This episode begins kind of slow with Jack saving a fishing village from giant robotic lobsters. Good, but not particularly outstanding stuff for the series. But what truly propells it to the lofty realms of animation greatness is the masterfully stylised climactic battle scene which fantastically plays off against the themes of light vs darkness and sees Jack facing off against Shinobi, a cybernetic ninja sent to destroy him by Aku, and he quickly realises that he can't win against the assassin as an honourable samurai, so he uses his own stealth techniques against him. Jack wraps his robes around his entire body like a mummy, making him completely white and causing him to disappear in the glare of the sun, and you can neither see Jack in the light, nor the ninja in the shadows, both of them only appearing as they pass through their respective opposing spectrums. And the fact that there's a definite time limit for Jack as the light he's using for cover slowly disappears with the setting sun just adds to the cinematic drama of the action and it really cranks up the tension. And Jack barely wins in the end by trusting his instincts. The whole impossibly cool high-contrast sequence is an ingenious little work of restrictive and suspenseful animation, and the concept and direction of it is striking and one of the most creative uses of visuals I've ever seen. It's always what I think of right away whenever I happen to remember this fine show that was sadly ended before its time. I hope they won an award for that scene because it was more-than deserved. Simply breathtaking.
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