While I’ve had all sorts of cool-ass ninjering going on in the shadows, I still can’t reveal anything, and its been too long without a post. So here’s some superlative vids that have come along lately, some of which I’ve saved to my permanent reference collection. You should do the same…
For starters, you’re not going to find a better put together treatise on the history of ninja than Aniki‘s piece below. It’s casual/conversational approach belies its depth of research and broad view, taking into account both the traditional cannon of the subject and the latest cautionary revisionism of recent years — and being totally fair and approachable to both.
Here’s a really nice breakdown on the film-craft differences between Enter the Ninja and Revenge of the Ninja. It’s some inside baseball re: cinematography, editing and production value, not the usual fare for retro-review pieces. I adore the notion of Enter creating the words, but Revenge speaking the language. Well done Grindhouse Gospel!
So this next video is entirely gaming-centric, and the age bracket is like half my years or less, so I’m not the audience at all, however… in the spirit of hearing the perspective of an entirely different generation, the vocabulary here is rather fascinating. If you’re in your 50s or older, you can recall a time when the word “ninja” practically didn’t exist in the English language, and then overnight in the early 80s it was everywhere. Thus we think of that period as the concise ninja boom, which fizzled when TMNT turned it all into kids fare and the Cannon and Kosugi movies wandered and so on. BUT, for someone coming at the history of ninja pop culture in the West from a year 2000 and beyond perspective, Gaijin Goombah sees it as a continuous ninja craze from the 80s through the 90s — from The Octagon and Enter the Ninja right through GI Joe, TMNT and seamlessly into Mortal Kombat and other games a decade following. I’m too close to the subject to agree with that, as I lived it and really felt the down period post Black Eagle, but looking back from 20-30 years later, it must look like a single long craze period. Enlightening, and us OLDS can always use to expand our envelopes, right… right???
I’ve wanted a proper release of The Legend of Kamui anime forever. I have bootlegs of it in Spanish and Italian, but nothing in English save for the single episode on VHS packaged with Remco toys. Now, out of f’n NOWHERE, the entire original Japanese series is subtitled and just sitting there on TUBI, like what the actual hell??? Sample the credit sequences here:
And this isn’t new, but in case anyone missed my glowing recommendations of Rob Hill‘s absolutely awesome census of ninja exploitation cinema, the below is not just recommended it’s essential, and something you’ll want to share with the uneducated infidels in your life:
Hoping the next time I post, it’ll be the formal announcement of some other stuff you can watch, stuff with no color from decades ago, stuff you can hear me talk-over if you so desire… more on all that as soon as I’m allowed to do so.
Keith J. Rainville — October 2025
