Ninjago (Seasons 1-10) Review!

 Alright! Today I am reviewing the Gen-Z nostalgia generator that is known as Ninjago. And, is it a bit early to start calling something a Gen-Z nostalgia generator? No. Nostalgia comes from early memories, and this show started in 2011. That was... 9 years ago. Wow, I am old. 

Anyway, Ninjago is very obviously and blatantly designed to sell LEGOs. There's no way of getting around that. The ninjas upgrade suits every season, get new vehicles every other episode, have dragons, disposable armies, it's all there. This is for kids to spend money on LEGOs. And, for the most part, it's really effective. Ninjago is one of LEGO's best selling themes. 

Yes, I know this is a promotional image from The LEGO Ninjago Movie.
But I have reasons! Look at the HD!

The story follows four ninjas - Jay, Kai, Zane, and Cole - as they learn to be ninjas, work as a team, fight enemies, and control their elemental powers, and the weapon of the season. They are later joined by Lloyd Garmadon, son of Lord Garmadon (The main villain of the first two seasons). Then they get Nya, the water ninja, and a few more ninjas pop up along the way. 

My first main criticism of Ninjago is that it doesn't know what it is. On one hand, it has really cool moments, mythos, lore, and themes, but on the other hand, it's designed to sell toys. Not a lot of effort is being put into things like the script. The script issue is especially obvious in the first season, when the show first started. Lots of bland and generic dialogue in that season. 

But for some reason, the show is actually good. Season one is admittedly rocky, but seasons 2, 3, 4, 5, and 8 all rock! The other seasons not so much, but those five seasons are really good. And, since I've been doing this for other TV show reviews, here are just some general things I noticed about the show, so when we get to the season-to-season review, I won't sound like a broken record. 

This is an excellent shot

• The show's worldbuilding is messy at best. The first two seasons are very rustic and rural. The time period felt like 15th Century, with the exception of all the bikes, planes, and helicopters that the show included. But then in the third season, the entire show leaps forward, like, 500 years in terms of infrastructure! Now they have cities! Skyscrapers! 
• There was a disconnect between seasons 1-7 and 8-10. This is because The LEGO Ninjago Movie came out, so they spruced up the animation, gave it way better scriptwriters, and replaced the main voice actor. Most of the changes are for the best, but I could've done without the changes to the character's hair. 
• The show's theme song absolutely slaps. Especially in Season 4. They added drums in Season 4 and it made it that much cooler. 
• Are they ninjas? How do they cooperate with the local government? They have good relations with the police in later seasons, but still. 
• How long has Wu been training ninjas to protect Ninjago?

These are not the first ninjas Wu has trained. How many more are there?

• Why did they bother giving them elemental powers if they're just going to drop them or write them off every chance they get? 
• Anything involving Oni was really forced. 
• Season 6 was absolute trash. 
• Season 4 was the best season (Maybe it's the theme song. Maybe it's the game. I dunno).
• The show has a surprisingly good soundtrack. 
• The show has an unclear main character. In the first two seasons it's Kai, then for the next three it's Lloyd, then Jay gets a season, and then it's back to Kai, and then it's more ensemble for the last four. 
• Nya is sidelined for the earlier seasons until the executives at LEGO apparently realized that having a girl ninja that's not depicted as semi-patronizing is a good thing. She's more or less "The guy in the chair" or "Object for affection."
• The show states that The Golden Weapons are the most powerful weapons ever created, and yet nearly every season they introduce new and more powerful weapons. 

Well, those are just my general notes, so now we'll take a dive into specific seasons. 

Let's begin.

Season 1: Rise of the Serpentine

Season 1 of Ninjago is good enough. It was a bit rougher around the edges, but it had a really promising setup and lore. The main plot of season one revolves around Lloyd Garmadon and his quest to be noticed and cared for. He does this by attempting to imitate the antics of his father, Lord Garmadon (Who recently disappeared), to become the greatest villain in all of Ninjago. 

In his quest, he unwittingly releases the four tribes of Serpentine, ancient snake people with which Ninjago once had a war (Timeline is really messy). The four ninjas, Jay, Kai, Zane, and Cole, elemental masters of lightning, fire, ice, and earth respectively, rise up to stop the serpentine and adopt Lloyd into their group. 

