi no Kuni, I wasn’t that excited. Having read the manga, I was fully expecting something like the Rurouni Kenshin movies and the trailers were showing me something that leaned closer to one of Jackie Chan’s hollywood movies. Coming out of the movie though, I was actually really impressed with how well the director actually achieved this tonal shift while still incorporating all the important elements and plot points from the source material.The manga is pretty dark, very action-y and kind of tragic. It’s definitely aimed at older audiences. The movie on the other hand is a 2hr comedy-action film that is just a whole lot of FUN for all ages. Despite this though, as far as adaptations go, it was really good. Seriously, most things were pretty much lifted straight from the manga, and any changes were pretty minor (either said by a different character because the original wasn’t in the film, or took place in a different area).
To start off, right at the beginning, you already get a sense that this film and all the characters in it are going to be pretty funny and amusing. But you also get an early taste of how bad-ass Mumon is despite this. So, the movie starts of just as the manga does showing you two ninja clans fighting in a fortress. You are introduced to the two respective generals who lead the two clans, and to Heibe-the guy who will act as Mumon’s foil in this movie played by Suzuki Ryohei. You also come across Heibe’s brother, Jirobe. The Momochi clan, who are the ones attacking the fortress, are kind of getting screwed over and having no luck actually getting in, when the general sneakily goes “don’t worry, we good. I got me a back up” (I am paraphrasing of course).
Cue sand whirling everywhere and Mumon arriving into the scene, effortlessly taking people out, knocking down the gate of the fortress and then just noping out right after cause “I don’t get paid enough for this shit”. Clearly up to no good, the Momochi clan leader (which Mumon is a part of) is like “I’ll pay you 40… 50…. okay 100 zeni, if you kill this dude called Jirobe”. This entire sequence, from the second Mumon appears to the upcoming fight we see, is incredibly silly and fun. It sets the mood for both Mumon and all the Iga ninjas and how we’re ultimately meant to perceive them for the rest of the film-as a bunch of silly, greedy, bloodthirsty lunatics (who are definitely up to no good).
Lured by the extra money, Mumon jumps right back in to the fray and starts a fight with Jirobe (although Mumon doesn’t realize it’s him at first). The rest of the ninja’s suddenly call for a “kawa” (a duel between ninja’s that takes place in between two lines and doesn’t end until someone dies - their body supposedly makes up the third line to the kanji 川). Manga fans might realize this is a bit different, but it’s good because it immediately introduces us to this notion of a “kawa” and cues the viewers in that this is going to be very important later in the movie. It also gives us an even better look at Mumon’s skill and the type of character he is in this movie.
In the manga, Mumon just straight up kills Jirobe right away, no duel. When he knocks down the gate initially he allows his fellow comrades to get killed as he walks in the other direction and calls them fools. Frankly, Mumon in the manga is the way he is because he is arrogant. Mumon in the movie isn’t arrogant though - he literally just flat out doesn’t give a fuck. He can grin and laugh during fights because why does he need to worry? He doesn’t. He knows he isn’t in danger - his skill is a fact. End of story. It’s not an opinion - it’s just pure fact - Mumon is the best.
So in the movie during the kawa, he messes around with Jirobe for a bit because he doesn’t even know who the guy he’s fighting is. And then he finds out. And kills him. Boom. Done. End of story. The thing is - you could have made this a shocking moment. You could have really used to juxtapose that “guys, this movie has heavy stuff” but no, the director made a conscious choice not to move down that path. And I appreciate it. I know I originally said I wanted something like Rurouni Kenshin, but by this moment I was sold that what I was getting in this moment was just as good.
As I said, most things in the movie followed the manga pretty well - like almost word for word, scene for scene. They were missing a few key characters from the manga though, such as Tsuge (an ex-Iga ninja who now worked for Oda), Bungo and Kirube, two Iga ninja’s, one who is very blood-thirsty, and Tetsu, a young blacksmith who Mumon often hangs out with when he gets locked out of his own home with Okuni. Ultimately though, their characters weren’t missed very much. A lot of Tsuge’s parts get shifted of to Heibe, Daizen or Sakyonosuke, which was fine. Kirube and Bungo wouldn’t have fit in to the tone of the movie, at all and Tetsu… I kind of missed him, but I can see why they got rid of him.
