House of Ninjas,or shinobi no le: House of Ninjas,is a new Japanese action thriller series on Netflix that comes with an interesting and unusual premise—the existence of ninjas, or shinobis, in modern-day Japan. The plot follows the Tawara family, living a very normal and usual life with different professions for each of the members, until they have to reunite and reveal their identities as the last existing shinobi clan. With no delving into unnecessarily profound or philosophical matters, and with action done very right, House of Ninjas is a greatly entertaining show, far better than many similar ones on Netflix.
Spoiler Alert
Plot Summary: What is the Netflix Japanese series about?
House of Ninjas begins with an introduction to the various members of the Tawara family, who are not a very close unit. The patriarch, Souichi, runs a local brewery, which has been the family business for quite some generations now but is currently facing an uncertain future. Souichi’s wife, Yoko, is a homemaker and spends her days running the big, old house that the family lives in. The couple has three children—Haru, Nagi, and Riku—while their eldest son, Gaku, tragically passed away six years earlier. Being the eldest male child of the lot, Haru is expected to work with his father at the brewery and inherit the business, but the young man has no interest in it. Haru instead works a meager job refilling vending machines in the area, while the younger sister, Nagi, is still a college student. The youngest son, Riku, who is still a mere boy, is the most curious amongst the lot, for he finds his family to be too confusing. The old grandmother, Taki, moves far too quickly and briskly than her age should permit; the measurements of the Tawara house from the inside do not match with the measurements on the outside, and Riku keeps trying to find the answer to such strange mysteries.
But what the young boy does not know is that the Tawaras are actually a family of surviving shinobis, or ninjas, as they are more popularly called, who have decided to stay in hiding. Souichi and his family are actually members of the Hatori clan of shinobis, and they had even worked as secret assassins for the government in the past but have now decided to give up the role and live as normal citizens. In the world of House of Ninjas, the Japanese government’s Ministry of Culture has a secret Bureau of Ninja Management, which looks out for the protection of the remaining shinobis and also makes use of their skills to favor orders from the higher-ups. Although Souichi has gone into strict retirement, his family members are not as convinced as he is and often use ninja skills in their daily lives.
Yoko is simply too bored with the housewife role, and she often uses her handiwork to shoplift groceries from the convenience store. Similarly, Nagi has been breaking into various art museums and stealing artifacts, then returning them within a few days, only to keep herself in practice. Although Haru wants to stay away from being a shinobi as well, he does sometimes use his skills to make things easier. But the Tawara family finally has to change their ways at present and return to their roles as shinobis to fight off a resurgence of the evil rival ninja clan, the Fumas.
Is Gaku really alive?
Quite early in House of Ninjas, it is established that the death of the eldest Tawara child, Gaku, had not been in any usual circumstance but was actually linked to the family’s identity as shinobi. Six years earlier, the Hatori clan was in the middle of a fierce fight with the rival Fuma clan, when suddenly Gaku was caught unaware and was stabbed by one of the rival assassins. Gravely injured by the attack, Gaku had fallen off the ship on which the fight was taking place and into the sea, which surely killed him. There was no way for the Hatoris to retrieve Gaku’s body, and so it was naturally considered that the man had surely died. Incidentally, Haru still feels guilty for having played an indirect role in his elder brother’s death, as he had spared the life of a Fuma earlier that night. It was then this very Fuma who stabbed Gaku from the back, which led to his death. Although Haru carries this guilt and Yoko is still grief-stricken, Nagi still hopes that her elder brother is alive somewhere.
Therefore, when Nagi is suddenly contacted by someone who seems to possibly be Gaku, the young woman is delighted. The secret stalker of Nagi orders her to find a secret scroll in the Hatori house and hand it over, as they blackmail the girl with one of the artifacts she had recently stolen from a museum. Based on the use of certain words in the blackmail texts, Nagi believes that her stalker is actually Gaku, and so she does not hesitate to steal the scroll from her house and hand it over to the shinobi. However, when the stalker shinobi unmasks, Nagi realizes that her stalker was actually a woman named Ayame, who has been a lifelong member of the Fuma clan. Ayame had been pretending to be Gaku in order to steal the secret scroll from the Tawara house, and she even got her hands on it, but then realized that Nagi had unknowingly brought the wrong scroll.
