Banana-nana-Ninja!



"In a World where a banana can be a ninja, one extraordinary little banana -- is a ninja!"

Banana-nana-Ninja! is a Flash cartoon based on the adventures of Baninja, a masked banana on a crusade to save his fellow sentient foodstuffs with his banana ninja skills. Created by "Umbrascitor" in 2007 and launched on the web in January 2009, the series comprises animated shorts made for its own canon storyline, and a number of Original Character Battle Tournament events (such as "Battle of the Elements" and the "Feast Master" story arc).

The initial story arc, "Banana Shop of Horrors," introduces Baninja and his best friend/sidekick Seppuku (who often ends up impaled or otherwise gravely injured) on their first foray into the "outside world" beyond their Clan Hideout. They get a craving for ice cream and stumble upon a sundae parlor called The Happy Banana. When Baninja learns that the Happy Banana parlor isn't a day spa for bananas, the banana snaps and Hilarity Ensues. Baninja hops on a bus to the grocery store; encounters a starving demon-child in a grocery store; fights The Butcher, The Baker, and The Candlestick Maker; and finally takes on the manager of the PriceCo Supermart.

Further story arcs (based on OC battles and tournaments) involve the clan taking an interplanetary bounty hunting mission, Baninja entering a cooking contest, and Baninja's ongoing pursuit of a land-dwelling squid. The next series of canon episodes, "Apples and Origins," are said to focus on how Baninja (and presumably the rest of the clan) came to be alive. And a ninja.

The series borders on What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids? as the often adorable banana graphically kills humans on his quest to save his fellow bananas from a "hot fudgey-coated fate." Action scenes are reminiscent of Samurai Jack, and the world setting evokes the Invader Zim-esque mentality that Humans Are Morons. Also, Humans Are Bastards. The Flash animation is often brought into the "real world" through live-action video clips, ala SpongeBob SquarePants.

The Banana-nana-Ninja! website also features a daily fortune cookie generator; a weekly webcomic (now on hiatus) starring Haiku, a watermelon who only speaks in haiku, an "Ask Baninja!" Q&A column in the spirit of Ask a Ninja, and a Flash game that pits the BNN characters against each other in quick-draw battles.


