The "nintama" are so aggressively mediocre at ninja that watching them stumble through actual danger feels like watching your friends try to save the day, except they'll probably trip over their own feet first. When Doi-sensei vanishes into a duel with a real threat, the joke stops being about how bad they are and becomes about whether these clumsy kids can actually matter when it counts. The film knows exactly what it is: a comedy where the laugh comes not from punchlines but from watching the least qualified people in the room become the only ones who show up.

Rantaro, Kirimaru and Shinbei are nintama, ninja trainees at an elite academy of ninjutsu in historical Japan, and none of them is close to being a top ninja. The word blends "ninja" with "tamago", meaning egg. Around them are cheeky friends, skilled ninja masters and much-admired senior students. In this comedy film, Doi-sensei goes missing after Moroizumi Sonnamon, a Tasogaredoki ninja, challenges him to a duel. While Yamada-sensei and the academy's sixth-year students look for him, a man in white shows up at the academy without warning.