All right, so. Some time back, I asked if you guys would like to see an analysis of Ninjago where, instead of criticising it for handling Asian culture badly, I talk about what it does well. A fair number of you said yes, and so here it is!
Full disclosure: I live in Asia, but not Japan or China. I am of East Asian descent, however, and have visited both of those countries quite a bit. All that to say that I'm not speaking for all East Asians in this analysis, or even all of the East Asian diaspora. This is just the opinion of one Asian Ninjago fan.
Also, for this analysis, I will cover mostly pre-Dragons Rising Ninjago. DR is great, but I feel that with the Merge, the showrunners have taken the deliberate step to move Ninjago further away from its Asian influences.
Lastly, though I do it myself a lot, I do dislike the use of Asian as a shorthand for East Asian, because obviously they aren't interchangeable. Asians include South Asians and Southeast Asians, among others. So from here on, I'll use EAsian to refer to Chinese/Japanese culture (explicitly Korean culture is pretty much absent in Ninjago).
To get the negative stuff out of the way: yes, I'm fully aware that Ninjago's roots are in that particular brand of Orientalism where EAsian culture is exoticized and put on a pedestal, but not to the point where the show's designers even bothered to differentiate between Chinese and Japanese, a kimono and a qipao. The ninja are ninja in name only, with little resemblance to historical ninja. And it is a North American show dressed up in EAsian clothing, with light-haired ninjas bearing decidedly non-EAsian names like Lloyd and Zane. (You should see how their names are butchered in their Chinese and Japanese transliterations. To give you an idea, in Chinese Lloyd is 劳埃德 LáoĀiDé. Yeah, nothing like Lloyd exists in Chinese.) Don't even get me started on what passes as EAsian dragons in this show!
But, once you accept that this is a fantasy and not a historical documentary, everything becomes much easier to handle. And honestly, in Western fantasy, I've never seen anyone complain about the lack of cultural accuracy. So the Lord of the Rings was influenced by Nordic sagas but the Rivendell Elves don't look or behave like any of the actual elves of Nordic myth? Who cares.
Also, the archetypal ninja in black garb wielding shurikens? That's fantasy too. Historaical ninja didn't wear black exclusively, and certainly not head to toe black with the mask and all. They dressed to blend in with the common people, who were farmers, so they wore a lot of earth tones. And they definitely didn't use shurikens. The black outfit came about when the stories of the ninja were dramatized on stage, and actors wore full black to seem invisible against the stage backdrop. (If you've ever seen the Ninjago bunraku puppet show at Legoland, the puppeteers dressed in ninja garb are some of the most accurate stage ninja ever.)
I'm sure, too, that by the end of my post someone will be raring to get in the comments talking about how other Western media like Avatar or Kung Fu Panda or whatever does EAsian culture as well or even better than Ninjago. If you're one of these people, save it. I'm not here to compare which Western production gets EAsian culture better. I'm here to talk about Ninjago and how it actually handles EAsian culture better than most people give it credit for.
Now that the usual criticisms are out of the way, let's get to what Ninjago does well:
1. The lore and setting of the early seasons
Say what you will about the golden weapons, the First Spinjitzu Master, and Wu and Garmadon, but all of these are classic Chinese/Japanese fiction tropes. Any Asian watching this will find the story beats all very comfortingly familiar. And, the early seasons made the relatively unusual (at least in the world of Western cartoon media) decision to place most of the action in an Asian rural setting, which is something much of Asian media tends to feature.
And yes, it's odd that the ninja train in a monastery, but it's an obvious nod to the warrior monk culture a la Shaolin Temple. Ninjago as a whole actually reads far more Chinese than Japanese, despite being ostensibly about ninja, so once you realize that, it's actually quite impressive how Chinese it is.
