Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen

A shameless fanservice anime has depth?...WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

No seriously though, Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen was something of a surprise for LA to how in-depth of a fanservicey anime actually has, though it still has it's downsides...but first.

Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen focuses on the "Shinovi Masters", a ninja tournament to find the "ultimate ninja" but at the same time, "youma" or monsters have been sighted at and amongst all this, Asuka and the Hanzo girls meets two people by the name of Gekkou voiced by Ayane Sakura and Senkou voiced by Akane Fujita telling them that their "justice" is wrong and captures the Hanzo ... girls as hostages for the Shinovi Masters. With that Yumi, Homura and Miyabi's group all participate to see what the Shinovi Masters is but how this links to the recent events of the youma.

Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen's depth comes into play by looking at the characters themselves or more or less the factions they represent. For being a second season, new characters comes in and due to Asuka and the Hanzo girls being held hostages allows them to be the new focus which helps this second season alot and because of that with that gives some major focus towards Yumi voiced by Yumi Hara, once rivals but now friend of Asuka as she participates in the Shinovi Masters to try and help Asuka just like Asuka did to her. The main "hosts" of Shinovi Masters gets some development being the main "villains" of this season, mainly Gekkou, Senkou and the main host and villain Fubuki voiced by Kana Asumi and how this links to the youma and her creating Shinovi Masters. The depth of Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen comes in due to how ninja's of all different beliefs and faction see to it of becoming the "ultimate ninja", from Homura's Squad being renegades, Miyabi's group following the evil ninja's and Yumi being once "rival good ninja's" with unintentionally bad beliefs turned good. However this statement only grows deeper when the true aspects of Shinovi Masters and Fubuki's true notion comes into play expanding the entire "evil or good ninja" into "what is true evil or true good?". Like what are the justifications of seeing something as evil or not or if what your doing is truly good for the sake of good and this easily manifest to not only Asuka and Yumi but to Fubuki as well. This insight with the clashing beliefs of Yumi and Fubuki's sense of justice comes into play of showing that the Lawful, Neatral and Chaotic alignments just as clear cut of being "good or evil" and Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen shows it subtly and how complex the main villain of the anime really is and heck even if our main protagonists are truly good either.

Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen however does have it's downsides as much as LA praises a shameless fanservice anime for having depth as that is not all it needs to be "great", as this is Senran Kagura it means fanservice and there is plenty of it and this being TNK means it's also uncensored to high heaven and there is ALOT of nudity, sometimes "just because", but yeah this is Senran Kagura where it is shameless but man sometimes the fanservice does get a bit taxing to say the least. Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen also falls victim to erratic pacing issues, from being either too slow to too rushed but even this has it's upsides as Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen takes it's time with it's backstory but downsides of some episodes rushing the plot as well. Finally Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen's animation quality is ALSO erratic, this done by TNK was all over the place with TNK especially shaky with it's fight scene animation resorting to panning and static battle scenes at times, even with it's more serious fight scenes, it does get a bit better in those rare occasions but in comparison to the first season done by Artland, overall the animation quality is a definite downgrade.

In terms of animation, well LA already mentioned it as TNK's animation is a downgrade compared to the defunct Artland's take on the first season. Look the animation is subpar with lots of derps and static fight scenes alot fo the time but nonetheless TNK did alright though inconsistent throughout the anime to say the least. When the animation is good it's great though rare, but when it's bad...it's barely "decently animated", character designs and backgrounds not withstanding. If there was one huge element in which the animation needed to be good, it was the animation and as barely decent the animation TNK did, it was...."ok" but that ain't saying much.

In terms of voice work, there are a couple of MVP's in this anime, with Yumi Hara as Yumi having the most focus in Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen but also and most especially Kana Asumi as Fubuki, with LA utterly surprised how playing against the type Kana Asumi does and she hams it up to a regal degree but also showing off her more dramatic moments when needed and utilizing her cadence well which LA didn't expect from Kana Asumi AT ALL, Kana Asumi quite honestly deserved being the MVP of the voice cast really. LA will give mention to Hitomi Harada as Asuka, as much as Hitomi does her usual squeaky cadence as Asuka, Hitomi gets to show a bit more of range with her acting which helped with how serious Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen actually does get especially with Asuka herself. With such a huge ensemble cast if LA went to look at every character LA will be in this section for a long time, so highlighting things would be seeing Chiwa Saito going full yuri crazy as Imu, Hisako Kanemoto doing both the shy persona but crazy as well as Murakumo and Mako as Ryona being....masochistic crazy and finally Yuu Kobayashi being Yuu Koyabashi as Katsuragi livening things up to calm the tension as the anime gets serious. LA liked this voice cast as huge as it was.

Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen near the end of the anime gives out much more character development to Fubuki and gave Fubuki, our major villain of this season, a great deal of real sympathy for her while also bringing in the major theme of this season being of the "morality of good and evil" isn't that simple and Fubuki being that manifestation for that culminating into the final fight was just damn amazing to say the least. Sure once again Yumi gets the spotlight as Fubuki is more linked to Yumi than Asuka but nonetheless seeing this focus towards Fubuki, humanizing her, showing sympathy from someone who's hatred has spilled out and wanting revenge to the people who have wronged her, LA just couldn't help but love where the direction Senran Kagura Shinobi Masters: Tokyo Youma-hen lead into.

Senran Kagura as a series might be seen as shameless fanservice of just showing tits and ass but with how Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen handled it's characters and their interactions with one another down to their moral beliefs of what true good and evil are, Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen has some great in-depth insights about morality and actually brilliantly conveyed by it's main focused-driven characters. Sure the anime is plagued by animation derps, erratic pacing but damn does the plot and yes LA means ACTUAL plot especially when it's focused on Fubuki and Yumi follows through with it's flaws and makes this second season manageable and rather interesting and ALMOST makes LA forgive it's crippling flaws.

So as much as people is in the camp of that TNK's animation was worse than the first season with Artland and LA is in the same camp, but Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen's serious plot and characters outright made this second season completely worth it with Fubuki of all characters being the most developed and centralized focus of the anime just made this second season better in soo many ways, in a ways Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen had the opposite problems as the first season did, while the first season's animation was much more polished but the anime's plot and characters were just weirdly executed, Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen on the other hand had diminished animation but it's plot and characters had much more of a narrative and thematic cohesion and focus.

Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen is oddly enough was LA's guiltiest pleasure for Fall 2018 but it almost didn't feel like a guilty pleasure as it's plot and characters were soo cohesively tied to it's themes of mortality of good and evil quite well and sure tits and ass uncensored and everything and how shameless it is front and center but you know what, that's kinda what Senran Kagura is and it managed to balance both shameless fanservice and serious plot and characters quite well, sure the plot was rushed in many ways but LA can forgive it due to it's solid character developments from both protagonists and antagonists and it's focused plot through it's thematic and narrative cohesion, LA quite honestly enjoyed Senran Kagura Shinovi Master: Tokyo Youma-hen with all it's flaws and all.

Though Asuka got screwed over excessively this season...just damn, she is the "face" of her own franchise right?.

Senran Kagura Season 2 is clearly the SUPERIOR season (To me it is a 10/10, I am basing this review on anime only and not on the games)

5 reasons why

1. The new shinobi girls from Gessen and Hebijo in Season 2 bring in a lot of better and unique girls to the anime that Season 1 never had. I found pretty girls I loved, Yumi (BEST GIRL), Murakumo, Ryoubi (CUTEST GIRL), that I didn't have before.

2. Boobs now have nipple shots which Season 1 never had. The NUDITY gave the ecchi a real upgrade! It's REALLY HOT!

3. Season 2, in addition to just tearing ... each other's shirts off, there's blood seen in the fighting when there's a cut wound that's more like a real ninja battle and the girls would sometimes mask over their face, everything is more ninja like!

4. The story in Season 2 is completely superior. If you ask me, just the first episode itself in Season 2 here was better than all of Season 1.

What happened in Season 1 was mindless ecchi ninja training and Hanzo girls battling the Homura team over pointless rivalry. Season 1 only had the Hanzo girls and Homura team and I didn't care about the majority of them except Asuka and maybe Yomi and Haruka? and furthermore both sides were basically just copies of each other.

In Season 2, Asuka turns into a much more in depth character than what she was in Season 1. Asuka changes from good to DARK for awhile after losing to a ninja ambush and her friends, Hanzo girls gets captured. (I didn't care about the Hanzo girls so glad they were locked away for half the anime.)

There's great focus to the relationship between Asuka and Yumi. In the past, Yumi and Asuka battled each other believing their ninja beliefs were correct. It wasn't until Yumi finally understood her grandfather's teachings that they became best friends who share the same ninja belief that justice is sword and shield (really interesting ninja belief by the way) until Asuka turned dark and abandoned that. Their beliefs are challenged once again as they correct each other for the true road to shinobi.