Due to the fact that the movie was a lot more light-hearted though, a lot of the characters-particularly the Iga ninja’s and generals, gave of a very different feel than that of the manga. I’ve already mentioned a bit about how Ohno’s Mumon and the Manga!Mumon are different, but I’d like to elaborate a bit more on that, and in regards to the entirety of the Iga ninjas.
In the manga, the Iga generals are portrayed as these really skeevy, conniving, merciless, greedy…. almost-demons. Hell, one of the generals is drawn almost like a weird blobby toad monster. They are the main people whom you get your impression of Iga from. The other ninjas are just pawns, crushed under their feet. Nothing of importance. Except for Kirube and Bungo, who also show you that Iga ninja’s are absolute heartless bastards. Pretty much, while reading the manga, you don’t share an affinity for the Iga ninja’s at all. There is no warmth, no sense of camaraderie, you are not really supposed to like them. Whereas in the movie… the power of the generals is kind of pushed back, and you actually do end up liking the Iga ninja’s because they’re so damn silly and funny! (Blow dart ninja is my fave. Great comedy right there).
Yeah, you definitely get the sense that they are greedy and only care about money and nothing else, but it’s all done for jokes and laughs. As the viewer though, you still understand how ridiculous their obsession with money is-it’s completely off the charts, bordering on insanity. They really just do not care about anything except getting paid. You still get all that despite the fact that, instead of making this a really dark concept with heartless cold scheming generals, you make it funny and light-hearted and amusing. In the manga and in the movie, when all the ninja’s rally behind Mumon to fight back against the Ise army and they all come RUNNING back to Iga-in the manga it’s kind of an intense action moment, but in the movie it is hilarious. You just see ninja’s POURING out of the trees in waves with these insane grins of absolute happiness on their faces and it’s so silly. But you get the exact same thing from the manga, with a totally different tone, and it still seems completely OK! Note: a lot of the more general fight scenes were really hilarious and silly.
All of this works with the way Ohno portrayed Mumon though. Ohno’s Mumon is way more light-hearted in nature. He isn’t the black sheep of Iga. He’s not the lone wolf who all the other ninja’s hate and despise. He’s just Mumon, the quirky, super skilled ninja who can kick everyone’s ass and gets whipped around by Okuni. It fits the lighter feel of the film, and frankly, I think it’s the only thing Ohno could have pulled off. I’m not saying Ohno could not have pulled of darker, edgier, more serious Mumon of the manga-he did Maou, I know-but I don’t think Ohno would’ve wanted to and I’m not sure I would’ve enjoyed it as much either. For one, he would’ve really had to have stopped pouting so much.
With that being said, Ohno’s absolute scream of despair when Okuni dies hit me in the feels-and this is coming from a person who ALWAYS thinks screams of despair are never anything but ridiculous. It always makes me think of Anakin when Padme died, or… of Domyouji, just yelling at rage in everything cause he can’t control his emotions (sorry Jun, ilu but, honestly). But Ohno really pulled it off in a way where for once, I didn’t think it was cheesy and dumb. So props to him. At the same time, I feel like due to how light-hearted the movie is, you don’t really get a sense of Mumon’s hate towards the Iga generals until that moment either. Which is a bit of a shame. Because in the manga, the moment Mumon kills Heibe (which is actually done very quickly in the manga, but is an absolutely epic fight in the movie - omg it was so good, like, I can totally see why it took three days to film), is a huge turning point. Mumon hated killing Heibe, the death made him sick, but I didn’t really feel that same gravitas with Ohno. Sure, he returned back to Iga and killed one of the generals just as Mumon did in the manga, but it felt like it was less because of rage and more because, in classic Mumon style, he was just kind of done with all this shit.
I mean, I think that’s kind of what the director was aiming for - for Ohno’s scream to be the game-changer so Okuni’s death could have the maximum effect, but I feel like that kind of took away from Heibe’s importance as a character. In the manga, the reason Mumon has such a huge reaction to killing Heibe is because Heibe is kind of like his foil. What he feels throughout the whole manga is what Mumon ends up realizing he feels as well - is what Mumon has always wanted to feel, but forgot how to feel. Heibe’s entire character is to help Mumon realize this, but in the movie, Heibe’s character just… falls a bit flat in that regards. I mean, I was excited to see the fight because I knew it would be epic, but I kind of feel if you came in blind, the importance of Heibe’s character is kind of lost. He’s just this poor guy Ohno has to fight at the end because Ohno killed his brother, end of story. He becomes like Daizen - the guy who just keeps repeating, time and time again, that Iga ninja’s are beasts of greed and little else.
