The VN Timeline: HOW NINJA CONQUERED THE WORLD
An exhaustive timeline of the 1980s ninja craze, from its prehistory in the 60s-70s to its premature fizzle by the 90s.
On our 9th Birthday, here’s 9 gifts WE gave the world
Nine years ago this weekend, this site’s first posts went live. We typically celebrate the anniversary of our launch by reposting our first feature — press stills from Akai Kageboshi — but we decided to change things up this year. … Continued
From readers and around the web…
We’re hard at work on a major feature on Eric Van Lustbader‘s novel The Ninja, and it’s ill-fated film development, slated for later this month, but in the meantime, here’s all sorts of shinobi-centric goodness: VN reader Brian had a … Continued
Happy “National Ninja Day” Japan!
Feb 22 is an upstart shinobi-themed holiday in Japan, especially in Iga and Koga. You can read all about on Kotaku: “Ninja Day Is An Actual Holiday in Japan”
Man, there sure is a lot of ninja crap out there…
Is it just me, or is there more and more generic-design ninja merch out there than ever before? This stuff is clogging the shelves of every Little Tokyo and/or Chinatown tourist trap, airport gift shop, cart and blanket vendor around subways, dollar … Continued
FIVE YEARS!!!
Wow… the fifth anniversary of this site. You’ll notice some minor cosmetic and navigation updates for the first time in forever. I suppose some sort of profound editorial is in order, but I’d rather just thank everyone who’s plugged this site and … Continued
Torment of the “Top 10”
I was asked by the film review site SoReelFlix last month to contribute a Top 10 ninja films list. After a month of notes I had about 30 bare essential films and realized an outright Top 10 wasn’t going to … Continued
Have a safe and happy holiday season!
And for those of you who get anything sharp and pointy from Santa, don’t put your eye out…