Collection Ninjago

Ninjago was supposed to be a short toy-supporting cartoon and it has now run for well over a decade with a genuinely complicated continuity, character deaths, time travel and multiple realities. LEGO accidentally made an epic.

The core conceit is elemental: each ninja controls fire, ice, lightning, earth or energy, and spinjitzu is the technique that unlocks it - which is also, conveniently, the exact motion of a LEGO spinner toy. Commercial requirement into martial arts philosophy.

Sensei Wu carries the show's tone, dispensing advice that is either deeply wise or completely unhelpful depending on the episode, and the series is self-aware enough to joke about it.

What surprises people who come to it late is how much the characters actually develop. Lloyd's arc in particular spans years of real-time storytelling and treats its audience as capable of following it.

This collection covers the ninja team and their elements.