It started off better than it’s going.
Summary:
- Ninja Kamui had a very promising start.
- Both the story and the animation quality deteriorated over time.
- The series wasn’t marketed properly and was overshadowed by other anime.
Ninja Kamui is an original sci-fi action series by E&H Production that started airing last season, in February 2024. It began as a new take on John Wick, since the main protagonist had his entire family killed by his former ninja colleagues.
A Start That Promised a Lot
When Ninja Kamui started airing, it was exciting. There was hardly anyone who didn’t praise the series for its spectacular animation. Episode 1 was quickly labeled as one of the best anime opening episodes with how stunning it looked and how interesting it was.
Even the premise that included an overused revenge theme didn’t put the viewers off. Ninja Kamui had some surprises, too, so fans were confident: this anime would become a major hit. But it never happened.
Both Story and Visuals Got Worse
Ninja Kamui failed to work wonders with the story, and got disappointing somewhere in the middle. The turning point was when the series decided to go full mecha, and viewers admit that it wasn’t as enjoyable as before after that.
The anime was mostly praised for its phenomenal animation back when it first came out, but this aspect also got worse over time. The quality of the animation started to decline after a couple of episodes, and CGI fights became a major issue.
The action that was so great previously began to be lacking, and viewers’ interest was on decline. They weren’t happy with both the route the story had taken and the visual aspects of it, so they naturally started dropping the series.
Too Much Competition and Lack of Marketing
Ninja Kamui is an original anime, and it’s always harder to attract new fans than providing an adaptation of a manga that already has a pretty big fandom. Moreover, it’s not streamed on any of the popular services such as Netflix or Crunchyroll, which made it challenging to even watch it.
Also, there have been a lot of outstandingly popular series in the last few seasons, and Ninja Kamui couldn’t stand the comparison. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, The Apothecary Diaries, Solo Leveling ― all these anime pulled all the attention, making other new series fade.
On top of that, Ninja Kamui wasn’t properly marketed, so it was really easy to miss the release. A lot of people were just lucky enough to stumble upon it instead of patiently waiting for it for months.