[Shin Henshin]

So a friend and I have been rewatching some toku in order from Decade/Shinkenger's SHT run to present. Right now we just finished Ninninger.

I remember watching Ninninger when it was airing and very much not liking it. So on this second watch I was unsurprised by the fact that I still didn't like it at all...

Dunno what happened with this series. Solid suits. Ninja theme is fairly fool-proof. The family clan angle was great considering the last familial Sentai we had before that was Magiranger. Creative mech designs. But it just...exists. It's not unwatchable, but it's not good either.

The main team outside of Kinji is extremely one-note, boring or irritating. The Kibaoni clan are extremely boring villains with Kyuuemon being the only exception, even if his backstory is extremely messy. The way the series tells its story relies so heavily on the same tropes and ideas along with multiple cameos from characters you'd rather follow over the actual Sentai itself. It's just a slog.

What I will give it is its action scenes, especially the really involved ones. One of the final battles in particular was just extremely well done and visually engaging. But outside of that? Such a downgrade that follows up an extremely solid entry with ToQger and precedes a really fun series with a fantastic red ranger in Jyuohger. Thankfully I don't think any series since has hit lows that low since.