History Manga / NininGaShinobuden

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[[caption-width-right:350:Yes, that's a ninja crocodile.]]

->''"I'm Shinobu, and my feelings are always twirling around!"''
-->-- '''Shinobu'''

->''"GABORAAAAAA!!!!"''
-->-- '''Onsokomaru'''

''Ninin ga Shinobuden'' [[note]] (literal translation: ''2×2=Shinobu Tale'')[[/note]], known outside Japan as ''Ninja Nonsense: The Legend of Shinobu'', is a manga series by Ryōichi Koga that ran in Dengeki Daioh from 2002 to 2006. Its story, [[WidgetSeries such as it is]], can best be described with that word "Nonsense" in the international title, being one of the purest examples of rapid-fire parody and insanity since ''Anime/ExcelSaga''.

Kaede is a [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent normal schoolgirl]] struggling with her studies at home. The last thing she wanted was an interruption in her studies. However, when that interruption takes the form of Shinobu, a pink-and-purple-clad buxom ninja apprentice trying to pass her own tests, interruption takes on a surreal new meaning.

Despite misgivings, Kaede decides to help the innocent, somewhat [[TheDitz ditzy]] Shinobu to pass her test, and eventually befriends her. Shinobu introduces her to the mysteries of living as a ninja. Mysteries like her classmates, who all resemble the love children of Sho Kosugi and a Jawa. Or their leader, Onsokumaru, who appears to be nothing less than the Walmart happy face after moving to Japan and taking up the role of martial arts master / [[DirtyOldMan pervert]].

One starts to wonder if the real mystery is how Shinobu remained as innocent as she is, while living in the frat boy atmosphere of the ninja mansion…

The antics only get weirder from there. But, when a series closes not just with ninja, but ''line-dancing puppet'' ninja high-kicking in stop motion while their master flies around with panties on his head to a disturbingly catchy banjo riff, you know you're not in for philosophy.

The series got a TwelveEpisodeAnime adaptation in 2004 featuring a cast of some of Japan's most popular voice actors. It was licensed for North America by Creator/NozomiEntertainment[[labelnote:*]] (in those days simply the undifferentiated licensing arm of anime vendor The Right Stuf International)[[/labelnote]] and given a high-quality comedic dub courtesy of Creator/MichaelSinterniklaas's Creator/NYAVPost studio. Nozomi continues to hold the home video rights to this day, but broadcast rights have shifted over the years, first to Creator/ADVFilms' Anime Network and then to Creator/{{Funimation}} and Hulu. The original manga was briefly licensed and translated into English but cancelled partway through and is long out-of-print.

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!!''Ninin ga Shinobuden'' provides examples of:

