Western Animation / Checkered Ninja

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Checkered Ninja (Danish: Ternet Ninja) is an animated movie produced by A. Film and written by Anders Matthesen based on his novel of the same name. It premiered in Denmark on Christmas Day of 2018 and has broken quite a few Danish box office records, including most successful Danish animated movie of all time and most successful Danish movie of the 21st century, and has won the Robert Awards for best child/youth movie, best song and best adapted screenplay. LevelK holds the international distribution rights and showed it on the European Film Market in February 2019.

The movie follows Aske ("Alex" in the English dub), a 7th grader with a strained relationship to his step-family members and who pines after Jessica, a girl in the grade above. He receives a checkered ninja doll from his Uncle Stewart on his 13th birthday and quickly grows wise of the fact that the doll lives and can help Aske with whatever troubles him, but on the condition that he helps the doll take revenge on an evil man named Phillip Eberfrø ("Phillip Eppermint" in the English dub), a greedy businessman and CEO of a toy company in Denmark who uses child slaves from a Thai factory to produce his toys, who beat 7-year-old Quang to death for accidentally using his scarf to sew one of the dolls.

The film received a sequel, Checkered Ninja 2, in August 19, 2021. In the sequel, Phillip Eberfrø got released from jail with the help of his lawyer and right-hand man Carsten Nokken Gahn, who plan on getting rid of the evidence of his murder by killing the witnesses, specifically the rest of the kids from the factory. Aske and TN have to travel to Thailand to stop Phillip and his associates before it's too late.

The third (and final) installment, Checkered Ninja 3 (released in August 21, 2025) takes place almost a year after the events of the Thailand incident. Aske's interests in ninja missions is starting to fade, and would rather spend time with his friends. TN feels neglected at home until he finds a way to help Aske defend himself after accidentally confronting Marco, Jessica's "bad boy" lover. Later on, Aske befriends a girl his age named Emily, making Jessica jealous. On top of that, TN has a new problem - one of his biggest enemies is somehow back for revenge.

Checkered Ninja provides examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptational Dye-Job: Jørn's eye color was described as brown in the book, but in the film, his eyes are blue.
• Adapted Out: Kanya, Aske's temporary love interest and Honey Bee's adoptive older sister, was removed during the production of the movie's sequel, with the original book being her only appearance.
• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Jessica is an example of this, but her friends, twin sisters Mie and Fie take it to the extreme, as in the sequel they even sang a song about wanting a bad boy.
  • It gets subverted in the third film, where Jessica HAS found a boyfriend who acts like a bad boy and is clearly uncomfortable and regretting it, starting to want Aske again. And then Double Subverted as the "bad boy" isn't really all that bad and mostly just has an attitude problem.
• Ambiguously Brown: Emily in the third film. while her father being Phillip Eberfrø, a Danish man, makes her biracial, it is unknown what ethnicity her biological mother is.
• Ambiguous Time Period: Both the book and the movie take place in modern times, but exactly what year it is supposed to take place in is all over the place. It is easy to assume that the first two take place in 2018, right? However, in the first movie, Aske has a poster on the wall in his room depicting a fidget spinner with the caption "BUT WHY?", though at the time the movie came out (December 2018), fidget spinners were already declining in popularity (though the movie was produced in 2017). In the second movie that takes place weeks after the first one, if you look closely at Sune's passport, it says that he was born in 2006 (which would make him 12), which is odd since he is supposed to be a year older than Aske. The third installment doesn't make things better either: It was established in the book that TN (as Taiko) died in 1581, and if 400 years have passed, that would make the present day 1981, which doesn't add up to the modern setting.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: The international marketing heavily features the Ninja threatening the viewer with his sword. The Japanese poster that takes place at a bright summer background and instead has the Ninja's sword replaced with fidget spinners that he is throws like ninja blades.
  • There is similar marketing in South Korea before that, where the posters show Aske, TN and the rest of the characters in an orange, starry background, and another poster showing TN standing at the roof of a building with a red cape behind him, taking place in a sunny day while there is a plane flying above him.
