Literature / Ninja Slayer

Now, recite your death haiku.

"DOMO, my name is NINJA SLAYER."

— Ninja Slayer, before every fight

Ninja Slayer is a series of novels created by American writers Bradley Bond and Philip "Ninj@" Morzez, who in turn gave Enterbrain permission to translate it in Japanese. The Japanese translation was posted on Twitter piece by piece on by the Japanese "Translators" Honda Yu and Sugi Leika. After the story got popular, it was published in novel form in 2012.

It tells the story of Kenji Fujikido, a normal salaryman who had recently moved his family into the cyberpunk city Neo-Saitama to start his new job, unaware of its sinister background. They soon find themselves caught in the city's never-ending Ninja Mob War, and the wife and child are killed in the ensuing chaos. Kenji, himself left mortally wounded, ends up being possessed by a vengeful soul called Naraku Ninja, who wants to destroy all ninja, particularly those responsible for all the madness and corruption around their world. Overlapping with Kenji's own desire for revenge, together they become the superhuman Anti-Hero Ninja Slayer, grim reaper of evil ninjas everywhere.

The novels have been adapted into a manga called Ninja Slayer: Machine of Vengeance in 2013 in Comp-ACE, as well as a Shojo Manga called Ninja Slayer: Glamorous Killers.

Studio TRIGGER made an ONA series based on the Novels in Spring 2015... with a mixture of Limited Animation ranging from "Okay" to "Slightly improved Inferno Cop." The series was later broadcasted on Japanese television starting on April 2, 2016.

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DOMO, NINJA SLAYER-san. My name is TROPER. Ninja Slayer Provides Examples of:

• Aborted Arc: The anime skips over major storylines from the light novels, including "Deadmoon on the Redsky" (which covers Ninja Slayer's search for Yukano) and the "Yakuza Tengu" arcs. These are, however, briefly touched upon via "faux recap" episode. See Clip Show and Compressed Adaptation below for details.
• Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene: The other half of Episode 7, where Ninja Slayer talks to an old man.
• Action Girl: The three main heroines, to varying degrees. Yamoto is the most genuine example.
• Affectionate Parody: Of American 80's and 90's ninja movies and ultraviolent anime, allegedly written by two Americans who in turn let Enterbrain translate on Twitter.
• Alien Blood: Mutant animals and those who are not truly human (like clone yazukas) bleed green blood.
• Ambiguously Human:
  • Pretty much describes any Soukaiya or Survivors' Dojo member. The Dojo clansmen say they were once human before (forced) mutation. As for the Syndicate, it's rather ambiguous on whether their ninjas are mutants, cyborgs, monsters, or unaltered humans wearing Powered Armor.
  • Ninjas are all inhuman demigods, at least in theory.
• Arch-Enemy: Darkninja serves this role to Ninja Slayer. He's directly responsible for killing Kenji Fujikido and his family.
• Art Shift:
  • The ONA constantly shifts from excellent animation to Limited Animation to slightly improved Inferno Cop style animation. How much it shifts depends on Rule of Funny, especially in battle scenes.
  • The ninja souls look entirely different from the other characters, looking like photograph face parts jumbled together.
• Artificial Limbs: Shigaki has a robotic right hand.
• Awesomeness Is Volatile: There's a note in the American version of Ninja Slayer: Kills that explains why all ninjas die via explosion: it's due to the power of their ninja soul.
• Back-Alley Doctor: There are plenty of these all around Neo-Saitama, practicing different fields of expertise. For the right price, they're willing to fix anyone's wounds (including Ninjas), or implant cybernetic components into one's body for whatever the client needs.
• Back for the Finale: Some of the surviving characters are given cameos by the end of Season 1, just seconds after the city descends into anarchy due to the death of Laomoto Khan.
• Back from the Dead: Ninja souls offer to revive someone in exchange for bonding with them.
• Beam-O-War: Occurs during the climatic showdown between Ninja Slayer and Laomoto Khan.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Most of the heroes, such as Yamoto, Yukano, Nancy Lee and even Ninja Slayer (sans his mask) are leaps and bounds more attractive than most of the villains, with some exceptions like Darkninja. Also subverted by the heroic Dragon Gendoso, if only due to his advanced age.