2. The music
I am actually constantly amazed at how authentic the Ninjago Overture sounds. Granted, again it's Chinese instead of Japanese, but it is so amazingly good Chinese music. I could probably put it on for my elderly relatives and they wouldn't bat an eyelid. Special mention to the opening festival music in the first episode of Sons of Garmadon. I could put that on any commercial during the Lunar New Year period and it would fit right in. Mad props to Jay Vincent and Michael Kramer. Their presentation of the instruments used in Ninjago's score is far and away my favorite part of the 10th Anniversary video, as it only served to deepen my appreciation of how they tried to incorporate so many different instruments from different Asian cultures into the soundtrack. If you haven't seen it, go watch it, it's absolutely insane. They deserve all the awards.
3. The Confucian values
This might sound incredibly odd, but Ninjago actually embodies some Confucian values in ways that I haven't seen in a lot of Western shows.
Firstly, the respect for hierarchy. Of course, the ninja have the deepest respect for Master Wu, but they also show automatic respect for anyone superior to themselves, whether it's in age, power, or rank. The most recent examples come from their attitudes (especially Lloyd's) towards Egalt and Rontu, and the arc dragons. Even if they have to disagree, they do so with the greatest tact and politeness, because that's what we gotta do with our superiors.
Secondly, the emphasis on hard work and merit. The ninja might be elemental masters, but boy do they have to work for their powers. They could have been just born with their powers, but no - the show decided to do a whole arc about unlocking true potential (potentials, now). And after that, they still had to work to improve/maintain their powers. Season 11 might be one of the weakest seasons, but the opening where Master Wu is exasperated with what he perceives as the ninjas' laziness - that is peak EAsianness right there. Ask anyone with a Chinese parent.
4. The architecture and festivals
"Bruh," I can hear you thinking, "what's so special about the architecture in Ninjgao City? It's just pseudo-EAsian pagodas and roofs slapped on to skyscrapers, no?"
Bruh, you've just described most modern Chinese cities. They've absolutely nailed it with the Ninjago City skyline. The Sons of Garmadon intro (and most of what we saw of Ninjago City in that season) was set in what could have been Hong Kong, or Tokyo or Shanghai, and it really made me feel like hey, our part of the world is finally being properly represented in a Western cartoon.
The festivals, too, are pretty close to what we'd have come up with if we had been asked to create a fantasy EAsian festival. I've mentioned how Ninjago brings out some Confucian values like I've never seen, and the Day of the Departed takes it to another level. It's not Dia de los Muertos dressed up to look Chinese, like I thought it'd be, though obviously there are many cultures with a day dedicated to honoring the dead. In Chinese culture, there is a Qingming festival, where people get together to clean the graves of their ancestors and refresh the offerings to them. The Ninjago version obviously doesn' involve grave cleaning, but it does gets actually fairly close to ancestor worship, with its emphasis on quietly spending time with family to honor the dead. And the concert is pretty similar to the performances put on during the Hungry Ghost Festival. If this was all just a coincidence and the writers never meant for the Day of the Departed to look that Chinese, well, it really coulda fooled me.
I could probably think of more, but these are what come to mind for me when I think of how Ninjago does EAsia well. I mean, it's clearly got to do well enough in China for the entire Day of the Departed special to be remade for the Chinese market, and it didn't get there by being disrespectful to their culture. China's Legoland now of course embraces Monkie Kid as "their" Lego IP, and leave Ninjago to a somewhat less enthusiastic Japan to claim as their own. But before Monkie Kid, Ninjago did double duty in representing both of these cultures, and I'd like to say it did a pretty decent job of it.
If you are one of the new people following me for the 15th anniversary one fanart per season project: hello! I'm very sorry if the quality (and style) of the art has varied throughout the series - I've never done a major project like this before where I'm producing art on a regular basis. Usually I just draw whatever when the mood strikes me, and pretty slowly at that. So I'm sorry if you expected something different! I hope to eventually go over all of them and rework them to a better standard. But for now, I just want to finish the whole project lol.
