Fridge / Shuriken Sentai Ninninger

Fridge Brilliance

• Yakumo's tendency to run off into tangents about non-existing drama might seem weird, like when he began to monologue on episode 2 to Kasumi about his differences with Takaharu, or when he felt conflicted about making Kasumi give up her studies on episode 5. It seems rather weird for a character who's supposed to be the realist to just blindly ignore reality. It becomes MUCH clearer, however, if you realize that Yakumo is a drama-sentai character stuck in a comedy-sentai show. He's like Nobuo when it comes sentai character development tropes!
  • #28 enforces this further, when Yakumo cheats with his magic and makes everyone infiltrate a kindergarten by turning them all into toys - the others wouldn't be out of place at all, but Yakumo becomes a dragon that looks more like a high-end collectors' item, and winds up being ignored by the kids. And to think these collectors' items often say "Not A Toy" on the box!
• The whole thing with the Ninningers standing on top of their Otominin is basically what mythical ninja would do with summoned creatures (basically all the time in Naruto), which is why they even do it when the Otomonin is clearly a vehicle. Whether it has an actual driver's seat has nothing to do with it.
• Yakumo's fascination with his lawnmower, Carly, in ep. 18 may seem bizarre until you realize the British actually have a lawnmower museum.
• Yokai Franken's episode has a couple of sly references to the original Frankenstein (1931) story:
  • Franken is allowed to wander on his own, just as a huge chunk of the story was Victor's Stern Chase of the creature (the canon term for Frankenstein's Monster).
  • Franken getting a dakimakura or body pillow with an anime girl. In the original story, the creature accidentally killed a small girl by hugging her too tight...
• The Yokai with the ability to go online is Mokumokuren, the hundred-eyed demon, which is strangely appropriate considering rising concerns over online surveillance in Real Life.
• At first, it seems this series does not take place in the same universe as the movie Hurricaneger: 10 Years After, with the movie introducing a new Shurikenger while episode 43 of Ninninger featured the original Shurikenger, who died in the original Hurricaneger (necessitating 10 Years After needing a new Shurikenger). However, knowing from Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger that dead Sentai heroes can return temporarily as spirits to the land of the living and that Yoshitaka Igasaki was Dead All Along, it becomes possible that Hurricaneger: 10 Years After still took place but the original Shurikenger may've been easier to bring to the Ninningers at that moment.
  • As to why Shurikenger still had his powers, episode 28 of Gokaiger specifically showed Jetman's Gai Yuki/Black Condor transformed while Don was holding the Black Condor Ranger Key. If going by Gokaiger's theory that dead Sentai heroes can come back, then it's possible for both Shurikengers to still have their powers.
• Why is the Sixth Ranger called Starninger, not Ougonninger, Koganinger or something else equivalent to the colour gold? Kinji is half-American and his motif is Western-influenced is one thing, but again, the series name is Shuriken Sentai Ninninger. And what do Western people call the shuriken in English? Throwing star.
• Why is Takaharu's role call different from the rest? Because his father Tsumuji was meant to be the Red Ranger, as evident by Tsumuji's role call which contains the same Name/Kanji word play the other core four do.
  Tsumuji: Mimisaku Tsumuji!
  Yakumo: Todoroke Yakumo!
  Nagi: Kirameki no Nagi!
  Fuuka: Hito-hiro Kaze hana!(The Kanji for her name is the same, just said another way)
  Kasumi: Yurameku Kasumi!