Komatsudaya

The first few are currently only available in terrible quality in the Chinese dub, so forgive the pic quality and any mistranslations.

07-27 小松田秀作の名札の段 "Komatsuda Shuusaku's Name Tag"

Their first appearance together in the anime that I know of, which adapts chapter 6 of RKRN volume 23. It closely follows the plot, in which Rikichi finds Komatsuda wandering around lost in the woods, trying to get to the ocean with an encryption cipher, and saves him from a trap. One difference between anime and manga is that in the anime, we're shown Rikichi receiving a note from the headmaster asking him to help Komatsuda.

07-28 小松田秀作さんを探せの段 "Searching For Komatsuda Shuusaku"

Continues the adaption. We get to see the first of Rikichi's real outbursts toward Komatsuda here, as he gets irate when Komatsuda takes out the all-important encryption cipher to show it to Rikichi. And he's right to get angry, as the wind easily blows the cipher out of Komatsuda's hands; when Komatsuda takes chase, he ends up falling down into a hole with the cipher in hand, where Rikichi loses track of him.

08-28 利吉と山田先生の段 "Rikichi and Yamada-sensei"

A spat between Rikichi and his father over whose work is more difficult ends with them deciding to switch jobs for the day. Rikichi, however, is unprepared for how irritating it can be to try and teach 1-Ha. While teaching them to wear armor, he finds them wearing pots and baskets instead of helmets. His cries of frustration bring Komatsuda running over, and Komatsuda informs him that the sixth-years are using the helmets at the moment.

08-79 でっかい声のヒソヒソ話の段 "Whispers Spoken Loudly"

Adapts chapter 3 of RKRN volume 27. Rikichi runs into Komatsuda, Danzou, and Shinbei while on a mission to save the explosives master Tadadouzen, and the four of them end up working together.

10-20 低みの見物の段 "Watching From the Sidelines"

Adapts chapter 3 of RKRN volume 30. Komatsuda had been sent to deliver fans to someone in Mushroom Valley, but had left the store before learning exactly who the customers were. Rikichi informs Komatsuda that the group who ordered the fans are actually the Dokuajirogasa ninja, who want to use them to perform the Kasumiougi no Jutsu (where ninja place poison inside a folding fan then blow the poison at their enemies). There's some cute changes from the manga chapter it adapts. For example, when Komatsuda says “I’ll be off!” Rikichi cheerfully replies “Ah, take care!” before realizing what’s happening and grabbing Komatsuda. Rikichi got pulled right into Komatsuda’s pace… Rikichi plays it completely straight when he sarcastically praises Komatsuda in the manga, but in the anime he really doesn’t want to praise him at all: he stutters, his eyes twitch, he can’t look at Komatsuda directly. Komatsuda still earnestly takes the compliment, though.

12-28 利吉のけがの段 "Rikichi's Injury"

Rikichi is injured during a mission and saved by RanKiriShin and Daisankyoueimaru. When the nintama manage to get him back to the school, Komatsuda is surprised that a professional like Rikichi got made a mistake and got hurt. "I mean, yeah," Rikichi says. "I'm human, after all." Komatsuda is so taken by the phrase that he stands there for several moments poring over their meaning - "Yes, that’s exactly it! 'To be human is to make mistakes; to make mistakes is to be human'" - and everyone leaves during his speech.

13-42 新しいアルバイトの段 "A New Job"

The kunotama muse that they'd love popular freelance ninja Yamada Rikichi's signature, and Kirimaru, who happens to overhear them, gets a business idea. He guilts Rikichi into signing a bunch of papers then returns to the school ready to sell them. Unfortunately for him, he forgot there was already somebody getting Rikichi's signature who could give them to the kunotama for free - Komatsuda. A short flashback shows Rikichi entering and leaving the school, stopping by to greet Komatsuda and sign in and out. Interestingly, this is the only time in which Rikichi refers to him as "Komatsuda-san" instead of "Komatsuda-kun."

16-52 仕事の途中で…の段 "In the Middle of Work…"

Rikichi comes to visit Ninjutsu Academy - and decides to pull a little prank on Komatsuda. "It's Rikichi," he says from the outside of the gate, but when Komatsuda opens the door, Rikichi is nowhere to be found. He steps outside and looks around before being called by Rikichi from inside the gate; Rikichi had hopped the wall when Komatsuda went to open the gate. "Sorry, sorry," Rikichi says with a laugh, and Komatsuda replies, "Please don't tease me like that."

17-05 利吉の仕事を見学の段 "Observing Rikichi at Work"

Yamada-sensei tasks RanKiriShin with delivering a parcel of unwashed laundry to Rikichi while Rikichi is out working. Komatsuda hears of their task and ends up visiting Rikichi as well, saying he wants to see a pro ninja at work. Rikichi immediately has to rescue him from a flying arrow, taking him in a princess hold - and Komatsuda (unused to being held?), freaks out. "Wh-What are you doing?!" he asks, to which Rikichi replies, "I'm not doing anything." Taking no heed of Rikichi's warning, Komatsuda steps out onto the battlefield to get a closer look before almost immediately getting scared and asking Rikichi to please come and save him. Rikichi tells Komatsuda he's being a nuisance and to leave… but it turns out Komatsuda doesn't know how to get back to the school. Rikichi arrives at the school and tells his father he'll take the laundry - in exchange, they can't let Komatsuda leave the school anymore.

18-13 哀しき父親の段 "The Sorrowful Father"

We get to see Rikichi signing in and out of the school.

18-63 優秀なマネージャー?の段 "An Excellent Manager?"

Upon hearing Rikichi lament that he's been unable to keep up with the volume of requests for him, Kirimaru says he'll become Rikichi's "manager." His solution to Rikichi's problem? Just have others - the headmaster, Rantarou's father, and Komatsuda - pretend to be Rikichi and take on all the jobs he's too busy for. Unfortunately, each job ends up bringing the real Rikichi and the fake Rikichi to the same castle. It's decided that in order to determine who's "really" the famous Yamada Rikichi, the four of them will duke it out. Rikichi muses that he "can't go all-out against the headmaster or Rantarou's father" - implying he'll use all his strength against Komatsuda. Komatsuda's Rikichi disguise has him taping his eyes back, so I suppose he finds Rikichi's sharp eyes to be his most distinguishing features. He also immediately breaks character by using his "boku" instead of Rikichi's "watashi."

21-25 馬借に人気のうどんの段 "Udon Popular With Horse Transporters"

Shinbei and Danzou head out to an udon spot that's popular among the horse transporters that work for Danzou's father, and Komatsuda tags along. When they find the restaurant, they also see Rikichi standing outside. Komatsuda's first instinct is to call out to him - "I'd wanted to ask Rikichi how I could become as cool as him," Komatsuda says. Danzou and Shinbei try to stop him, as they recall getting yelled at by Rikichi for interrupting his work. However, Rikichi approaches the trio and asks if they'd like to have something to eat with him, since he's always alone when he works and he wanted to talk.

22-29 山田家のだんらんの段 "The Yamada Family's Harmony"

Since Yamada-sensei is always claiming that he can't make it home because his work keeps him busy, his wife decides to visit the school to be if he's actually as busy as he claims he is. She disguises herself as a large, furoshiki-wrapped package of Rikichi's - but she's still polite enough to sign in at the gate when Komatsuda isn't looking. Seeing her name, Komatsuda brings three cups of tea to Yamada's room, and when Yamada questions the number, Komatsuda almost ends up spilling the beans. Rikichi throws his arm around Komatsuda's shoulder and has to quickly stop him before he says anything. Despite his constant closeness to Rikichi, Komatsuda gets a little flustered when Rikichi gets too close to him - but he still has the upper hand, since Rikichi is beholden to his lack of social awareness. Rikichi then pushes Komatsuda out of the room and shoos him off.

22-66 二人の天才忍者の段 "The Two Genius Ninja"

Rikichi and Komatsuda get two quick scenes together here. First, Rikichi enters the school grounds and Komatsuda calls out to him, reminding him that he needs to sign in - which Rikichi responds to with a "Haaaai" like he's pacifying a child. Near the end, Rikichi is set to leave, and he summons Komatsuda in a sing-songy voice. Komatsuda diligently pops in from the bottom of the screen and Rikichi signs out.

