Up close on some old SHINTARO cards
How many times, in a jealous fit of childish resentment, have I openly cursed all Australians on this site? Seriously, that continent probably hates me, but dammit, their head start on the ninja craze outside of Japan beat us by … Continued
More crappy (aka GREAT) 80s package art!
I just cannot get enough of illustrated and painted ninja art from 80s no-name ninja merch. Sometimes, well, lets be real… OFTEN… more time was spent on the package art than was on designing the crap under the blister card … Continued
VN REVISITED: Fujimaru Book-n-Record
Originally published in two parts — July 2009 Growing up in the pre-home video era often meant the only way to relive your favorite movie or TV property was the now extinct book-n-record. I positively wore out my GI Jo Adventure … Continued
Some info from Yugoslavia
Back in March of 2015 we posted some art, and plenty of speculation, about 80’s craze-era ninja comics from Yugoslavia, and now we have some first hand info on them, thanks to VN reader and student of the arts Navid Bulbulija: … Continued
Support The Ninjaplex, and my new book!
I don’t normally shill on this site, but both myself and VN’s shadow-spiritual advisor Tim March have announced side projects in the past week that could use the bandwidth, so deal with it! First off, I’m ringing the bell to … Continued
More good Blu news for 2016!
Well, it took 30 some odd years but we’re finally getting close to having all the classic Sho Kosugi fare well represented on home video. Arrow’s superb sounding release of Pray for Death hasn’t even shipped yet and they’ve already … Continued
This post BLOWS!
From our friends at Vintage Nunchaku comes a feature on a critical piece of survival equipment that helped us get through the 1980s — The Jivaro Blowgun. The Jivaro Blowgun: This was serious “ninja stuff.” First of all you had to … Continued
VN REVISITED: A look at ZANPEI KUMOTORI manga
Lots of new readers lately, and I always love delving into the archives, exposing folks to some of the great stuff we posted back in the early years, so here’s an EXPANDED revisit of an article originally from November of 2009: … Continued
PRAY FOR DEATH coming to Blu!
Restoration label Arrow Films continues to put out Criterion-level releases of films that are decidedly not in the Criterion oeuvre — Spaghetti Westerns, Japanese delinquent gang flicks, gory Giallo and slasher fare, and yes — now they’re going FULL 80s NINJA! … Continued