There is
always some dude on the internet, grinning like a possum eating a sweet potato
who wants to tell you how to think or feel about the subject of the Ninja. I recently sat down and watched a vid of some English
dude running his meat sucker that he single handedly killed the ninja. Now mind you there is no shortage of ass holes
on the internet who think their OPINIONS should hold weight. There probably isn’t
a bigger political shit storm in martial arts than the subject of the ninja.
If you were
a kid or teenager in the 80s, you remember, the movies, the music, MTV, the
clothes, the big hair and the NINJA. Yep, the eighties would be the decade of
the NINJA there was no ignoring the ninja in the 80’s. America was still climbing out of the 70s,
the hot trend in films between the Star Wars movies was the NINJA movie. The
image of the NINJA was adopted whole heartedly in the 80s by American teenage
boys looking for a new martial arts hero. Yep, for those that aren’t old enough
to remember it was NINJA! NINJA! NINJA! To get a grasp of this you have to
understand this was long before the internet, but the ninja craze spread so
fast and so strong the image literally took over all aspects of life. You could
not go anywhere with out seeing a marque, a toy, a lunch box something with a
ninja on it.
My earliest
remembrance of the eighties NINJA came about in September of 1980 the TV
miniseries Shogun aired and featured a scene of a raid by NINJA. That was what
started it all. I went to my local drive in movie theater and saw “The Octagon”
in which Chuck Norris fought a clan of NINJA. Boy was there one badass NINJA in
that one. Then there was “Enter the NINJA” a Cannon film starring Sho Kosugi. With the success of that film, came “Revenge
of the NINJA” and “NINJA III: The Domination” soon followed. “American NINJA” came next and proved to be
the most successful ninja film for the Cannon film group. By the mid
eighties, the media was saturated with NINJA movies, magazines and anything
NINJA related. It seemed almost every
month one of the monthly martial arts magazines would feature a NINJA on its
cover or NINJA related articles. There were even a series of these magazines
which were simply titled (of course) "NINJA".
The NINJA
appeared in other mediums as well. On TV there was a pilot movie called “The
Last NINJA” and a Tv series which starred Sho Kosugi and Lee Van Clief called
“The Master” whose main character Mcalister was….yep you guessed it, a NINJA. A
Popular children’s cartoon G.I. Joe went as far as redesigning a major
character to cash in on the sudden NINJA craze. That character was Snake eyes.
The best selling figures of the Hasbro G.I. Joe line of toys and action figures
were Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow which were both, of course, NINJA. The sheer
volume of kids that dressed up as Ninja during Halloween was crazy. It seemed
like every kid wanted to be a NINJA. Kawasaki
launched it's best selling motorcycle. Can You guess which one it was? The
NINJA. Are you getting the jist of the prevalent presence that the NINJA had in
the eighties yet? Serving to only fuel the flames of the NINJA craze, arcades
everywhere were assaulted with one NINJA game after another. In 1986, “NINJA”
was one of the first video games to feature the shadowy assassins. A year
later, “The Last NINJA” and “Shinobi” would hit arcades everywhere with “NINJA
Gaiden” and “NINJA Warriors” following the year after that.
By the end
of the eighties Teenage Mutant NINJA Turtles had swept the nation and had
become a phenomenon, selling a plethora of VHS tapes, action figures, t-shirts,
and video games. NINJA movies were released straight to VHS video. Sho Kosugi’s quintessential NINJA would
continue to kick ass in “Pray for Death” and “9 Deaths of the NINJA” and
sequels to American NINJA were a force to be reckoned with in the video rental
chain franchises and stores.
The NINJA
cut into the 90s with the same intensity. There were 3 big screen Teenage
Mutant NINJA Turtles movies and other
movies such as “3 NINJAS” and “Beverly Hills NINJA”. By this time we had seen every conceivable
manifestation of the NINJA in cartoon, movies, comics, in action novels, in the
media, in music, the news and pop culture. There were NINJAS dressed in black,
red, blue, yellow, green and don’t forget the NINJAS dressed in camouflage.
Even Batman, who had been fighting evildoers since 1939, got a little schooling
in the way of the NINJA during the 80’s and 90’s.
Like getting
hit with a shuriken between the eyes, you just couldn’t get away from the
NINJA, it was NINJA this and NINJA that, the ninja were everywhere, it was pure
full tilt NINJA Mania in the 80s and 90s. Music Television’s MTV had
interviewed a real American NINJA in a segment entitled “So you want to be a
NINJA”. The rock band Blue Oyster Cult released an album called “Club NINJA”
which featured the song “Shadow Warrior”. Why even rapper Vanilla Ice came out
with “NINJA Rap”. The NINJA were so prevalent on toys, t shirts, lunch boxes,
in martial arts, in the media, movies, TV and pop culture that even a fake
NINJA got exposed in The Los Angeles Times.
The release
of “Enter the Ninja” set off the ninja explosion of the 80's which is still
with us to this day as evidenced by the upcoming Snake Eyes solo movie. Despite what some internet ass hole, know it
all wannabe claims on YouTube it seems that the retro image of the Ninja from
the 80's is indeed alive and well. In recent years block buster movies such as
Batman Begins have pushed the black clad ninja image into the forefront. Sword wielding assassins with demonic
fighting abilities are laying waste to such youtube and internet braggadocio
and “know it all”. The list of movies
range from "Batman Begins and its sequels", "Ninja
Assassin", “Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear” which starred Scott Adkins
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films to the “G.I. Joe” films that featured
the ninja character Snake Eyes. And if there is any doubt that Ninja aren't
still going strong in pop culture The G.I. Joe character Snake Eyes has his own
upcoming solo movie.
The retro
image of the black clad assassin/anti hero is what initially brought droves of
students, myself included, to the art of ninjutsu…….and what kid in the 80's
didn't want to be a ninja. Now, it was always known that the image may not be
entirely accurate and more Hollywood driven. This image however has taken such
a strong hold in society and pop culture that there are now ninja museums and
themed parks in Japan who are all capitalizing on this image of the black clad
shadow warrior of motion pictures and TV . Even Documentaries on the ancient
ninja of Japan depict more often than not, an intimidating vision of a black
clad ancient elite special forces operative capable of demonic like stealth who possess almost super
human combat abilities and as master assassins. The ninja are back and are more
lethal than ever.
The name
Ninja has been associated with an ultimate warrior capable of explosive skills,
intellect, a wide range of infiltration skill and diverse fighting ability. The
Ninja were for all intensive purposes were the forefathers of the special
forces operatives and espionage agents used by military forces around the world
today. These elite units combine combat skills, stealth, and technology to
infiltrate enemy strongholds, gather secret information, and spread
disinformation and operate in small units very much like the ninja of feudal
Japan.
To this day,
the iconic image of the ninja stretched far beyond that of the martial arts
into pop culture. In fact, the influence of the image of the ninja on pop
culture and martial arts was and still is massive! The retro image of the ninja not only
determined how most school kids and pretty much everyone here in the west
imagined ninja to be but it also motivated students to train harder to become
better at their perspective martial art it didn't matter if it was ninjutsu or
karate. The image of the ninja was adopted whole heartedly in the 80's and has
since become almost inseparable from mainstream American heroism. Never has
there been such a greater force than the blade wielding black clad anti hero.
So what’s
wrong with the retro image of the ninja or ninjutsu? Answer: AS FAR AS I AM CONCERENED, NOT ONE
GOD DAMN THING!!!!
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