• Big Bad: Laomoto Khan is the quintessential example until his demise in Season 1.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Season 1 finale. Ninja Slayer finally vanquishes Laomoto Khan, the source of the city's corruption, and is granted new powers after accepting Naraku Ninja as part of himself. But it all comes at a great price. The city quickly descends into chaos, with the remaining villains gearing up for war to take over Khan's former position.
• Bloodstained Glass Windows: Episode 17 has a showdown taking place in an abandoned church.
• Bound and Gagged: Nancy Lee, repeatably and suggestively.
• Bring My Brown Pants: A few incidental characters end up wetting themselves, for one reason or another, across the episodes.
• Casting Gag:
  • Ninja Slayer: Toshiyuki Morikawa is already known for starring as a certain other red-clad, hammy asskicker in both the anime adaptation and Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Much like Ninja Slayer, Dante is a Hunter of His Own Kind.
  • Nancy Lee: Trina Nishimura had previously voiced Mikasa Ackerman from Attack on Titan. Mikasa was the Token Asian in a chiefly European setting; Nancy is the Token White amongst a large Japanese cast.
  • Koki Yamoto: Sora Amamiya used to play the titular character of Akame ga Kill!. Like Yamoto, Akame is a dark haired, skirt-wearing, sword-wielding teenager who lives a life of peril in a Crapsack World, hounded by the setting's corrupt rulers.
  • Maria Agata: Caitlin Glass is best known as Winry Rockbell, who, like Maria, is a Girl Next Door and potential love interest for The Hero.
• Characters Dropping Like Flies: Usually reserved to the "expendable" types, i.e., Ninja of the Week, Bit Characters, Mooks... but also the occasional supporting cast. The main heroes themselves seem pretty safe, thereby avoiding the dreaded Anyone Can Die tag... for now.
• Clip Show: Episode 25 consists entirely of vignettes, featuring stories that didn't make it past the ONA adaptation's cutting room floor. Each clip offers a brief glimpse at several missed details from the light novels, such as Darkninja's motive for killing Fujikido's family, Ninja Slayer's quest for Yukano, etc.
• Clone Army: The Yakuza mooks, synthetic men "borne" from the underground labs of Yoroshisan Pharmaceuticals.
• Compressed Adaptation: The ONA in a nutshell, and a very compressed one at that. Not only are the fight scenes — for want of a better word — "lacking", but entire chunk full of important arcs have been left out, leading to a staggering amount of missing plot details and character interaction.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Done on a regular basis, and never once averted.
• Corporate Samurai: Many of the Soukai's "ninjas" actually fit this description more than their so-called namesake. It's also made known that every major group within the Syndicate's beck and call houses at least one of these guys. Examples include Omura Industries (Cloud Buster), and Yoroshisan Pharmaceuticals (Cockatrice, Daedelus, Lobster, and all the members of Survivor's Dojo before they defected).
• The Coup: At one point, a small cadre of Soukai ninjas have started a conspiracy to overthrow Laomoto Khan. Too bad for them, Khan's a lot smarter than they realize and has already taken countermeasures against their "little game." The plan comes to a crashing halt before it could really begin.
• Crapsack World: There may be other places out there that's better than what this story's main setting shows, but in any case, Neo-Saitama and all its surrounding areas are godawful examples of a futuristic society. Crime and corruption are the main norm, further exacerbated by the many insidious activities that its villainous superhuman denizens are up to. The common folk, most of which are poor and living in dirty slums, are either forced to submit themselves to the ruling criminal empire's tyrannical grip for "protection," or end up joining the city's ever rising piles of casualties in one way or another. Even for a work that mostly sets itself up as an Affectionate Parody and Black Comedy-type series, there's an underlying tone that's depressing at its core. See also Wretched Hive below for more details.
• Credits Jukebox: Each episode has a different ending theme and they're all AWESOME.
• Cyberpunk: Neo-Saitama has elements of this, from the bright neon lights, the police brutality, Always Night...
