The issue begins in 1987 Japan during the Chiba Earthquake, set inside the collapsing Shinoda building. Notorious Ninja runs through the collapsing structure carrying schematics the green ninja behind him accuses him of stealing.

We quickly learn that Notorious Ninja is a member of the Shinoda family, while the green ninja belongs to the Yamori family. The two are part of a generational blood feud that predates either of their companies. What stands out is that both of these families, who secretly passed down stealth martial arts traditions for generations, have also built and maintained corporations.

My first question in this issue is simple: if Notorious Ninja stole the schematics from the Yamori ninja, why is he returning to his own building with them while it is collapsing during an earthquake? Was he already on his way back to his home base when the earthquake began? If not, returning there during an earthquake, especially in the middle of a heist, seems like an enormous risk. The scene also raises a bigger question for me: what exactly do these companies do, and what are the schematics for?

Notorious Ninja says the schematics have belonged to his family since before the green ninja was even born, but the two clearly do not agree on that point. Riku Yamori, which we learn is the name of the green ninja, accuses Notorious Ninja and his entire bloodline of being liars. 

With a flick of his wrist, Notorious Ninja suddenly unloads several shuriken into Riku Yamori, warning that this can only end one way unless Riku hands over the schematics. 

Yamori challenges the threat instead of succumbing to it. Riku Yamori dares Notorious Ninja to follow through and kill him on the spot, explaining that lying and killing are all the Shinoda family knows how to do. I am sensing that the Yamori family carries a deep bitterness toward the Shinodas, rooted in some long-standing injustice involving deceit and death. It immediately makes me wonder about their history. What could have already happened between these families to create such a violent and passionate rivalry? 

Despite having just threatened his opponent's life, Haruki Shinoda, which we learn is the real name of Notorious Ninja, completely and immediately backs down when Riku Yamori challenges him to "do it." That is odd, isn’t it? Not only does he retract the threat, he pulls a full 180 and suddenly arrives at the epiphany that violence is not the answer because children are the future. Those children deserve to be born into the gift of peace, not the curse of a generational blood feud. Philosophically, I agree with Notorious Ninja, but contextually it raises a question. Did he forget that he just riddled Riku Yamori with shuriken and threatened to kill him literal seconds before proposing this spur-of-the-moment peace treaty? If you were on the receiving end of that proposal, would you trust him?

The earthquake rages on, destroying the building around them and nearly sending Riku Yamori falling to his doom, until Notorious Ninja grabs his wrist to save him. If Haruki did not seem genuine before, this moment should make it clear that despite how suddenly it was presented, he truly has changed his mind about killing Riku to secure the schematics. But after generations of blood between their families, Riku is not ready to accept that change. Even his nemesis saving his life is not enough to alter his resolve. 

Instead, Riku chooses to slice off Haruki's arm, seemingly condemning them both. That said, we are not shown any corpses, which means there is a serious chance that one or both of these ninjas could return later in the storyline. 

At first, I actually wondered if the now de-armed Haruki Shinoda might somehow transform into Willful Wizard later in the story, given that Willful Wizard is also missing his right hand. However, fans pointed out that Haruki's injury is higher up the arm, meaning he lost far more than just his hand. On top of that, D.J. Coffman has confirmed that this theory is incorrect. Officially debunked. Still, this is the way a Lore Master has to think about every detail.

The story then flashes forward three years to 1990, shifting from Japan to America. We are introduced to a skateboarder wearing a shirt that references Radical Rabbit, which is interesting because that is another one of the VeeFriends characters. That immediately raises a question: What role does Radical Rabbit play in the VeeFriends Universe, and how is that character connected to the skater wearing the shirt? It is too early to answer those questions, but the best way to find answers is to keep them in mind moving forward. 

The skater wipes out with a crowd watching, and we learn that his name is Renji Shinoda, which means he is a member of the Notorious Ninja family. We also see an onlooker ask, “You sure Radical Rabbit wipes out like that?” This makes me wonder if, in addition to wearing the shirt, Renji might also go by the nickname Radical Rabbit. 

With the crowd present, someone filming, and the discussion of sponsorships, it appears that Renji is either already a professional skater or an amateur on the verge of going pro. 