Didn't think I'd be doing another Day of the Departed piece so soon! Since I did a redraw of the poster previously, I decided to go with an actual scene from the show - except when I went to look up a reference, I found that this scene where Cole takes the Yin Blade was never actually shown. So here's my interpretation of it.
Gonna take a short break from this 15th anniversary project to finish my DotD fic before posting the next season, which I believe is Hands of Time.
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As always, all other posts from this series can be found in the #dragonform15th tag below.
Here we are! Season 4 Part 1 reactions in no particular order(be warned, this is gonna get long).
Spoilers under the cut:
Ooh I like that they're split up, though why is Cole alone in the monastery? I think?
Ooh more about Jay's loss of memory!
The Administration wiped his memories? But why?
And how did they already know his name?
FAKE-CATIONS this is hitting way too close to the bone
And JAY'S BACK
Wait, not all of him
HE COULDN'T CATCH UP TO MR SLOWTHERS
HIS MEMORIES ARE COMING BACK AT INCONVENIENT TIMES i'm dying
That is quite the entrance, Zane!
Wait, he draws now?
What is with this 180 in writing Zane
And what's with sidelining Pixal now
You'll never get me to believe Riyu was in any danger
Wait, why would a vaccine suddenly give Riyu a glow/grow-up?
And sword skills now?
And an axe tail!?
They NAILED young Lloyd's bratty personality, and it's SO GOOD to hear Jillian's voice again. Also it feels like the most natural thing in the world somehow
Why must all the ninja have shitty parents? - Zane excepted, of course, and possibly Arin
And why is it more often than not a dad complex?
Though I do appreciate that they tried to explain why Frak's dad behaves the way he does
Snake racism in Ninjago lol
The writers REALLY wanted to comment on colonial pillaging
Now THAT'S Cole, talking to himself/things/animals that can't answer
The baddies should just learn not to put Cole in prison, because he's just gonna bust himself out. That's the second time he's done that now
Aaaand he got caught again. Oh well
NONONONO LITTLE ACORN PERSON NOOOOOO
The Ritual of Unrooting. THE RITUAL OF UNROOTING
I can't believe they WENT THERE with all of the Lloyd emotional torture. Am I dreaming? Is this fanfic!?
The comparison of Lloyd's leadership to Cole's is a bit of a stretch, given that the show barely touched on Cole's leadership of the team at the start. It feels like the writers know Cole was supposed to be a leader, so they keep referencing it, but it feels like they're referencing stuff that happened off-screen because we never really saw it at all.
That said, this coming from Evil Lloyd really reinforces my headcanons regarding the relationship between Lloyd and Cole
The way Evil Lloyd keeps bring up Lloyd's mistakes, and instead of denying each one, Lloyd just says: "I know." He's said all this to himself countless times. He knows.
I need to make a separate post just on this ritual part, but it makes me feel that there is a lot of potential in exploring the Ninja as adults
Ok so Beatrix is marching on Imperium... and she decides to bring Cole with her? Cole, the elemental master of breaking himself out of imprisonment?
Yup. Yup he did. And now he's defending Imperium as a one-man (one golem?) army
I love how they're all converging on Imperium!
THE NINJA ARE BACK TOGETHER
I got really confused that the other ninja didn't all get back their powers once they felt Lloyd's presence, but -
Oh WOW Lloyd's a dragon. I mean I already knew about the Draconus forms, but I didn't expect it to get introduce like THAT
Somehow Draconus form doesn't seem like all that
Lloyd's voice is... weird
But I suppose it portends an older, more mentor-ish Lloyd
THEY'RE ALL HERE.
Have I ever said how I love the Nya and Sora pairing? Their personalities and dynamics work so well together
Kai get to FI-YAAAHH so all is right with the world
Love how Cole greets each of his friends as they rally around him
Now they're all dragons!
Well, that didn't last long
How did Cole pick up that wall section and seal up the wall again? Is he able to control metal now? Though it does kind of make semse since metal ores are part of the earth... hmm...
