Kage Kara Mamoru

Information of Anime

For generations, the Kagemori family have been secretly protecting the Konnyaku family.  The Kagemori family consist of trained ninjas.  Mamoru Kagemori is a high school student & a childhood friend of Yuuna Konnyaku, a girl that he has to protect.  Yuuna is very clumsy & stupid.  It fact, she's very simple minded & it seems it runs in her family.  Because of this, Mamoru works hard to protect Yunna from danger.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

It looks like the series will be heavily based on Mamoru protecting Yuuna.  Because of Yuuna's slow thinking, Mamoru gets all tired out from his missions.  However, according to his family, Mamoru has a long way to good in being a good ninja.  However, it seems Yuuna has a crush on Mamoru & this is something he doesn't know.

Later on in the series, there are other girls who like Mamoru & he isn't aware of it from some of the girls.  These girls physically fight for his love really.  The show goes into harem mode until it reaches episode 11 when the love relationship between Yunna & Mamoru starts.  This is where Mamoru screws up when Yuuna confesses her love for him & he turns her down as if it was a joke.  As a result, she got into an accident & it cost Mamoru's duty; leading him to dismissal of protecting Yunna.  He gets replaced by Hinomori Tasuke, who disguises himself as Mamoru to protect Yuuna.  However, things look bad as Mamoru returns to the village clan of Kagemori.

The Tasuke clan, which has served the Kagemori clan for many years, decides to turn their back on the Kagemori clan & steal their secret tome scroll.  Using Yuuna as bait with Hinomori beside her, Mamoru is given the task to protect Yuuna once again.  Plus, he takes the secret tome scroll with him.  With the help of the other girls, Mamoru defeats Tasuke & Yuuna decides to become a more levelheaded girl that will protect Mamoru after she learns about his duty.  However, fate would have it as she slips on a banana peel & loses her memory about the incident, Mamoru's secret protection, & her confession to Mamoru.  This is how the show ends as everything is returned back to normal.

My Personal Review

Kage Kara Mamoru is basically a slapstick anime comedy with a love story.  This is a harem anime also.  Personally, I can't recommend or suggest watching this since it's not a very strong anime series.  Although it's got an interesting secret protection ninja theme, it's not well made.  If you like silly love story comedy with some harem on top, maybe you should check this out.

Animation

This show really gave me the impression that this is from the early 90s.  It's very old school.  The character design is on the cute side.  In fact, it almost looks like you are watching a kid's show instead.  The faces are round & chubby & the eyes look so simple.  It's not very well drawn for details, but it's good enough. 

The colours are very dull & fuzzy.  I'm not sure if it's due to the source that the fansubbers got it from.  It's looks so dull that it makes the surround look realistic.  However, the backgrounds can't be said the same.

The backgrounds are very simple with very little details.  Like the character designs, it does give you the feeling that you are watching a kid's show.

In terms of the animation movement, the flow is quite fast paced.  Mainly because this is a ninja themed anime.  However, the fast blurring movements look too slow.  It's more like a walking pace instead.  Nevertheless, it fairly smooth & easy on the eyes; especially scenes where flashes on the screen occurs.

Sound       

It sounds so old school too.  The music & sounds effects may the anime sound like it came from the early 90s.  It doesn't give you the impression that this is a 2006 anime series.

The seiyuus are ok so far as they play their roles quite well.  Yuuna really sounds simple minded & Mamoru's voice from regular high school student to ninja isn't bad.  He does have that stupid tone that fits him with his geeky glasses.  However, when he's a ninja, his voice does sound cool, but it still sounds the same as his geek voice.  Watching more of the show, I started to feel this wasn't an 2006 anime series again.  I think it's because of the animation designs that really giving me that impression.

Story

Almost 90% of the show has Mamoru is protecting Yuuna from danger.  This is based on an agreement between the Kagemori family & Konnyaku family from 400 years ago.  The head of the Konnyakus asked the Kagemoris for their protection service.  Also, there are love factors here since a lot of the girls like Mamoru; making this a harem anime.  The surprises are predictable & you pretty much know from the start that all the girls like Mamoru.  The show pretty much doesn't have a solid plot until it hits episode 11, which is the second last episode.  Personally, this is a major problem with the show as it gets going very close to the ending point.  Not only did the plot suffer, the ending did as well.  After Yuuna's important speech which ends with her favourite food, everything goes back to square one.  Although it was a happy & somewhat complete ending, I wasn't too satisfied with it as I hope for the show to pull off something that won't have been done in other anime shows before.

Overall Conclusion

Kage Kara Mamoru seems to be good with a slow start.  However, it gets boring as it runs into the same things & starts throwing in things are the much bizarre than the ninja protecting agreement.  With little amount of shows with present time ninjas in them, this show is different from what's out there these days.

Kage Kara Mamoru gets a grade of six out of ten.  Despite it's comedy, the show doesn't reach it's main plot until the last two episodes.  Originally, I had a lot of potential for this show as I hoped to see the protection theme taken to new heights.  However, it didn't happen as the ending went into a loop.  It was almost all pure harem comedy with no plot.