On the other hand, I’m so relieved that they relegated Nobukatsu’s “development” to the one break down scene where he’s like “DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO HAVE A FATHER LIKE ODA NOBUNAGA????” and then Daizen gives him a good whack to he face and that’s it. That’s good. Anything extra would’ve just had me rolling my eyes. And Daizen… is just Daizen. Played by Iseya Yusuke though, I felt like he had the exact correct amount of gravitas needed for that role. Also, Ishihara Satomi as Okuni was awesome. I mean, I already shipped Ohno/Satomi ever since I heard she was cast, so really, there was no way she could’ve disappointed me but I was still happy. Unfortunately, the bad-ass scene where she attempts to defend Heirakuji temple against Daizen doesn’t exist in the movie, so we don’t get to see Satomi brandishing a spear and taking on Iseya Yusuke. So sad. T-T.
But overall, I think all the actors did a great job portraying the characters in a way that matched the tone of the movie. And also, the ninja’s were seriously so funny. And all the scenes with Mumon and Okuni (I ship this so hard) - except the last one of course.
And finally (I’m sorry, my review is literally just all over the place), in concluding how I think the more happy light-hearted feel of the film really fit, I really liked the way the director chose to end the movie. The thing is, when they announced Tsunagu as the theme song, and then Ohno said that it would play at the end of the credits, I was already cringing. If they had followed the ending of the manga, right up until the last page, and then BOOM credits and had Tsunagu blasting, I probably would’ve just walked out of the theatre in rage due to the absolute mood whiplash you’d be getting. But no, obviously the director thought this one through.
So for those who have read the manga, the exact same thing happens. Okuni still dies. It still ends with the same “Two years later, Iga was completely destroyed by Oda, who sent in 4400 troops” and with Daizen giving his monologue about how “The blood of Iga would find itself spreading across Japan regardless of whether we destroy this province or not”, but the director added a few of his own touches to this. First of all, when Daizen gives his little schpiel about the blood of the beasts of Iga spreading across Japan, he shows this little scene of villagers walking around in Kyoto and then superimposes a scene of modern Japanese people walking in a city over them-you know, just in case you didn’t understand his message that GREEDY SOULLESS BASTARDS ARE EVERYWHERE.
But the thing is in the manga, what happens is Daizen is actually looking for Mumon, who is reported to have “left with a child”. In the manga, this child is Tetsu, and we have a final scene where Mumon tells Tetsu that he’s going to go off and sit by Okuni’s grave, like he does every day, which he has placed in a mountain LEAGUES away and the very last panel of the manga is just a shot of Mumon sitting in front of her grave with a cloth over his head, mourning. It’s sad. In the movie though, you have the same thing, Daizen looking for Mumon who is reported to have been seen walking away with a child. Except in this case, the child is a boy who you got to see earlier, when Okuni and Mumon come across ninja kids going through ninja training, and a boy called “Rat” gets injured. Okuni tries to help the kid, because she still has emotions and feels bad for him, but the kid sort of rebuffs her while Mumon explains that in Iga, that’s how thing work. Kids are brought to the province and trained to become ninja’s, or they die in the process.
In the final scene though, instead of getting a super depressing shot of Mumon mourning Okuni, you get a nice, kind of hopeful image of Mumon walking away with this kid who (hilariously) pushes him away when Mumon tries to grab his hand. It was really funny and cute, and really fit true to the tone of the movie, so I was really happy with the way it ended.
So there you have it. My review of Shinobi no Kuni. Again, I apologize for how all over the place this review probably is. If you want like… a general plot summary, I honestly just recommend you read the manga because the manga has it all.
