FIF#126-Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls

Ten years have passed since the war between the Koga and Iga clans ended.  An uneasy truce has been reached but tensions between the two eternal rivals remain as high as ever.  As both clans look to two new heirs and their budding romance as a way to end the hostilities forever, a new challenge and a new darkness threaten to begin the battle anew.  A new generation of Ninja take center stage, each armed with their own mysterious powers and talents, and the deathmatch once thought concluded 10 years ago, stands poised to tear both sides apart for good.

How do you do a sequel to Romeo and Juliet?  I mean…theoretically you could look at what became of their two families in the wake of Romeo and Juliet’s tragic demise.  Otherwise, it’s a timeless tale that is best left alone, a flawless masterpiece.  So, ahem, why the heck would you even try to do that with Basilisk?  I knew of The Ouka Ninja Scrolls sequel as I was doing my recent watch through and was wondering how a follow up could be done.  The answer from the first episode is…it’s not a good idea.

For starters, whoever is animating The Okua Ninja Scrolls, they need to make it look…well better.  The first season was one of Studio Gonzo’s best looking titles.  Not that ONS looks half assed but it doesn’t look nearly as good.  It also has an annoying tendendcy to suddenly slip into still frame for dramatic or pointless effect.  It’s weird.  Not getting the better end of this deal are the character designs.  Naturally, many of the characters in this follow up are the next generation of the Koga and Iga clans.  Which means a lot of them are on the young side.  Not only do most of them look the same, their designs are kind of boring.  This goes double for new series leads Hibiki and Hachiro, who look like poor mans copys of Oboro and Gennosuke.  I don’t like the look of this show, that’s an immediate turn of factor.

I also cant tell what the story is going to be from the premiere.  We get a “team deathmatch” demonstration of the new kids on the Iga and Koga block but it feels barely as epic as Yashimaru and Kazemachi’s duel before the Shogun in Season One.  There’s some crazed upper echelon kid who is so desperate to reach his dying mother that those pesky still frames love his dramatic deliveries and he’ll risk his life and that of his men to cross a raging river during a storm.  And there’s some mysterious new force trying to do…something.  Point is, there’s a stark difference between the hit the ground running beginning of the first series and the…whatever approach ONS is taking.  There’s just too much on the table and no one knows what to do with it…and honestly I wouldn’t even try.

I was wondering about giving this series a try in 2021 and purposefully placed this First Impression right after I finished the first Basilisk series.  Now, after watching the first episode, I am not sure I wanna go near this one.  Even if they don’t recycle the Romeo and Juliet plotline, the new characters are nothing to brag about, the animation isn’t the best and…seriously why do you need a sequel to Romeo and Juliet with Ninjas?  Just watch Basilisk again…anyway, moving on.