22-75 忍術学園のお花見の段 "Ninjutsu Academy's Flower-Viewing"

All of Ninjutsu Academy ends up going to view the cherry blossoms. When Rikichi arrives at the scene, Komatsuda runs up to get his signature (what a hard worker Komatsuda is, doing his job even at a time like that).

26-30 いくさごっこの段 "Play-Fighting"

Adapts chapter 2 of RKRN volume 57. A series of events leads to Komatsuda chasing Rikichi and Yamada-sensei up into the mountains to get their signatures - and Komatsuda finally gets Rikichi into his sights, so Rikichi has to give in and finally sign.

28-04 小松田さんの面接の段 "Komatsuda's Interview"

A ninja who observes Komatsuda chasing an intruder says he's impressed and would like to interview Komatsuda for a position at the castle he works at. RanKiriShin try to help Komatsuda by conducting mock-interviews. Rikichi appears and, upon hearing what's going on - first reacting with shock (“What castle would want Komatsuda as a ninja?”) then concern (“I just hope it’s not some shady castle”) - agrees to help with a mock-interview of his own. His evaluation is Komatsuda is a little too laid-back and cheery about the whole thing, and that Komatsuda should adapt a sharper, more professional demeanour. Komatsuda heads to the interview with a stern, serious expression, and RanKiriShin and Rikichi follow. The interviewer says Komatsuda's image isn't what they're looking for - not only did they want someone cheery and bright like Komatsuda usually is, but the position they were looking to fill was clerical.

30-56 利吉の休日の段 "Rikichi's Day Off"

Rikichi decides to spend his day off in town, where he runs into Komatsuda. Komatsuda doesn't believe that a pro ninja as in-demand as Rikichi would take a day off, and decides to follow Rikichi around to observe him at his job. Thus ensues a game of hide-and-seek where Komatsuda looks for Rikichi around town and Rikichi desperately tries avoiding him by running, hiding, and disguising himself. After a series of events, Rikichi finally gives in and, while hanging with Komatsuda right outside of town, runs into RanKiriShin. The three of point out Rikichi's off his game and that he's too preoccupied with Komatsuda ("Now that you mention it, I really haven’t been thinking about anything but Komatsuda," he says, to which Komatsuda replies, "Eheheh, it’s a little embarrassing to hear you’ve been thinking about me so much"). Rikichi decides the best thing to do is just banish thoughts of Komatsuda from his mind entirely. In the meanwhile, a ninja with a grudge against Komatsuda appears, causing Komatsuda to yell out for "the popular freelance ninja Yamada Rikichi" to save him - and Rikichi's ire is once against turned on to Komatsuda.

32-15 ライバルが現れた!?の段 "A Rival's Appeared?!"

RanKiriShin fall into a hole - but Ayabe claims a shabby hole like that isn't his work. Eventually they find out that it was Komatsuda who dug the hole because he wanted to try to catch intruders in it. Rikichi had snuck into the school grounds recently, and when approached by Komatsuda, said he didn't have time to sign in because he had urgent business with the headmaster. Komatsuda, of course, had none of it, and gave chase.

32-62 イライラするの段 "Testing My Patience"

Komatsuda is his usual bumbling self, and Rikichi, who came to the school to see his father, tells him that just seeing him pisses him off. But you know, Komatsuda says, he's always thinking of becoming a pro ninja like Rikichi. Rikichi tells him to give it up - studying for three years at a ninja cram school won't prepare you for actual work, and people like Komatsuda are the first to die on the battlefield. Komatsuda blows past all of Rikichi's words, instead asking where Rikichi learned ninjutsu and what kind of training he does. Rikichi escapes, but is caught by RanKiriShin, who also ask where Rikichi learned ninjutsu. After he explains it to the nintama, Komatsuda comes running for him, asking RanKiriShin to catch Rikichi. Rikichi swiftly dodges them and kicks the sign-in sheet back toward Komatsuda when Komatsuda trips and sends it flying. Komatsuda scolds him - he should show some restraint toward the nintama and not kick the school's property - and Rikichi muses that he thought Komatsuda was a useless loser, but he really cares about the students and school. As Rikichi turns to leave, he's caught by Komatsuda, who tells him that he forgot to say that Yamada-sensei is away on a business trip. The goodwill Rikichi felt has disappeared - why didn't Komatsuda say anything sooner? Oh, just looking at Komatsuda pisses him off!

15th Anniversary Special ドクタケ温泉の段 "Dokutake Hot Spring"

Rikichi shows up at the school and greets Komatsuda, and is then seen signing out in a later scene. He's also present when Komatsuda bursts into the cafeteria with big news.

Movie 2 忍術学園全員出動!の段 "All of Ninjutsu Academy Ready for Action!"

They're both on the scene when the plan to get Tasogare Jinbei to sign the decrees goes off without a hitch, and in the credits we see Komatsuda handing off one of the documents to Rikichi (though Rikichi, quite rudely, refuses eye contact).

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AND EVERYTHING ELSE

Moments that were excluded from the main list for being a little too incidental, but that I still wanted to note.

08-80 オンボロ屋敷の爆発の段 "Explosion at the Run-Down Mansion" The two of them are on the same screen throughout the episode but never make direct contact.

09-53 忍者のきびしさの段 "The Rigors of Being a Ninja"

Rikichi runs into Lily, who can't remember whose son he is. She lists off several choices, including Komatsuda. "Are you Komatsuda Shuusaku’s son?" she asks, to which Rikichi replies, "Why does it feel like you’re having fun with this?"

10-19 オシロイシメジの花見の段 "Going to View the Leucocybe Mushrooms"

Adapts chapters 2-3 of RKRN volume 30. Rikichi points to Komatsuda, but they make no direct contact.

12-26 ニセ利吉の段 "Fake Rikichi"

During a conversation between Makinosuke and Komatsuda, Makinosuke says Rikichi's name and the image that comes to (presumably) Komatsuda's mind is Rikichi all sparkling and smiling.

17-31 隠れる名人の段 "A Master at Hiding"

There's a short shot of Rikichi standing near the gate with Komatsuda.

18-89 尊敬されたいの段 "I Want to Be Respected"

We see Rikichi waving goodbye to Komatsuda and RanKiriShin.

19-44 山田先生、家に帰るの段 "Yamada-sensei, Come Home"

Komatsuda runs right past Rikichi while being chased by Yamada.

22-53 教育方法を探れの段 "Exploring Educational Methods"

Fuuki and Tatsumaki visit Ninjutsu Academy because they want their sons to grow up to be excellent ninja like Rikichi and they've come to observe the educational methods that his father, Yamada-sensei, employs. Komatsuda spots the two and, when he hears their aim, says, "I totally get that feeling! I really want to be a popular freelance ninja like Rikichi, too!"

26-27 小松田さんの強敵の段 "Komatsuda's Strongest Opponent"

Komatsuda spots Rikichi coming in and leaving, but fails to get his signature, so he decides to chase Rikichi (and Yamada, who didn’t sign out) up into the mountains.

26-29 同窓会ピクニックの段 "Class Reunion Picnic"

They see each other throughout the episode but never make direct contact.

29-56 利吉の作戦の段 "Rikichi's Strategy"

While in a conversation with KiriShin, Rikichi, and Yamada, Rantarou brings up Komatsuda and we can see Rikichi thinking (presumably about Komatsuda?) before an image of Komatsuda appears on screen.

30-68 利吉とキャッチボールの段 "Playing Catch With Rikichi"

As its name implies, Puzzle Nintama Rantarou is a puzzle game – more specifically, it's a falling block puzzle game, similar to titles like Puyo Puyo. Compared to the previous games, this title was released without much notice or fanfare. I couldn't find a single mention of it being in development in any popular gaming magazines; the first mention I found was Micom Basic's July 1996 issue, which came out just days after the game's release.

Before anything else, I have a confession to make: I'm not good at most falling block puzzle games, so I'm not good at this game. In fact, I couldn't beat it. Despite this, I still think I can do an adequate job exploring the game.