Season 1 is good. But, it's really directed towards kids. I get that it's a kid show, but the one thing Lloyd Garmadon (8?) wants the Serpentine to do is raid a village... for candy. It's really directed towards children. And it's directed toward the children's wallets - The ninja upgrade their suits in the very first episode, ditch the dragons from the pilot by the fourth, and then find a monastery, and then a flying land ship... hey, the results paid off. 15 LEGO sets based off of this season, and then, like, 14 seasons after this one. 

Overall, season one of Ninjago is good, but it's not really good. It's fine, and surprisingly so. It's definitely set up for an even better second season. 

Costume upgrades in the very first episode. Nice.

Season 2: Legend of the Green Ninja

Season 2 is even better than the surprisingly good Season 1. In this season, the recently returned Lord Garmadon has found a second island (This is where the lore begins to get messy). On this second island, the villainous Overlord lives and posses Lord Garmadon, who takes control of his stone warriors (The disposal army of this season), leading to an ultimate confrontation with the Ninja, including his son, Lloyd, who has been realized as the legendary Green Ninja, who is destined to restore peace to Ninjago. They also age Lloyd up in this season. Due to some magic, they age Lloyd up nearly 10 years or so in a single episode. 

I really like the second season. This one also had an excellent tie in game, which is only playable on Internet Explorer for some reason.This season only had six tie in sets, and maybe that's for the best. They laid low for this season and focused more on the plot and story, and it shows. This season builds up to an epic battle and the ultimate good vs. evil conflict. That is until later seasons introduce eviler evils.

This season also introduces the best character in the show, Dareth, a washed-up martial arts teacher who claims to be the Brown Ninja (In addition to the main red, green, white, blue, and black ninjas). It also introduces "Redeemed Garmadon," which is Lord Garmadon but with all the evil drained out of him. I liked that character. 

Lloyd grows nearly 10 years in one episode and suffers no emotional consequences.

Season 3: Rebooted

Season Three is where the first major jump in Ninjago's infrastructure begins. We went from isolated, secluded, 1500-ish towns to 21st Century. We got skyscrapers and organized overarching government now. It even transcends current technology by giving them working humanoid robots. 

I have a couple of issues with season three. For the most part, it's a really good season, one of the show's best. But there's a huge disconnect in the feel of this season and the last, something that also happens with every season afterwards. They keep the plot elements the same, but the feel of the show completely changes.

This season also introduces a really out of place love triangle between Jay, Nya, and Cole. Jay and Nya had been built up for the past two seasons, but then they just drop Cole in the middle. It was a weird decision. 

But, I like season three. For the most part, it was an exciting, techno-inspired joy ride that wrapped up the Overlord arc. This season also had the temporary death of Zane, which, way back when in 2013, really made me sad. Really sad. But, I've recovered. I'm fine now. 

Meet the man himself, Sensei Garmadon. 

Season 4: The Tournament of Elements

Now we get to my favorite season. After the defeat of the Overlord and the death of Zane, we get into a broken up group, so the entire first episode is about getting the band back together. They do this because Master Chen, a famous exiled businessman, has recruited all of the elemental masters to a Tournament of Elements, where they will all compete for a last man standing competition. The catch? Losers have their elemental powers are taken and absorbed, all with the intent of wielding that power to bring back the near-extinct tribe of snakes known as Anacondrai, with the intent of taking over Ninjago. 

This series has the best theme song, an excellent web game, some really good emotional beats, some surprisingly good action scenes, and does a really good job expanding the lore. It makes sense that there are more elemental masters, and most of the ones that they introduce are really cool. 

I have no complaints about this season, although I am still really sad about Sensei Garmadon's sacrifice in this season. Sensei Garmadon was great. 

10/10 season

Season 5: Possession

Season 5 was another surprisingly good season. This one deals with the rise of Master Wu's old pupil Morro, the Elemental Master of Wind, and his return. But, Morro died, so now he's a ghost. He possesses Lloyd and begins... an evil plan to take over Ninjago and exact his revenge on Master Wu. 

Morro is probably Ninjago's best villain. The would-be Green Ninja that failed and wants revenge. Like Tai Lung from Kung Fu Panda. That's always a good arc.