• Anti-Hero: The Checkered Ninja is crass and has no issue using violence or blackmail to achieve his goals, but he really just wants to punish a man who murdered a child for a petty reason to make up for his own failure to protect ten children when he was alive, and ultimately, he does genuinely care about Aske's well being.
• Apathetic Citizens: One of the major themes of the film is that a lot of the awful things that happen in the world only happen because people don't care enough to make sure they won't, and several characters justify their awful behavior with the phrase "If I don't do it, somebody else will." Subverted by Aske by the end.
• Arc Words: "If I don't do it, somebody/nobody else will."
• Art Shift/Medium Blending: The movie changes to a 2D Samurai Jack-esque style when explaining Taiko's backstory.
  • Sune is briefly seen watching a Naruto-esque anime on his tablet, animated in 2D.
    • In the third movie, he watches a shoujo romance-like anime on his device in his room.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Most of the Thai spoken in the first and second films are just nonsense imitating the language.
• Bittersweet Ending: In the third (and final) film of the Checkered Ninja trilogy, Phillip Eberfrø has finally been defeated for good. Unfortunately, Quang's mother and his 9 younger siblings might never know what happened to him, Emily is all by herself without a parent around, and Marco's life has basically been ruined by Aske and refuses to forgive him after being assaulted and falsely accused of selling drugs by him.
• Blackmail: Sune blackmails Aske about the latter's crush on Jessica and the love poem he wrote about her in order to have him do Sune's book report on all three volumes The Lord of the Rings. Aske later manages to steal back the poem, but Sune reveals that he made a copy. Taiko ultimately decides to make the blackmail material worthless by imitating Aske and making a public Love Confession for Jessica over the school's PA system.
  • He does it again in the sequel, when he manages to catch Taiko moving and talking on a video recording, and threatens to show it to the parents if he doesn't get to join in on the adventure. Thankfully, while he is The Load at first, he actually does end up providing valuable help in the climax.
• Bloodless Carnage:
  • Not a single drop of blood is visible during the rap sequence explaining Taiko's backstory, where ninjas are seen sliced apart and stabbed and a criminal is seen being mauled by a dog.
  • Very much averted in the sequel, which begins with the bloody murder of Mr. Chan, the sweatshop owner from the beginning of the first film. While the shot itself is offscreen, we see his arm laying in a pool of blood which is still sticking to his list of former child laborers.
• Bowdlerise: In several countries, Quang is just severely injured instead of being killed, and the scene where Honey Bee got beaten by Mr. Chan for giving Phillip a contaminated glass of water was cut.
  • The songs "Halli Halløj 2,0" and "Bad Boy" remain lyricless in the English dub of the sequel.
• Bubblegum Popping: Jessica's two friends, Mie and Fie do this in a few scenes to contribute to their sassy personalities.
• Call-Back: To writer and director Anders Matthesen's earlier radio comedy days. In the sequel, Sune utters "Wow, that's pretty fast, huh?" while riding a scooter. This is a line from some of Matthesen's early radio skits, where a customer commented on the speed of a tattoo artist's work.
• The Cameo: Plenty of characters from Terkel in Trouble make cameo appearances.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Honey Bee Tessanie, one of the child slave factory workers. She played a minor role in the first movie, where she was called on by Mr. Chan to get Phillip some water. When the water she got was dirty, Chan ended up hitting her and send her off to get a bottle of clean water to him. In the sequel, Honey Bee, now adopted by a restaurant owner, is one of the children targeted by Phillip and his accomplices to kill as a way to get rid of the evidence of his murder. Thanks to the work of Aske, TN and Sune, Honey Bee was prevented from facing the same fate as Quang.
• Creator's Culture Carryover: In the second movie, despite being set in Thailand, the vehicles adorn European Union style license plates (the one that has a blue rectangle on the left, the country's flag inset within).
• Daddy's Little Villain: Emily in the third film. Or at least, she thinks she's this. Phillip is wholly intending to use her as a scapegoat for his crimes and ditch her while he leaves the country.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • Than Terkel In Trouble, its spiritual predecessor. While both movies are full of gore, dark humor and crass language, Terkel In Trouble is almost entirely meant to be taken as pure shits and giggles, while Checkered Ninja is a serious story about a vengeful spirit punishing child abusers that pointedly does NOT treat violence against children as a joke.