To summarize: the movie manages to be a really fun, light-hearted, and hilarious ninja-flick that you can enjoy with the whole family, while still managing to follow the plot of the source material almost perfectly. So overall, as adaptations go I’d give it a solid 9/10. If it had kept the same tone as the manga, and had Ohno being a serious bad-ass ninja, I would’ve given it a solid 11/10
x-posted from my tumblr
I’ll be, honest, when I first saw the trailers for Shinobi no Kuni, I wasn’t that excited. Having read the manga, I was fully expecting something like the Rurouni Kenshin movies and the trailers were showing me something that leaned closer to one of Jackie Chan’s hollywood movies. Coming out of the movie though, I was actually really impressed with how well the director actually achieved this tonal shift while still incorporating all the important elements and plot points from the source material.The manga is pretty dark, very action-y and kind of tragic. It’s definitely aimed at older audiences. The movie on the other hand is a 2hr comedy-action film that is just a whole lot of FUN for all ages. Despite this though, as far as adaptations go, it was really good. Seriously, most things were pretty much lifted straight from the manga, and any changes were pretty minor (either said by a different character because the original wasn’t in the film, or took place in a different area).
To start off, right at the beginning, you already get a sense that this film and all the characters in it are going to be pretty funny and amusing. But you also get an early taste of how bad-ass Mumon is despite this. So, the movie starts of just as the manga does showing you two ninja clans fighting in a fortress. You are introduced to the two respective generals who lead the two clans, and to Heibe-the guy who will act as Mumon’s foil in this movie played by Suzuki Ryohei. You also come across Heibe’s brother, Jirobe. The Momochi clan, who are the ones attacking the fortress, are kind of getting screwed over and having no luck actually getting in, when the general sneakily goes “don’t worry, we good. I got me a back up” (I am paraphrasing of course).
Cue sand whirling everywhere and Mumon arriving into the scene, effortlessly taking people out, knocking down the gate of the fortress and then just noping out right after cause “I don’t get paid enough for this shit”. Clearly up to no good, the Momochi clan leader (which Mumon is a part of) is like “I’ll pay you 40… 50…. okay 100 zeni, if you kill this dude called Jirobe”. This entire sequence, from the second Mumon appears to the upcoming fight we see, is incredibly silly and fun. It sets the mood for both Mumon and all the Iga ninjas and how we’re ultimately meant to perceive them for the rest of the film-as a bunch of silly, greedy, bloodthirsty lunatics (who are definitely up to no good).
Lured by the extra money, Mumon jumps right back in to the fray and starts a fight with Jirobe (although Mumon doesn’t realize it’s him at first). The rest of the ninja’s suddenly call for a “kawa” (a duel between ninja’s that takes place in between two lines and doesn’t end until someone dies - their body supposedly makes up the third line to the kanji 川). Manga fans might realize this is a bit different, but it’s good because it immediately introduces us to this notion of a “kawa” and cues the viewers in that this is going to be very important later in the movie. It also gives us an even better look at Mumon’s skill and the type of character he is in this movie.
In the manga, Mumon just straight up kills Jirobe right away, no duel. When he knocks down the gate initially he allows his fellow comrades to get killed as he walks in the other direction and calls them fools. Frankly, Mumon in the manga is the way he is because he is arrogant. Mumon in the movie isn’t arrogant though - he literally just flat out doesn’t give a fuck. He can grin and laugh during fights because why does he need to worry? He doesn’t. He knows he isn’t in danger - his skill is a fact. End of story. It’s not an opinion - it’s just pure fact - Mumon is the best.
So in the movie during the kawa, he messes around with Jirobe for a bit because he doesn’t even know who the guy he’s fighting is. And then he finds out. And kills him. Boom. Done. End of story. The thing is - you could have made this a shocking moment. You could have really used to juxtapose that “guys, this movie has heavy stuff” but no, the director made a conscious choice not to move down that path. And I appreciate it. I know I originally said I wanted something like Rurouni Kenshin, but by this moment I was sold that what I was getting in this moment was just as good.
As I said, most things in the movie followed the manga pretty well - like almost word for word, scene for scene. They were missing a few key characters from the manga though, such as Tsuge (an ex-Iga ninja who now worked for Oda), Bungo and Kirube, two Iga ninja’s, one who is very blood-thirsty, and Tetsu, a young blacksmith who Mumon often hangs out with when he gets locked out of his own home with Okuni. Ultimately though, their characters weren’t missed very much. A lot of Tsuge’s parts get shifted of to Heibe, Daizen or Sakyonosuke, which was fine. Kirube and Bungo wouldn’t have fit in to the tone of the movie, at all and Tetsu… I kind of missed him, but I can see why they got rid of him.