* OneHundredEight: The number of outs Onsakumaru gets in the baseball episode, thanks to him multiplying the balls and Miyabe catching all of them with magical baseball mitts
* ActionHoggingOpening: Just the [[BaitAndSwitchCredits battle against the "Dark Shinobu"]] in the opening contains more action than any episode.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Shinobu is not ambiguous in the least; she has a massive crush on Kaede and occasionally refers to her as her "more than friend but less than lover". Kaede, on the other hand, is more ambiguous, flipping through being freaked about Shinobu's crush to being ''very'' protective and supportive of Shinobu.
* ArtShift: Several times, especially during the fanservice heavy scenes, the flashbacks, the parodies, and oh yeah, the ending, which is [[EarWorm an extremely catchy]] claymation scene.
* AttentionDeficitOohShiny: Kitty! [-Shinobu's being distracted by a cat during her exam actually sets the story in motion.-]
* BaitAndSwitchCredits: Lampshaded. The opening theme features what looks like Shinobu fighting a dark version of herself, which never happens in the show proper, much to the surprise and consternation of the characters. WordOfGod says that the battle with "Dark Shinobu" was actually storyboarded, but they ran out of episodes and budget to do it. Of course, these are the same people who wanted the opening credits sequence to have ''three thousand cels''. [[note]]This would mean to askew the usual 24 frames per second seen in animation in favor of an average of at around 33 frames. And all of them unique. No animation production company on the planet would attempt something like that outside ''maybe'' an experimental short film due to the immense time and expense of such a task. ''Especially'' in traditional hand-drawn animation. Also note that an ''entire episode'' of this show rarely, if ever, has three thousand unique cels.[[/note]]
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Kaede, the only person in the series who never had any sort of fighting training (regardless of competence), delivers one ''hell'' of an asskicking to Onsokumaru in Episode 3 when she thinks he kicked Shinobu out of the ninja school.
* BishieSparkle and LoveBubbles: Shinobu sees these when thinking about Kaede, which is a lot.
* BlatantLies: Onsokumaru's claims that he's a hawk, or anything remotely competent. Shinobu buys it.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Frequently. It's rare that this show ''has'' a fourth wall, at least whenever Onsokumaru and the Sasukes are around.
** Kaede gets one early on after the ninja clan decide not to kill her:
--->''"That's good. It's only the first episode; I'd hate to die so soon."''
** The opening credits feature Kaede chucking Onsokumaru into the camera.
* CerebusSyndrome: The last episode is an epic LampshadeHanging of this.
* CharacterFocus: Onsokumaru hogs the spotlight so much, most of the comedy situations revolve around him, and one begins to wonder what all that exposition with Shinobu trying to become a real ninja was about!
** The second-to-last episode parodies this to a certain extent with an episode focusing on Sasuke, one of the random ninjas (albeit the one Onsakumaru addresses by name the most)
* ChristmasEpisode: One of the funniest of the lot, actually. K-A-E-D-E! K-A-E-D-E!
* CovertPervert: Shinobu, who barely conceals the less-than-innocent thoughts she has about Kaede. Onsokumaru, on the other hand, is a very [[AvertedTrope OVERT pervert]].
* TheDitz: Shinobu, who might even be considered a GeniusDitz at ninjitsu… at least compared to the ''rest'' of her clan.
** On the other hand, the rest of them are all aware that Onsokumaru is the Headmaster (to the extent that they think his "secret" is something else), whereas Shinobu is unable to see through his PaperThinDisguise, even when he finally does tell her he's the headmaster.
* DumbIsGood: Again, Shinobu.
* {{Ecchi}}: It's hard to tell if this show's doing it straight, subverting it, or both.
* [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Perveted Otaku Ninja Have Standards]]: The ninjas tend to object to, but ultimately go along with, Onsokumaru's antics. But when he pretended to be sick to get Shinobu to bathe with him, they ''all'' stepped in and took over for her.
** The time when Onsokomaru (again) tries to [[NoYay get Miyabi-chan to undress]].
** How much of a jerk do you have to be that you even get banished from hell? Well, Onsokumaru found a way.
* EvenTheGirlsWantHer: After Shinobu gives Kaede Valentine's Day chocolates, she wonders why she's so popular with other girls. (She also received a ton of other chocolates from her female classmates.)
* EvilWeapon: Parodied to the hilt in an episode where Shinobu opens a box of supposedly cursed objects – the first object is a samurai sword that possesses its holder and makes them attack people, but the blade turns out to be made of jelly. Further [[ArtifactOfDoom evil objects]] emerge, getting steadily more ridiculous (a steering wheel that causes its holder to pretend they are a car, an afro wig that causes its wearer to disco dance, etc.), until the characters realize they misread the label on the box and the curses were all in their minds.
* ExpressiveMask: Shinobu and Miyabi's headbands have smiley-faces that match their mood.
* FacelessMasses: The ninjas are pretty stereotypical, so we never know what they look like under their masks. Even the only one who gets a name (Sasuke) gets nothing else to stand out - except more screen time.
* FanDisservice: Onsokumaru's muscle-man form is creeeepy.
** Not to mention when the Sasukes start taking their clothes off…
* {{Fanservice}}: Shinobu and Kaede are both very curvy and the anime loves to draw attention to it. Of course, it's also {{Lampshaded}} to the hilt.
* FeigningIntelligence: Onsokumaru
* FestivalEpisode: Complete with a (long) Ondo number at the end.
* FluffyTheTerrible: Shinobu names her giant, mobile, carnivorous plant monster Pochinosuke (for the non-Japanese, that's "Spot" with an archaic name ending tacked on). Of course, she is the only one who can keep it from wreaking havoc.
* FootnoteFever: The English manga has so many footnotes that it makes one wonder why it was even translated. The first volume has almost half as many footnotes (63) as there are pages (148)and half of the footnotes go on for a full three sentences, sometimes telling us about things you could already guess if you've ever heard of the subject. Worse is that they pop up every two of three pages throughout the entire thing.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In episode 4, a world map is shown and two places, one in the New Hebrides (now known as Vanuatu) and the other in Australia, are marked out. Both are named "[[InherentlyFunnyWords Eromanga]]". Interestingly, they really exist in real life, though the former is more commonly known as Erromongo.
* GagSeries: The only way to describe most things in this show is to mention this trope.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Nearly every character has these at least once over the course of the series.
* GoneHorriblyWrong: According to Miyabi, this is what happens when Onsokumaru makes the scene in a normal setting.