  • The sequel is this to the first film, as Phillip Eberfrø gets out from prison and, with the help from his lawyer, plans to kill every witness to his crimes - which includes the ten children at the sweatshop.
  • It continues in the third movie, where TN's training of Aske and insistence on fighting bad guys results in an escalating conflict that includes things like setting fire to the shed in his front lawn. Or so it appears at first - everything is actually staged by a badly scarred and much more insane Phillip Eberfrø and his estranged teenage daughter who he is using as muscle and is fully willing to sacrifice just for the sake of killing Aske.
• Dirty Old Man:
  • Downplayed. When the subject of Jessica comes up in Aske's household, the middle-aged Jørn makes a lustful comment about her in passing.
    • In the third movie, it turns out he uses her name as his laptop password. Jessica is suitably grossed out and even Sune calls out that this is pretty creepy.
  • Stewart was always this when used as a character in Anders Matthesen's standup, but it shines here. He enters the film visiting a Thai strip club, later makes very suggestive remarks at some female beachgoers and makes some highly inappropriate jokes about his sexual escapades.
• Disappeared Dad: No mention is made of Aske's biological father in the first two films, but we get an explanation in the third. He's the result of a one-night stand Sirene had when she was younger, and she really doesn't like to talk about him. Turns out it's Arne, of all people.
• Downer Beginning:
  • The movie opens on a glum factory with miserable child workers (including the youngest being a toddler), and once Phillip enters the picture, things go from bad to worse.
  • The sequel similarly begins with the sweatshop owner being murdered, and Phillip Eberfrø declaring that nobody can stop him from being released with a sinister grin.
  • The third begins with a much more detailed flashback of when Taiko failed to protect the children - up to and including taking several arrows in the back, and hearing screaming children banging on a barred door as the hut is set on fire. It's very grim.
• Dub Name Change:
  • Aske is changed to "Alex".
  • Sune is changed to "Sean".
  • Sirene is changed to "Sirena".
  • Jørn is changed to "John".
  • Jessica's surname, "Eberfrö", is changed to "Eppermynt".
  • Mie and Fie are changed to "Tina" and "Gina".
  • Phillip's surname, "Eberfrø", is changed to "Eppermint".
  • Jeppe is changed to "Jasper".
  • "Carsten Nokken Gahn" is changed to "Jimmy Wonta Gahn".
  • Pelle is changed to "Perry".
• Even Evil Has Standards: Mr. Chan was willing to beat up Quang for using Phillip Eberfrø's scarf as fabric, but was horrified when Phillip himself hit him hard enough to kill him. In the original book, he and the interpreter tried to stop him.
• Food Porn: Almost literally in the third film. After discovering that Sirene has been sneaking off to eat meat despite imposing her veganism on Jørn, the two have a huge fight but then start flirting and end up going to a hotel. We get a panning shot of their clothes lying on the floor, implying they are having wild make-up sex... but they turn out to just be gorging on take-out on the hotel bed.
• The "Fun" in "Funeral": In the third film, the family attends the funeral of Aske's great-grandmother. Between Stewart's highly inappropriate attire and durnken tribute song, TN chasing the person who has been antagonizing Aske, the priest's eulogy that talks about nothing but toast (in a callback to a joke from Terkel I Knibe) and most of the churchgoers being utterly apathetic at best, it's a hell of an event.
• Friend to All Children: Flip-flopped with the Checkered Ninja. His goal is to avenge the murder of a child, but he has no qualms about humiliating and hurting Aske to get to that goal.
• Fun with Acronyms: In the sequel, after Sune discovers that the ninja doll is alive, and that Aske refers to him as T.N., he comes up with a number of nicknames poking fun at his girlier look. These range from "Tøse-Nisse" ("Girly Elf") to "Totalt Nuttet" ("Totally Adorable"). When they end up on better terms, he comes up with "Top Nice" instead.
• Go to Your Room!: This happens in the third film after Aske Falsely attacks Marco and his parents punish him and send him to his room for the rest of the month as a result.
• Grand Finale: The third film ends with Taiko leaving the ninja doll body to the afterlife, bringing the trilogy to a close.
