[Fish Sandwich]

Ninnin Rewatch! 19 + 20

This one is pretty distinctly a two-parter so I'm just gonna talk about it as one thing. Also the whole "keep it short" philosophy didn't exactly work out here (more so than usual I mean), but there was a lot to talk about with these ones.

These episodes are great. When I call Ninninger character-driven it's because of stuff like this. There may not be much mystery or intrigue to the plot, but the development of the cast is paced out really well in my opinion. The villains are always getting more threatening and that means the Ninningers are always growing to face the challenge, in a way that goes far beyond the show simply handing them new toys every couple of months.

In this case, the Ninningers meet a mysterious guy who kicks the crap out of them in a fight in about a minute, instantly noticing and exploiting each of their individual flaws. It's really character-building to see the team get completely embarrassed like that.

Takaharu is actually at the center of this one in terms of growth, being forced to actually stop and think for a second, observing the other Ninningers fighting without him. He notices all the same flaws, and has a personal revelation about how the reason they're such a good team is because they bring out the best in one another. These episodes really mark the turning point for Takaharu, getting him into the groove of being surprisingly clever and observant for how dumb he is, and also making it a point that his bottomless energy and morale are a good influence on the rest of the team.

Yoshitaka also takes a big step in his own arc, finally accepting Starninger as a student after the Ninningers gain Lion Ha-Oh's help in a way he never would've thought of, the first big instance of the students surpassing the master, which will be a very important recurring theme from here on out. Yoshitaka was a character who sort of rubbed me the wrong way at first but what didn't become clear to me until toward the end is that his arrogance is a very deliberate character flaw he gradually gets over. You can see he has trouble admitting he's wrong about anything by the way he phrases his dialogue at the end, but the fact that he admits it at all is a big sign he's starting to loosen up a bit.