Due to the fact that the movie was a lot more light-hearted though, a lot of the characters-particularly the Iga ninja’s and generals, gave of a very different feel than that of the manga. I’ve already mentioned a bit about how Ohno’s Mumon and the Manga!Mumon are different, but I’d like to elaborate a bit more on that, and in regards to the entirety of the Iga ninjas.
In the manga, the Iga generals are portrayed as these really skeevy, conniving, merciless, greedy…. almost-demons. Hell, one of the generals is drawn almost like a weird blobby toad monster. They are the main people whom you get your impression of Iga from. The other ninjas are just pawns, crushed under their feet. Nothing of importance. Except for Kirube and Bungo, who also show you that Iga ninja’s are absolute heartless bastards. Pretty much, while reading the manga, you don’t share an affinity for the Iga ninja’s at all. There is no warmth, no sense of camaraderie, you are not really supposed to like them. Whereas in the movie… the power of the generals is kind of pushed back, and you actually do end up liking the Iga ninja’s because they’re so damn silly and funny! (Blow dart ninja is my fave. Great comedy right there).
Yeah, you definitely get the sense that they are greedy and only care about money and nothing else, but it’s all done for jokes and laughs. As the viewer though, you still understand how ridiculous their obsession with money is-it’s completely off the charts, bordering on insanity. They really just do not care about anything except getting paid. You still get all that despite the fact that, instead of making this a really dark concept with heartless cold scheming generals, you make it funny and light-hearted and amusing. In the manga and in the movie, when all the ninja’s rally behind Mumon to fight back against the Ise army and they all come RUNNING back to Iga-in the manga it’s kind of an intense action moment, but in the movie it is hilarious. You just see ninja’s POURING out of the trees in waves with these insane grins of absolute happiness on their faces and it’s so silly. But you get the exact same thing from the manga, with a totally different tone, and it still seems completely OK! Note: a lot of the more general fight scenes were really hilarious and silly.
All of this works with the way Ohno portrayed Mumon though. Ohno’s Mumon is way more light-hearted in nature. He isn’t the black sheep of Iga. He’s not the lone wolf who all the other ninja’s hate and despise. He’s just Mumon, the quirky, super skilled ninja who can kick everyone’s ass and gets whipped around by Okuni. It fits the lighter feel of the film, and frankly, I think it’s the only thing Ohno could have pulled off. I’m not saying Ohno could not have pulled of darker, edgier, more serious Mumon of the manga-he did Maou, I know-but I don’t think Ohno would’ve wanted to and I’m not sure I would’ve enjoyed it as much either. For one, he would’ve really had to have stopped pouting so much.
With that being said, Ohno’s absolute scream of despair when Okuni dies hit me in the feels-and this is coming from a person who ALWAYS thinks screams of despair are never anything but ridiculous. It always makes me think of Anakin when Padme died, or… of Domyouji, just yelling at rage in everything cause he can’t control his emotions (sorry Jun, ilu but, honestly). But Ohno really pulled it off in a way where for once, I didn’t think it was cheesy and dumb. So props to him. At the same time, I feel like due to how light-hearted the movie is, you don’t really get a sense of Mumon’s hate towards the Iga generals until that moment either. Which is a bit of a shame. Because in the manga, the moment Mumon kills Heibe (which is actually done very quickly in the manga, but is an absolutely epic fight in the movie - omg it was so good, like, I can totally see why it took three days to film), is a huge turning point. Mumon hated killing Heibe, the death made him sick, but I didn’t really feel that same gravitas with Ohno. Sure, he returned back to Iga and killed one of the generals just as Mumon did in the manga, but it felt like it was less because of rage and more because, in classic Mumon style, he was just kind of done with all this shit.
I mean, I think that’s kind of what the director was aiming for - for Ohno’s scream to be the game-changer so Okuni’s death could have the maximum effect, but I feel like that kind of took away from Heibe’s importance as a character. In the manga, the reason Mumon has such a huge reaction to killing Heibe is because Heibe is kind of like his foil. What he feels throughout the whole manga is what Mumon ends up realizing he feels as well - is what Mumon has always wanted to feel, but forgot how to feel. Heibe’s entire character is to help Mumon realize this, but in the movie, Heibe’s character just… falls a bit flat in that regards. I mean, I was excited to see the fight because I knew it would be epic, but I kind of feel if you came in blind, the importance of Heibe’s character is kind of lost. He’s just this poor guy Ohno has to fight at the end because Ohno killed his brother, end of story. He becomes like Daizen - the guy who just keeps repeating, time and time again, that Iga ninja’s are beasts of greed and little else.