Speaking of Renji and rabbits, now seems like as good a time as any to explore the Renji Shinoda naming rabbit hole theory that I elaborately crafted through some dedicated research. Now, my theory has officially been "debunked" by D.J. Coffman, so if you are looking to carry on with the analysis you can skip this section and move on to the next. That said, even though D.J. refutes the idea by saying it was not intentional, I still genuinely believe what I am about to explain is too statistically anomalous to be coincidence. For that reason, I firmly stand by my claim that the universe itself may have been working through D.J. Coffman to provide us with this Easter egg. 

It all started on X when I was reading a post from Papii (@RealPapii), the founder of Quirkies NFT. In his post reflecting on his web3 journey, he mentioned how Gary Vee (@garyvee) got him into NFTs back in early 2022 along with a few other notable figures, including Mike Shinoda. That name jumped out immediately because of the Notorious Ninja’s full name in the VeeFriends comics: Renji Shinoda. 

So I asked Grok who Mike Shinoda is. Grok explained that Mike Shinoda, full name Michael Kenji Shinoda, is the American musician, rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer best known as the co-founder of Linkin Park. Low key, Linkin Park is also one of my favorite bands of all time, even though I clearly did not know all of the members’ names. He is also a graphic designer and has been deep in web3 and NFTs since the early days. That felt like a thread worth pulling.

Gary Vee and Mike Shinoda do have real connections in the NFT space. They have crossed paths through collaborations, drops, and shared circles. For example, Mike appeared on Gary’s Props & Drops podcast in 2022. The overlap is not massive, but it is there: two creators who blend art, music, design, and blockchain. 

However, the real smoking gun here is the single letter swap similarity between "Kenji" Shinoda and "Renji" Shinoda. Like, what? What are the odds of that being coincidence? In a universe filled with intentional trait based naming and Easter eggs, that kind of similarity feels loaded. 

To push the theory further, I dug into parallels beyond the name. Notorious Ninja, Renji Shinoda, is established as a skateboarder in VeeFriends Issue 07. Michael Kenji Shinoda, while not known as a skateboarder himself, still has a connection to skate culture. 

Mike Shinoda’s ties to skate culture stem from his work as a visual artist. He has released limited edition skateboard decks featuring his original artwork through his official store. In a 2017 tweet, he praised famous skateboarder Christian Hosoi as "the legend." Mike also noted that his own first real skate deck was a Hosoi Hammerhead. I cannot find anything confirming whether he actually skated back then or if he was simply collecting decks, but either way the skate culture connection is there. 

Ultimately, D.J. later clarified in the X discussion thread that there is no intentional connection between Michael Kenji Shinoda and Renji Shinoda. But how did he know that? Still, I was not ready to let it go. The one letter proximity of Kenji to Renji, both of them sharing the last name Shinoda, the overlapping creative and design worlds, the Gary Vee connection, the skate culture link, and the fact that this surfaced organically through community conversation. That level of synchronicity feels bigger than random chance to me. What if Gary knew but D.J. did not realize? I needed one final confirmation before I could sleep again, so I reached out desperately in the DMs...

That settles it. If this connection is intentional, it is a cosmic intention, not a human one. That said, this journey did lead to another realization: "Shinoda" translates to bamboo grass in Japanese, which pandas are known for eating as roughly 99% of their diet. Does that suggest there is an actual connection between Patient Panda and Notorious Ninja? Or is D.J. simply having a bit of fun with words and their meanings? Only time will tell. 

In VeeFriends, we have already seen how real world inspiration quietly shapes the lore through traits, headlines, and character arcs. Sometimes the creators plant these connections deliberately. Other times, the universe simply aligns the pieces on its own. For me, this one falls into the latter category. Even if it was not intentional on D.J.'s end, the echo feels too precise to ignore. Renji Shinoda as Notorious Ninja remains one of those delightful rabbit hole details that makes diving into these comics so rewarding. What do you think, coincidence or cosmic Easter egg? Either way, keep looking. There is always more beneath the surface. 

After wiping out, Renji is asked to meet his uncle at the Shinoda Motors dealership, which partially answers our earlier question about what types of companies these ninjas own. Renji’s uncle is Lou Shinoda, and he has called this meeting to inform Renji that it is time for him to inherit his father’s legacy. He also references the earthquake that allegedly killed Renji’s father and notes that his body was never found. 

