Now Streaming: NINJA VS GOKUDO, Eternal Foes in the Modern Day

A severed head that talks won me over.

Last week's debut of Disney's Twisted-Wonderland (noted here) reminded me that anime shows are now premiering on multiple streaming services here in North America.

If you're a devoted fan, your first stop is probably Crunchyroll, and with good reason, but newer or less devoted fans -- or genre fans who love to sample something new on a regular basis -- have other options, too, including those that you're already accustomed to using.

The aforementioned Disney Plus now features anime as one of its top tabs after selecting "Shows." I was shocked to see that more than 200 (?!) shows already populate the site; a closer look revealed that most, if not all, are part of Disney's slow and steady integration of movies and shows from its sister site, Hulu, with an eye on "fully integrating" the service into Disney Plus, as announced in August 2025.

The integration includes new or returning shows from the Fall 2025 anime season, such as action-comedy Spy x Family, Season 3, which helpfully introduces all you need to enjoy it in its opening moments of Episode 1. It's a great show, which I wrote about in April 2022, and Disney Plus now has all 74 (?!) episodes from Seasons 1 and 2, as well as the first five episodes of Season 3.

But what about Prime Video?

Amazon's streaming service has long featured anime shows. Out of the latest that I've sampled, one stood head and shoulders (ahem) above the others.

Ninja vs. Gokudo
The first four episodes are now streaming on Prime Video. Subsequent episodes will premiere every Wednesday.

Per the official synopsis, "the ninja banish evil from the shadows. The gokudo gather lonely outcasts and commit crimes. The grudge they forged centuries ago is rekindled" and so forth.

The first episode introduces representatives of each side in contemporary Japan: a modern gokudo, posing as an ordinary salaryman, and a modern ninja, posing as an ordinary boy. They strike up a friendship over a shared love for all 17 seasons of a princess-themed anime show and begin .... going on dates together?

This sort of thing raises red flags immediately, and I'm not sure how they're going to explain it, since I've only seen the first episode, but I suppose showing the boy in his true persona as a supernaturally-powered ninja who cuts off heads that talk in astonishment as they sail through the air, separated from their bodies, which crumple to the ground, is meant to explain that the ninja boy is, in reality, an adult.

Does that make sense? No matter. I liked the combination of humor and violence, and the episode is packed with action, so it may be a good break from all the live-action violence on the Prime Video service.

Now Streaming celebrates independent and international genre films and television shows that are newly available on legal streaming services.