• Darker and Edgier: The manga adaptation, titled "Ninja Slayer: Machine of Vengeance." It follows the same storyline as the anime (with a few additional scenes) and keeps some of its goofiness, but the darker aspects are played brutally straight. The manga contains much more realistic graphic violence, nudity, and has the anime's downplayed implications made explicitly clear.
• Decapitation Presentation: Done in Episode 20. Slayer presents the startled Basilisk with his fallen comrade, Albatross's, severed head... as a way of saying "you're next."
• Defeat Equals Explosion: According to lore, every ninja soul's power is volatile in nature, thus explaining why every single soul-possessing ninja dies the way they do.
• Demonic Possession: Unlike most ninja souls, Naraku Ninja actually desires to take complete control of Fujikido Kenji's body.
• Dirty Communists: The entire Ikki Uchikowashi faction is made up of red garbed ninjas whose ultimate goal is to topple Laomoto Khan's inherently corrupt capitalistic empire... just so they can replace his with their own oppressive, Might Makes Right brand of communism.
• Disco Dan: Shogo, who's ninja soul has turned him from a shy, suicidal boy into a Japanese Delinquent version of this, complete with afro.
• Elite Army: Soukaiya ninjas. It takes just ONE to cause a wide range of carnage and destruction, with only a handful of individuals capable of stopping them. And from the looks of it, Laomoto Khan has plenty of these guys to spare.
• Enemy Civil War: Beginning Episode 19, thanks to a massive power vacuum created from the deaths of several top-ranked Soukaiya. Seizing the moment, ninjas from within the Syndicate's "lower class" have begun to challenge Khan and Darkninja for the rights to rule the city. It doesn't end well for them.
• Everyone Has Standards: While Ninja Slayer wants to kill all Ninjas to avenge his family, he never kills innocents, unwilling accomplices and other Ninjas who had nothing to do with the death of his family.
• Evil Power Vacuum: The ONA does not end on a bright note immediately following Laomoto Khan's death, only foreshadowing what's to come: Buster Tetsuo's invasion, and the impending arrival of the Shadow Guild.
• Evil Versus Evil: Both The Survivors' Dojo and Ikki Uchikowashi Revolutionary Army are openly at war against the Soukaiya. Neither faction can claim true moral superiority over the Syndicate. Then there's the events covered in "Enemy Civil War."
• Face–Heel Turn: Yukano, after joining Ikki Uchikowashi as "Amnesia."
• Fan Disservice: The series contains themes of sexual harassment and Attempted Rape. Thankfully, being the type of show that it is, everything's handled firmly tongue-in-cheek style and not the graphic kind seen in stories like Berserk.
• Fanservice: After Kill la Kill, this shouldn't come as a surprise from Studio TRIGGER. Not as rampant as the aforementioned show, but it isn't exactly tame either... particularly most episodes with Nancy Lee in it.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: From Ninja to Kamen Rider to Hollywood Cyborgs to Gothic Horror fiction... and the list goes on.
• Faux Action Girl: Both Nancy Lee and Yukano fall under this category. Despite initial perceptions, they usually end up in a bind, needing Slayer to come & save them. In their defense, they're just Badass Normals that Can't Catch Up in a world full of supernaturally powered ninjas.
• First-Episode Resurrection: The story opens with Kenji Fujikido dying and returning from the grave as Ninja Slayer.
• From Bad to Worse: What becomes of Neo-Saitama after Ninja Slayer defeats and kills Laomoto Khan. No sooner has he taken a few minutes to recuperate that he and Nancy are left to bear witness as the city transforms into a war zone, with the remaining villains all battling it out for control.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Ordinary, humble, weak, note-less nobodies often become this after bonding to a ninja soul to escape death. Yamoto, Shogo, and of course Ninja Slayer himself, are all good examples.
• Genre Throwback: To 80's and 90's high violence anime, especially Cyberpunk and Ninja ones, filtered though how the US saw anime at the time. Taken even further in Studio TRIGGER's adaptation by use of Limited Animation, Stock Footage, and Standard Definition 4:3 video.
