Supah Ninjas Reviews

I was surfing through the channels the other day, and I came across Nickelodeon. I remember Nick. It was one of the few channels I grew up with in my childhood. The quality of the programming wasn't that good, but hey, I was a kid, I had no sense quality at the age I was at, and I'm pretty sure no other kids used to, either, unless the program was EXTREMELY bad. So anyway, I saw Nickelodeon during my channel surfing, and I decided to watch a few programs, just to know how Nickelodeon was holding up today. I had low expectations, but hey, if I used to grow up with crap like Ned's Declassified and Drake & Josh, I would probably expect them to have shows of equal quality, or perhaps slightly better or worse. I would judge the shows with an unbiased opinion, and view the shows like someone in the target demographic would.

And then I realized that even for children, the shows I watched were not very stellar.

I could make a whole list of shows I watched that were mediocre, but those are reviews for another time. Today I'm reviewing one of Nick's more recent shows, Supah Ninjas, a show about three teenagers who use ninja skills and weapons to overcome the forces of evil. Basically, plotwise, think of Power Rangers, but without the giant mechs, animal symbols on the costumes, and bright colored jumpsuits.

Here comes the most obvious flaw of the series: historical inaccuracies. Ninjas were supposed to be trained assassins hired to only search and kill with stealth, agility, and small, but reliable, weapons. In this program, the only traits the "ninjas" have that are remotely similar to real life ninjas are the black clothing and generic weapons.

The three teens that form the Ninjas are Mike Fugunaka, who finds the secret dojo of his dead grandfather UNDER HIS BED(don't ask) and is basically the whole "main character with unknown, undiscovered potential" guy you may see in many action shows aimed at a younger demographic. Owen Reynolds is his friend who jokes around and talks in slang, but is still a competent fighter. Amanda McKay basically joins the team only because she threatens to expose the secret Mike and Owen possess(being ninjas and all), and has only two purposes: Being the only girl on the team and being the crush of Mike so the show has OMG DRAMA!!!!!!1!!111! I don't find the characters enjoyable, but they're not that bad, either.

For an action show, the action isn't very good, mostly because it has to be toned down for younger audiences, so the characters fight Ninja Turtles-style. This makes most of the fights take longer than usual because of the weapons not being used for their original purpose, not because the characters are equally matched at combat skill or just plain dumb. Most of the fights in the series often involve avoiding traps/attacks, exploiting a weakness, or overcoming personal issues. This, yet again, makes the fights drag on more than usual.

Overall, this show isn't the worst show on Nickelodeon, and it isn't the worst action show I've ever seen, but it's overall inferior to the majority of Nickelodeon's better programming, same genre or not.