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
25 years ago…
First we had the 30th Anniversary of The Octagon, now… Monday to be exact… American Ninja is 25 years old. Working on a nice long love-letter to Cannon’s post-Kosugi franchise right now. Stay tuned kids!
KAGEMARU board game
I have no idea what this game was (some sort of sliding-type deal from a kids’ magazine, with punch-out tokens) but man is the character art laced throughout the board amazing or what?
The Holy Grail of ninja statues
In 1990 (about a half a decade too late) The Franklin Mint produced this rather striking 12″ porcelain statue entitled “The Shadow Warrior” sculpted by Sum Nakamura. It is rare as hell now and sells for unreasonable prices on the … 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
Let us now begin an intimate weekend with Chuck and Kyo…
Tomorrow marks the 30TH (!!!) Anniversary of the release of The Octagon! Holy shit I’m old… Rarely credited with starting the American ninja craze of the 80’s, this jewel of the Chuck Norris crown beat Enter the Ninja to theaters … Continued