#opposed to the ninjanomicon
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I Wish I'd Found the Randy Cunningham Ninth Grade Ninja Fandom
I LOVED that show when it was first coming out. I thought it was just a ton of fun and that characters like Viceroy and Mcfist were genuinely amazing takes on their archtypes. Admittedly, Randy and Howard are entirely classic to me since I grew up with stuff like Danny Phantom and Kim Possible but...
None of you probably know what I'm talking about.
Okay, so a bit over a decade ago now, Disney had a show called Randy Cunningham: Ninth Grade Ninja. The premise was actually kind of Sailor Moon S1 in with half of its villain group. The Ninja exists to oppose the Sorcerer, trapped below the town. The Sorcerer feeds on misery and can corrupt people who are vulnerable through items and the like that they hold dear, turning them into monsters who are usually beat either by destroying the object or convincing the person to give up their grievance.
The other half of the main villains (it had a lot of side villains too of course) were the duo of McFist and Viceroy. They employed a lot of robots, mutants, etc. because, well, McFist was so rich as to practicallly own the town and be beloved by all (Think Lex Luthor but bad at hiding it and really shouty) and Viceroy was literally his on staff MAD SCIENTIST! He even graduated second in his year from a mad science university. Or first. Can't remember despite it being a plot point for an episode when a skeleton that the science teacher is... Married to I think? Comes back to life and tries to finish his graduation project that would have made him Valedictorian: A Doomsday Device. After all, if you blow the world, you are indeed the greatest evil scientist apparently.
The show was pretty classic in how it was structured and played thing and when I say classic, I mean it. It had a moral of the episode format, usually taught through ancient ninja rhyme through the book that gave Randy, the main character, his powers: The Ninjanomicon which is a great name. It would also be what helped grant him various ninja tools to beat bad guys, though his main weapon was the ever changing length scarf he had and a sick ass sword.
The show also had a good sense of humor about what it was though. Like the first episode's lesson from the book is that the greatest weapon is within the suit. When Randy gets his ass kicked, he believes it must be trying to tell him to believe in himself, draw in deep and OPE NOPE! It means there's a sword in the suit! Time to get to slicing and dicing!
The downfall of the show for me was the same thing that makes me actually surprised it didn't stick around longer than it did (besides Disney being honestly pretty stingy with seasons for the past decade for its shows): It being formulaic. Eventually, I did get tired of seeing Randy making similar mistakes or do things that felt like he should have outgrown. Sure, his best friend Howard rarely if ever changed and that could pull him down but it still eventually stopped feeling right. The episode that snapped it for me was when Julian (I can't believe I remember his name), the wanna be magician of the school went full supervillain and got real magical powers. It was a neat turn... Predicated on Howard and Randy being complete assholes to someone they'd at least once or twice called friend.
And that is what the real shame of the show for me was. There was a lot you could actually read into and say about the eb and flow of relationships and sometimes even the show had great fun with it. One episode in particular that I loved was when Howard accidentally gets the ninja powers and people like how he showboats while doing it so Randy questions being the ninja. The two guys are cut from the same cloth, best friends for a reason, but the show REALLY highlighted that eventually, a conflict between Howard and Randy was going to come to the head. Why?
Well... Because Randy is just a dumb teenager who wants to be popular. Howard is an asshole. It's not even the first episode that highlights it but every time it gets highlighted, it's a BIG problem for Randy. In this one, Howard is so cruel to a robot, takes his time to mock it so thoroughly that eventually the robot gets corrupted by the sorcerer and all its weaknesses are now strengths and it's damn near unstoppable. I forget how Randy beats it (besides just being better with the powers) but it always stuck out to me as a reminder that Randy WAS a hero, despite his flaws, and that the ninja before him had made the right call choosing him (not sure if we ever got an answer as to WHY Randy got it, though that was by no means necessary.)
It's just the sort of show that I had enjoyed enough that I wish I'd had more people to share in it while I was enjoying it. I could admittedly try going back now and seeing how it is but well... It's a decade old and had protags all about trying to be cool. Danny Phantom used regular, classic tropes for this while Randy actually tried to embrace the fact that stuff like influencers were starting to exist and become more popular so you can probably imagine its sense of humor by that. I wouldn't call it bad but the last time I tried rewatching the first episode, I remember not finding it nearly as charming as I had the first time, let alone as charming as my brain thought it was.