• Hard Truth Aesop: Using dirty and/or underhanded tactics in a fight might be cowardly, but if your goal is simply to win, go right ahead.
• He Knows Too Much: Mr. Chan was murdered in the sequel because he knew Phillip Eberfrø killed a child.
• Highly Visible Ninja: In the sequel, Taiko gets stuck in a pink, heart-patterned body stuffed with polybeads, making him highly visible AND noisy. Downplayed somewhat in that he is still toy size and good at hiding or playing possum, though.
• Hypocrite: The ninja/Nakamura, despite on a quest to avenge a child's death, is not above potentially killing children himself, though it's unknown how much of it is just talk.
• I Choose to Stay: Despite being a vengeful spirit summoned by lightning to right wrongs committed against children, Taiko chooses to stay with Aske by the end of the sequel instead of going back to the heavens.
  • Subverted in the third film, where TN's soul has finally found peace and tells Aske that he doesn't need him anymore, before leaving the ninja doll body to the afterlife.
• Ironic Echo: Many characters justify their terrible behavior and immoral actions in the first film with the phrase "If I don't do it, somebody else will." When Aske and Taiko's actions are broadcast on TV in the end, and Aske's mother ponders what a person who would do that is thinking, he responds "I think he might be thinking 'If I don't do it, nobody else will' right as he decides to become a vigilante on his own.
• I Made Copies: When Sune's attempt at blackmailing Aske backfires, Aske thinks he is home free as Sune no longer has the blackmail material, the notebook with his love poem about Jessica, only for Sune to spitefully and gleefully reveal he has made and kept a copy for this eventuality.
• Jerkass: Sune is rude, crude, takes full advantage of his father's coddling and favoritism, and takes great delight in tormenting Aske for practically no reason. It takes nearly getting smothered by Taiko for him to mellow out, and even then it's only out of fear.
  • He gets a bit of Character Development in the sequel. While he's still crass, whiny and stupid, he tries to be friendlier to Aske and eventually joins in on the action to help him and Taiko in the climax.
  • By the third film, Sune is mostly just whiny and kind of dumb, but he's wholly supportive and helpful when the chips are down. He's once again an active part of the climax, and he and TN are on much better terms.
• Killed Off for Real: Phillip finally gets what he deserves after Emily throws him into the flames after denouncing him as her father, before evacuating the burning cabin.
• Latex Perfection: Phillip Eberfrø's disguise as Aske's estranged father is completely believable for most of the movie. Although it is downplayed in that Aske figures out his identity when he catches him working on some device in another room and sees that his beard is about to fall off.
• Leatherman: Stewart shows up to a funeral in the third film wearing this kind of outfit - and a black tie, of course. Gotta stay classy.
• Logo Joke: After the credits, there is an animation of the Ninja popping the Nordisk Film Bear's balloon that sends him flying.
• Lovable Alpha Bitch: Jessica comes across as this due to a lack of screentime. She seems sweet enough in theory, but on top of being one of the most popular girls in school, she hangs out with two Valley Girl-style friends, only invites Aske to her birthday party when he starts acting "cool" and has no issue getting petty revenge when she thinks he's ridiculing her by making out with his best friend.
  • The sequel drops the lovable part, as she has started to ignore Aske and openly admits she wants a "bad boy", even making out with another guy at a party behind Aske's back. She only has renewed interest in him when a video is released of him defeating Phillip Eberfrø - at which point Aske has finally seen right through her facade and just hangs up on her. She really is only interested in a guy as long as he is "cool" in some way.
  • And then back again in the third film, where she's found a "bad boy" boyfriend and clearly realizes it's not all it's cracked up to be as she is uncomfortable with his aggressive behavior and starts to pine for Aske again.
• Love Confession: The Ninja stages a public one on Aske's behalf, by imitating him over the school's PA system and announce that he has a crush on Jessica. Aske panics and fears that it is going to be the end of his entire social life, but everyone only expresses admiration for his bravery (even the Principal, though he at first gives Aske a mandatory reprimand for misuse of the PA system), and Jessica herself admits to be quite flattered by his display.