Renji refuses, protesting that he is only 16 years old and seeming confused about how he could take over a car dealership while being too young to even have a driver’s license. Interesting. Three years earlier, when Renji was 13, his father was at a Shinoda facility in Japan during an earthquake while fighting Riku Yamori. So was the whole family living in Japan three years ago, or was his father “away on a business trip?” Also, where is Renji Shinoda’s mother in all of this? 

Renji has the same reaction to his father’s body not being found as I did. No body means we cannot conclude that he is actually dead. Either way, he does not want to step into his father’s role. Not now, and seemingly not ever, given that his justification is having his own life and his own thing going. But Uncle Lou does not mean Shinoda Motors when he talks about legacy. 

He means it is time for Renji to become the Notorious Ninja. It had not occurred to me at first, but VeeFriends community member @justinvest on X asks how Uncle Lou has the Notorious Ninja suit if Haruki Shinoda died and his body was never found. It is a valid question, but my wager is that the Shinoda family has plenty of ready-to-deploy suitcases containing Notorious Ninja costumes and accompanying shuriken. I imagine that a superhero, supervillain, vigilante, or whatever Notorious Ninja ultimately is cannot rely on having just one costume. What would they do when it was in the wash?  

Renji cannot believe that his father was a murderer. He asks if he is meant to believe that his dad was “some... killer ninja.” From the way he phrases the question, Notorious Ninja does not initially seem all that notorious. The definition of notorious is “famous or well known, typically for some bad quality or deed.” If Renji’s father, Haruki Shinoda, was widely known in that identity, would anyone describe him as “some... killer ninja?” Renji’s reaction is not, “So my dad is Notorious Ninja?” It is, “So my dad is ‘some... killer ninja?’”

Upon reflection, I came to a different conclusion. The fact that Renji instantly understands that Notorious Ninja is a killer actually reinforces how famous his father must have been. At the mere mention of the name, Renji knows he is an assassin who has killed. Notorious Ninja is indeed notorious. Renji says “some... killer ninja?” not because he has never heard of the name, but because he is repulsed. The shock of discovering that his father is a killer, something Renji is clearly morally opposed to, outweighs any awe attached to notoriety. Yes, notorious means well known, but it means being well known for something bad. Renji’s moral compass is strong enough to understand that being famous for wrongdoing is not impressive. It is damning.

Uncle Lou confirms that Renji’s father, Haruki Shinoda, was indeed an assassin who murdered others, but only when necessary for the clan and its values. This validates the earlier accusation from Riku Yamori, the green ninja, who claimed that the Shinodas are known for murder.

Renji cannot reconcile the idea that his father’s values would include violence and deception toward his own son. Yet this also confirms Riku Yamori’s other accusation, that the Shinodas are a family of liars. Renji may be honest, but in this moment we learn that his father and his uncle have been lying to him his entire life.

Uncle Lou attempts to scare Renji into accepting the family legacy, warning him that he will be in danger if the opposition finds out who he is. Renji is struggling to believe any of this is actually true, but decides that if it is, he is going to take his chances rejecting and ignoring it. This prompts Uncle Lou to initiate Plan B. We do not know what that means yet, but from the dark, shadowy, foreboding, back-turned depiction of the phone call, it does not sound good. 

It is now 2025, and Renji is already thinking about passing on the mantle of Notorious Ninja. Given that he picked up the mantle in 1990 when he was 16, that would mean 25 years have passed with him serving as Notorious Ninja, and he is now 41 years old. Gary Vaynerchuk says 41 years old is still young as hell, but apparently it is too old to be Notorious Ninja. Do not tell Gary that, though. He is definitely over 40 and has been seen wearing the Notorious Ninja outfit as a Halloween costume. 

Now take a closer look at the second, partially obscured newspaper headline in the bottom-left panel of the page shown above. We can infer that if we could see all the letters, it would read: “Man With One Arm Claiming To Be Notorious Ninja.” Full stop. 

