Where’s Juri Manase?
Alright, who’s familiar with FuurinKazan? I’ve read from more than one source that the 2007 TV drama was superb, and Sonny Chiba‘s “last role” was arguably his best, but what I really want to see is his daughter in a … Continued
WATARI press stills (Part 2)
Pre-pubescent axe-weilding hero Watari goes through standard shinobi like shit through a goose, but things get a lot dicier when he encounters a bizarre rogues gallery of super-powered villains. Further Reading: I wrote a short plug for this film on … Continued
WATARI press stills (Part 1)
Scored some 4×6″ B&W press stills from Toei’s 1966 mess of a masterpiece Watari the Ninja Boy (Daininjutsu eiga Watari). Depending on one’s previous knowledge of the Shirato Sanpei manga and where you stand on magical superhero ninjutsu vs. grim … Continued
SUPER NINJAS (aka Five Element Ninjas) poster
Via the ever superb Wrong Side of the Art: I find this English language market distro poster for Five Element Ninjas perplexing. The art makes this look like a team-up film, like a shinobified version of Force Five or something. … Continued
An Open Letter to David Bradley
Dear David, They’ll call you the lesser American Ninja. They’ll say you weren’t even a replacement as much as you were a placeholder, a mask-filler brought in while Michael Dudikoff was auditioning for soap opera guest spots. They’ll say you … Continued
Now in the hands of… an American?
As a footnote to our American Ninja celebratory gripe-fest, here’s a mystifying trade ad from what has to be the early part of 1985, wherein Cannon heralded an upcoming project: Right studio, right producers, right creative team, right title, right … Continued
AMERICAN NINJA: Selective memory helps
25 years ago this weekend, Tim March, my brother Seth and I were dropped off at a theater in Worcester, Massachusetts for an afternoon matinee of American Ninja. The ‘craze’ was actually in the process of ‘jumping the shark,’ Tim … Continued
Yet somehow it works…
So how many different schools of character design can you have in one anime? The early 60’s TV version of Shirato Sanpei‘s re-imagining of Sarutobi Sasuke sure did probe that question:
Eight sides of THE OCTAGON
I really love The Octagon. I loved it as a stupid kid in black pajamas back in the day and I love it now. It is an unsung hero of the 80’s American genre, the biggest non-Kosugi entry into the … Continued
Everything I Needed to Know About Ninjutsu I Learned from Carlos Ray Norris, I
A guest column by MATT WALLACE in honor of THE OCTAGON‘s 30th Birthday! Chuck Norris has taught me a lot. He taught me not all men with mustaches who lived in the 70’s did porn. He taught me that it’s … Continued