Ninjai: The Little Ninja

Ninjai: The Little Ninja is a Flash cartoon about the travels of a little ninja named Ninjai. Apparently amnesiac, Ninjai wanders a fantastic version of Japan, slaying "demons" in an oddly calm tone. He is accompanied on his travels by a little bird named Little Bird.

Can be viewed at: http://www.ninjai.com/chapters/


 * Animation Bump/Art Evolution: The series looks considerably better animated and drawn as of episode 6.
 * Bad Boss: Takagawa.
 * Big Bad: Thus far, Takagawa of the Red Dragon clan.
 * Bring My Brown Pants: Takagawa's reaction to a particularly frightening dream in which Ninjai appears before him and gives him a "gift"-- the warlord's own rotting, severed head.
 * Buried Alive: Takagawa's favored means of dealing with his enemies is essentially this. He doesn't bury them, but hangs them up and allows them to slowly sink into a viscous swamp then pull their (oddly intact) skeletons out after they drown and are eaten.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: The Mad Inventor in... most of his lines.
 * Creepy Monotone: YMMV, but Ninjai is always calm and speaks in a monotone. Overlaps with Dissonant Serenity.
 * Defensive Feint Trap:
 * The Dragon: Sakuri of the Red Dragon clan, who can summon an actual flying dragon.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Ninjai is, in fact, a little ninja.
 * Little Bird is a little bird.
 * Eye Scream: A particularly epic and horrific one comes from Takagawa... to himself. During his escape, Ninjai wounds Takagawa's eye. Takagawa, already off in the head and driven further into madness by Ninjai, pulls the eye out of its socket and holds it, still connected. Takagawa then looks at his own face and then... pops the thing into his mouth, optic nerve intact, and eats his own eye. How gruesome.
 * Faux Death:
 * Ironic Echo: "Don't you know... when something's funny you're supposed to laugh?"
 * Mad Scientist: Ninjai meets one early in the series and rescues him from his bungled attempt at a flying machine.
 * Quicksand Sucks: The swamp that serves as Takagawa's execution ground is explicitly stated to be quicksand, and seems to be impossible to escape on your own. It does seem to be some sort of a thick, sticky, viscous fluid and not sand, however.
 * Sanity Slippage/Villainous Breakdown: See Eye Scream's entry for evidence.
 * Took a Level in Badass: Little Bird in episode 12.