Beatrix fusing herself with her mech to becone something organic and therefore not contollable by Sora, is a nice touch
Though when/how she could've done that is kina weird to think about
Finally, Arin redeems himself
And the fact that he's the only one with no elemental power, and therefore the only one who can safely hold the Weapon of Desolation, is a really nice touch
Though, why is it that when Cole touches it he just gets power-ups into his golem form?
Setup for Season 4 Part 2! Can't wait
There you go. S4P1 is just A++++++++ no notes. Though it's really jarring to think about how the writers went from barely seeming to know how to write the characters, to suddenly writing them like fanfic from the most obsessed fan ever.
Ok, I'm really going off to write that post about the ritual, because that part went really, really hard.
I forgot this came before Day of the Departed, oops!
Got really lazy when it came to the background, heh. One of these days I'll get around to fixing this entire series and reposting them.
Anyway, I just wanted to depict this moment between Jay and Nya, because scenes like these are what gives the show its heart.
Next is Day of the Departed, after which I might take a break, because churning out these pieces every week is getting really tiring. Actually, I might just finish up my Day of the Departed fanfic first, because that's taken long enough! We'll see!
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As always, the rest of this series can be found under the #dragonform15th tag below.
There were so many great moments from this season that I had a hard time deciding, but in the end I settled on the battle between Jay and Cole. It was such a great way to raise the stakes, and to resolve the frankly ridiculous rivalry that had risen between them.
And ever since I read @melinaforfun 's excellent comics, specifically this one, I knew I wanted to redraw it. So here it is!
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I'm not posting the previous art in this series, but you can see them in the #dragonform15th tag below!
So I saw a post on Reddit about how Cole could've used Airjitzu to save himself from a potentially fatal fall here. It sparked a whole discussion about how the ninja were nerfed. I showed the post to kiddo, who thought the ninja had just forgotten all about Airjitzu. I told him the canon explanation that the ninja had decided not to use Airjitzu because it came from dark magic.
He then said, maybe Cole didn't use Airjitzu here because the ninja wouldn't be friends with him anymore if he did. I said the ninja wouldn't do that - they'd probably rather see him break the rules to save himself, than to lose him altogether.
Then I got to thinking... Cole was the one who had fought Yang, found out about his backstory and how dark magic had corrupted what was once a great master and possibly even a good man.
What if... Cole was the one who had made the others promise not to use dark magic? After the events of the Day of the Departed, I could see him vowing never to use dark magic again, for fear that it would eventually corrupt them like it did Yang.
If so, then at this point, Cole was actively refusing to use Airjitzu to save his own life. He would quite literally rather die than use dark magic again.
I haven't forgotten my Day of the Departed rewrite! As a matter of fact, I've almost finished it, but was just holding on to the other chapters in case I wanted to edit them. So here's chapter 7!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
The concert was coming to a close. The grand finale this year was timed to coincide with the peak of the eclipse. The stage lights would dim enough to let the audience light their lanterns and raise them to the moon, in a symbolic gesture of yang against the darkness of the yin. Then, as the eclipse passed, the whole event would conclude with a fireworks show, and everyone could go home.
The end of the concert by itself would normally be something that Lou looked forward to every year, the culmination of the day’s festivities. This year, with the eclipse, it was set to be the memory of a lifetime.
So why did he feel so - afraid?
For the hundredth time, he peeked out through the curtains, his eyes scanning the crowd for he didn’t know what. The last act had just taken the stage to thunderous cheers. The moon was almost completely obscured, casting the world beneath in an intense green glow.
“Why the long face?” Dareth’s voice intruded on his thoughts. “Our act’s over. You don’t need to keep acting like we’re going on for the first time.”
“I… don’t know,” Lou said slowly. He still hadn’t been able to shake the feeling that he was missing something. He was about to let the curtain drop when something in the gloom beyond the edge of the crowd caught his eye.
Another… crowd?
He squinted, confused. “Dareth,” he said in a hoarse whisper. “What is that?”