Gameplay

Like most falling block puzzle games, Puzzle Nintama Rantarou's gameplay revolves around clearing blocks that fall from the top of the screen. This is done by arranging blocks into groups of three or more based on their color and/or type. While there's a 1P mode where you're playing only to get a high score, the meat of the game has you facing off against a computer (or human) opponent.

There are three basic blocks, each with a different function that activates when you clear them.

The coin blocks (Kirimaru's precious kozeni) award bonus points, making them important for raising your score.

The shuriken blocks are your attack blocks – they send shuriken over to your opponent's side that turn a number of their blocks into Hemu-Hemu blocks (more on that in a bit).

On the other hand, the scroll blocks are your defense blocks. Whenever you clear these, a scroll for the art of disguise will be added to your stock. When your opponent tries to hit you with shuriken, these scrolls will activate and negate the shuriken's effects. Each scroll in your stock will defend against one shuriken, so you want to stock as many of these as you can.

Next are the Hemu-Hemu blocks. These don't do anything; they're there to get in the way and overwrite your blocks that do have a function. Hemu-Hemu's smug little laughing face suits this block well.

The last three are bombs, !, and ?.

Bomb blocks are cleared when they're in a group of three or more blocks of the same color lined up horizontally or vertically. The color of the bombs that appear depends on which character you selected. They will also take out any and all Hemu-Hemu blocks on your side that are the same color.

! blocks can only be cleared when the blocks next to, above, or below them are cleared. ? blocks are wild cards: they can act as blocks of any color or type.

You'll note that almost all of the different types of blocks can be any of four colors - red, yellow, green, or blue. This is because blocks can be matched by type and/or color. For example, lining up three coins of any color vertically or horizontally will clear them; lining up three green blocks of different types vertically or horizontally will also clear them. In addition to lining them up horizontally and vertically, blocks of the same type and color can be cleared if they're arranged in an L shape. Effects only happen when three of same type are matched, no matter what colors they are. If only colors are matched, there's no effect.

The game has one more trick up its sleeve, and that's the fact that you can separate blocks as they're falling. By pressing L or R, you can move the blocks apart, one tile at a time, and separate them until they're on opposite sides of the screen.

There are three game modes to choose from. The first is the titular puzzle tournament, in which you challenge each character in increasingly difficult matches (best of three is the default, but you can change it so that you only need to win a single round per match if you'd like). You can only play as RanKiriShin or the main kunotama trio in this mode.

You can choose either Score or Death Match mode. In Score, whoever has the highest score at the end of three minutes wins. In Death Match, you play until one person's blocks stack completely up to the top. You can also win by clearing out all the blocks on your side.

Next is 2P versus mode, where you can choose to play as any available character. After beating the puzzle tournament, you unlock 1-Ha and a trio of Dokutake ninja to play as. In addition to the previously mentioned Score and Death Match mode, this mode also lets you play in Hemu-Hemu mode. In this mode, whoever has the least Hemu-Hemu panels at the end of the time limit wins; you can also win if you completely clear your side of Hemu-Hemu panels.

Last is 1P puzzle mode. Here you can either try to get as high of a score as you can in two minutes, or you can play endless mode and keep going as long as you can.

There are three different "rules" you can play under, which act as the game's difficulty levels. The first is Nintama Rules. On this difficulty, you can't separate blocks, and the block-falling speed is set at the lowest level. In addition, blocks will never stack all the way to the top of the screen; if your blocks hit a certain height, the bottom two rows will automatically disappear. Because of this, you can't select Death Match mode when playing with these rules. Lastly, the blocks only come in three colors (red, blue, yellow) instead of four.

The next is Sensei Rules, which is basically the game's normal difficulty. You can separate blocks and the block-falling speed is set to medium. Last is Headmaster Rules. On these rules, "1P and 2P compete for the next panel" (I couldn't really tell exactly what they meant by this when playing on this difficulty) and the block-falling speed is set to fast.

Each character in this game has different stats, but to tell the truth, I think I'm too low-level to have really told a difference; I'm just going off what the manual lists. Characters have buffs to the efficacy of certain blocks, as well as a "maximum number of defense ninjutsu" (I have no idea what this means since everyone can stockpile more scrolls than their listed maximum number).

As mentioned earlier, each character has bombs of a certain color (on the 3-color Nintama Rules, anyone who usually has green bombs instead has yellow bombs). The manual also mentions that each character's bomb is of a certain type, such as Kirimaru's "score-boosting blue bombs" or Yuki's "red attack-type bombs," but I'm not sure how some of them translate to gameplay. If anybody more skilled than me can figure out what all of this actually means for gameplay, please feel free to let me know!

So after all that explanation, we come to the question: how does the game actually feel to play? I'd had complaints about the floaty and sometimes sticky controls of Culture Brain's first two Nintama titles, so I was very happy to find that that wasn't the case this time. Movement is fluid and the controls are responsive (so if you mess up in the game, there's really nobody to blame but yourself). Getting combos feels satisfying, especially when you get one and it cascades as more blocks fall into place.

The difficulty is… difficult for me to gauge because of my lack of skill. The fact that you can match by either color or type adds an extra element to the game that made it harder for me to make split-second decisions about what the "best" course of action was. However, I will say that playing against the computer doesn't feel unfair or anything like that, and I'm sure if you really clicked with the game, it provides enough challenge to be demanding but beatable.

Presentation & Sound

Everything in the game is clean, colorful, and clear-cut, making it easy on the eyes and easy to concentrate on the gameplay. Where the graphics shine are the in-match "emotion windows," which change with what's going on on your side of the screen. There's a lot of Nintama spirit here, with some especially choice expressions. It's a game I like looking at.

As for the sound, thank goodness – we've got a lot of songs original to this game, though there's still a few from the first two games present. They're appropriately Nintama-esque, sort of whimsical and lively, with enough energy to go along with the gameplay. It's not a soundtrack I'd really listen to outside of the game itself, but it is one that will get stuck in my head.

As with any game where you're hearing a set number of voice lines, it can get a little tiring to hear the characters repeat themselves over and over again during matches. But it can also be satisfying to hear your character when you get a combo and know a bunch of blocks and shuriken are about to be unleashed on your opponent. That being said, if you concentrate on the game enough, the voices do tend to start blending into background.

Before the final word, let's take a look at this game's handheld counterpart.

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Puzzle Nintama Rantarou GB (パズル忍たま乱太郎GB) Released: November 1, 1996 Console: Game Boy Developed by: Culture Brain Listen to the soundtrack here

While I have the manual for the SFC version, I unfortunately don't have one for the GB version, so everything I explain about the gameplay here is based off of what I could suss out just from playing the game. Luckily for me, the gameplay is nearly identical to the SFC version.

Since it's on the Game Boy, the game's in black and white, but I'll use the power of the Super Game Boy to give the screenshots some color. This also gives us a cute little background.

Gameplay

Speaking of color, since we're working with the GB's limited palette here, each block in this version comes in dark or light. Blocks can now only be cleared by matching block types; lining up three light blocks of different types won't do anything. We've got all the same types of blocks here, though the Hemu-Hemu blocks, despite having the same name, are now featureless blocks instead of Hemu-Hemu's cheeky little grin.

Aside from the colors, there's two big changes to bombs and the Hemu-Hemu blocks. Bomb blocks can now only be cleared by matching them with other bombs of the same color (they do, however, still clear out all the Hemu-Hemu blocks of the same color as them). The Hemu-Hemu blocks are cleared when the blocks next to, above, or below them are cleared with a group of all the same color as the Hemu-Hemu block. Clearing dark blocks near a light Hemu-Hemu block won't do anything; clearing a group of differing colors also won't do anything, even if the block adjoining the Hemu-Hemu block is the same color.

All of the modes from the SFC version return, and most everything not already discussed is kept pretty intact. There's just a few other small differences – for example, there are only Nintama and Sensei Rules, and you start without any blocks on either side in Score and Death Match mode.

The GB version adds five new playable characters in VS mode: Rikichi, Makinosuke, Daisankyoueimaru, the cafeteria lady, and Happousai. Unlike the SFC version, clearing the puzzle tournament mode doesn't unlock anything.

