Yodaka's worst nightmare comes true when his job as a Public Safety ninja forces him to go to high school and even worse…talk to people! When it comes to combat, his skills are off the charts. When it comes to social interaction, he completely falls apart. But things take an unexpected turn when he discovers that talking to Aoi Mukai, the girl he's assigned to guard, is surprisingly easy.

The first day of school is tough for most, but when you're an awkward ninja tasked with secretly guarding a total klutz by the name of Aoi, it's absolutely daunting! But as Yodaka soon discovers, his charge is not just a danger to herself—there are also rogue ninja assassins in the school targeting her. And it's his and the other undercover shinobi's job to save her life without blowing their covers!

Shinobi Undercover has a story by Ippon Takegushi and art by Santa Mitarashi. English translation is done by Jan Mitsuko Cash and lettering by Finn K. Published by Viz Media (June 2, 2026). Rated T.

Caitlin Moore
Rating:

I clocked Shinobi Undercover as a Weekly Shonen Jump manga pretty much right off the bat. There's just something to Yodaka that screams “Jump protagonist”: he's skilled at being a ninja, an action-oriented skill, but has cartoonishly bad social skills. The setup, that he's been tasked with protecting a clumsy rich girl who the world wants to kill, and thus must enroll in high school, is straight out of, well, a dozen other series. Including Kill Blue, which has an anime airing now.

But hey, I'm not inherently opposed to unoriginal stories. As I like to say, it's all in the execution, and a hackneyed but well-told story has a chance to rise above an original-but-amateurish one any day. That's, uh, not the case with Shinobi Undercover, which proved to be a thoroughly mediocre experience.

There's an ad hoc feeling to the storytelling and character writing. Everyone is terribly shallow and only moves as the story demands. By the end of the volume, I didn't have much of a sense of who anyone was as a character or what drives them. Why is Aoi so drawn to Yodaka? Well, because the plot demands it, that's why! Who is she, and why does everyone want to kill her? Don't worry about it! The surface-level writing, without any sense of foreshadowing, suggests it was thrown together in the moment rather than planned from the start. They're constantly confronted by either bullies or attempted kidnappers, so it's closer to a series of action scenes loosely bound by a plot than a story with care put into it.

To its credit, it is pretty solid action. Santa Mitarashi is a strong artist, and the fights are kinetic and punchy. The character designs are cute, and the layouts have a good amount of depth despite the school setting not leaving a lot of room for creativity. But the story is so action-driven, with so little space for any other aspect of it to breathe, that I was outright bored by the battles by the time I closed the book.

I'm sure there's an audience for Shinobi Undercover. The world has no shortage of fresh-faced twelve-year-olds who are just now getting into manga, who don't realize how overdone the story is, and are primarily interested in seeing guys punch good. But if you're actually seeking something well-executed or original, this isn't for you.

Kevin Cormack
Rating:

What's immediately striking about Shinobi Undercover is its remarkable similarity to the manga and anime series Kill Blue. Like that series, this is about a boy trained in lethal combat techniques who must protect a teenage girl from superpowered assassins without her ever realizing it. Unlike Kill Blue's protagonist, Yodaka isn't a rejuvenated middle-aged man, although as a highly competent Public Protection-employed ninja, his abilities are no less lethal.

Yodaka is a fairly relatable boy with desperately poor social skills. He's great at sudden and covert application of brutal violence, but has no idea how to speak to anyone his own age, let alone girls. He's not even supposed to interact with Aoi Mukai, the girl he's assigned to protect, but for some reason, she finds his clumsy attempts at social interaction amusing and latches on to him. That's an issue for the ninjas whose assigned roles are as “best friend” and “eventual boyfriend”. Aoi won't give them the time of day, which means Yodaka must overcome his terror of conversation while also fending off threats, making sure Aoi is distracted enough not to notice.

This results in a very entertaining manga full of action and laughs. Aoi is a menace, and that makes her an entertaining female lead. We don't know much about why it's so important that she's protected, nor why she can't know this. It's a little sad that all of her relationships seem to have been fabricated by Public Protection; there's nothing real about her “normal” life. Perhaps that's why she latches on to Yodaka's clumsy overtures of friendship?

The other assassins in the school are amusing too, especially Hibari, a seemingly confident girl, and Aoi's assigned “best friend”, who outside of her superficial social competence may have just as little idea of how to make friends as Yodaka.

There isn't anything terribly new about Ninja Undercover, but it's executed very well, with decent art, easy-to-follow action scenes, and just enough slightly goofy humor to keep the reader entertained. We've seen plenty of socially inept protagonists like Yodaka before, but at least he's endearing with it, as well as succeeding admirably with his assigned tasks. I wouldn't mind reading more of this.