Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof

Episode 9

While A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof is no doubt a gag series—full of crazy things like ninja magic, self-aware robots, and assassin guilds—the world itself is treated seriously. Continuity exists between episodes and our heroines' pasts constantly come back to bite them in the butt. Because of this, it was only a matter of time until we got an episode like this where we set some concrete rules about Satoko's powers.

Up until this point, it's been said that she can only turn non-living objects into leaves—which, as luck would have it, includes corpses. While we've accepted this as truth, the question has always been lurking in the background: “How do we know this is true?”

After all, last episode we saw Satoko turn the devil possessing Marin into leaves. While the devil wasn't exactly “alive,” it wasn't an inanimate object either. So it makes sense to want to understand the limits of Satoko's powers—not just out of curiosity but for Marin and Konoha's personal safety as well. I mean, what if Satoko accidentally touched you and turned you to leaves? The idea that she could ever turn you back is only speculation, after all.

So we get some good old “scientific” testing in this episode. While it appears that living flesh can still not be turned to leaves, the question remains whether that's a true limitation of the skill or a mental block of Satoko's. After all, in this episode, her belief that she needs her ninja clothes to best use her powers makes it so—even though last episode we saw her dispose of a ninja and two supernatural creatures as instantly as normal in her tracksuit.

We also learn this episode that there is apparently no size restriction on the objects that can be turned into leaves. It's just that the bigger the object, the longer it takes to become leaves. This is terrifying. It means that Satoko could touch a building, plane, or cruise ship, only for it to suddenly disappear a few hours/days later. If the assassination society didn't care about collateral damage, she could be the top assassin without any issues.

The other part of the episode is mostly about showing how far the relationship between Satoko and Konoha has progressed. At this point, Satoko knows the assassin well enough to get her a meaningful gift—and Konoha is already willing to share a bed with the ninja when scared. We're getting to the point where Sotoko and Konoha are almost at the same level Konoha and Roboko were.

These scenes between the two are also filled with some hyper-detailed animation. Character movements—especially hand movements—are done in a way that must have been rotoscoped to look so human. It almost feels like demo reel footage—Shaft showing off just how well they can bring out the subtleties of human movement.

All in all, while far from the funniest (or most emotionally devastating) episode of the series, this episode did at least do some good world building. After all, knowing the rules of Satoko's powers means that we will be able to feel the tension in future dramatic moments. The character moments weren't half bad either and you get the feeling that, slowly but surely, Satoko is worming her way into Konoha's heart. It's good stuff overall.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• I love the idea that Satoko cared so little about the other ninjas, she re them only as black-clad ninja stereotypes.

• The inside of the porn shop is a mask of murky darkness from which no light escapes. ...That checks out.

• Of course Yuri and Kuro would keep Kuro's ninja clothes for sexy fun time.

• The whole heaven livestream angle has a great payoff when we see what's actually being transmitted.

Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof is currently streaming on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.

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