The 1P puzzle mode has a new little element: a shuriken in the middle of the screen will slowly rise and, when it hits the top, will send down Hemu-Hemu blocks onto the field. Other than that, this mode's the same.

So, how do gameplay changes affect the gameplay? Here's something: I actually managed to beat this version. In fact, I've beaten it several times. Something about this game is just easier than its SFC counterpart. My personal guess is that it's the combination of all non-Hemu-Hemu modes starting you without any blocks and the fact that you can only match by block type. This means each round is easier to start with, and matching just by block type gives the game less working parts for the player to worry about.

In addition, I found that Score mode and Death Match mode ended up feeling functionally similar. Most of the time, the winner of the Score mode rounds wasn't decided by score – the time limit usually didn't even run out. Instead, it ended up being less about getting a good score and more about not being the first one to absolutely beef it and let your side fill up with blocks.

The base gameplay is still fun, and most of what I said about how gameplay felt in the SFC version applies here. I do, however, think it can sometimes end up on the side of being too easy (or, at the very least, not challenging enough).

Presentation & Sound

For the space they had to work with, I'd say the developers did a good job bringing out a bit of each character's… well… character. The little emotion windows for each character, while not as detailed as their SFC counterparts, are still expressive.

The artists do get to flex their skills with the detailed spritework on the pre-battle screens and ending.

The UI is clean and not too crowded, and most everything is both immediately recognizable and easy to differentiate. I say "most," because there are a few things that could've been made clearer. For example, it took me a moment to notice that the light scroll block was indeed a scroll – it looks thinner than the scroll on the dark block.

The music is a direct recreation of the SFC songs, so everything I said about those applies here. Some of them I enjoyed even more with the GB's sound.

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The final word

My skill at the game aside, this was a fun puzzle game that I enjoyed sinking a bit of time in. It had just enough in its gameplay to differentiate it from its fellow falling block puzzle games while still remaining easy to understand. I especially enjoyed the block separating mechanic, which added a little flexibility to setting up combos. The GB version's simplified mechanics make it a bit easier to get into for people bad at falling block puzzle games like me, while the SFC version is a little more challenging but also quite satisfying. If you like puzzles, then take either version of this game for a spin. In fact, I might have to check out VS mode with some friends and report back in.

On the surface

It's easy to see their very blatant differences. Rikichi is a country boy who grew up in a secluded area with almost nobody and who's aimed to be a professional from a young age. Komatsuda is a city boy who grew up in a well-off family with his very close older brother and who's supposedly always done things in half-measures.

Rikichi is adept at conversation, can lie just as easily as he can tell the truth, can be a bit cynical about things. On the other hand, when it comes to Komatsuda, what you see is what you get: he's poor at hiding his feelings, he tends to say exactly what he thinks, and he views the world in a simple but rather optimistic light. Rikichi is able to stop and assess a situation and plan; Komatsuda, well... it might not be that he doesn't do those things, but more that he can't.

Family ties

Their differences start to get more intriguing when you think about how each of them view and experience family. For Komatsuda, family is basically always a positive thing: they stick together, they support each other. Even if there's disagreements, things always work out in the end. For Rikichi, however, family is more complicated and brings up dual feelings of love and loneliness, support and self-reliance, the ideals of family should always be together and family is the most important thing vs seeing other things in life as more important or more significant than family.

In addition, the Yamada family is dysfunctional at times and almost kind of try to push or guide Rikichi into things. He was set up on the path to become a ninja at a young age, and his mother has often tried to set him up to get married. On the other hand, from what we've seen of Komatsuda's family, they tend to pull him inward; Yuusaku would've likely been okay with Komatsuda staying in their family home for the rest of his life doing whatever. I think both families want their children to be independent and successful, but their principals and the way they go about it is wildly different.

Childhood and being a child

We haven't been given any real information about Komatsuda's childhood, but we can make an educated guess because Yuusaku still treats Komatsuda like a kid at times. Whether he's reminding Komatsuda of basic things like washing himself off before coming inside or telling Komatsuda he's taking him back home "for his own good," Yuusaku doesn't always treat Komatsuda like his age. In this way, Komatsuda's almost in an extended state of childhood that doesn't show signs of ending.

(I have a lot of thoughts on Yuusaku and Komatsuda and their relationship, including Yuusaku treating Komatsuda as both a child and an adult, all of which you can read here)

On the other hand, Rikichi was often rushed out of childhood. He was rushed out of it by his parents and lifestyle, and he was also rushed out of it by his own desire to escape and see the world. For him, childhood was being stuck at home with no one else around; always practicing instead of playing; always being told "next time" or "later." There's an interesting thread related to this that runs in episodes 30-68 and 33-72. In 30-68, Rikichi refuses his father's offer to play catch because he says doing something like that in the middle of the school is embarrassing. In 33-72, he specifically stops his father from leaving home and says they should play shuriken catch. Perhaps he's afraid of being perceived as "childish," but can't help but want to be able to return to the parts of childhood that he enjoyed (or that he wishes he got to enjoy).

Their differences in action

It's interesting to see how they're foils when looking at them individually, but I think what's equally interesting is how their opposite personalities and upbringing affect how they interact with each other (or, at the very least, how Rikichi reacts to Komatsuda).

Rikichi wears many different hats — the nagging son, the role model, the professional — but in all of these, there's a hint of Rikichi being restrained and not vulnerable. Even when he gets mad at 1-Ha, for example, it tends to be brief. With Komatsuda, however, Rikichi's emotions are laid bare in such a pronounced way. This boy who isn't fit to be a ninja at all is the one who can bring out a very honest side of Rikichi.

Komatsuda makes a lot of people mad at him, but I also think Rikichi has a special ire for Komatsuda because of Komatsuda's upbringing and worldview, and how it contrasts with Rikichi's.

The younger nintama don't necessarily think of the realities of the ninja world, but sure, they're kids. But Komatsuda is basically an adult, and Rikichi has seen and heard of plenty of people Komatsuda's age dying on the battlefield because of their overconfidence, so he might be especially annoyed to hear Komatsuda talking about being a ninja with that same starry-eyed ignorance that usually only children have. This is compounded by Komatsuda's background of growing up peacefully with people who loved him, and the fact that he doesn't tend to give any reason for wanting to be a ninja other than that ninja are cool. Komatsuda doesn't understand the full depth of what ninja go through and is seemingly never able to understand it no matter what he's told, and the fact that he can continue to do so is probably something Rikichi is irritated about... and maybe secretly a little jealous of.

Future developments

I mentioned in the previous section that Rikichi's ire for Komatsuda might stem in part from the way Komatsuda approaches being a ninja. We see this come up a bit in episode 32-62, where Rikichi tells Komatsuda that people like him are the first to die on the battlefield (a comment Komatsuda promptly ignores). We also see Komatsuda witnessing a battle firsthand while with Rikichi in 17-05. I think both of these could be explored further (well, as far as the anime would allow it), especially if Rikichi became aware that resentment played a bit of a part in why he wants to drill this into Komatsuda's head. Maybe he could take Komatsuda to a battlefield, maybe even put him in the middle of it, to prove a point — but he can't help but save Komatsuda when he's in trouble.

The difference between each of their families is another topic ripe for stories. I've always thought an episode with Rikichi meeting Yuusaku would be interesting. Yuusaku isn't quite like his brother, but it seems a Komatsuda is still a Komatsuda, and watching Rikichi interact with him, perhaps with both the brothers there, would be fun. Maybe he could pick up some tips for smoothly dealing with Komatsuda while he's at it. Komatsuda has gotten a little close to Yamada family drama, like in episode 22-29, but there's plenty to be done by actually putting him right in the middle of it. Something he says — about the Yamada family seeming dysfunctional or really different than his own, about how he thinks they should get along — could be downright volatile. Especially if he doesn't understand why Rikichi gets mad at him for it, because for Komatsuda, it's not like he said anything wrong, so why should Rikichi have such an excessive reaction?