The story in Season 2 goes that the different teams of shinobi girls (Gessen, Hebijo, etc.) are invited to a tourney to compete for the winner title of Shinobi Master by the ninjas that captured the Hanzo girls. Gessen, Yumi's team would not just have to rescue the Hanzo girls, but the teams would also uncover a Youma plot. The motivation is already much better than Season 1 as the the ninjas that plotted the tourney and Youma plot also point back to Yumi's grandfather and his teachings.

5. The ecchi quality and fighting drastically improved in all ways, including the ecchi fights and the serious fights.

Season 1 made the mistake of trying to be too perverted with meh girls and repetitive boob fondling which is just not good enough. With the lack of males(aside from that old teacher that no one gives a F about) and lack of nudity and nipples, Season 1 ends up lacking stimulation, being boring and cheap ecchi. The serious fights consisted of catfights with a I'm good you're bad/I'm better than you cliché and wasn't interesting.

Season 2 was REALLY HOT because of the new girls (who I wanted to see ecchi with) and there was much more ecchiness and nudity with nipples. Even the boob fondling is awesome as there are lots more new (and frankly better) girls to check and compare. The service is great that there is no need for any male character. The ecchi fights were light-hearted and so much fun. I loved the nudity in the watergun fight! Another thing Season 2 did great throughout was show the girls in more outfits like swimsuit/schoolgirl uniform/Santa suit in addition to the Shinobi transformation. Also, Yumi and Asuka dressing up in different costumes while shopping was so cute!

The serious fights for the girls comes with a betrayal-esque shock and disbelief which makes it very interesting. Even Homura became a really interesting character when she was attacked by Dark Asuka, and we saw her use her Fire form. Yumi Ice Queen form was really awesome as she went up against Fubuki and learning who Fubuki really was. Fubuki and the Youma Rasetsu also comes with the shocking origin of shinobi/youma vengeance. This time around, the fights are real, the beliefs and ideals mean something, and enemy is solid that makes victory and defeat hold much more significance.

Final note

You can start Senran Kagura by watching this season first too no problem just because Season 1 won't ever be as good as this! There's not much background information you need to know to understand this season, only that Hanzo Girls and Team Homura are now friends since their fight in Season 1 and you can recognize the the girls in each team. Check out Season 2 even if you weren't a fan of Season 1 before, it would make a fan out of you!

(Re-post) I am a big fan of the Senran Kagura franchise, but this has to be the worst anime that I have ever seen so far this season. I will keep this simple, but here is what you need to know before watching this anime.

Story: 3/10 - The anime has no genuine plot and is confusing. The events are all over the place and can't seem to follow on what is happening. As a result, I lost interest in watching the series. Before you watch this anime, this is NOT a continuation of "Senran Kagura: Ninja Flash" but rather an adaptation of "Senran Kagura: ... Shinobi Master" a mobile game only available in Japan and events based on Peach Beach Splash. However, none of the events that happened in the anime correlated with the games. "Ninja Flash" was an original story line of its own and has nothing to do with "Shinovi Master".

Art: 1/10 - TNK did an absolutely horrible job animating this series. THE ANIMATION WAS SO BAD; IT MADE ME CRY. In the first episode, you see nothing but screenshots for the first minute of the show. This also happens through out the remainder of the series. It's like the animators were too cheap and lazy to animate every detail. The animation is very inconsistent and the character designs are just so bland compared to the previous season. It's seems like they wanted to put more money in the fan-service rather than the quality of the animation. ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC!

Sound: 3/10 - The opening was not very interesting. I found it boring and it reminded me of the opening from Rosario + Vampire. A good opening should get people hyped and encourage people to watch the series. That's why the previous season was so much better and epic.

Character: 3/10 - There is no formal introduction to the characters. Asuka is with this new character Yumi. Along with the other characters, you are confused and wonder who these characters are. Some of the characters had interesting personalities while some were just mediocre. Just not much development at all.

Enjoyment: 3/10 - The only thing decent were the fight scenes, but they were not that great. The opening and endings were boring and didn't excite me much. The fan service was descent but it went out of hand. As a result, It made me not want to take the show seriously.

Overall: 1/10 - Absolutely poor and cheaply animated series for the Senran Kagura franchise. Deeply disappointed with everything.

Do yourself a favor. Don't watch this garbage. If you really want to enjoy the Senran Kagura series, I suggest just sticking to the video games instead. The anime is nothing but an advertisement for the games. If you want to watch something good, check out the bunny girl anime that is currently airing.