But on that note, I will say possibly one of the least controversial thing I ever have, just to let fellow fans squeal with me: Holy shit was Randy and Baton girl my absolute OTP of the show and I still get all sorts of happy anytime I'm reminded of the two.
And if you're going "Wait, was she a background charact-" NOPE! THEY LITERALLY CALLED HER BATON GIRL! If she ever got an actual name, I don't know it! And god are elements like that why I've never forgotten that show, for good and for ill. Edit: She was named Theresa in S2. Thank you to the commenter who reminded me!
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I love these ideas! Love this art.
Want to give a little tidbit that when Randy's thoughts are doodles they look a little different from the rest in the NinjaNomicon!
And how different they are to someone like Mac Antfee who has more experience than Randy:
The first time we directly see Randy summon/draw in the Nomicon is when he makes the sword-marker. It's probably intentional from the art direction that his were uncolored and small compared to the ones Mac Antfee was using to fight him. Showing his inexperience with this.
And later the Randy and Howard doodle is for sure by him because there's no other reason why it would be in the Nomicon otherwise.
Both are mostly filled within the lines and opaque, as opposed to other doodles in the NN that are mostly neon and sometimes transparent, sometimes just lines and no inner attempt at coloring.
There are some other doodles with the randy-like appearance that appear a lot more in season 2, which we know comes after he's given the quill to be able to write in the NinjaNomicon (though how much of that was he can write in it now or just symbolism who knows), so I often interpreted it as Randy's doodles sometimes showing up. But that could have been just a slight change in art direction for season 2.
Makes me wonder if the NinjaNomicon itself is making new words appear or it's using pre-existing words left by previous ninjas as its only means to communicate.
The idea that it can talk more and more depending on how long the Ninja's been with it is soo cool! Added with how vibrant Antfee's doodles are compared to Randy's adds some support for this idea too I feel like.
So, Ive started a rewatch of 9gn, and I would like to ask your opinion on the doodle vision thing. Is it just Randy remembering the pages do you think? or is the nomicon giving him a sort of limited mental text through their connection? Like especially when it seems to point to specific objects or such?
Personally, I like to think it's a little bit of both!
In my head, the first time Randy put on the mask, a surface level connection has been made between him - mask - Ninjanomicon. That's what allows the Ninjanomicon be aware of what is going on in Randy's life (how it reacts to his actions and decisions, and what prompts it to warn him/give him a lesson) despite it being, ya know a book without eyes and ears.
(on extra side note/headcanon, but I believe this is also the reason why Ninjanomicon needs the Messenger/Creep to scope out potential future ninjas - Messenger observes and evaluates and chooses, because Ninjanomicon cannot evaluate until after the candidate put the mask on and/or opened the book to establish that first surface connection.)
So, after Ninjanomicon gives a lesson, it continues to observe, and when we see doodles its because Randy is remembering AND Ninjanomicon is sort of nudging him with some of those visuals. Cause, like, more often than not the doodles appear just before/during a revelation Randy is having, but there are also sometimes extra doodle words like 'duh' or 'now this is a weapon' which feels a lot like commentary from someone else than Randy. There is some form of synchronicity - a mind drift, if you want, going on betwen them imho.
I like to think that the longer a Ninja is connected to the Nomicon, the stronger that connection gets, so at some point in the future Ninjanomicon can actually properly talk through doodles not only inside it and through memory, but also out in real life.
But since having such a strong connection is detrimental to a Ninja (aka, too much knowledge from Nomicon connection can lead to faster corruption by power) and Ninja's duty lasts only roughly 4 years, its very rare that the connection between the two gets so strong that Ninjanomicon can actually 'talk' rather than just recall memory of an already given lesson.
Also can you imagine a Ninja actually interacting with doodle talk out in real life as Nomicon talks to them? Ninja will seem like a crazy person! xD
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Some art i've never posted before
The Demonomicon, it used to be part of my oc's story
+ some early versions of her stanked form
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