The Chop Sockey Thread

[Lomax]

Well, September is here and out of the shadows comes.....


A month long celebration of these master assassins

I'm encouraging all other members of this forum to join in the discussion with their favorite ninja comics, tv shows, movies, manga, or anything else that is related. And, without further adieu....

[Lomax]

I have a fondness for black and white ninja films and TV series. One of the better movie series is Shinobi no mono. It was an adaptation of a series of historical novels about ninjas during the 16th century sengoku period of Japan (similar to the dark ages in Europe). These films depicted real ninjas in a war with the shoguns and other samurai at the time. It spawned 8 films in the series and was adapted for Japanese television. Lupin the Third's Goemon Ishikawa XIII is a decendant of the main character of these films. This series is available on Netflix.



Another popular ninja series was Shintaro the Samurai (Onmitsu Kenshi in Japan). The show revolved around the title character Akikusa Shintarō battling the evil Koga ninjas each week to protect the Shogun. It was quite popular in Australia and New Zealand back in the late 60s. this show was lesss realistic that the Shinobi no mono films.



Finally, Shōnen Ninja Kaze no Fujimaru (Fujimaru of the wind) was an early 1960s Toei anime about a young boy raised as a ninja searching for a lost manuscript of secret fighting techniques. He has ninja magic powers over wind. A precursor to later popular ninja anime like Naruto.

[Lomax]

Any kid who grew up in the late 80s/early 90s should know the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.



Like most kids from that era, my first exposure to the characters was not the Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird comic series but the syndicated cartoon series (CBS would broadcast the later seasons on Saturday mornings). The Turtles are one of the most successful brands of all time. Action figures, video games, movies, t-shirts, bed sheets, etc. Lord knows that I had a bunch of the figures and all of the videogames for the nes, snes, and gameboy. I also had the board game, ate the cereal (it came with those cool turtle shaped bowls), and the turtles wristwatch.





The first turtles live action movie is one of my favorite films from my childhood. I think it still holds up today (somewhat). The sequels on the other hand.......



With a new animated series coming out soon, a new ongoing comic series, and possibly a new movie (hopefully not the Micheal Bay script), it seems like the turtles aren't going anywhere.

[Lomax]

Toei Studios (one of Japan's largest movie and television studios) owns an amusement park near Kyoto called Eigamura (movie village). The park is designed to look like classic edo japan and is used for filming samurai and ninja films and TV dramas. It's a lot like universal studios.



They do various live shows throughout the park, including a stage performance at one of the small theaters. (Toei studios also owns many of the live action henshin heroes shows and has a whole section of the park dedicated to them. You can see that footage over at the earth Destruction Directive thread on this board).

[Lomax]

Here is a interesting ninja themed restaurant in New York. Enjoy

[Lomax]

The NES was my favorite system playing growing up. There were a large amount of ninja related games released for it as ninjas make great fodder for videogames. Here is a small sampling of ninja related games.



ninja gaiden is one of my favorite games on the nes







This game is based on a children's anime called Ninja Hattori

[ljacone]

I always like Shinobi for the SMS and then Revenge of Shinobi for the Genesis. Great ninja action in both of them!

[Lomax]

I rented this movie years ago from a local video store near my house (some day I'll have to talk about this place. It had the greatest collection of late 70s/early 80s B films and 1980s WWF home video releases.) The film is called Cyber Ninja (known as Mirai Ninja in Japan). The English dub was released straight to video through Orion Pictures. The film is co written and directed by Keita Amemiya, a famous director and character designer for various Super Sentai and Kamen Rider series. he is currently working on the GARO series.



Namco also released an arcade game based on this film the same year:

[Lomax]

[Lomax]

[Lomax]

Highly recommend this game. And its DLC.