The remarkable Kunoichi art of GETABO
Dig around the CG art community haven Deviant Art for a while and you come accross some serious talent! These digitally-painted sword girls are from Japanese artist GETABO Hagiwara. He’s a sword instructor as well, and it shows in the authenticity … Continued
KAIKETSU KUROZUKIN in film
Kaiketsu Kurozukin (The Black Hood) is one of Japan’s most enduring hooded hero properties, with cinematic origins in the silent era and a retooling about once a decade since. We did a brief overview of the property a while back here, with … Continued
REVENGE OF THE NINJA soundtrack album
The Revenge of the Ninja OST is one of the finest pieces of action movie synth released in the 80s, if not the best. Nothing will inspire your fog-shrouded weapons chest power-up montage like the soaring Asian-y keyboards of prolific … Continued
Thanks Lili!
Awesome gift illo from my friend Lili Chin! She and her FWAK! Animation partner Eddie Mort did ones for me a few years back as well…
The Budo Zodiac
As today is my birthday… Found this print ad ran in a 1981 issue of Black Belt magazine, a neato blend of Chinese zodiac and Japanese martial arts. The artist did his or her homework, too! 1969 — that makes … Continued
Hachiman from THUNDERCATS
The interwebs were abuzz this week with the first image of a hip new version of the beloved 80’s cartoon ThunderCats. I was never much of a fan myself, but back in the days when martial arts-related action figures were … Continued
Happy Birthday Sonny!
A bit late here, but Sunday was the 72nd birthday of Sonny Chiba, a man who doesn’t get nearly enough credit for maintaining the 80’s ninja craze. I really want to know what insidious anti-ninjite super villain blocked Kage no … Continued
Not Necessarily Ninja – Chapter 1
Shinobi-esque jobbers in LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY Ninja, and ninja-like, costuming affords a tremendous advantage to action directors – you can hide the stuntmen very easily. How many times per picture can an anonymous hooded fight double get killed? A … Continued
Be very qwwwiet… we’re hunting shadows!
Takao Saito‘s rather fun manga Kage Gari was turned into a veeeery grim, nigh-emo film in 1972. Whereas the trio of vengeful “Shadow Hunters” in the books are sort of a jaunty, anti-shinobi three musketeers, in the film they are … Continued
Some ninja blood over at ‘Sangre Yakuza’
Sangre Yakuza is an excellent Spanish-language blog full of Japanese gang-war movie posters, topless sukebans, tattoo’d girls in bondage (like the above kunoichi-esque bandit about to get abused), and karate-kickin’ honeys. And lo-and-behold some sword-slinging shinobi once in a while… There’s … Continued