• Lyrical Dissonance: A lot of the songs of the movie base their comedy on mixing stereotypical genre melodies with ridiculous lyrics. For instance, a song played at a Junior High Schooler party sounds like a stereotypical club track, while the lyrics are all about a guy insisting that everybody at the party needs to try his homemade pesto.
• Missing Mom: In the whole trilogy, there is no mention or reference to Sune's biological mother at all.
• Mistaken for Cheating: In the third film, Sirene keeps sneaking off at weird times with vague excuses and is tracked going to a seedy hotel in town. Stewart and later Jørn are convinced she's having an affair. Turns out she's been sneaking off to eat meat despite having dragged Jørn into her vegan lifestyle against his will. He's actually MORE offended at this than the supposed affair he was suspecting.
• Mistaken for Insane: In first film, the Ninja frames Aske in front of his mother and Jørn for trying to strangle Sune via Vorpal Pillow. Aske's insistence that he was just trying to stop the Ninja from killing Sune, then frantically claiming that the Ninja has come alive and is trying to talking into him kill people even though he doesn't want to be a murderer, doesn't really help his case, and results in him getting locked up inside the local psychiatric ward.
• Mistaken for Racist: Not said directly, but in the third film, the mother of the Middle Eastern boy Marco, who we believe at this point has been antagonizing Aske to the point he retaliated with an assault, shows up at the house with her son and demands an explanation and an apology. From how uncomfortable Jørn and Sirene look both at the revelation that Aske assaulted Marco, and Aske's accusations of Marco peddling drugs turning out to be false (he was selling rare and expensive Pekimun cards), it's clear this is in play even if no one says it outright.
• Most Writers Are Adults: Despite Mie and Fie being 13-14 (14-15 in the third film), they dress and act more like older teenagers or young adults.
• My Greatest Failure: Taiko's failure to save ten children while he was alive is this to him, to the point that atoning for this by avenging murdered and abused children is his main motivation.
• My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Sirene's grasp of English is...lacking. When offered meat in the sequel, she tries to explain that she's vegan by politely telling the waiter "No meat for me, I'm a vagina."
• Named by the Adaptation: Phillip Eberfrø's Thai language interpreter was only known as "Bøllehatten" ("The Bucket Hat") in the original book. The second movie gives him the name "Jeppe" ("Jasper" in the English dub).
• Nazi Hunter: VERY downplayed, but one of the acts of heroism we see Aske commit in the sequel is covering up offensive Nazi graffiti.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: In the second film, one of the Thai ladyboys at the red light district tells Jørn that he somehow looks like George Michael.
• No Place for a Warrior: One of the major sources of drama of the third movie is that Aske and TN don't really have a mission, with TN struggling to accept that Aske wants to live a more normal life now that he no longer has any enemies. Or so they think, anyway.
• Omniglot: The Checkered Ninja speaks fluent, casual Danish full of modern teenage slang despite being the spirit of a feudal Japanese ninja trapped inside of a doll that was manufactured in Thailand. Possibly justified since magic is involved.
• Parental Favoritism: Aske's stepfather, Jørn, takes this to ridiculous extremes while claiming he's doing the opposite. He always believes Sunes word over Aske by default, buys Sune snacks that Aske's mother won't let him have and never disciplines his own child. It's particularly bad at Aske's birthday party, where he buys Aske a cheap novelty souvenir... and gives Sune a triple-A newly released video game, all in the name of "treating the boys equally".
  • He's gotten a bit better in the sequel. He still gives Sune cutesy pet names and buys too many treats, but he DOES tell him to pipe down on occasion and reminds him to share his snacks with Aske.
• Parody Product Placement: There are several instances in all three films:
  • "Lars" is a parody of the Lay's potato chips brand.
  • "Ekstra Hadet" is a parody of the real-life Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet.
  • "Vanilla off the Wall" is a parody of Vans off the Wall.
  • "Niks" is a parody of Nike.
  • "Mypee" is a parody of either Mycall or Onecall.
  • "Noodle" is parody of Google.
  • In the sequel, Mie and Fie wear bracelets with a logo that vaguely resembles Gucci's logo.
  • Instabook is a parody and portmanteau of Instagram and Facebook, but resembles the former.
• Phonýmon: "Pekimun", that appears in the third film, is a crude parody of Pokémon.
