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
Man, where would we be without Sho Kosugi? Probably in JAIL… This is the man, after all, who taught us how to catch arrows in our teeth, wear ninja stars on our belt buckles, scale office buildings with climbing claws, … Continued
Check out this impressively thorough archive of martial arts magazine covers and topics going back 50 years: Vintage Martial Arts Magazines When the titles and decades are laid out like this, you can really see the trends and transitions of … Continued
Via a nifty article on mind control gimmicks in 80’s TV at the Dinner With Max Jenke blog: What about the supreme hamster? (Thanks to Dave Buscemi)
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
NINJA ASSASSIN… It goes wrong in the very title. “Assassin.” Can we get past this notion of the ninja cult of hired assassins? Some historians question if there ever was a documented assassination in Japan reliably credited to a shinobi … Continued
…and it being horror-themed Halloween month, we’d be remiss in not throwing a shout out to what was the most ambitious of the 80’s Canon flicks, Ninja III: The Domination. The delicious desert that was Domination was part Kosugi ninja … Continued
How many times did I watch Revenge of the Ninja on HBO during the ascension of the ninja craze? Sixteen? A million? Seemed like a week didn’t pass without it being on the TV… Sho Kosugi made a smart call … Continued
…there was The Last Ninja. Michael Beck, perhaps known best as Swan from The Warriors, was hot on the heels of action masterpieces Warlords of the 21st Century and Megaforce when he made the ahead-of-its-time TV pilot about a lone … Continued
Don’t know if this is old stock, a warehouse find, or new print runs, but Ninja-Weapons.com has all sorts of old 80’s ninja posters for sale, and CHEAP! I got these two CLASSICS for Christmas, 1983 I think… I still … Continued