Episode Air Date
03-07-2025
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Ninja Kamui, Episode 11, now streaming onMax.
There are plenty of stories that compel viewers to return week-by-week because surely the payoff will be worth a few mediocre episodes, but very few can truly live up to that optimism. Be it from bad scheduling or budget limitations,Ninja Kamuihas struggled to meet its potential, and yet this penultimate episode feels like everything this show was always supposed to be.
Episode 10 offered the long-foreshadowed backstory for Zai, the man to whom Higan and Mari were his only friends, and who stayed behind after they became exiles, leaving him alone. It culminated in a decent CGI fight for once, before the series seemed to cast aside the Gusoku Gears entirely, hyping up a battle between ninjas for once in this supposedly ninja-centric show.
The Best Episode of the Series
Sometimes an episode is so uniquely high-quality compared to the ones surrounding it that one could swear it was created independently ofthe rest of the show (i.e. Fate/Apocrypha). In that same vein, Episode 11 feels like the center around which this entire story was built to support, not just in terms of action, but narrative punch as well. There is no opening sequence this week, nor an ending - just credits over an episode making use of every second of the runtime.
Even if someone watched this episode in isolation, without having digested the rest, the storytelling does a good job of garnering investment in this rivalry. It begins with a flashback to the moment Higan, Mari, and Zai discuss the forthcoming orders to kill the exiles. Zai thinks nothing of these orders and will carry them out as instructed, not yet aware that, soon enough, his two friends will be labeled exiles as well.
The Unspoken Cost of Higan and Mari’s Exile
But that was just the foundation.What’s built on top of this throughout the fightis what makes it so exciting. Up to this point, it seemed like Zai was angry because he was left behind, but the truth was much more depressing, and hidden in plain sight all along. Beneath his mask - that he’s worn this entire time - lies a scarred face, branded for the crime of not stopping Higan and Mari when they left.
Their exile didn’t just leave him alone, it left him at the mercy of the ninja code that gave him a reason to live, yet would now punish him for his inability to kill his friends. It’s a monumental revelation that makes it hard not to feel for Zai and empathize with his anger. In turn, it’s one of the few times when Higan feels evenly matched and vulnerable,which brings a lot more emotion outof the performances.
It harkens back to the previous episode, when Mari said they needed to fight to see who was right, and as clunky and dumb as that line felt then, the premise itself works shockingly well here. Higan has to fight harder than ever to express to Zai that the code is poisonous and that the clan is their true enemy. These intense emotions they share are conveyed brilliantly through every punch, slash, and secret art dispensed throughout the battle.
A True Sunghoo Park Spectacle (But at What Cost?)
Sunghoo Park’s style of hand-to-hand combat works well because it’s not just fast and flashy, but carries a unique sense of weight to it, suggestive of the combatant’s emotions. The way the camera shakes, the subtle pauses in between strikes, or the way characters recoil after taking a hit, all add a sense of realism to even the most superhuman fights. It’s this quality that contributes tothe charm ofJujutsu Kaisen’s action- both before and after Park’s departure.
Here, Park’s prowess and flexibility as a director breathe life into an action scene that might have otherwise lacked such emotion. It starts with a flurry of martial arts, escalates to an all-out display of superhuman ability, and then ends with a slower, gritter exchange of blows. Some things, like the first-person POV shots, might be a bit overambitious, but that ambition is exactly whatNinja Kamuineeded more of.
What Took This Show So Long?
It really does feel like the show shot itself in the footby introducing the Gusoku Gears, and not just because of how it changes the visual style. For a show presumably centered around ninjas, their way of fighting, and their secret techniques, these aspects feel like an afterthought. This is a criticism repeated a few times in weeks past, but it feels more relevant than ever after seeing just how good this show can be when it commits to the bit.
This is the penultimate episode and only now has Higan’s secret art been revealed. Named “Serenity,” it heightens his senses to their peak for a short time, allowing him to counter Zai’s secret art, “Thunderclap,” which lets him move at the speed of light. These abilities are cool, and they look powerful - almost powerful enough that they might have come in handy before, but that would have meant that they couldn’t have been revealed in this episode.
It’s hard to determine what’s worse:Ninja Kamuiinadvertentlyeclipsing its scope by adding mech suits, or the show intentionally doing so for the sake of making one fight a bit cooler. There could have been so many cooler fights against ninjas with unique secret arts to challenge Higan. Instead, half of this series has not felt like a show about ninjas at all. They are ninjas in name only.
On A Positive Note…
For what it’s worth, this episode was - despite everything said above - fun. The fight was incredible and the story it told was emotionally engaging. Zai wasn’t the most interesting character in the beginning, but he came around and filledthe “interesting character” void left by Emma, and his antagonism even helped Higan to be a more engaging protagonist with something to prove.
As for the rest of the episode beyond the big fight, things were similarly positive. Joseph’s attempt to cut Yamaji out of the game backfired in a big way, leading to an all-out ninja assault on Auza. Dilly even showed up to protect Joseph, which would have been cooler if she was an actual character and if her feelings about her boss had time to be explored. Maybe next week, if there’s time, that is.
The trouble with an episode this good is that it highlightsthe flaws of previous episodesthat may have very well driven away those who would have liked it.Ninja Kamuican’t undo the mixed bag that was its midsection, but if the finale is even half as good as this one, then perhaps the optimism about this series will have been worth it.
Ninja Kamui
Ninja Kamui is a Japanese television series that aired in 1967. The show follows the story of Kamui, a rogue ninja who escapes from the Iga clan and vows to fight against the oppressive Tokugawa shogunate regime in feudal Japan.