• Politically Incorrect Hero: Taiko, stuck in a pink and heart-patterned body in the sequel, makes some not-so-timely remarks on "not wanting to look like a bitch". When Aske calls him on it, he remarks that women are for sewing and cooking. Being a 400 year old Japanese ninja spirit from the Sengoku era probably has something to do with that, and he does ease up on it as the movie goes on.
  • It's toned down later, but he's still doing it in the third film.
    TN: Sissy.
    Aske: Nobody says that anymore.
    TN: Do they still say "bitch"?
• Poor Communication Kills: Throughout a good half of the first movie Nakamura doesn't reveal his true intentions to Aske, instead claiming he only wants to return a credit card.
• Purpose-Driven Immortality: Taiko Nakamura, having failed to prevent the death of ten children in life, continually comes back to possess living or dead things to get revenge on child abusers/murderers.
• Punny Name:
  • The initial of the villain Phillip Eberfrø's first name, combined with his last name spells "P. Eberfrø" or "Peberfrø" (Peppercorn). The English translation goes with "P. Eppermint" instead.
  • "Pekimun" appears to be a vulgar pun on "pik i mund" (English: "dick in mouth").
• Real Men Wear Pink: Averted at first in the sequel, but ultimately played straight — Taiko is not amused by his new ninja body being made with pink cloth covered in a cutesy heart pattern, or with the girly-looking toy sword he ends up with, and it leads to many jokes about how gay and girly he looks. It doesn't stop him from being a badass though, and he gets over it over the course of the film. The sword actually saves him from getting shot at one point, too.
  • Although he gets a slick new black and gold body by the end, he still keeps the sword.
• Red Herring: invoked Jessica's father is named Phillip Eberfrö, but it's not the Phillip Eberfrø.
  • In the third film, Marco is NOT the person antagonizing Aske, despite all evidence pointing towards him. Justified because a surviving Phillip Eberfrø and his daughter were staging events to make it appear that way.
• Seppuku: How Taiko Nakamura goes out the first time around. He later repeats it as the Checkered Ninja in order to become smuggling fodder to frame Philip for smuggling (though being a doll, he doesn't die until he's ripped apart by a sniffer dog).
• Sequel Hook: The second film ends with Nakamura deciding to stay with Aske on more adventures instead of moving on like before.
• Shared Universe: With Terkel in Trouble due to the numerous cameo appearances by characters from that movie. Stewart Stardust, in particular, stands out as Aske is apparently another nephew of his just like Terkel. And he plays a more important part in the plot this time.
• Shadow Discretion Shot: Done with the very event that sets the film's plot into motion, that being one of the children at the Thai sweatshop being beaten to death.
• Shout-Out:
  • At one point, a dart is thrown at a poster featuring a caricature of Mick Øgendahl, another massively popular Danish stand-up comedian with whom Anders Matthesen has a playful rivalry in real life, making it a bit of a Take That!.
  • The drug dealer's phone has a picture of the villain of Ronal the Barbarian.
  • Sune watches some anime on his iPad that looks pretty similar to Naruto. Fitting for a movie that stars a supernatural ninja.
  • One of the strip clubs seen Thailand in the sequel is called Hello Titty.
  • Aske and Sune's rooms are full of posters with punny parodies of various popular franchises. One can see a poster reading 'Farvel' (Goodbye) on Aske's wall. One is a reference to the danish comedy show Klovn ("Clown"), but just reads "Ovn" ("Oven") instead, sune has a poster with "Hallo" ("Hello") written in the Halo font, and so on.
• Smuggling with Dolls: After failing to take down Philip a few times, Aske's and the Checkered Ninja's final gambit involves framing Phillip for smuggling narcotics into Thailand using the Checkered Ninja as smuggling fodder.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: At the beginning of the film, a remixed pop version of Quang's Song from Terkel in Trouble plays from a radio while a bunch of miserable small Thai children are forced to produce ninja dolls in a factory.
• Super Hero Origin:
  • Turns out the whole movie is this for Aske. By the end, he uses a checkered scarf to disguise himself and perform vigilante work, inspired by Taiko.