Conversely, putting Komatsuda in the middle of family drama could work more in Rikichi's favor. In episode 21-25, Rikichi runs into Komatsuda, Shinbei, and Danzou in front of an udon restaurant and they all end up eating together. When Komatsuda returns to the school, he reports back to Yamada-sensei — and it turns out that Rikichi wasn't shy about discussing family business with the group. Rikichi talking about family with someone who isn't a student and who's around his age could a chance for him to discuss it in a more personal way.

Nintama Rantarou 2, like its predecessor, is a action platformer for the Super Famicom (AKA the SNES) developed by Culture Brain, this time with some adventure game sections thrown in. In addition, it was broadcast on Nintendo's Satellaview peripheral. I don't have numbers for the sales of the first Nintama Rantarou, but they must've been favorable enough because Nintama Rantarou 2 was announced as in development a mere two months after the first game was released. Its first announced release date was January 1996, but like its predecessor, it was delayed before finally being released March 29, 1996.

And it wasn't the only Nintama project Culture Brain was up to, as a Game Boy title was released in December 1995. Development on Nintama Rantarou 2 must have co-occurred with the GB title, and it may have even overlapped with the Nintama puzzle game for the Super Famicom as that game was released only three months after Nintama Rantarou 2. It was a busy, busy time at Culture Brain — and I think it shows in this game.

At the very start, you'll notice an addition — voice clips. When you get to the title screen, RanKiriShin pop up on screen and introduce themselves as well as the game. Characters will speak out loud in menus, and during play they'll make sounds when they attack or get hit. It's not that big a change — and since it's the SFC, the audio is quite crunchy — but I think it's fun, and I'm sure it was exciting for kids to hear their favorite characters talking.

Like the first game, you can choose from Story Mode, Time Trials, and Options. Newly added for the second game is the Subgames option, which allows you to play the subgames at any time you want. Passwords have wisely been changed to appear at the end of episodes instead of on the game over screen, but Time Trials still don't save your best time between play sessions.

The game has three difficulties you can choose from in Options: Family, Normal, and Hard. Thankfully, characters now automatically dash on all difficulties. On Family difficulty, stages don't have time limits, you automatically grab onto ledges, and the store (more on that later) has a special Family-only item. On Hard difficulty, you have shorter time limits. The manual also mentions taking more damage on Hard difficulty but... you don't ever really "take damage" per se. You get hit, but there's nothing like a health meter that ticks down and gives you a game over if you run out of health.

(The decision to have ledge-grabbing be done with a button push feels a little baffling to me. Why limit such a basic function like auto-grabbing to easy mode?)

One of this game's big selling points was the increased number of playable characters, now up to six with the addition of the main kunotama trio. Characters all play mostly the same way, save a few little things. Shinbei can still perform a rolling dash, but you have to press the Y button while running instead of it happening automatically. Shinbei's also the only one who rises up while underwater instead of sinking down. Oshige has a similar attack to Shinbei: pressing Y while running causes her to do a rolling sword attack. When crossing a gap using a rope, the nintama will grab hold and shimmy across while the kunotama simply run across the top of it.

I'm of two minds of having only a few differences between character playstyles. I liked that each character's playstyle reflected their personality in the first game, but I also know it can be annoying for your favorite character to have a playstyle you just don't gel with.

As with the first game, each episode in Story Mode is based off of a story from the original series. This time there's five episodes total, all of them consisting of at least one adventure section, one action stage, and one subgame.

Episode 1: "Class Ha's Nameplate" (はぐみのひょうさつの段) Based on episode 01-29 / vol 9 ch 3-7

Right off the bat, one of the things I was most disappointed to see go was all of the art during story cutscenes, as everything's now done with mostly-static character sprites. The sprites are generally well-done (if noticeably cost-cutting, such as Doi, Yamada, and Rikichi all using the same body sprite), but it makes things feel less dynamic. The most "dynamism" you tend to get are sprites lazily sliding in from the side, a rather humorous sight.

What will you do? Choose your next action. >Look / >Examine / >Talk / >Take

The episode starts off with the first of this game's newly added adventure sections. These are adventure as in "point-and-click adventure games" a la the Monkey Island series, where the game is advanced by choosing options such as "Investigate" or "Talk." I complained that the first Nintama Rantarou game's boss battles were unintuitive even if you were familiar with the story they were based off of. Here, it's the opposite — if you know how the plot goes, then the adventure section is a breeze. Instead of having to stop and puzzle things out, most of the time you'll be progressing without having to think. And when the adventure sections are half the game, that's a problem. The adventure game menu is used for even the most basic stuff that could've been achieved with text alone, such as moving to a new location. It gives the appearance of complexity without fully committing to it. While this is a game targeted at elementary-schoolers, I don't think that means it has to be bare-bones to be solvable.

For the tutorial level, the headmaster has declared that because 1-Ha is doing so poorly, they'll have to pass a series of tests if they want to keep their name and position. As always, it's up to RanKiriShin to do all the heavy lifting to pass these tests. (Trivia time: The classes' names - i, ro, ha - come from the Iroha poem, which contains every hiragana character exactly once. Because of this, the iroha is often used as an ordering system, so i, ro, ha could be seen as equivalent to A, B, C. In this episode, the principal threatens to turn 1-Ha into 1-N; while "n" didn't appear in the original poem, nowadays it's appended to the very end — which means that turning into Class 1-N would put them at the very, very bottom).

The basics are all here, such as jumping, dashing, climbing walls, and throwing shuriken. Jumping almost feels worse in this game? At the very least, it hasn't improved from the first game. Moving around feels a little sticky, and you'll often press the jump button and feel like your input didn't fully register. Much of the game's difficulty tends to come from wrestling with the controls rather than the platforming's design requiring skill.

New to your repertoire in this game is a wooden sword that's automatically used when you press the attack button while next to something that can be hit. The exact distance you have to be for something to be a sword attack versus throwing a shuriken can be a little wonky, but it didn't cause too many problems. Returning from the last game is the art of concealment, which lets you hide from enemies. While the first game had it as a finite item you could use, this time around it's a standard action you can perform at any time.

Aside from teaching you basic gameplay, there's two more subgames you have to beat in this episode. One is a memory game of sorts, where you have to match pairs of animals that are hiding in the bushes. The twist is that you have a number of chances to "listen closely" and hear what sound the animal hiding under the bush makes before you click on it. The other subgame has you studying the enviornment and finding everybody hiding in the background. Some people are better than others at hiding… make sure your bow isn't sticking out next time, Oshige.

Your final test has you traversing to the end of a stage, but first you have to pick up a grappling hook from Shina-sensei. Shina-sensei is in charge of items in this game. Here, and a few other times in the game, she'll trade you apples that you can collect throughout the stage in exchange for an item (in this case, a grappling hook). Her actual store appears later in the game. Speaking of things that happen a few other times in the game, the layout of this stage is reused quite a bit throughout the game with minimal differences, a description which describes quite a bit about this game.

Now, the grappling hook. I can't stand using this thing as the nintama (the kunotama simply run across the rope, bypassing any difficulty). As you cross, you'll have to deal with spiky balls falling from above and crows gliding up and down. It feels difficult to anticipate the spiky balls and move out of the way, and the pattern the crows fly in require you to either constantly go back to get out of range or to get lucky in their rhythm (has there ever been a platformer where birds aren't the most annoying enemy?). Or maybe it's just me; I won't claim to be the best at action games. Luckily it shows up very few times.

"Which episode will you play?"

When you've done all that, you've cleared the episode! This unlocks three more episodes you can tackle in any order; the very last episode can't be played until you've completed the first four.

Episode 2: "Searching For Dad" (とーちゃんをさがせの段) Based on episode 01-33 / vol 11 ch 3-6

Your mission this time is to find and rescue Rantarou's dad, which involves making your way to one of Dokutake's auxiliary castles. To get a pass to this castle, however, you'll have to venture into Dokutake territory and defeat the one Dokutake ninja who's carrying a pass.

There's a much bigger focus on combat during action stages, which I personally find to be a detriment. Wolves and snakes and other critters are pretty easy to avoid, but the Dokutake ninja are out in full force and can't be ignored. When one locks eyes on you, they'll start throwing shuriken or bombs at you. This isn't too bad when you're one-on-one, but there are some especially notable sections where there's four to five enemies on screen all trying to attack you at once (a number which can make the game lag, making fights even more sluggish).

