House of Ninja follows the story of a seemingly normal Japanese family with an ancient and dark history that revolves around underground sects of Shinobis. You get plunged straight into the plot as the family battles against numerous foes to rescue a politician.
The family have to deal with a variety of challenges as they try to maintain their cover as a normal family. However, their not-so-distant past comes back to haunt them as they end up doing the shinobi stuff they strived to avoid.
Most anime fans would admit that this short series of 8 episodes is an enthralling body of work that keeps the audience hooked. Each episode was short of an hour but despite being relatively long for an episode of a series, it really flies by.
The fight scenes were quite good with less emphasis on blood and goriness. There were some nice stunts and movie worthy sword fighting action that I reckon is up there with the best you can find in Hollywood.
The first 20 minutes of the series features minor bits that I reckon would tease viewers about what is to come in latter episodes. After a flashback of a few fight scenes, there wasn't as much shinobi action as you'd think.
The first three episodes were a subtle build-up of the main characters of the story. Within the family, there was looming sadness as a result of a past tragedy during a mission six years ago and it caused something of a rift between them.
The shinobi family have to deal with the government-sponsored handlers, deal with their personal demons and also their "normal people issues" like marital issues and relationships.
The mysterious end of the first season alludes to the potential release of a second season with so many questions left unanswered.
I'd give the first season two different ratings; one is from the perspective of an anime nerd and the other is from being as objective as I can. From an anime nerd point of view, I think it was a solid 8/10 as it appeals to our imagination and fantasies. Objectively, it is a 5.5/10 because I believe that a bit more could have been done with the storyline.