This is... this is... ICLA, why did you do this?
...Okay, let's take it from the top. ICLA is an anime studio that is primarily known for doing Yami Shibai. A little horror series where a creepy masked story teller guy just tells spooky stories.
/anime/19383/yamishibai-japanese-ghost-stories /anime/20669/yamishibai-japanese-ghost-stories-2 /anime/21473/yamishibai-japanese-ghost-stories-3 /anime/97890/yamishibai-japanese-ghost-stories-4 /anime/98978/yamishibai-japanese-ghost-stories-5 /anime/101743/yamishibai-japanese-ghost-stories-6 /anime/109603/yamishibai-japanese-ghost-stories-7
And you know whether or not you think they're good or not, they're spooky stories! There are ghosts, there are ghouls, there are occasionally scares...
But ICLA has also done some... weird stuff as well. Like the show about a talking anthropomorphic fart man.
/anime/21812/onara-gorou
Or like a sci-fi version of basically Yami Shibai but then at some point for some reason they did a live-action episode about a spooky clown invading some woman's home.
/anime/98442/the-world-yamizukan
Ninja Collection... in my opinion falls into the ICLA's weird category. Maybe it's not quite as weird as the fart show or Sekai no Yami Zukan but...
It's pretty fucking weird to just out of nowhere do a Yami Shibai season but rather than it being the classic Yami Shibai storyteller schtick, there's just... ninjas.
Ninjas that literally attack and kill ghosts and demons. So rather than episodes being lead ups to some big old jumpscare or a character being BOO'D at by a ghost...
The ghost or demon, I don't know what they're actually supposed to be in this show ~~(he says when multiple characters' skin suddenly turns red and also they grow horns)~~, just suddenly appears and like mere seconds later they get stabbed by one of the ninjas and it dies.
I already thought a lot of Yami Shibai episodes ended really just anticlimatically. They treat the scare as like the most important thing, but no, the character's reaction is the most important thing. You don't get that. Usually, it's immediately the story teller saying "OSHIMAI" and that's the end.
Did the ghost murder the character? Did they drag them off into the darkness? You'll never know because it doesn't matter, all that matters is the scare.
But god damn it, now they're even ruining the scares. It's so lame. Can't the ninja at least fight the gho--oh my god.
...My self that had not witnessed ICLA’s version of an action scene has died. There’s no going back anymore. What could be seen shall never be unseen. There’s really no way I can say this without sounding insulting but when your series’ idea of a new scene is the exact same drawing except one character is missing… there’s no new angle, they’re not posed differently, the facial expressions are basically the same… and then when the other characters comes back, you use that drawing AGAIN…
~~okay they did at least alter the background at the end but still that's just never going to look right to my brain no matter how many seasons of ICLA shows I watch~~
...maybe you shouldn’t try an action scene. Like what the hell is even happening in that gif? Those movements are happening like right in front of the girl’s face and they’re so small. Like is it supposed to be the guy’s sword and the demon’s claws (???) or did they shrink or what?
I guess it doesn’t matter if you can’t tell what’s happening. All that matters is that rule number one about ninjas? They always win against demons and ghosts. ~~Except for the times they don’t.~~
...And that's another thing. You think the ninjas are going to get some sort of characterization or something. There's four unique ninja characters, right? And you think oh okay, so these are our characters who are gonna beating the ghosts and demons throughout the series, right? Wrong. There are also just generic ninjas that show up and it very quickly becomes obvious that trying to differentiate from the main (?) ones is a futile effort.
They don't even get names. We don't get any information about this group of ninjas that have apparently been fighting against the demon and ghost scourge for a long time... we get nothing.
And as for the ghosts and demons... again, this is like the most pathetic attempt I think ICLA's ever made. Like we typically get a character and oh no they end up alone in a room and they just immediately become terrified because they are alone in a room and oh fuck no shit fuck the WINDOW WASHER GUY WAS A RED DEMON THIS WHOLE TIME FUCK
And then usually the demon gets stabbed. And that's the end of the episode.
What was I supposed to get out of that? Was I supposed to be scared? Was I supposed to go oh those ninjas sure are cool wow? And then there's literally three episodes where they do the thing where the character we're focusing on the whole time actually ends up being a demon ghost even though there was absolutely no hints of that and the character themselves were acting completely like a human.
One of which was literally there because they thought a barber was a demon ghost who hurt or messed with her friend but instead the concerned friend herself was actually the demon ghost ooooooooooo didn't see that coming!!!
...Fuck this.
#Conclusion#
You know, considering how I've negatively reviewed Yami Shibai multiple times, it may seem like I came into this new show ready just to not give it a chance. But I am in no way against ICLA trying something different out. To shake things up! But what I was handed was essentially just yet another season of Yami Shibai but without the thing I probably like the absolute most about Yami Shibai.
I give ICLA's Ninja Collection a 2 out of 10. And I do not recommend it. Got absolutely nothing out of it. Honestly legitimately got more out of their show that's literally just about a fart.
