天下制覇

Say "buddy" one more time. I dare you.

Impressions:

If this was a western-produced show, I'd be rolling my eyes quite a bit at how racist it was towards Japan. Not that a Japanese production can't be racist against themselves. They certainly didn't miss a single chance to go "Japanese people are so weird," while all the 'normal' English people gawk at them. I kind of suspect that it's because the episode was super light on… well… anything. It was concerned with nothing but the origin story for the ninja girl and driving into the goddamned ground that she's Japanese, and Japanese people are sooooo not English people. I'm not sure whether or not it was better than them squabbling over a team name.

It was certainly, and thankfully, a more action oriented episode though, especially compared to last week. That might've been a mixed bag though, as there were quite a few moments where the animation… uh… failed, and a few more where they were just like "screw it, put up a splash of blood and call it a day." There was far more good than bad on that front, but the antagonist and story never really ascended past "grumpy-looking dude." It was painfully obvious he was her brother/father/teacher/something from the immediate get-go, so it's nice they didn't dwell on that excessively (the second of that list, for the record), but they still could've done something to make the fight a little more climactic. The episode really should've ended at the grave too, but we had to get in one more dig at those wacky Japanese, as well as toss in some friendship nonsense apropos of nothing.