Set in a mystical, anachronistic, pseudo-Japan with an art style influenced by anime and manga that exploded in popularity during the late 90s to early 2000s in the USA, Nakio thrives amid a lush and vibrant world full of bright colors and motion in almost every panel. Be it through the use of characters or scenery, Ninja Boy is a world full of motion portrayed through the use of multiple panels, afterimages in a panel, irregular panel sizes, and key movements flowing from one panel to the next to imply motion. These panel techniques also portray Nakio as a very creative and dynamic ninja akin to Spider-Man. Be it in his imagination or reality, Nakio is quick-witted and adept in his skills in order to face any opponent with or without weapons, or even maneuver around them and the environment. In the first issue alone this is displayed repeatedly by how Nakio tries to outsmart and defeat his two elder brothers in a training session, or quietly move from rooftop to rooftop during his mission, or later on, fleeing across the countryside for hours on end.
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| Animated still life |
Yet by issue three the rest of the miniseries leaves the impression
of a filler arc. Nakio’s need for revenge after Mikaboshi’s counterattack is
redirected into a meaningless quest. Under the looming threat of Mikaboshi,
Nakio is to seek out a mountain-sized mantis god who then tells him to seek out
a wizard with no reasonable explanation as to why he should or how it ties to
defeating Mikaboshi. And tagging along is the annoying, loud, drunken,
foul-mouth, furball-hamster-looking-spirit-thing, Sake who does nothing more
than yell and attempts to be perpetually drunk throughout the miniseries. Nakio
is further inexplicably joined by a grey-skinned, dwarf-goblin-looking thief
named Rack-Lo and a forest fairy named Kura, yet both add nothing character-wise
or story-wise to the miniseries.
The action and momentum that had been built by the first two
issues begin to dissipate. A canyon city of hip-hop drawf-goblin-people, a
forest of brawling kappa-monkeys, and Mikaboshi’s murderous, superpowered
assassins catching up to Nakio for a brutal showdown. Throughout this time,
nothing is explained of Nakio’s quest or how it benefits him. The questions he
pose to himself in the first issue, of a ninja having to kill and if he himself
is capable of killing a man is never brought up again or much of anything else
about him either. Until the final issue, Nakio’s pervious fights with the
canyon city dwellers and kappa-monkeys are meaningless and uninteresting. Much
of this is due to the lacking portrayal of motivations and goals in the fights
or their combatants. The fights happen just because while actions in panels are
unclear or are snapshots of movements at various times rather than tracking an
ongoing motion.
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| Actions become more motionless and one panel as the miniseries progresses |
And the lack of motion sadly carries over into the final
fight in the last issue as tension has been re-injected into the story. With
Mikaboshi’s assassins out for blood, the brawl has clear stakes and goals as
Nakio’s party tries to keep themselves alive while being outmatched. Yet the
choreography to sell this scene is bogged down to static images, as if the
techniques used in the first two issues that made the action feel so dynamic
were tossed aside or used sparingly. Along with the abrupt ending of the book,
it leaves to ponder Ninja Boy’s
production. If it was rushed due to an intended six-issue limit, if it was
originally ongoing but cancelled, if one of the book’s headliners lost
interest, fell apart from creative differences, or what-have-you.
I’ve yet to find any backstory or behind the scene
information on the book myself, especially with its abrupt conclusion open to interpretation.
Martial Artsy Arrow of Wisdom:
"Remember, a Mugen Ninja's skills are heightened by moving with the environment, not within it."
—grandfather to his grandsons
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