• Goroawase Number: The password to the hideout where Yoroshisan Pharmaceuticals is cloning Yakuza soldiers is 4643893 (Yo-Ro-Shi-San Ya-Ku-Za). The Narrator even calls them out for using such an obvious password.
• Gratuitous Japanese: Even in the original Japanese version, as everyone, regardless of their standing, uses the -san honorific. This is also done textually by using the "=" symbol before the "san" as a way to replicate this in Japanese.
• Gratuitous Ninja
• Greater-Scope Villain: Katsu Wanso, as well as the unrelated Shadow Guild. Both parties have been secretly manipulating some of Season 1's key events from behind the scenes, and are likely to replace Khan and the Syndicate's role as Big Bad (upping the scale to Big Bad Ensemble) should the series be renewed for a Season 2.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Shogo holds off Sonic Boom long enough for Yamoto and her friends to get away. The credits indicate that he survives, however, since his image isn't greyed out like those who are certainly dead. Later played straight with Dragon Gendoso, at the hands of Darkninja.
• Hero of Another Story: Though the series mainly follows the adventures of Ninja Slayer, it occasionally switches to the perspective of Koki Yamoto, whose own journey is almost completely separated from him.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: For one, Ninja Slayer's distorted red outfit, and that's the tamest. Having to introduce each other before every fight doesn't help either.
• Idiosyncratic Wipes: Done using Ninja Slayer's personal logo and the Soukaiya emblem, Transformers-style.
• I Have You Now, My Pretty: Some villains apply to this mindset, with Nancy Lee as the favorite target of choice.
• Incoming Ham: If the words start with "DOMO", expect whoever said it to come fully-loaded in pork power. The titular hero practically turns this into a life philosophy!
• In Name Only: Most of the Soukaiya, Survivors' Dojo, and Ikki Uchikowashi affiliated-ninjas don't even look anything like "ninjas." But to be fair, only Dragon Gendoso is cited as the "genuine article" in-series.
• Join or Die: Seems to be one of the Syndicate's main mottos. Be it for more profit or for strengthening the boss's already vast army of super freaks, everybody's fair game in their eyes.
• Kiai: Expect plenty of these, with "YEEEAARRT!" at the highest count.
• Killed Off for Real: Anyone who appears grey and bloodstained during the end credits is confirmed as dead.
• Killer Robot: The Soukaiya's 'Omura Industries' branch specialize in the development of this type of war machine, like the Motoryabs and Motor Dokuros.
• Knight Templar: The Ikki Uchikowashi, though in their minds they prefer to be seen as Well-Intentioned Extremists. Allegedly, they oppose the Syndicate for the "greater good", but are not above murdering innocent civilians, including children, to drive their "point" across. For this reason, Ninja Slayer judges them no better than the Soukaiya, vowing to wipe them out as well.
• La Résistance: The Ikki Uchikowashi, at least on paper. The harsh reality is that they're nothing but an army of self-righteous, murderous terrorists with a Red Scare agenda.
• Laser Hallway: In Episode 9. Slayer and Nancy Lee both infiltrate a Yoroshisan facility in order to gather intel on the Soukaiya, but are stopped on their tracks by a deadly laser-filled hallway that's steadily closing in on them. Utilizing her advanced hacking skills, Nancy manages to diffuse them on time before things get messy.
• Ludicrous Gibs: A good number of slain mooks and other assorted villains tend to drop off good chucks of their flesh while spraying blood everywhere.
• Meaningful Name: Almost every character uses a codename that pertains to his/her powers or significant attribute, ranging from Punny Names to Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Some examples include (but not limited to):
  • Ninja Slayer: Our protagonist, a ninja who hunts his own kind.
  • Dragon Gendoso's alter ego, "Roshi Ninja" (Roshi meaning "master"), directly references the fact that he is Ninja Slayer's mentor and is the Last True Ninja.
  • "Nancy Lee" is a Punny Name for "Nan Shiri", which means "nice ass" in Japanese. And that is, indeed, one very nice ass.
• MegaCorp: The Soukai have a truly massive reach throughout Neo-Saitama. Among the many companies they've amassed include Omura Industries (their cybernetics & weapons manufacturer, which fronts as a sushi company), and Yoroshisan Pharmaceuticals (responsible for creating their mass-produced yakuza foot soldiers, as well as bio-mutant ninjas).