No matter how many you're facing, you'll have to deal with almost constant projectiles, and if you get in a bad spot then enemies can essentially juggle you. Enemies are temporarily stunned when hit with a weapon, so hitting them then running past is the most efficient option I found for dealing with them. Apart from often being frustrating, the constant combat also feels less Nintama-ish, as most fights the nintama get into throughout the series are won through craftiness, trickery, or dumb luck rather than fighting prowess.

"Come on in. You can buy tools and weapons here."

This is the first time you'll run into Shina-sensei's shop proper. You'll collect money throughout the game, sometimes by knocking down apples, defeating enemies, or finding them scattered throughout the episodes, but the largest portion of your earnings will come from the cash reward you get when you complete an action stage. Because of the larger number of enemies, items are actually rather useful in this game compared to last time. Returning from the first game are the fire bombs (damage enemies) and smoke bombs (stun enemies). Newly added are the banjinteki ("everybody's enemy," which runs along the ground and explodes upon enemy contact) and the churojyuuton ("insect beast release," which releases a swarm of bees that hone in on enemies).

The last item is the Family-only one I teased earlier in the post: "the headmaster's idea." When you use this item, the headmaster appears dressed as a bird, and you'll be able to grab onto him and freely fly all over the screen. This lets you skip platforming and reach high places. Its appearance - the headmaster all decked out as a swallow, with talons, beak, and wings - comes from episode 03-17.

A short adventure section takes you to the first of two underwater stages in the game. You'll have to press the A button to swim around, and you can attack the fish down here by pressing the Y button to kick them. I mentioned it earlier, but a cute little detail is that while Rantarou and Kirimaru sink to the bottom, Shinbei is constantly floating upwards and must continually be guided down.

After making your way through the water and out of the well, you run into Happousai and are thrust into a mashing game that gives you very little feedback on if you're winning (it takes about five seconds to win, though, so I guess that's fine). Rantarou's dad is found, the day is saved, and the episode ends.

Episode 3: "Illusionist" (げんじゅつつかいの段) Based on episodes 02-109~111 / vol 16 ch 1-4

"Please be careful. Unko Kusai is nearby."

This feels like a ridiculously short and easy stage, even moreso than the others. RanKiriShin pursue Unko Kusai, an illusionist that Rikichi is pursuing. After making your way through a short stage, you'll have to sneak after Kusai using the art of concealment.

Kusai is really bad at noticing people in hiding but, well, he's an illusionist, not a ninja, so perhaps that's to be expected.

"Unko Kusai couldn't help but laugh at how awful the trio were at throwing shuriken."

Though they catch up to Kusai, the illusionist puts the trio under a spell where they think they're underwater, so we get to go through another swimming section. The next time we find Kusai, he seems to be winning against Rikichi. Like in the original anime and manga, RanKiriShin need to keep messing up (throwing their shuriken at Kusai but hitting Rikichi instead, etc.) to get Kusai laughing and distracted enough that Rikichi can take him down. And... that's the end. It almost feels like a waste of an episode.

Episode 4: "The Essence of Ninja" (にんじゃのこころえの段) Based on episode 02-60 (anime original)

This is the only episode focused entirely on the kunotama, which feels like a let-down. The nintama are playable in all five stages while the kunotama are only playable in two. I would've liked to see them used more throughout the episodes, but you'll have to settle for mostly playing them in Time Trial mode.

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Ookuma Gonzaemon."

The girls' goal is to get castella for the handsome new teacher, Ookuma-sensei. First they'll have to go through the same action stage that appeared just last episode. There are a few layouts that are reused for multiple action stages, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but it really stands out when they're used in back-to-back episodes.

In town, they'll have to do tug-of-war (won by mashing A) to get a gift certificate to buy the castella they couldn't afford. Like the fight with Happousai in episode 2, you get almost no feedback on how you're doing and then it's over. With food in hand, they return to the academy and find Ookuma-sensei… but after they give him the castella, it's revealed that the Ookuma-sensei in front of them is RanKiriShin in disguise, so they take chase.

The kunotama take chase after them on a bicycle in a Mode 7 section, looking like a Super Mario Kart course. Mercifully, there's no mashing involved like there was in the first game's boat-paddling section. You only need to hold the Y button to accelerate.

After getting the castella back from the boys, the kunotama run into a ninja who wants them to retrieve a secret message that a crow stole from him. You're then dumped into an open stage and need to find the secret message. I actually rather like this part, as it requires you to explore and makes better use of the stage's layout than having to take a straight path from one end to the other (and if you really can't find the message, the ninja will tell you the general direction). Once you've located the message, you'll find it on a platform that's out of reach.

The solution here (also provided by the ninja if you can't figure it out) is to hit the crow that's flying around with a smoke bomb, which will stun it and let you use it as a foothold to reach the platform. Alternatively, people playing on Family difficulty can use the Headmaster's Idea item to simply fly up onto the platform.

Either way, I like when items can be used to solve a puzzle like this, so I think it's a shame that you really only do that in this level. I would've liked to see secrets or shortcuts or alternate paths that you need to cleverly use items to get to. I'm sure a skilled speedrunner could use the items for some sweet tech that skips parts of the stages, but alas, that's not me.

As for Ookuma-sensei... As in the anime, it turns out he was Shina-sensei in disguise. She's so cool!

Episode 5: "The Importance of a Tree's Shade" (こかげのだいじの段) Based on vol 5, ch 8

The final episode, unlocked after beating the first four. You get to play as both nintama and kunotama in this episode, which revolves around finding a pair of jewel orbs for the headmaster.

Some new action stages for each of them, though definitely not my favorites. The kunotama's stage has the game sin of punishing you for not reading its mind. When you reach the end of the stage, you'll find that you need a grappling rope… which can be gotten from Shina back at the beginning of the stage, found only if you fall off the platforms. It's not a huge deal, but it's the principal of the thing.

For their part, the nintama have to deal with fish jumping up into the air, a small annoyance that's somewhat mitigated with shuriken.

"Flowers over"... 1. Leaves 2. Dango 3. Nostrils ("nose" and "flowers" are both "hana" in Japanese... yay language-based jokes)

I mentioned earlier that knowing the story of the episode each of these is based on makes things simple, and this puzzle isn't an exception. The hint tells the trio to "answer with the word that follows the given word" and thrusts you into a quiz. Four of the five questions come directly from the manga chapter this episode's based on, so you can cheat by just taking a peek at the manga. The one that was changed was a reference to the baseball team the Chuunichi Dragons; perhaps the devs though the team was outside the realm of the average child's knowledge base.

Once you get through all that and find the jewels for the headmaster, the final challenge is finding the headmaster hiding somewhere in the stage — a mechanic that hasn't been seen since the tutorial episode. At least it got used again, unlike the animal memory game which never shows up again after its initial appearance.

And with that, the game's Story Mode is done. All that's left is to challenge the Time Trials.

Nintama Rantarou 2 - The End

The final word

A sequel should be more — improved and enhanced, with more to do, more to see. Here, the sequel feels like less. Less episodes, less gameplay, less art. The probable time crunch and resources being spread thin between multiple Nintama projects come together to make a game that feels rushed and a little underbaked.

I mentioned it in the post for Nintama Rantarou, but this game's soundtrack is identical to the first game's, so the comments about the music still apply: not the most fantastic soundtrack in the world, but not annoying and sufficiently Nintama-esque.

The switch to sprite-based cutscenes puts a bit of a damper on the game's charm compared to the first game's detailed cutscenes. On the other hand, the character sprites are wonderful during play; they move smoothly and each character has their own bit of personality come through in their animations. I've got no complaints there.

The addition of the adventure game sections drags the game down a bit, which is quite a problem when they take up a good chunk of time. The thing is that these sections could be good. A big part of being a ninja is being able to take in your surroundings and notice small details, to be able to follow clues and devise a plan based on the situation. If done right, a section based on those principles could be fun. Unfortunately, the adventure sections are instead used almost solely as a means to advance the story in ways that would've been better served with a simple cutscene.

In the end, I really want to like this game more than I do, but it's a step down from the first game in most aspects.

