Nintendo ninja and muscle madness!
Nifty post by Andrew Case over at Dreams of the Red King. A 1989 issue of Nintendo Power magazine — LAME ninja on cover, nice art for interior spreads. OK people, answer me this: why are so many painted and … Continued
TAKI: video game heroine comes to 1:6 scale
I’m not a video game guy in the least, but man do I love the elevated place lady ninja have in that realm. If only movies followed suit more often… Taki is a twin short-sword wielding kunoichi from Soul Calibur, … Continued
The Illustrated Sho Kosugi
In the 80’s, Sho Kosugi posed for over 73 billion photos in full night gear, laden with weapons, in magazines like Black Belt, Ninja, even Karate Illustrated and Inside Kung Fu. Yet when it comes to movie and video game ad … Continued
Some film posters on a Friday
Let’s look at some quirky foreign movie posters, testament to the global nature of the 80’s craze. Coming in the next day or so, more weird movie posters, this time featuring illustrations and paintings of Sho Kosugi (regardless of wether … Continued
Hokusai climber
Detail scan of an 1817 Hokusai manga. (Referenced on the surprisingly fair and well-rounded wikipedia entry on ninja.) The original page feature an array of practicing martial artists:
A Force of… FUN???
I highly recommend tooling around the excellent Wrong Side of the Art poster archive, particularly the martial arts section. You come across oldies but goodies like this Chuck Norris classic: NOW, from the same site, take a look at this … Continued
Sate of the Ninja – the 2000s
The 2000s was a strange decade for martial arts and martial arts cinema. Unlike the Bruce Lee-inspired kung-fu 70’s, the Sho Kosugi-driven ninja 80’s or the VanDamme-inspired kickboxing 90’s, the 00s didn’t have a definitive iconic star nor a decade-dominating … Continued
Press stills from NINJUTSU GOZEN-JIAI
The 1957 Toei FX romp Ninjutsu Gozen-Jiai (aka Torawakamaru, the Koga Ninja) is the perfect example of the pre-60’s craze kid’s ninja film: mischievous wizard hero, evil sorcerer, spirit-creatures fighting in the clouds, etc and so forth. Before the real … Continued
Scanning around some other sites…
More VHS clamshell art, via DRILLPOP: Formal from an Onmitsu Doshin wedding or the Demon Spies prom? A baffling image via the amazing Black and WTF photoblog: A review of this nifty capsule figure of Sega video game kunoichi Hibana over … Continued