• Mêlée à Trois: We have the ragtag bunch of Ax-Crazy mutant-ninja freaks, Survivor's Dojo VS. the crime syndicate MegaCorp, Soukaiya VS. the Knight Templar communists of Ikki Uchikowashi... all vying for absolute dominance. And against them all stands a certain One-Man Army, eager to see all three factions destroyed.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Neither Slayer's nor Yamoto's respective sensei lasts for very long. One falls in battle, the other succumbs to disease.
• Metronomic Man Mashing: Happens to Albatross at the hands of Ninja Slayer, who makes good use of his grappling rope to soften up the villain for interrogation.
• Monster of the Week: Most of the villainous ninjas only last one or two episodes, with few exceptions like Darkninja.
• Mood Whiplash: Played for Laughs. It's customary for ninjas to give polite greetings to one another before engaging in a fight to the death, which leads to some crazy transitions. First you'll have characters acting "all chummy" one second, then promptly switching to "I'll kill you!" the next.
• More Dakka: If you can't beat an enemy with 100 shurikens, throw 1000.
• Ms. Fanservice: Both Nancy Lee and (to a lesser extent) Yukano apply to this trope.
• My Name Is Inigo Montoya: Institutionalized one between ninjas, as they're supposed to greet each other before every battle.
  For a ninja about to engage in battle, a greeting is an inviolably sacred act. It is thus written in the Record of Ancient Matters. Once a greeting has been offered, it must be returned.
• Near-Rape Experience: Nancy and Yamoto go through this to varying degrees. Taken (slightly) more seriously on Yamoto's case, but the anime never really delves too deep into the subject. Arguably played straighter in the original light novels/manga adaptation...
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: About most of the cast, with the "ninja" part being their obvious mainstay. A literal trope example would not be out of place in this series.
• Off with His Head!: Villains have a 9 out of 10 chance of biting it this way.
• Oddly Small Organization: The Dojo of the Survivors, or "Survivors' Dojo" for short. Given their current numbers, the group doesn't stand any realistic chance of winning against the Soukaiya. But as Frogman acknowledges, they continue to seek out more Bio-Ninjas to add into their cause.
• Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: Blood literally gushes when a limb is cut off, which happens nearly every episode. It doesn't stop until the body it's coming from explodes either.
• Paper Master: Yamoto uses origami to fight.
• The Password Is Always "Swordfish": Episode 8, which the narrator even lampshades. "Yoroshisan Yakuza?! COME ON!"
• Police Brutality: Patrol squads gang up on one guy in the first episode.
• Police Are Useless: While they have no trouble beating on civilians for extremely minor offenses, cops just seem to turn a blind eye from all the barbarous ninja activity happening around Neo-Saitama and its surrounding mayhem. The police force, as later revealed, is actually deep under the Syndicate's payroll.
• Psychic Powers: After bonding with Shi Ninja, Koki Yamoto gains these as her primary powers.
• Quirky Mini Boss Squad: The Survivor's Dojo clan in a nutshell. Dangerous as a team, even to the extent where Ninja Slayer has to avoid fighting them all at once. But when separated, their threat level greatly diminishes.
• Revenge Before Reason: Naraku Ninja wants to kill ALL the ninja, no matter what.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Both Naraku Ninja and Ninja Slayer. "Ninjas shall perish!"
• Scarf Of Ass Kicking: Ninja Slayer's red scarf. So awesome it's the only thing that's moving when the animation shifts to Inferno Cop style. And suddenly becoming longer than NINJA SLAYER himself, defying physics and able to perch at least 3 dozen ravens (and a few toucans) on it.◊. Justified, as it's magical just like the rest of his uniform. Koki Yamoto has one as well, though hers is made of ethereal fabric.
• Screaming Warrior: Everyone. See below.
