Shinobi no Ittoki (2022)

[忍の一時]

Director: Shuu Watanabe
Studio: Troyca
Starring: Ryota Osaka, Katsuyuki Konishi, Haruka Shiraishi
Episodes: 12

Synopsis:
A high schooler discovers that he is the heir to the ancient Iga Clan as he gets caught up in the feud with the rival Koga Clan.

Impressions:
It seems that every season I have to indulge in a little masochism by sticking with at least one series I utterly despise. Just thinking of the OP makes me angry as I can see the eponymous Ittoki with his big stupid smile and I have to exert all my willpower to not punch the screen. I actually came into this thinking it might be something halfway decent. When I saw the trailer, the premise seemed neat enough with a mostly ordinary high schooler getting dragged into a world of scifi ninja and I've enjoyed other works by Studio Troyca. The character designs aren't bad and there's some nice casting, so what's the problem? The problem is that the writing is atrocious and the main character is insufferable. Okay. I can accept that his mom raised him half-preparing him in secret and half-trying to set up an alternative choice. I can understand him being reluctant to accept the world of ninja and opposing their cloak-and-dagger ways. I can understand there being no time to train him before he gets sent off to ninja school because they need him to be under the school's sanctuary before the Koga assassins can bump him off, but he continues to be spineless, worthless and stupid for most of the series, improving slightly at the end but still being more of a disappointment than anything else. His best moment is in the first episode when he avoids getting isekaied by Truck-kun, and I'm sure whatever world he would've been sent to would send his gymnastics instructor a muffin basket to thank him for giving Ittoki just enough skill that he doesn't plague them with his presence. The whole ninja school part—which you might think would be the focus to whip our miserable bean sprout into shape—was almost entirely pointless besides being a reprieve in the clan war and, besides Tokisada, there wasn't a single character I liked without any reservations. Each episode was pain piled upon pain. Unlike something like Gibiate, there's technical competence to offset the garbage-tier writing, but at least Gibiate was so bad it was funny. This show can't even manage that. There's nothing to be gained from seeing this except an ulcer, perhaps. Pass on this and spare yourself the pain.

Rating:
Avoid It