I was a huge fan of Ninjago at it’s launch in 2011, but ever since I’ve progressively lost interest in the theme for various reasons. Mainly the story.
The sets have always been good design-wise, but personally I think the story reached a plateau. It’s inherently repetative. The same group of characters going through the same struggles over and over again. How many times am I supposed to care about the Ninja going against snake people?
Granted I’ve given up on the series around 2014, so maybe I’m missing some modern nuances. But from what I’ve heard, the opposite is true. I’ve heard of complete retcons of previous plot elements (something I’m sure also happened between 2011-2014) and characters going through the same plot beats over and over again because the creative team is stuck.
The theme as a whole just feels stuck. It’s a concept originally intended for 3 years that was stretched out for a decade.
Bionicle G1 lasted almost as long but never felt as stale. There was an endgame planned. A plot. Every few years they shifted the main characters around. There was always something new, and it all meant something. For the most part.
In Ninjago nothing really means anything. You could skip multiple seasons and not really miss much. And perhaps that’s actually for the better. This is a toyline after all, and perhaps a decade long complicated lore isn’t the best marketing strategy. Some believe it’s what killed Bionicle back in 2010.
So maybe what I believe to be Ninjago’s greatest weakness is also it’s greatest strength. Each year feels almost like a blank slate, and anyone can jump into the line at any point with no confusion. It’s genius, in a way. Eventually people like me will get bored of Ninjago and it’s repetitiveness. But that’s okay, and maybe even by design. The number of new kids every year surely outweighs the few man-children like myself who jump ship.