There is only one character we have encountered with one arm who could be claiming to be Notorious Ninja 25 years after the Chiba earthquake, and that is none other than Renji’s father, Haruki Shinoda. Unless this is a red herring, this appears to confirm that he survived after all. However, the fact that he did not surface for 25 years and is now reappearing with claims to be Notorious Ninja, before contacting Renji to our knowledge, suggests that after the accident Haruki may have experienced some form of memory loss and is only now beginning to piece everything back together. How will he be reintroduced into the story in later issues, and what role will he play in the larger narrative? 

While Renji contemplates this, he is also uncertain whether he should pass the mantle on at all, or simply allow the legacy of Notorious Ninja to die with him. 

Wait… what? 

So in a single issue, the first Notorious Ninja dies or disappears. Then the second goes from being appointed to considering retirement, with us as readers seeing only a single occurrence of him wearing the costume. Two time skips in one issue. First three years, then twenty-five. That raises a bigger question about where the story goes from here. Do we get flashbacks of Renji’s adventures between sixteen and forty-one, or are we about to meet the next Notorious Ninja? 

Or are we about to meet two more Notorious Ninjas? This also raises a series of new questions. Are girls allowed to inherit the mantle of Notorious Ninja within the Shinoda tradition? If so, can there be more than one successor? Are Renji’s children even old enough for that responsibility yet? And where is their mother in all of this? And once again, what happened to Renji’s mother?

We see the son and daughter arguing. The son thinks Notorious Ninja is a piece of crap, while the daughter loves him. That must create an interesting family dynamic. I wonder how it makes Renji feel. VeeFriends Issue 07 leaves us with far more questions than answers.

As VeeFriends Issue 07 comes to a close, the final panels reveal that the green Yamori ninja has also survived the past 25 years. Or is this a new Yamori ninja who has inherited the legacy? It is also revealed that the company the Yamori family owns is Gutsy Motors, which means they are rivals not only in ninjitsu, but also in the commercial auto industry. It's also an obvious reference to the VeeFriends character, Gutsy Gecko. 

Reflecting on VeeFriends Issue 07 as a whole, what initially appeared to be a straightforward origin story reveals itself to be something much deeper. This issue is not simply about the rise of a new Notorious Ninja. It is about legacy, identity, and the tension between the paths we inherit and the paths we choose for ourselves. Renji Shinoda spends most of this issue trying to escape the shadow of his father and the violent tradition tied to the Shinoda name. Yet by the final pages, we see that legacy has a way of catching up to us, whether we welcome it or not.

The story also subtly reframes what it means to inherit something. Renji does not step into the role of Notorious Ninja because he fully accepts it. He steps into it because he wants answers. He wants to understand the man his father truly was and reconcile the image of the loving parent he remembers with the assassin he has just learned about. That emotional conflict gives this origin far more weight than a typical superhero introduction.

Visually and symbolically, the issue reinforces this transformation. Renji is not a traditional ninja. He is a skateboarder, a kid rooted in freedom, rebellion, and individuality. When he ultimately puts on the Notorious Ninja costume, the story is not asking him to become a copy of his father. Instead, it suggests that each generation reshapes the mantle it inherits. The legacy remains, but the person wearing it changes what that legacy means.

At the same time, the larger conflict continues to loom in the background. The Shinoda and Yamori feud is clearly far from over, and the presence of the green Yamori ninja reminds us that this rivalry extends beyond the previous generation. Whether the figure behind the green mask is Riku Yamori himself or someone who has inherited that mantle remains unclear, but the implication is unmistakable: this war did not end with the earthquake.

That uncertainty leaves us with far more questions than answers. Did Haruki Shinoda truly die in 1987, or is there more to that story waiting to be uncovered? What role will the Yamori legacy play moving forward? And now that Renji has reluctantly stepped into the role of Notorious Ninja, what kind of hero, or anti-hero, will he ultimately become?

If Issue 07 proves anything, it is that the VeeFriends Universe is willing to build its characters through generational storytelling rather than simple one-issue arcs. Renji’s journey has only just begun, and the moment he finally sees himself in the mirror wearing the Notorious Ninja mask feels less like a conclusion and more like the opening move of a much larger story.

And if this issue is any indication, the legacy of Notorious Ninja is far from finished.