You can try it out yourself by using the passwords listed on this page, or you can check out the game in action with these videos. I also ripped some of the sprites and posted them here.

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Other fun tidbits

I ran across a video someone uploaded of a VHS tape showing a catalog of games coming out in the spring and summer of 1996. It was put out by a Japanese game association that organized trade shows, so perhaps it was a tape to be played on the show room floor. One of the games shown is Nintama Rantarou 2 (at ~13:14 if the video doesn't take you there). What makes it cute is that Rantarou himself voices it. "Nintama fans, video game fans, are you all doing well?" he says. Old game stuff always makes me feel fuzzy, so this was like a double treat for me.

I wanted to include as much of Demo's dialogue as possible, but given the amount of panels he appears in and Tumblr's thirty-picture limit, I had to do some trimming here and there. As a workaround, I've taken to quoting him when possible while summarizing. In addition, in order to show as much of the manga as possible, I made some edits such as cutting out panels that weren't essential. I tried to do this in a way that gives a clear and pleasant reading experience.

Volume 64

Pages 9-15, 17-48, 52 (voice only), 53, 54-56 (voice only), 57-60, 63-65, 70-72, 75, 84-86, 89-91, 93, 95-97, 107-108, 115-117, 120-122, 135-140, 144, 146-147, 153-160, 163-164, 174-175, 177, 194, 198, 201, 206, 210, 213-217, 228, 233-235, 240

The first thing Demo gets to observe is a lesson from Yamada on tonpou, the ninja art of escape. While 1-Ha sits listening in silent concentration, Demo isn't thrilled with his investigation thus far. "It's a lesson for first-year nintama, isn't it?" he asks Doi. "So why should I, a ninja whose skills are recognized by everyone, have to bother listening to a lesson like that!?" Their conversation's cut short by a yell from 1-Ha.

After being dismissed by Demo, Rantarou runs into fellow Health Committee member Fushikizou, who asks if he's seen Kou-chan the skeletal model's head. Niino-sensei had asked to borrow it for a lesson, and when Sakon and Fushikizou went to carry it to the infirmary, they fell and Kou-chan's head went flying off somewhere. While the two of them bond over the thrilling events of Kou-chan's missing head and guarding the principal from an assassin, somebody falls into the bushes behind them.

As Demo suspected, tossing the skull he found brings Koheita running to spike it — startling the person who'd approached the hole, the Dokusasako ninja Kusai Heishirou. "Where is it? In here!?" Koheita asks as he pushes Kusai down into the hole. Demo tells Koheita that he won't be able to really give a good toss unless he gets out of the hole, and Koheita happily throws his grappling hook in for Demo to grab onto.

But before that, Koheita reminds Demo that he needs to toss the skull up like he'd promised. RanKiriShin arrive with a message from Doi, and Rantarou calls out to Demo to stop — that skull he's holding is probably Kou-chan's missing head, and an attack from Koheita would shatter it. RanKiriShin then give (what they remember to be) Doi's message, and Yamada deciphers the meaning: "the assassin knows tendou chidou - how to change the sky and earth." Before he can explain further, Demo points out that Kusai is taking the opportunity to escape. To stop him, Demo tosses Kou-chan's head to the sky — and Koheita takes note and gets into spiking position. Isaku, who's walking by with Kema, sees this and calls out. Kema throws the ducky boat head he'd been holding, knocking Kou-chan's head out of the way and to safety. Koheita is satisfied either way, and spikes the ducky head. It hurtles toward Kusai, who gets his head stuck in it. RanKiriShin ask Yamada exactly what Doi meant with his message.

Since they still don't get it, Doi cuts in to explain tendou chidou to RanKiriShin. If you want to keep people's eyes off you, you should create something that pulls their eyes in the opposite direction. In other words, Kusai was simply there to direct attention away from the assassin. Knowing this, they figure the real assassin must be on the way to the principal's room.

RanKiriShin run back to the principal's room, where Heidayuu points out someone surprising running along the school's walls — Komatsuda, who was supposed to be at his family home. The letter he got asking him to return must have been fake, Shouzaemon reasons. Speculation continues: the real assassin must have asked for help from someone at Dokusasako who knows the school well, since he was able to keep Komatsuda away and infiltrate the school. Kirimaru reasons that Kusai is working on his own rather than as part of Dokusasako - and he knows, because he can smell a side gig. Demo, who's arrived at the principal's room along with Kema, figures that it's a new character — "in 33 years of serialization, there's never been an assassin in RakuRan who's been able to hide his identity and sneak into the school with such meticulous preparation!"

Doi-sensei arrives, and Rantarou asks him where the principal is. He's been hidden away, Doi says, somewhere recommended by 1-Ro, the experts at finding hiding places due to how much they play hide-and-seek. "And so," Doi suddenly shouts, "there's no point in hiding somewhere like that, you assassin!" Out from the bushes behind him pops out a rather suspicious-looking character who curses his luck. 1-Ha looks disappointed; since it's a new character, they were expecting someone amazing-looking, but it's another weirdo. Even his clothes are weird; is he wearing that because he didn't have time to change into proper clothes this morning?

The assassin shows off a few more masks before Doi asks who gave him the mission to assassinate the principal. He can't tell Doi that, of course. Kema is raring to fight, and Demo declares that he'll be the one to fight. Just as the three of them are about to lock horns, down comes Komatsuda to interrupt the battle because the assassin needs to sign in. After signing in, the assassin takes off.

The assassin finds a place to hide, but he soon finds himself swarmed by Kisanta's slugs. Following his slugs' voices, Kisanta leads the group to where the assassin is hiding. The assassin takes off again and the slugs start falling off him. But why did the slugs find him in the first place? Kirimaru offers the theory that the assassin's clothes made him stand out from the bushes, but Kisanta explains that snails mostly use their sense of smell to navigate the world. Since snails prefer to eat decaying plants and animals over live ones, they're attracted to the smell of things rotting; perhaps the snails were attracted to some gross smell on the assassin's clothes. However, 1-Ha finds the end of the trail of snails and don't know where the assassin ran off to from there.

Kema — now joined by Monjirou — comes running by. Ignoring the fight that's about to start between them, 1-Ha decides to try and track down the assassin by having Shinbei and his amazing nose follow the snails' scent. Demo catches up, his cheek still swollen from Komatsuda's attack. Monjirou looks back and casually addresses Demo, leading Shouzaemon to ask why Demo didn't tell Monjirou to speak to him more politely — Demo is, after all, older than Monjirou. "Eh?" Demo says. "Older? Me?" After thinking for a moment, he realizes: "That's right! The sixth-years are 15 years old! Incidentally, I'm 18 years old." It seems Monjirou's old man face misled Demo.

Everyone's interrupted by a yell — Shinbei found some clothes the assassin must've changed out of. According to Kisanta, however, there's two snails still unaccounted for, so they must still be clinging to the assassin. Shinbei takes off again, and when 1-Ha turn the corner, they come face-to-face with the assassin… who's poorly disguised as Yamada-sensei and who tells them the assassin ran "that way." 1-Ha is momentarily dumbfounded, but quickly bounce back. Heidayuu says that 1-Ha will go search for the assassin over there, and Sanjirou says Yamada-sensei should go act as bodyguard for the principal. When the assassin asks where the principal is, the karakuri combo cheerfully tell him that the principal is hidden over in the nintama tenements.

The assassin quickly runs into the aforementioned sign and puzzles over what exactly it says. He comes to the conclusion that whoever made the sign meant to write "Don't stand on your ankles" and steps onto the hallway on tiptoes.

It's Kusai, still wearing the ducky head, and evidently left to roam the schoolgrounds after Komatsuda got his signature. If anyone gets in the way, he'll blow everyone sky high with an explosive. Before he can do anything, however, he's brought down with a kick to the head by the leader of Dokusasako's ninja squad, Dokusasako's Strongest Ninja (or DSN, for short). It turns out that Yamada had called him here to pick Kusai up. DSN rebates Kusai for taking on an outside job.