On the other hand, I’m so relieved that they relegated Nobukatsu’s “development” to the one break down scene where he’s like “DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO HAVE A FATHER LIKE ODA NOBUNAGA????” and then Daizen gives him a good whack to he face and that’s it. That’s good. Anything extra would’ve just had me rolling my eyes. And Daizen… is just Daizen. Played by Iseya Yusuke though, I felt like he had the exact correct amount of gravitas needed for that role. Also, Ishihara Satomi as Okuni was awesome. I mean, I already shipped Ohno/Satomi ever since I heard she was cast, so really, there was no way she could’ve disappointed me but I was still happy. Unfortunately, the bad-ass scene where she attempts to defend Heirakuji temple against Daizen doesn’t exist in the movie, so we don’t get to see Satomi brandishing a spear and taking on Iseya Yusuke. So sad. T-T.
But overall, I think all the actors did a great job portraying the characters in a way that matched the tone of the movie. And also, the ninja’s were seriously so funny. And all the scenes with Mumon and Okuni (I ship this so hard) - except the last one of course.
And finally (I’m sorry, my review is literally just all over the place), in concluding how I think the more happy light-hearted feel of the film really fit, I really liked the way the director chose to end the movie. The thing is, when they announced Tsunagu as the theme song, and then Ohno said that it would play at the end of the credits, I was already cringing. If they had followed the ending of the manga, right up until the last page, and then BOOM credits and had Tsunagu blasting, I probably would’ve just walked out of the theatre in rage due to the absolute mood whiplash you’d be getting. But no, obviously the director thought this one through.
So for those who have read the manga, the exact same thing happens. Okuni still dies. It still ends with the same “Two years later, Iga was completely destroyed by Oda, who sent in 4400 troops” and with Daizen giving his monologue about how “The blood of Iga would find itself spreading across Japan regardless of whether we destroy this province or not”, but the director added a few of his own touches to this. First of all, when Daizen gives his little schpiel about the blood of the beasts of Iga spreading across Japan, he shows this little scene of villagers walking around in Kyoto and then superimposes a scene of modern Japanese people walking in a city over them-you know, just in case you didn’t understand his message that GREEDY SOULLESS BASTARDS ARE EVERYWHERE.
But the thing is in the manga, what happens is Daizen is actually looking for Mumon, who is reported to have “left with a child”. In the manga, this child is Tetsu, and we have a final scene where Mumon tells Tetsu that he’s going to go off and sit by Okuni’s grave, like he does every day, which he has placed in a mountain LEAGUES away and the very last panel of the manga is just a shot of Mumon sitting in front of her grave with a cloth over his head, mourning. It’s sad. In the movie though, you have the same thing, Daizen looking for Mumon who is reported to have been seen walking away with a child. Except in this case, the child is a boy who you got to see earlier, when Okuni and Mumon come across ninja kids going through ninja training, and a boy called “Rat” gets injured. Okuni tries to help the kid, because she still has emotions and feels bad for him, but the kid sort of rebuffs her while Mumon explains that in Iga, that’s how thing work. Kids are brought to the province and trained to become ninja’s, or they die in the process.
In the final scene though, instead of getting a super depressing shot of Mumon mourning Okuni, you get a nice, kind of hopeful image of Mumon walking away with this kid who (hilariously) pushes him away when Mumon tries to grab his hand. It was really funny and cute, and really fit true to the tone of the movie, so I was really happy with the way it ended.
So there you have it. My review of Shinobi no Kuni. Again, I apologize for how all over the place this review probably is. If you want like… a general plot summary, I honestly just recommend you read the manga because the manga has it all.
To summarize: the movie manages to be a really fun, light-hearted, and hilarious ninja-flick that you can enjoy with the whole family, while still managing to follow the plot of the source material almost perfectly. So overall, as adaptations go I’d give it a solid 9/10. If it had kept the same tone as the manga, and had Ohno being a serious bad-ass ninja, I would’ve given it a solid 11/10
x-posted from my tumblr