 * Baninja's Katanana has an Absurdly Sharp Blade.
 * Adult Child: Baninja comes across as a formidable, honorable warrior with the brains of SpongeBob or The Tick (animation).
 * Amusing Injuries occur in most episodes involving Seppuku.
 * Anthropomorphic Objects / Animate Inanimate Objects: They are the basis of the entire series. Most of the main characters are martial-arts fruits.
 * Anti-Hero
 * Art Evolution: The level of detail and general animation technique have improved significantly since the first episode.
 * is an Anticlimax Boss.
 * Sudoku is a Badass Bookworm, a Child Prodigy and a Gadgeteer Genius. If you have any doubts, he will hack your address from government databases and turn you into a pie with a Transformation Ray.
 * Badass Family describes the whole fruit ninja clan.
 * Big Bad: I.R. Kostlowski, the pencil-pushing manager of the PriceCo Supermart.
 * But Wait! There's More!: is used by Sudoku in a pitch for the Omni-Functional Kitchen Gadget.
 * Boss Battle: The Rub-a-Dub-Dub squad, Kostlowski, the Feast Master Champion.
 * Calling Your Attacks: SAAAAAAALT LASER!
 * Does Not Like Shoes: Actually, it's difficult to tell. Sometimes Baninja's stick-figure legs are shown with shoes or tabi boots during a Super Move Portrait Attack.
 * Chef of Iron: Sumo Baker
 * Closeup on Head: In World of the Damned Episode 2, a closeup on Seppuku's face pulls back to reveal a volcano monster looming behind him. Also, Banana Shop of Horrors Part 6 parodies this trope in a variety of ways during a tense conversation.
 * Dutch Angles are sometimes used in the animated comic episodes of Feast Master.
 * Everything's Squishier with Cephalopods: Baninja has had a long-standing rivalry with a land-dwelling squid, for reasons as yet unexplained.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin
 * Eyedscreen
 * False Camera Effects
 * Fantastic Voyage Plot: As seen in Seppuku's part in the World of the Damned storyline.
 * Fictional Counterpart: The PriceCo Supermart is a parody of Wal-Mart, CostCo, etc. The Feast Master tournament is an intergalactic Iron Chef.
 * Floating Continent: In the "World of the Damned" story arc.
 * Fourth Wall Mail Slot: Ask Baninja!
 * Fun with Subtitles: In the Feast Master story arc where Deadpool is a guest judge, he plays his characteristic role of Fourth Wall Observer and gripes about his subtitles being the same color as those of Baninja. After that, he gets his own word balloons (the only word balloons ever used in the entire series).
 * Fundamentally Funny Fruit: It's a banana with a sword. How much more phallic can you get?
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom: Haiku Melon gains these when he's about to unleash his Psychic Powers.
 * Hammerspace: In a character reference found on deviantART, Word of God says Seppuku keeps his sword here.
 * Heroic Sociopath
 * High-Pressure Blood
 * Holy Backlight
 * Humans Are Bastards that have the audacity to eat food rather than dirt and sunlight.
 * Humans Are Morons: They are also child abusers, mindless killers, and bad drivers.
 * Improbable Weapon User: The Butcher of PriceCo, the Sumo Baker and the Candlestick Maker use chicken bones, magical baked goods and candle-chucks, respectively.
 * Incredible Shrinking Man: Seppuku in World of the Damned Episode 3
 * Ice Cream Parlor of No Return: The Happy Banana parlors that serve banana-based desserts.
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja
 * Ka...me...ha...MUFFINS!
 * Killer Rabbit: The banana ninja can be cute and lovable — but he will dismember you if you even think about eating him.
 * Lampshades standard trope usage at every turn.
 * Lens Flare
 * Lethal Chefs abound in Feast Master.
 * Baninja gives this trope a twist in Vol. 3.
 * Literal-Minded: Baninja is naive to the ways of the "outside world" and misunderstands concepts such as "hopping on this bus".
 * People are Made of Explodium at the end of Banana Shop of Horrors Part 4.
 * Baninja competes against a Mad Scientist in Feast Master.
 * Meaningful Name: Baninja is a banana who is a ninja. Seppuku regularly gets impaled. Haiku Melon speaks only in haiku. Sudoku is a Child Prodigy. Master Fuji and Granny Smith are apples. Grasshopper is a grasshopper.
 * Mercy Kill
 * Moral Myopia
 * Crazy amounts of Dakka between Haiku and a mercenary in World of the Damned.
 * Morph Weapon: The Omni-Functional Kitchen Gadget
 * Motion Blur
 * Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Feast Master Champion
 * Multi-Take Cut: When Baninja pokes Sumo Baker in the navel, producing a High-Pressure Blood torrent that blasts Baninja away.
 * Musical Episode: Feast Master Volume 5
 * is a One-Winged Angel.
 * From a Soul Jar to a Humongous Mecha
 * ... that is Multi-Armed and Dangerous.
 * Never Mess with Granny Smith or she'll strangle you with her Prehensile Hair.
 * Feast Master opens with a live-action Nightmare Sequence.
 * Old Master Fuji
 * Battle of the Elements is primarily an Overly Long Gag.
 * Pan and Scan
 * Parody Informercial for the Omni-Functional Kitchen Gadget
 * People Puppets: Seppuku uses Kyra's nervous system as an antenna to broadcast a distress call to Baninja in World of the Damned Episode 3. She is zombified during this period and speaks the radio transmissions aloud.
 * Psychic Powers: Haiku, the clan's resident spiritual guru, can levitate, teleport, use telekinesis, and shoot Eye Beams.
 * Puns and Gallows Humor all over the place in Master Fuji's Fortune Cookie.
 * Punny Name: Pretty much all of the main characters' names, as well as I.R. Kostlowski (the PriceCo Supermart manager) and Kikyotushi.
 * Quip to Black: "Let's go shopping!"
 * Rule of Cool
 * Rule of Funny
 * Baninja is all about the Serious Business.
 * Show Within a Show: "Kikyotushi: The Suburban Ninja" is like a cross between The Itchy and Scratchy Show and Jackass, and is filmed in live action. A guy dressed as a "street clothes" ninja attacks unsuspecting people on the street and in their homes. The fruit ninja clan watches the show, but they don't seem to like it much.
 * Sidekick
 * Smoke Out by cutting open a bag of flour while fighting Sumo Baker.
 * Sorry I Left the BGM On so loud you could hear it in the Happy Banana dining area from the manager's office.
 * Split Screen
 * Starfish Language: Baninja's pet, Grasshopper, speaks in random clicking noises, which are subtitled.
 * Strange Syntax Speaker: "I am a melon / No squishy brain up in here / And thus — no headshot!"
 * Status Quo Is God: At the end of Feast Master, after Baninja has spent six episodes trying to persuade the viewing audience not to eat bananas,.
 * Sting
 * Super Move Portrait Attack: Most notable when Baninja does a Flying Kick.
 * Swiss Army Weapon: The Omni-Functional Kitchen Gadget that Sudoku gives to Baninja to help him win a cooking contest
 * Sword Fight
 * Many Talking Heads shots
 * The Butcher of PriceCo
 * Theme Music Power-Up
 * "Aww man, this really sucks!" —Jazz Spandex
 * Thou Shalt Not Kill mudkipz.
 * Throwing Your Sword Always Works against candle-chucks.
 * A Transformation Ray is Sudoku's weapon in the Dueling Ninjas game.
 * Turned Against Their Masters: Baninja fights for the rights of sentient foods in a world dominated by humans.
 * Video Game: Dueling Ninjas, the gameplay of which is based on Samurai Kirby.
 * Villainous Breakdown: When Baninja breaks Kostlowski's pencil.
 * Your Soul Is Mine: When Gordon Ramsay dies after eating Baninja's "Dirt and Sunlight Souffle."
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Played for Laughs when Sudoku prints out a Goggle Map.
 * What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: High-Pressure Blood, dismemberment and a general disregard for human life are to be expected in any ninja franchise. There are also instances of child abuse and phallic humor.