A surprisingly good villain.

The logic of the ghosts was sound, and everything was a good expansion of the lore. Maybe Airjitzu was a bit of a stretch, and then Master Wu knows Airjitzu... that was definitely a retcon. This season is the beginning of Ninjago's serious issue with retconning past lore. 

This season also introduced Nya as the Water Ninja. I liked that arc, because Nya had been frustratingly sidelined in the previous seasons. 

I liked nearly everything about this season. This is basically the last "True" season of Ninjago, for reasons that will be explained later. No particular complaints about this season. 

Arijitzu is a stretch

Season 6: Skybound

This is, by far, the absolute worst season of Ninjago. I absolutely hate it when television shows or comics or movies introduce genies, have a pretty awesome story, and then wish it all away. I hate it. Such a lazy way out, and it undoes all character growth that has happened. I hate it. 

This season is by far the most disconnected from any other season of Ninjago. It's a random speck in the overarching Ninjago plot. It's stupid. Unnecessary in hindsight. The villain is weird and bland, the mythology is messy, and nothing matters. 

This was terrible. The overall quality was bad, the villain was too creepy, the main character was Jay but also not, it was just a weird hodgepodge of stuff. Pirate themed stuff. And bad pirate-themed stuff. 

This was... not my favorite season.
Started out good, but fell flat on its face.

Day of the Departed

Day of the Departed was a special that ran after season 6. And I take back what I said earlier. Season Five wasn't the last "True" Ninjago content, it was this. This was about every past villain from the previous seasons coming back to try and defeat the Ninja, one last time. 

This had actual Ninjago vibes to it. I liked it, and it was a huge breath of fresh air after the awful season 6. My favorite part of the special was once again Morro, who chose not to fight Master Wu, but continued his arc of accepting his fate. I liked that. 

I loved how the special had references to Zane's father in it. That was nice. 

Season 7: Hands of Time

After Season 6, I was ready for Ninjago to get back to form and deliver another excellent season. But it just didn't happen. This is where the lore of Ninjago hit the fan. In previous seasons, they state that Master Wu is over a thousand years old. This timeline doesn't make sense. In the flashbacks to the war with the Serpentine from Seasons 1 and 2, Master Wu is shown to be young and sprite, which fits. If the war with Serpentine was 500 years ago or something, yeah. Master Wu would be old and the serpentine would be forgotten. 

But! In this season, they introduce Kai and Nya's parents as having fought in the serpentine wars. This means that the serpentine war was, like, 20 or 30 years ago (And yes, Master Chen also was involved, but it's generally accepted that villains have extended lives for magic reasons). This means that the serpentine passed into legend and that a near-immortal being aged 500 years in 30 years. That timeline does not add up. 

And the villains are so lame in this season. They're brothers whose element is time, or something. I think they controlled it with technical devices. And the explanation/execution of how it worked was awful. This wasn't exactly Tenet. It was all very bland. And one of them hates technology, and the other has a crush on a snake person. It was really, really, really weird. Something very wrong happened here. 

Cool idea, very bad execution.

Season 8: Sons of Garmadon 

I was really hesitant about this season. This was the first season after The LEGO Ninjago Movie, so they changed all of the character's designs to better match the movie's. It was a really poor design choice (One that turned my off from the show for two years), but I adjusted. Now it's fine. 

Season 8 is a mixed bag in terms of adapting to previous seasons: On one hand, they introduce an Emperor and his family. Where were they the past seven seasons? I dunno. But they exist now. On the other hand, because of the design changes, the show is desperate to remind viewers that it kept the continuity, so we get a ton of references to earlier seasons and a bunch of older characters that return. I really appreciated that, because I disliked how Seasons 5-7 forgot about older characters. So good and bad job there. 

It was... a design choice to give Lloyd green eyes.

I also noticed a substantial increase in quality. Jokes actually land (They hadn't for the past two seasons), the dialogue is witty and smart, the animation is top-notch, it all worked. They even switched out the voice actor for Lloyd, who, while she was a really good voice actor, probably shouldn't have been voicing an 18-year-old. Female voice actors for young children only work when they're young, like Bart Simpson. 

