Kage Kara Mamoru

[gia]

Review through episode 5, no spoilers.  Originally posted on my blog.

Grade to date: B-

The reason that I gave this show a B- is because I can't stop watching it, in spite of the fact that I have no good reason for it. It's a cute show, but very old-school in style and with almost nothing special about it.

The members of the Kagemori family have been protecting members of the Konyaku family for 400 years. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, the Konyaku family ceased to be aware of this, so the Kagemori family live double lives-- one as normal people, one as ninjas protecting their designated Konyaku family member.      

Kagemori Mamoru is, as most people know him, a slouching doofy kind of guy who wears those weird giant glasses (you know, the ones with spirals on them?). Of course, underneath the dorky schoolboy attire, Mamoru is actually an accomplished (and, in theory, cool-looking) ninja.

Unfortunately, his charge is cute but moronic, lazy-eyed Yuna (does Mamoru drug her or something to keep her calm? Yeesh). Seriously, they're in the Japanese equivalent of high school, and the girl still counts on her fingers-- and when she runs out of fingers, she looks to Mamoru for help. Eep.

Being the dumb-butt that she is, she gets into dumb-butt trouble all the time, like accidentally using the men's restroom and stumbling upon a mafia scheme as the result. At which time, of course, Mamoru trades his school attire for ninja gear and helps her out.

Oh yeah, and the big secret-that's-not-a-secret is that Yuna has a crush on Mamoru, who in spite of all of his ninja-honed instincts is apparently clueless on that one.

The show is brand-new, but the animation looks like a higher-quality version of stuff done in the 80s. The plot is standard ninja/romantic comedy fare, the characters are all classic archetypes, and except for the occasional joke that actually makes me bark out a laugh-- Yuna's "banana" song, for example --the humor's pretty blah.

So why can't I stop watching this show? Don't ask me. Maybe I'm a sucker for cute romance or tales of undying loyalty or something. And if you're into that kind of thing too-- or just like your anime of an older flavor --you might enjoy this one too.

Also: I've been watching the OOM subs, because they come out first, but their English grammar is pretty terrible. I don't know who else is good though. =)

[Shuten]

Switch to 'Scramble!'. They're far better than OOM. It's the version that I collect.


Sincerely,
Shuten