* GratuitousEnglish: In the Japanese dub, Onsokumaru is fond of phrases like these [[Creator/NorioWakamoto (as is his voice actor)]].
* HighlyVisibleNinja: Shinobu dresses in bright pink. The common ninja wear the stereotypical stagehand outfit.
** Lampshaded by Kaede in the preview for Episode 3. Shinobu can't come up with a good explanation, so Kaede assumes it's because she's the main character.
* HotSpringsEpisode: And the show takes every opportunity to parody the concept to oblivion.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Each of the shorts' titles end with ''no Maki'' ("Volume/Chapter of...").
* ImagineSpot: Several, but one particular spot in Episode 5 of Shinobu and Kaede changing for the pond edges dangerously close to being hentai!
* TheImp: Onsokumaru
* InexplicablyAwesome: Onsokumaru, except for the "awesome" part. No explanation is given for what he is, how he became the head of a ninja clan, or how he can shapeshift. This doesn't make him any less of an incompetent screw-up, however.
* InstantExpert: Parodied. When Miyabi is cornered by her own paper wards in Episode 2, all the ninja immediately throw ''lots'' of shuriken to stop them. They don't miss '''a single one'''. As Miyabi thinks that maybe that ninja clan isn't as half-assed as she thinks… cut to the ninjas tearfully celebrating the fact that ''it was the first time they threw shuriken'' (one of them even calls his mom to tell her about it!).
* {{Jerkass}}: Onsokumaru.
* LethalChef: Miyabi, although in her defense she'd never cooked before. That doesn't really excuse her for mixing up [[spoiler:gunpowder]] for pepper, however.
* LittleMissBadass: Miyabi
* LovePotion: In episode 5, the ninjas make one for Miyabi. Of course, things don't go as planned.
* MagicalGirl: Parodied in the final episode, including a TransformationSequence and a NonHumanSidekick (played by Onsokumaru, of course).
* MarshmallowHell: Onsokumaru gets this treatment from Shinobu after he turns out to not be dead in "Onsokumaru Goes To Hell". Unfortunately, he can't enjoy it as she accidentally suffocates him.
* {{Mukokuseki}}: Being blonde and blue-eyed, Kaede would fit the Gaijin PhenotypeStereotype like a glove, but she is apparently Japanese. This isn't exactly surprising, considering [[Creator/AyakoKawasumi Kaede's VA]] has a [[PigeonholedVoiceActor very long story voicing blondies]].
* MushroomSamba: The mushroom picking episode: Onsokumaru + hallucinogenic mushrooms = [[HilarityEnsues hilarity]]
* {{Ninja}}: What do you expect? It's even in the ''title''.
* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Ninja crocodile. Named Devil. Yeah.
* {{Nosebleed}}: Every male character has one at least once. Shinobu gets one sometimes around Kaede.
* OnlySaneMan: Kaede is a perfectly normal (blonde, blue-eyed) Japanese high school girl dragged into a world of zany ninja antics.
* PaperThinDisguise: Onsokomaru dressing as "The Master" by putting on a fake beard. The only one who CAN'T tell that they're the same person is Shinobu.
* ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything: The ninjas.
* PunBasedTitle: Hoo boy. It's a multilevel pun on "2×2=4" / "two twos are four", "two people" (the meaning of ''ninin'' if written 二人, though that character combination is more commonly read ''futari''… which can have romantic subtext, fitting considering Shinobu's obsession with Kaede), and "to hide" (''shinobu'', which is etymologically related to ''shinobi'', a synonym for ninja). The English title doesn't even try to translate the pun, going with the much more descriptive "Ninja Nonsense".
* PuniPlush: This series's art style is all about this. It results in Shinobu appearing fairly chubby (for a Japanese girl) and having a big butt. It's toned down a little in fanservicey shots.
* QuirkyHousehold: Both Kaede's real parents, and to a certain extent, Shinobu's ninja clan.
* RagingStiffie: Sasuke gets one when his "sister" wakes him up.
* RapunzelHair: Shinobu's hair definitely counts.
* RomanticTwoGirlFriendship: Shinobu explicitly introduces Kaede at one point as "more than a friend but less than a lover". Although the manner in which Shinobu consistently lusts over Kaede makes it clear that her feelings towards Kaede are [[SchoolgirlLesbians more than platonic]]…
** The supplementary art [[{{Fanservice}} plays this up to the hilt]]. Nozomi's DVD box features Shinobu and Kaede standing back-to-back, hands interlocked… and wearing each other's clothes.
* SchmuckBait: The button in the New Year's episode. It has warnings posted all around it, but of course Shinobu presses it anyway.
* SchoolgirlLesbians: Shinobu most certainly qualifies as this. If her overt infatuation with Kaede (and her Mother in one episode) doesn't make things clear, in the manga she [[spoiler:is completely serious about wanting to marry Kaede.]]
* ShoutOut: Shinobu's attire is based off Miko Mido's (''La Blue Girl'') along with [[VideoGame/FatalFury Mai]] [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters Shiranui's]] hair style and her strange ball ornament at the end of a long ponytail.
** Speaking of which, [[NamesTheSame Kaede's last name is Shiranui]].
** In episode 12, Onsokumaru randomly spouts the line "[[Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes Iserlohn is diversion; the main unit is headed to Fezzan]]". Bonus points for the [[Creator/NorioWakamoto voice actor]] of Onsokumaru [[ActorAllusion voicing the character]] that led the aforementioned diversion.
* SickEpisode: Kaede gets sick in one episode which ends with Shinobu getting sick.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Again, Onsokumaru.
* SpoofAesop: Onsokumaru plays a practical joke where he puts mandarin orange segments on people's faces while they sleep, and gets told off by Kaede's mother for wasting food. Lampshaded moments later as the ninja observe that this is the first episode that has had anything approaching a moral message in it.
* StockScream: Howie Long scream used in episode 5 when Onsokumaru goes to hell.
* SweatDrop: Used in almost every episode.
* ThemeTune: Unusually for a series like this, the anime's opening theme was specially made for it. Both it and the ending theme are [[EarWorm hard to get out of your head]], dammit!
* ThunderShock
* TokenMiniMoe: Miyabi
* TooKinkyToTorture: One of the ninjas discovers a new kink in episode 5 as he's getting spanked during one of Miyabi's rampages.
* ATwinkleInTheSky: One of Shinobu's home run hits during an especially heated baseball game. [[spoiler:It ends up reaching another galaxy!]] Also, Onsokumaru in the intro.
* TwoShorts: Almost every episode of the anime follows this format.
* UnfazedEveryman: Kaede is pretty much ''dragged'' into this whole ninja stuff.
* VisibleSigh: Pretty much everyone does this at least once.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In-universe example: Shinobu says the way they, the ninjas, celebrate Christmas is to "Eat all of the emergency food supply and talk about all of the stuff we didn't get to do this year!"
* WidgetSeries: Boy howdy.
* ZettaiRyouiki: Part of Shinobu's "ninja" costume, and sported by Kaede and other female characters as well on occasion.