The show made a ton of risky gambles and they all pay off. The actual plot of this season deals with the Ninjas functioning without Master Wu, who disappeared during the finale of Season 7, and the rise of a gang called "The Sons of Garmadon," who are trying to resurrect Lord Garmadon, but only the evil side of him. That was... fine. I would've preferred a new villain, but I also didn't want a new piece of lore wedged in where it doesn't fit, so this was probably the best option. 

They just drop in there that Ninjago suddenly has an Emperor and then never do anything with it again.

But they still change the lore. They introduce a species called the Oni, and the next two seasons delve into this mythology deeply. So, while it wasn't exactly always a part of the show, it was definitely better explained than much of the show's lore. This was a surprisingly good season. I liked it. 

Specifically, I really liked the new character of Harumi, the Princess of Ninjago, and her chemistry with Lloyd. I was really into that. I also liked this random baby that they just throw in and is adopted by the ninja (Later revealed to be baby Master Wu). I liked the baby. 

Baby Wu was adorable. 

Season 9: Hunted

Season 9: Hunted did a really good job of tying into Season 8, something that earlier seasons had been lacking heavily. Does that make it a good season? No. It just gets bonus points for doing that. Season 9 is boring and monotonous, frankly. It really, really dives deep into the land of the Oni and what that's like. The previous season ended with the ninja being split up; Our original four Ninjas + Baby Wu are sent to the Land of the Oni while Lloyd and Nya remain in Garmadon-controlled Ninjago. Any time spent in the Land of the Oni is ridiculously boring. The entire thing is drawn out, even though the season only lasts 10 episodes. 

I liked the stuff in regular Ninjago, where they bring back a bunch of old characters like Karloff, Skylor, and even give Dareth a B-Plot where he does get the power of brown, but nothing is particularly special about it. It's all fine and dandy, but very boring and forgettable. Enjoyable forgetful is the name of the game here. 

And nothing particularly stands out as bad. Nothing is terrible or obviously wrong. But nothing is terribly good either. 

I need a spin-off show about Dareth STAT. 

Season 10: March of the Oni

Season 10 has the finale to the show, the big bang with which the show goes out. And, because the show was designed to be canceled after two seasons, there is no overarching threat for the entire show. This is just the overarching threat of the past three seasons. And, it's built up appropriately. 

This is a good season. The ninja are back in Ninjago, everything is going fine, and we're all fine and dandy when the Oni attack the city, so the ninja team up with the resurrected Garmadon to defeat them. 

Not related to Season 10 at all, but only OGs remember the Pink Ninja. 

At only four episodes, this probably could've been a TV movie that ended the show, but that is an extremely minor nitpick. An actual nitpick of mine is that this is the finale. They should've been playing every card they had, bringing back all of the characters Endgame style, but no. The only fan-favorite minor character to return is Dareth, and he's dropped for the last two episodes. 

Where was Karloff? Skyler? Ronin? Pythor? That was disappointing for me. And I wasn't particularly satisfied with the final episode. They end the series with a bang, but the final battle is really lame. No sacrifices are made, no epic moments built up to, it's just a callback to a thing that happened in the pilot episode that they dropped immediately thereafter. 

And I always imagined the show ending with all the characters sitting down at a table to eat dinner and discuss how they've defeated evil for the foreseeable future, not zoom into a mural on a wall followed by a flying dragon. I guess it was nice, but it wasn't what I was expecting. But, for the most part, it was. And I liked it. 

We did get this excellent shot.
But I would've liked these characters to actually have roles in the finale, not just silent cameos.

Conclusion

Ninjago is a very flawed yet ambitious force of nostalgia. It's got issues. It's got great moments. It's got... a lot of merch associated with it. But at the end of the day, it's mostly just a surprisingly good TV Show with a few off-seasons. 

Overall, I give the series a 7/10. "Ninjago is by no means perfect. If anything, the show is really messy continuity-wise, and has several terrible seasons. But the show also hits some of the highest highs and nostalgiac nostalgias to ever grace the small screen."

My ranking for all of the seasons

In case you're interested, here's how many sets they've made off of Ninjago.
Note seasons 8 and 9 have an unusually low number of sets, but remember that they were released concurrently with The LEGO Ninjago Movie, for which 25 sets have been released.