• Sequel Hook: Season 1 ends in Ninja Slayer successfully destroying Laomoto Khan and making peace with his ninja soul. However, news of Khan's death immediately spreads chaos all over the city. Many villains still roam at large, including Darkninja, Dr. Lee, Survivors' Dojo, Ikki Uchikowashi and a new evil on the rise - all of which will now undoubtedly take part in the Evil Power Vacuum left in Khan's wake. Slayer's work is far from done.
• Serious Business: In this world, greetings between ninja are treated like a sacred ritual, whether it's between allies or enemies about to enter combat. To violate this custom is to show the ultimate sign of disrespect and utter lack of honor on the offender's part.
• Share Phrase: YEEART!
  • Domo, _______-san. My name is _______.
  • Sayonara!
  • Aieee!
  • Oh Buddha/Buddha Fuck!
• Shout-Out:
  • In Episode 1, Inferno Cop is mentioned by name.
  • The Soukaiya's Cloud Buster appears to be wearing a scouter from Dragon Ball.
  • Suvivors' Dojo member 'Disturbed' is clearly based on the T-1000 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
  • The cyber-world seems like one big shout-out to The Matrix - featuring an enemy ninja who uses Me's a Crowd for combat tactics, same as how a "certain agent" would. And just like the films, being killed while inside the network (with one's brain connected) also means death in the real world.
  • Darkninja looks like a human version of EVA-01.
  • Episode 13 adds an Easter Egg from Back to the Future in the form of the DeLorean DMC-12... as the Smiling Old Man's car. In the dub, the Old Man even quotes Doc Brown by telling Silver Karasu that they "don't need roads."
  • The Motoryabs of Episode 15 are very obvious spoofs of the ED-209 from RoboCop, right down to the "polite but lethal" attitude said robots were (in)famous for.
  • Episode 18 depicts a scene where an attractive, purple haired Meganekko seduces a meek college boy for secretly dark purposes. Sound familiar?
    • From the same episode, Buster Tetsuo's introductory speech, which ends with the bold claim, "I am everything and everyone." It sounds suspiciously similar to Truth's own line in Fullmetal Alchemist.
  • Episode 19 (English dub ver.) has Trufflehog/Warlock jokingly say "Hakuna Matata!" when commenting on his current body.
    • The same episode features Ninja Slayer wondering out loud if Nancy Lee betrayed him, before deciding that she would never give him up, let him down, or hurt him.
  • The Motor Dokuros of Episode 21 spoof another well-known robot franchise, this time The Terminator. In the English dub, they would also repeatedly say "Exterminate" in the same manner as the Daleks.
• Small Name, Big Ego:
  • So why don't the owners of a million-dollar Tofu company opt to join with Laomoto's empire? Certainly not due to some sense of "higher morals" (they're all just as evil, in fact!) Rather, they actually believe they'd stand a fighting chance against the Soukaiya's unrelenting force. Naturally, things end very badly for them.
  • Warlock and Basilisk. These two actually believe they could challenge Khan for the right to rule the city. Alas, the Don already has them beat before their planned coup even sets into motion, effectively stumping them with little issue.
• Stuff Blowing Up: It's practically a "tradition" around Neo-Saitama to see explosions go off, not just from the Awesomeness Is Volatile factor, but anytime there's a ninja turf war occurring within the city, which happens to be almost every single day, so expect common sightings of wreckage and screaming combatants around every open space area. Taken up to eleven in the Season 1 finale when the Soukai leader's sudden death creates a large-scale opportunity for the other rival factions.
• Stylistic Suck: Aside from all the Limited Animation running amok, this is probably the only show in recent years to intentionally use a standard definition format.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Whenever Naraku Ninja takes control of Slayer's body. Not usually a bad thing since they have the same goal of destroying Soukaiya, but Naraku's targets also include good ninjas like Yamoto.
• The Stinger:
  • Episode 14 is the first one to end with a post-credits scene, depicting Yamoto's escape from Soukai yakuza by hitching a ride on a train. Afterwards, she pulls out an empty box of cigarettes that originally belonged to Silver Karasu, and mourns for her fallen teacher.
  • Episode 20 reveals Ninja Slayer to have survived Khan's missile attack, but is left gravely injured. A chance encounter with Maria, his neighbor, ends up saving his life.
