Warning: The following contains spoilers for Ninja Kamui, Episode 7, now streaming on Max.

Ninja Kamui's sixth episode had two key problems: first, the implication that the rest of the series' major action would rely heavily on CGI, and second, the death of a cool character far too soon. While the jury is still out on whether the former will be a blight on the series, the latter seems to have been circumvented in a not-so-clean way, but that certainly won't have fans complaining in the long run.

Last week, it was revealed that Emma Samanda was not an FBI agent, but one of the ninjas working for Auza, and the mysterious benefactor helping Higan on his mission to stop them. On the run after helping him to escape from certain death, she confessed to having a connection to Mari and worked to prepare the Gusoku Gear "Kamui" to give him the edge he needed to get revenge for her death.

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While Higan's clan continues to cull the exiled ninjas, he and Mike make their partnership official and set their sights on Auza.

How Did Emma Not Die?

Jairus Taylor of Anime News Network made a great point in their review of Episode 6 that Emma's death was extremely unsatisfying because it doesn't properly explain the connection between her and Mari. It's one thing to say that the two have a relationship, but it's another entirely to feel the weight of that bond, and there just wasn't enough to chew on, to say nothing of how quickly everything went down.

So first, the good news; Emma is NOT dead, and she explains her friendship with Mari in great detail. As for the bad news, her survival feels like a flaw of the presentation rather than a feature of the storytelling. The viewer saw the close-up of her face engulfed in flames, and there's nothing in between that shot in Episode 6 and her observing the fight in Episode 7 to explain it. If it was meant to be Higan imagining her death while unconscious, this wasn't properly conveyed.

Some clumsy directing aside, Emma's survival is a blessing, because, by this point, she's gone from a quirky side character to perhaps the most interesting figure in the story. And cleverly, the writing uses her as a means to explore not only her backstory, but Mari, Higan, and the Clan's history, in greater detail. By saving Emma from being written out of the story, the story has made Mari, the previously fridged female character, a more compelling one.

Mari's Kindness and the Organization's Radical Shift

Emma's face was badly deformed after an accident, and after being abandoned by her parents, she was taken in by the organization. Her deformity makes her an outcast, but with the tools offered to her as a ninja, she's able to become anyone she wants to be. It's such a fascinating motive for living the life of a ninja. Where others might fight out of a sense of duty, to her, it's a way of finding herself.

But Mari was the only person who encouraged Emma to reveal her true face, and told her it was beautiful because it was her "pride as a ninja". Previous flashbacks only ever showed Mari before falling in love with Higan and after they'd already become exiles, but this episode offers a glimpse of the woman in-between; a kind and prideful warrior. The cherry on top was finding out that the secret art that Emma used to save Higan was Mari's all along.

There are a lot of appreciable character moments in this episode, some of which show how the organization changed for the worse under Yamaji's command. Sure, a lot of this was already implied through previous episodes and the visual presentation isn't the best it could be here, but it was more entertaining than expected. Additionally, seeing a younger Higan afraid of being a father despite his usual stoic fearlessness was a nice touch that made him feel that much more human.

The Kamui Suit in Action

The sentiments from the previous review are much the same here. CGI isn't ideal in this series, though to its credit, the choreography has its moments and some of the visual effects compensate for the way the 3D clashes with 2D. Sadly, there are just a lot of small moments where the directing struggles to figure out where to place the camera to best frame these 3D models, leading to awkward close-ups. For example, this uninteresting shot below was held for about four seconds.

On the other hand, Lil's death was handled surprisingly brutally, even by the early episode's standards. Though the audience doesn't see him die, his charred and severed head hits the viewer like a bullet right after the opening ends. It might be an unpleasant sight for anyone prone to skipping the rather mediocre theme, but it would be a lie to say it didn't elicit an instinctive reaction of wincing and guffawing. Viewer discretion is advised for the image below in the gallery.

Ninja Kamui seriously dodged a bullet this week by not killing off Emma. With Auza pulling back its forces to reinforce and progress toward Yamaji's as-yet-unknown master plan, this might be a good opportunity for Higan and his friends to reconvene before the climax. With the animation style having changed so drastically, it's anyone's guess how effectively it will come to a close, but currently, the story is surviving by the strength of its characters, which might just be enough.

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