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* BaitAndSwitchCredits: Lampshaded. The opening theme features what looks like Shinobu fighting a dark version of herself, which never happens in the show proper, much to the surprise and consternation of the characters. WordOfGod says that the battle with "Dark Shinobu" was actually storyboarded, but they ran out of episodes and budget to do it. Of course, these are the same people who wanted the opening credits sequence to have ''three thousand cels''. [[note]] It is literally impossible to fit 3,000 cels into 90 seconds of TV animation – assuming the opening was animated at 24 frames per second, the most it could have had was 2,160 cels. Note that an ''entire episode'' rarely if ever has three thousand unique cels.[[/note]]

* FootnoteFever: The English manga has so many footnotes that it makes one wonder why it was even translated. The first volume has almost half as many footnotes (63) as there are pages (148)and half of the footnotes go on for a full three sentences, sometimes telling us about things you could [[CaptainObvious already guess if you've ever heard of the subject.]] Worse is that they pop up every two of three pages throughout the entire thing.

'''''Ninin ga Shinobuden''''' [[note]] (literal translation: 2×2=Shinobu Tale)[[/note]], known outside Japan as '''''Ninja Nonsense: The Legend of Shinobu''''', is a manga series by Ryōichi Koga that ran in Dengeki Daioh from 2002 to 2006. Its story, [[WidgetSeries such as it is]], can best be described with that word "Nonsense" in the international title, being one of the purest examples of rapid-fire parody and insanity since ''Anime/ExcelSaga''.

!!This show provides examples of:

* ShoutOut: Shinobu's attire is based off [[Anime/LaBlueGirl Miko Mido's]] along with [[VideoGame/FatalFury Mai]] [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters Shiranui's]] hair style and her strange ball ornament at the end of a long ponytail.

* [[EvenEvilHasStandards Even Perveted Otaku Ninja Have Standards]]: The ninjas tend to object to, but ultimately go along with, Onsokumaru's antics. But when he pretended to be sick to get Shinobu to bathe with him, they ''all'' stepped in and took over for her, in their single CrowningMomentOfAwesome.

** The time when Onsokomaru (again) tries to [[{{Lolicon}} get Miyabi-chan to undress]].