DSN runs into his other underlings, who came to meet up with him — they even brought a change of civilian clothes for him and Kusai so they could travel inconspicuously. Unfortunately, Kusai's explosive flew in Chouji's direction and he, without thinking about it much, tossed it up for Koheita to spike. The weapon goes speeding right toward the Dokusasako crew, and they end up in an explosion; to make matters worse, Komatsuda has chased after Kusai to get him to properly sign out. The DSN abandons Kusai and tells the rest of the group they'll stop by a tea house to get some dango on the way home — his treat. 1-Ha had been watching on, and happily comment that even though the DSN had complained before that he didn't have good subordinates, it looks like things are going well now.

Kema and Monjirou, deprived of having the chance to take on any enemies, are so frustrated that they're giving off fumes. Things get even busier with the appearance of Seihachi, who has a letter for Rantarou from Naratake castle's former princess, who's now Amitake castle's princess. She first appeared in RKRN volume 7, where she was being targeted by none other than Dokusasako's Kusai and was rescued by…

Shouzaemon and Torawaka theorize that the princess who'd hidden away may have been unable to get out of her hiding place once there, and she'd have mummified over the years. Rantarou reads the letter further, and it seems that the ghosts of that princess and her husband — still searching for her — have been haunting the castle and frightening the servants recently. That means the current princess must want the nintama to find out the truth behind these ghost sightings — so, sensei! they call. Yamada shuts them down and Doi says they can't because it'll delay their classes.

A voice calls out, asking if he could go instead. The nintama turn and find Shadou-sensei… or not? Something's off. The real Shadou-sensei doesn't have that good of a physique, the nintama say, he's thinner, and he's a huge clean-freak — so he wouldn't be fine with stepping in horse poop like this supposed Shadou-sensei they're talking to is. Yamada has taken notice, and asks Shadou-sensei if he could go.

Shadou has started to sweat, but goes along with the group as they change into civilian clothes and start off toward Amitake Castle. But it won't do to have Shadou wearing his teacher's uniform — so he'll crossdress as Kageko instead and, to quell any suspicion that may arise, will play the group's mother. "By the way," Demo adds, "I'm the oldest brother."

After a series of familial incidents, the group can see Amitake Castle in the distance — but Shinbei and Kisanta announce they have to pee. While they, along with their "mother," find a place to go, they run into a familiar face: Oobe Sokuzou, a samurai who's served Amitake's princess for over sixty years. Doi and the rest of the group arrive and ask what Oobe's doing here. The princess asked him to pick the nintama up and bring them into the castle through a secret passage in order to avoid danger.

What danger? Shouzaemon begins to explain. The reason why this story about the princess and her ghostly husband is only coming out now must be because someone's trying to take over Amitake castle! If the young lord and his wife were supposed to have become ruler of the castle over a hundred years ago but are now ghosts, there's doubt that Amitake's current young lord is the legitimate lord of the castle. Shouzaemon wants to continue, but he's put such energy and intensity into his explanation that he begins to run out of air and nearly faints.

Oobe takes them to the secret passage, where one of the princess's retainers is waiting for them on the other side. Doi asks Demo to go through the passage first, which Demo replies to with, "Yes! I'd be honored to!" — after all, in a situation like this, it's the most skilled ninja who goes in first to scout ahead. After Demo, all of the nintama go in after until finally it's just Doi and Shadou. With a slip of the tongue, Shadou says "Team Leader"… and who's always talking about their Team Leader? As Doi suspected, "Shadou" was none other than Tasogaredoki's Moroizumi Sonnamon. The jig's up, so Sonnamon drops his disguise. While he's raring to fight as usual, Doi says it's not the time for that; they need to hurry up to Amitake Castle and Sonnamon can at least accomplish something there or else he won't be able to show his face at Tasogaredoki after failing his original mission.

Eventually everyone makes it to the castle and Oobe shows them where to enter. "A hidden room?" Demo asks, and Sonnamon specifies that it must be a seppuku chamber, where a castle lord would go to commit seppuku undisturbed if his castle fell. Amitake's princess arrives and Doi gets straight to the point: who is trying to overthrow the castle? The princess says it's Amitake Amitake, the current lord's cousin's son. Amitake Amitake (AmiAmi for short from hereon) implied that the current lord's father exiled the princess 100 years ago to gain control of Amitake castle, so there's doubt that the current lord has legitimate claim to the castle. In order to fuel this theory, AmiAmi has one of his subordinates pretending to be the dead castle lord's ghost and making it seem he died of a broken heart after his loved one was lost. So, if 1-Ha can catch that ghost…

But before any of that, they need to find the remains of the princess from one hundred years ago. "Perhaps the princess hid in this room?" Demo says. "Doesn't that make sense? It was made so you could commit seppuku without being discovered by the enemy, right? So only a few people would know its location. And anyone who knew probably wouldn't want to go near such an ominous room." Doi theorizes there must be at least one other exit in the seppuku chamber, since there'd need to be a secret exit used to transport the castle lord's decapitated head so it didn't fall into enemy hands. After a bit of searching and poking around, the group finds an opening that leads into complete darkness. They need someone to go in and check things out.

The former Amitake Castle lord's supposed "ghost" has appeared, but all the castle soldiers are too scared to face him… except one brave housemaid. 1-Ha has a certain feeling about who this courageous lady may be, so they all rush off to watch the situation unfold.

(Sharp-eyed readers may notice in the next picture that Demo has torn off some of his headscarf and given it to Sonnamon to keep his hair tied together — what a gentleman!)

And what about this "big thing" Demo found? Well, Amitake's princess says, let's take the paper Demo found and go watch the showdown between the ghost and housemaid. Back with 1-Ha, Amitake Amitake and the ghost have appeared… and 1-Ha are disappointed. The ghost isn't scary at all; even Shadou-sensei is creepier, they say. It doesn't matter anyway, because the ghost's opponent shows up and, as expected, it's Denko. The princess shows up with the current castle lord, Amitake Taketake, and all of the castle's soldiers have come to spectate as well.

On the sidelines, Amitake Taketake tells AmiAmi that there was no reason for all this fuss - Taketake is passing on lordship of the castle to AmiAmi. Taketake and his wife the princess will be going to the princess's former home, Naratake Castle, to strengthen the alliance between Naratake and Amitake. As for the incident 100 years ago, the paper Demo found turned out to be a letter the missing princess wrote. Shouzaemon reads it and summarizes the letter's content: "You're not really my type, Aritsutake-sama; sorry, but I'll be leaving through the secret passage. Teehee." There was no subterfuge in the first place. With that in mind, if they follow the Amitake family tree… then AmiAmi is the one to succeed Taketake. AmiAmi needs to stop the assassin he hired - and fast.

The assassin throws out his weapon — a tear gas bomb that also suffocates its victim. Ready to sacrifice himself, AmiAmi dives onto the weapon before it reaches its target - only to find out that it was just a regular tear gas bomb after all. The assassin escapes in the commotion and AmiAmi formally apologizes to everyone. It seems all has ended well, and Taketake and the princess are about to head out for Naratake Castle.

And so concludes Demo's appearances in the manga — with a little dash of character development. The anime hasn't reached this volume of the manga yet, so I'm interested to see what gets changed and what stays the same for the adaptation (which we can only hope will happen one day…).

Thank you to anyone who has checked out these posts! I hope I was able to convey all of Demo's strengths and foibles and mannerisms that make him who he is, and was able to communicate just why I fell in love with his character. He's rude, mean-spirited, selfish, and lets his pride blind him, but you always get the sense that there's something beneath all that bluster and that's what makes him so interesting.

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As always, disclaimer that I'm still on my journey of learning Japanese and so am open to corrections. I want everyone to get the most accurate picture of Demo possible.

Footnotes:

The song RanKiriShin are singing at the beginning is a play on the children's song "Akai Boushi Shiroi Boushi" (Red Hat and White Hat), written by Takeuchi Toshiko and Kawamura Kouyou in 1938. The lyrics have been changed here to be more RKRN-esque — for example, the titular red and white hats were swapped for red and white hoods like those worn by ninja.

Ono Michikaze is a calligrapher from the Heian period (794 to 1185) who's considered to be the founder of Japanese-style calligraphy. Quite a significant figure for Demo to compare himself to.