Although Ayame had made it look like Gaku was alive, giving Nagi hope, House of Ninjas later on reveals that Gaku is indeed actually alive. After he was stabbed by the Fuma ninja, Gaku fell into the water after having lost consciousness, and although he lost one of his feet in the propeller of the ship, the man did not actually lose his life. When he woke up from a long slumber, a few days after the fight on the ship, Gaku found himself in the rival camp, surrounded by Fumas. Gaku was not killed or even hurt, but the leader of the Fumas, Yosuke, showed him a lot of respect and support. Over time, Gaku learned more about his family rivals and started to connect more with the Fuma clan, even deciding to join it. Yosuke supported this change with open arms, and Gaku was given the important position of an enforcer in the clan, referred to as the crow.
Therefore, when Gaku returns to his family after seemingly escaping from the Fuma camp after six years, he is actually sent out by Yosuke as an undercover agent. Gaku’s main intention still remains to work for the Fumas and help them in their plans for a total takeover of the country. When the time comes, Gaku reveals his real self and takes away the scroll from the Tawara house.
What happens to Ito Karen?
While working on his night-shift job, Haru had come across a young woman named Ito Karen and had befriended her as well, with the two growing closer with time. Karen was a journalist by profession, and she had been looking into the mysterious deaths of a few people aboard a cruise ship at the time. As the death of her parents in a supposedly accidental fire had been left unsolved, Karen had a personal drive to solve every mystery around her. She had been snooping around various reports about strange deaths and was also very close to uncovering a secret governmental organization that often killed people and cleaned up crime scenes. This organization is actually the Bureau of Ninja Management (BNM), headed by an officer named Hamashima, and the agency had been hiring the Hatori clan for work. Naturally, Karen’s private investigation led her to the Tawara family, and her friendship with Haru was based on her need to grow closer to the family members and uncover more about them.
However, with time, Karen and Haru grow genuinely close to each other, and they investigate the cruise ship deaths together. The duo finds out that the Fuma ninja clan, which had also gone underground, was trying to reemerge through a religious cult they had started, named Gentekai. Through Gentekai, which is led by a man named Tsujioka Yosuke, Fuma has been recruiting new young members with the intention of returning to power. The shinobi clan had recently come across a new bioweapon as well—a yellow wildflower that produced a toxin that could be used to poison human beings. The victims on the cruise ship had indeed drunk wine that was mixed with this toxin, and it was a trial mission undertaken by the Fuma in order to get ready for their next big plan.
Although Karen had been an important part of this investigation, Hamashima and the authorities do not like her proximity to the ninjas, and so he orders Haru to get rid of her. Haru does not obviously harm his lover, even though he does get rid of all the evidence she has collected and then sets out to protect her. Haru and his family hide Karen in their house, but the BNM ultimately finds out about her through wiretaps. Soon, Karen is picked up from the house and taken to the BNM headquarters, with the threat of her being killed becoming very real. But at the end of House of Ninjas, Haru makes a deal with Hamashima for the release of Karen, in exchange for agreeing to work for the government at any time. The only condition is that Haru and Karen cannot remain in touch, and the woman is released by the authorities. The very last scene of House of Ninjas shows Haru seeing Karen at their usual restaurant spot but deciding not to contact her in order to keep her safe from further danger.
Why does Gaku kill Yosuke?
When the Tawara family, especially Souichi, finally agree to return to their original profession as shinobis and work for the BNM, they have to face the Fuma clan once more. With the help of BNM’s investigation unit and also through the information that Gaku provided, the exact spot where the yellow flowers were being cultivated for the toxin was found. Souichi and Yoko are given the responsibility to investigate the place, but they find it to be empty, further revealing that Gaku was still working as an informer for Yosuke. But the couple is able to follow a truck that had been carrying the last shipment of flowers, and they ultimately reach the compound where the toxic flower is being prepared to be used as a bioweapon. The youngsters are also informed about the location, and they all rush to the place.