The manager of the Royal Blacksmiths stuck his head through the curtains to get a better look. When he withdrew, his face was white as a sheet. “Stone warriors,” he gulped. “A whole army of ‘em!” He clutched Lou’s arm. “We gotta get out of here!”
“What? What about the others? The concert?” Lou protested, but Dareth’s panic had put him beyond reason at this point. In fact, he barely seemed to notice that he was pulling Lou behind him as he ran backstage, out of the concert and into the night.
*****
The inky darkness appeared to have blotted out not only the moon, but the stars as well. Nya flew the Bounty lower than usual, using its onboard navigational systems and her own limited ability to see the landmarks on the terrain beneath them.
As they flew over Ninjago City, they heard the booming thud of the music before the concert even came into view. When it did, however, they were shocked to see not only the massive crowd that had turned out for the concert, but also what looked like an equally massive army of Stone Warriors descending slowly upon the unsuspecting celebrants.
Jay pointed out two figures heading away from the concert. “Hey, isn’t that Dareth?” he exclaimed. “And - Cole’s dad?”
“Dareth!” Lloyd yelled. The self-styled Brown Ninja looked around him in confusion, before he finally thought to look up at the flying vessel slowing to a hover above him.
“There are Stone Warriors coming towards you!” Lloyd shouted, waving in the direction of the approaching army. “You need to stop them!”
“Me? Why can’t you do it?” Dareth hollered back.
“We need to save Cole!” Lloyd responded.
Beside Dareth, Lou gave a start, as if he had been jolted by a sudden realization. “Cole!” he exclaimed. He grabbed Dareth by the shoulders and shook him hard. “Dareth, you heard him. You can stop the Stone Warriors! Let the ninja go!”
Dareth straightened and puffed out his chest. “Why, of course. You can count on the Brown Ninja!” He waved the Bounty off grandly, his previous fears completely forgotten.
As the Bounty vanished into the dark sky, Lou turned to his companion. “You, uh - you do have a plan?” he asked, somewhat apprehensively.
Dareth’s brow furrowed as he thought hard, giving the impression that he was unaccustomed to such strenuous mental activity. Then, he snapped his fingers. “The Helmet!” he cried.
“The… helmet?” Lou echoed, puzzled. But Dareth had again grabbed him by the arm and was now hauling him in the direction of the museum. He let himself be dragged along, torn between his worry that the Stone Warriors would reach the concert before they did, and his fear for Cole’s safety.
And somewhere, behind both of those, was a sense of deep guilt and confusion at having somehow forgotten his son.
*****
“There it is,” Nya announced. “The Temple of Airjitzu, dead ahead.”
“Did you have to say that today?” Jay asked plaintively.
“Say what?” Nya responded flatly, with the air of a teacher staring down a misbehaving student.
“You know, dead ahead? Dead… departed… and today is…” Jay ran out of steam. “Aw, forget it.”
They all gazed at the temple just faintly visible in the distance. No one wanted to voice it, but the thought was in all of their minds: what if they were too late?
It was Zane, ever level-headed, who broke the silence. “We need a plan. It would not be wise to go in unprepared.” He turned to Morro. “You mentioned that you would lend us your blade. However, there’s only one of you, and we are up against multiple adversaries, each of them with their own Departed Blade that renders them almost invincible.”
“That’s right,” Lloyd cut in. “While you’re busy fighting one of them, we won’t be able to hold off the others for you.”
Morro held up his weapon thoughtfully. “You do have a point,” he conceded. “I maybe didn’t think this through.” A slow smile spread across his face. “Then again… we do have one other advantage. And if we play our cards just right, this Day of the Departed might still be a day for celebration.”
*****
Cole paused in a hallway to catch his breath. It was a weird feeling: do ghosts need to breathe? Did that mean he wasn’t dead? Or was he becoming ever so slightly more solid? He wasn’t sure, but thinking about it helped to keep himself from spiraling into an endless loop of what-ifs.
