Nanohana Jiyu is a young transfer student at the local high school. Cute, short, and well-endowed, Jiyu is a very happy teenager. She lives with her dad (a ghost-writer of ninja stories) at her new home. Her nickname (given to her by her father) is Jubei, so her friends sometimes call her that. On her first day of school, Jubei is confronted by a strange ninja-type of samurai named Koinosuke, who has been on a three-hundred year long journey looking for someone who fits a particular description. He is looking for the person his master, Yagyu Jubei, told him to find - someone who could wear the Lovely Eye-Path (a pink eye-patch in the shape of a heart) and be the successor of the Yagyu Jubei technique. Indeed, when she puts it on, she becomes Yagyu Jubei, with all his sword-techniques. (She's still a woman, though.) However, her life is in danger - Yagyu Jubei had once defeated those from the Ryojoji-Shinkage School, and three-hundred years later, the people with bloodline from that school are waiting for Jubei to reappear, so that they will defeat him and regain their glory.
Well, this was extraordinarily odd. The plotline was certainly interesting enough, and the ending was very original - but it wasn't really meant to be incredibly serious, and that worked well enough. After all, some of the characters will suddenly be badly animated (purposely), or drawn like walking paper dolls - why? They say themselves that it's because they're not important characters in that scene, so that they can just be ignored. There are shows like Kodomo no Omocha that are complete comedies, but that you're supposed to take seriously (at points) - this one is a comedy that covers a serious topic that you're not supposed to take seriously. However, it worked with Jubei-chan - it was a funny, lively show with very interesting fights. Although they don't have anything like the sword fights from Rurouni Kenshin or Flame of Recca, they were still nice fights. The plot doesn't really lack anything or need anything; it's fine as it is.
Jubei-chan herself I didn't really like, mainly because I wish she would've been more devoted to being Yagyu Jubei. However, I think that because of that, she acted more realistically - how many of us real people would really drop everything to go and fight? She throws the Lovely Eye-Patch away a lot in the show, and I think that in her case, that was better than her putting it on and kicking butt. The ruffians add a lot to the show, but the rich girls that follow Ryujoji Shiro? I really have no idea why they're there. Shiro himself is very funny, relaxed, and once Ryujoji Hajime is off his 'psycho katana boy' kick, he's enjoyable as well. Koinosuke is hysterical, but his relationship with Jubei as it develops is kind of odd.
Jubei-chan does grow up through the show, and makes several realizations about herself; however, she didn't really have that much growing-up to do in the first place. The character development lacked a little, but in this case, it was alright - this anime was such a parody/comedy, it didn't need to be seriously deep about anything at all. I did enjoy it, and re-watching the last episodes was definitely enjoyable.