While Haru takes on the responsibility of finding Gaku and bringing him back, the rest of the family members fight against the hordes of Fuma ninjas. The two brothers have a face-off, as Gaku refuses to let Haru hamper the Fuma plan, and the elder is ultimately brought down. Haru then goes off to fight Yosuke, but he has to face a rather difficult task as he is exposed to a hallucinatory gas, making the swordfight very one-sided. However, as Yosuke is about to defeat Haru, Gaku suddenly appears and kills the Fuma leader before leaving the place. Although Gaku does not reunite with his family at the end of House of Ninjas, he does suggest that he has not completely forgotten or abandoned them. Gaku is evidently angry when he finds out that Ayame duped Nagi, and he then protects Haru from Yosuke in a surprising twist.
Along with still having feelings for his siblings and family members, Gaku is also perhaps driven by a personal desire in his act of killing Yosuke. He had found real ambition and passion in the cause of the Fuma clan, as he was really convinced by their mission to lead Japan towards greatness. Therefore, Gaku must have felt that Yosuke was a weak leader and killed him at this chance, ensuring that he would become the next Fuma leader. Surely enough, Gaku does become the new leader of the Fuma clan, and whenever season 2 of House of Ninjas arrives, Gaku will have a direct face-off against his biological family.
Who are the red ninjas seen in the last fight?
During the last major fight between the Hatori and the Fuma clans, the sudden emergence of a third clan of women shinobis, wearing red outfits, tipped the result in favor of the Hatoris. This clan introduces themselves as the Guardians of the Demon Gate, and they are evidently friendly towards the Hatoris as they fight off the Fumas. The story behind this clan, or organization, will only be entirely revealed in season 2, as their appearance only confirms that there are more existing shinobi clans than the BNM knows about.
The leader of the Guardians clan is definitely the owner of the bookstore that Taki visits along with Riku, while the rest of their family is at the Fuma factory. This woman had been seen visiting Taki at her house earlier, too, and the two elderly women have a habit of talking only through gestures. Interestingly, Souichi’s latest employee, Mayuko, is also a shinobi of this same organization, making it evident that they are based in the same area as the Hatoris. Since Taki had known about their existence all this while, she asked for help from the Guardians, sending the ninjas to the factory to help her family.
What is the real eclipse plan?
As Yosuke is defeated, the authorities believe that the major eclipse plan made by the Fumas has been finally stopped. A total lunar eclipse was soon about to take place, and the Fuma cult had decided to poison thousands of citizens during the event as a symbolic return to power for them. The poison was obviously in the yellow flowers, which had been extracted and packed into neat bags, which would be used to cause the mayhem. The Hatoris stopped this plan, and despite Haru getting a hint about something sinister in the works, the BNM officials rejoiced in their victory.
During House of Ninjas‘ ending, several revelations are made, starting with the real eclipse plan of the Fuma cult. The Fuma family wanted to make Japan a great and powerful nation once more, and they had infiltrated various levels of authority and governance to place their puppets in power. One such puppet is the politician Mukai, who has been running in the presidential election. In fact, the scroll that the Fumas wanted to steal from the Hatori clan was actually a family tree of the Hojos, who were the original employers of the Fumas back in the past. This family tree proves that Mukai is actually a direct descendant of the Hojo family, and this probably suggests that it is the Hojo family who wants to return to power.
When the actual eclipse plan is carried out, the authorities are nowhere present to stop it. A political conference is held during the time of the lunar eclipse, in which Mukai and all the other competing politicians are present. Therefore, Gaku and Ayame sneak into the place and successfully mix the poison in all the drinks, which kills the rivals and ensures that there are no competitors left for Mukai. This had been the real eclipse plan all along, and at the end of House of Ninjas, it is also revealed that Hamashima, of the BNM, was also working for the cult. While he had been receiving orders from Yosuke earlier, the man now starts to take orders from Ayame, who is the representative of the new leader, Gaku.
What can we expect from season 2?
In the manner in which House of Ninjas ends, it is almost certain that season 2 will come, continuing the story of the secret shinobi families. The new season will reveal more about the Fumas’ exact plans to lead Japan towards greatness, as Mukai will surely become a powerful leader in the country. Why Hamashima has been working for the cult and whether he, too, is a genuine believer in the movement will also be made clear. Whether Gaku will resolutely go against his family and keep fighting for the Fuma clan will be seen. As Hamashima holds an advantage over Haru for having saved Karen from execution, Haru might also have to fight against his own family at some point. It does not seem very likely that Karen will return for the season, as Haru decides to stay away from her despite his romantic feelings, and so the introduction of similar new characters would also be interesting to see.