• Symbiotic Possession: Ninja souls in general. In-universe, when a normal person is left on the brink of death yet carries enough will to keep on living for whatever reason, these powerful, disembodied spirits will appear before them. The soul will then offer said person a second chance at life, in exchange for an eternity of dual existence. Upon agreement, the rejuvenated individual gains the benefit of supernatural powers, but also vulnerability to that spirit's influence.
• The Syndicate: Meet the Soukaiya, largest known crime family in all of Neo-Saitama. Made up largely of barbaric ninjas and mass-cloned yakuza. They rule the city with tyrannical glee, always scouting out new talent and other money-making opportunities. Also, anything or anyone they deem valuable either winds up falling under the boss's thumb, gets targeted for termination, or already dead to begin with.
• Tested on Humans: "Cyber-tsujigiri" is the name of an in-universe criminal profession that revolves around testing the latest Black Market weaponry on live targets.
• The Three Faces of Eve: Each of the main heroines follow this archetype.
  • Yamoto is the "Child", being the youngest and least world-weary.
  • Nancy Lee's the "Seductress", both for her everyday manner of dress and the fact that she uses sex appeal to her advantage.
  • Yukano is the "Wife", having shown "motherly" traits such as family devotion and general modesty despite her ninja upbringing. As Amnesia, however, she becomes another "Seductress", only in a much darker vein than Nancy. But just one episode after her "re-establishment", the series introduces Maria Agata, who now seems to occupy Yukano's former position.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: No such thing as a subtle death in this series. Maybe it's got something to do with the fact that people have a high rate of exploding when they die, bar a few exceptions.
• Tracking Device: Placed by Darkninja on an unaware Ninja Slayer's scarf, allowing him to stalk and later ambush Slayer, Dragon Gendoso and Yukano from within their hiding spot inside the bamboo grove.
• Warrior Poet: Ninjas are expected to recite a "death haiku" before their final "Sayonara!" Comically enough, even when they refuse, their last words still sometimes end up being a haiku anyway.
• Weird Moon: It has the visage of a human skull. Taking into account the setting's death ratio, this could be Rule of Symbolism.
• Wham Episode:
  • Episode 11: This chapter demonstrates how truly dangerous Darkninja is, culminating in the death of Master Gendoso, in addition to Ninja Slayer discovering his hidden potential.
  • Episode 14: Features Yamoto picking up new abilities in swordsmanship, along with her own sensei, Silver Karasu's demise.
  • Episode 15: Yukano is revealed to have lost all her previous memories, now going by the codename "Amnesia."
  • Episode 16: Slayer reluctantly joins the La Résistance group, Ikki Uchikowashi, in order to keep an eye on "Amnesia." He shortly finds out that they're not that different from the Syndicate, and defects after slaughtering one of their field platoons along with its commander. Not only does this act puts him at odds with yet another villainous faction, it also sets up Amnesia/Yukano as an antagonist.
  • Episode 20: With a Cliffhanger ending that throws Ninja Slayer's very life into question (at least until The Stinger), this episode not only presents a harsh reminder that the hero does have his limits, but also offers a glimpse at the frightening power of Laomoto Khan.
  • The entire final story arc of Season 1, appropriately titled "Neo-Saitama in Flames", but especially the 26th episode.
• Wretched Hive: Welcome to the cyberpunk city of Neo-Saitama, where the majority population consists of thugs, psycho-killers, and would-be rapists. Where everything's controlled by the iron-fisted Soukai Syndicate, from the police down to the local sushi company. And where the strong & privileged either swear allegiance with Mr. Khan... or else. Let's not forget all the deranged, bloodthirsty ninjas running around the place, or that cult of Dirty Communists posing as the "good guys" run by the biggest nondescript Manipulative Bastard of them all. Oh, and if you're lucky enough to meet the requirements, you might even run into a vengeful spirit or two, and your life will never be the same again. We hope you enjoy your stay!
• World of Badass: This is a world ruled by the strongest, loudest, and most un-traditional ninjas to ever exist in the collective cosmos of imagination. YEEART!
• World of Ham: And how!

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SAYONARA *Explodes*