He turned a corner and found himself face to face with two of Yang’s disciples. “Um… hey?” he tried.
They went for their weapons and lunged at him, and though he dodged them with ease, he knew he couldn’t last long with his movement limited by the chain that still connected his wrists. Well, if it worked once…
“Hey, let’s not be hasty,” he said aloud to them. “This isn’t a fair fight. I’m handcuffed.” He held out his hands with an almost innocent air.
They took the bait, and this time Cole was able to time it so that their blades landed squarely on the chain. “Ah, so you might want a few more guys,” he quipped, as he grabbed the arm of the student nearest to him and flipped him heavily onto the other disciple. As they both lay stunned, he picked up their swords and continued on his way. Cole, 3; evil possessed students: 0.
It really hadn’t been a fair fight. Even in pairs, Yang’s students posed little threat to Cole, as incomplete as their training seemed to be. For a fleeting moment, he even felt moved to empathize with them: there, but for the grace of the heavens, go I. The ninja had been fortunate enough to complete their training under Master Wu. But Cole was also realistic enough to know that if Yang’s students had been properly trained, he might never have been able to handle them so easily.
He gathered himself and pressed on. The hallway led to a walkway that ran the perimeter of a rooftop, and there in the middle, bathed in the sickly green glow of the eclipse, stood Yang himself, still furiously swinging his Yin Blade in his attempt to open the Rift that would allow him to pass back into the world of the living.
Cole gave himself no time to hesitate. He broke into a dead run and tackled Yang. The Airjitzu Master unleashed a string of blistering curses as his ritual was interrupted once again.
“It’s over, Yang,” Cole yelled as he struggled to pin the old man’s arm. “You’re all alone.”
“Oh, but I’m not alone,” Yang grated at him. “Not - at - all!”
At some unseen signal, more of his disciples emerged onto the rooftop. Cole eyed them warily. He could definitely take them on in small groups, but all together, they could - and did - present a challenge.
Yang took the opportunity to strike at the momentarily distracted ninja, and though the blow did not connect, it succeeded in putting some distance between them.
“What’s the matter, Yang?” Cole taunted, some of his old confidence returning. Yang clearly saw him as enough of a threat to summon his students for backup. “Too afraid to take me on by yourself?”
“Too busy,” Yang snarled. “The eclipse is beginning to fade, Cole. Just like you.”
It was as though the old master knew exactly what buttons to press to stop Cole in his tracks. He couldn’t help but glance at his own hands - and true enough, he could barely even see their outline.
Yang cackled at the horror on the Earth ninja’s face. “It’s over, Cole,” he mocked him. “You’re all alone.” He swept an arm grandly towards the edge of the roof. Cole’s eyes followed, and what he saw made his blood run cold. Outside, in the temple courtyard, were the looming figures from the museum’s Hall of Villainy, but moving. Samukai, Chen, Cryptor - they were all there. The other ninja were nowhere to be seen.
If the villains were real… then the visions that Yang had shown him were real.
Were his friends really… gone?
He fought back the sudden tears that blurred his vision. He couldn’t let himself think about that. But, like the proverbial pink elephant, once the thought had intruded itself into his mind, it would not leave so easily.
Kai, Lloyd, Nya, Zane… Jay. Master Wu.
I’ve failed all of you. No, worse… I caused it. All of this. I did this.
And all because I was afraid of being forgotten.
He felt the fight drain out of him. It was pointless - there was no way he could take on Yang, his disciples, and the Hall of Villainy all by himself. Especially not when he was literally fading away.
Maybe… it’s better to just give up.
He raised haunted eyes to Yang, who smirked at the agony he had caused the young ninja. The Airjitzu Master gestured shortly to his disciples.
There was really only one scene I could draw for this one. I did try to change it up by drawing the part where Zane blasted the Overlord with his ice powers, or you could maybe imagine it as his final moments after the ninja went underground.
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