  • Hilariously, the sequel mixes this with Surprisingly Realistic Outcome. Since Aske lives in a small Danish town, his vigilantism amounts to briefly breaking up an assault by distracting the attackers and covering up offensive graffiti. Once the action relocates to Thailand, though...
• That Came Out Wrong: Aske at one point tries to make a sheath for the Checkered Ninja's sword, and naturally asks his wood shop teacher for help. Since the Danish word for "sheath" (Skede) is also a word for a vagina, he gets sent to detention.
  Aske: I want to make a sheath/(Vagina) (...) It has to be hollow so you can breathe through it underwater, and it needs a strap so you can carry it on your back.
• Theme Initials: Ternet Ninja. Taiko Nakamura.
• The Thing That Would Not Leave: Downplayed, but Jørn sees Stewart at this in the sequel, when they just so happen to run into him in Thailand. Even when they try to shake him off by relocating to a small island, Stewart still shows up.
• Trickster Mentor: The Checkered Ninja teaches Aske to stand up for himself... by constantly putting him in socially embarrassing and potentially outright dangerous situations without asking him first.
• Vengeful Ghost: Taiko Nakamura, the spirit of a Ninja who failed to save ten children and now possesses whatever necessary to punish child abusers.
• Vigilante Man: The Checkered Ninja. By the end of the movie, Aske also qualifies.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Phillip Eberfrø is implied to be one of these in the sequel, at least prior to when his final confrontation with Aske is recorded. As he leaves jail after his lawyer bails him out, there are crowds of people cheering ready to interview him.
• Voice Changeling: Inexplicably, the Checkered Ninja can mimic voices perfectly, and uses this to both humiliate and aid Aske depending on his current goals.
• Wham Line: In the third film during the scene where Aske and his parents are confronted by Marco's mother and her son over Aske assaulting him and accusing him of selling drugs to the other kids at the club, Sirene admits to have set the garden shed on fire by accident while trying to secretly grill sausages.
  Jørn: What?
  Sirene: I accidentally set the shed on fire. I couldn't resist the temptation.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • In a horrifying turn of events, Taiko, whose mission is to punish child abusers, threatens to murder Sune to get Aske to go along with his vengeful scheme against Phillip. Thankfully, it is subverted at the last second.
  • The sequel is about Phillip Eberfrø getting out of jail and planning to kill all the children from the sweatshop, since they are witnesses to his crimes. His lawyer and accomplice, Carsten, is equally bad, and at one point threatens to cut off Aske's ear and beat him with a brass knuckle. And he and Phillip try to kill Aske, TN and Jeppe by locking them up in a shop they've rigged to explode.
• You're Not My Father:
  • In the third film, Aske repeatedly tells Jørn, who is trying to take a more active father figure role, that he is NOT his dad. This is exploited by Phillip Eberfrø, who poses as Askes estranged father to get close to him. By the end, Aske acknowledges Jørn as his "second dad"... and his biological one turns out to be ARNE.
  • In the same film, this happens with Emily, Phillip Eberfrø's daughter, whom after being lied to and nearly killed by him, denounces him as her father and gets him thrown into the flames of a burning cabin.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: The Checkered Ninja tries to teach this to Aske, reasoning that the he's only thought of as the wimpy kid in school is because he believes it when others tell him that.
• You Have to Believe Me!: To get back at Aske from backing out of their deal, the Checkered Ninja implies that he is going to kill Sune. Aske rushes home to find the Ninja in Sune's room, attempting to smother him with a pillow. Aske struggles to pull the Ninja off of Sune, just in time for Jørn and his mother to walk in on him, making it look like he is the one trying to smother Sune. Aske frantically tries to explain that it is Not What It Looks Like, insisting over and over again with a panicked, wide-eyed expression that it was the Ninja who tried to kill Sune, that the Ninja has come alive, and that the Ninja tries to get him to kill people, but he doesn't want to be a murderer. As his mother, along with Jørn and Sune, stare him at him with mouths agape in combination of shock and concern, Aske begs her to believe him. Smash Cut to Aske getting locked inside a padded cell at the local psychiatric hospital.
• Younger Than They Look: Despite Marco being around 16-17, he somewhat looks like a man in his early 20s.