Ninja Ryuukenden

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Ryukenden, Tale of Ninja Ryuuken, Ninja Ryu: The Dragon Sword Story

Japanese: 忍者龍剣伝

Information

Type: OVA

Episodes: 1

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Nov 22, 1991

Producers: None found, add some

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Studio Junio

Source: Game

Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Supernatural, Suspense

Theme: Mythology

Duration: 48 min.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 5.66¹ (scored by 2,274 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #11084²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #8441

Members: 5,017

Favorites: 4

Resources

AniDB

ANN

Synopsis

On a dark, late night in New York City, Ryu is chased and attacked by assassins. After disposing of them, he finds an I.D. card for the Friedman Company. The next day, it is announced that Dr. Ned Friedman has discovered a cure for cancer. But after providing no information at his press conference, a reporter named Sarah decides to investigate with the help of her friends Robert and Jeff. When passing by Dr. Friedman's house one day, Ryu hears the voice of a young girl calling for help. When Sarah and her entourage investigate the house as well, they run into their colleague, Ryu. Upon that, they discover Dr. Friedman has been conducting experiments on live humans using biotechnology, and that it may have something to do with the power of the Evil Gods, whom Ryu had defeated in the past. But when Ryu's friend, Irene, is kidnapped, he must dawn his role as a Dragon Ninja once again to defeat this new enemy and save her.

(Source: ANN)

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Background

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More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Hayabusa, Ryu

Main

Nanba, Keiichi
Japanese

Sturgeon, Robert T.

Main

Wakamoto, Norio
Japanese

Lew, Irene

Main

Touma, Yumi
Japanese

Hammond, Jeff

Supporting

Gouri, Daisuke
Japanese

Narrator

Supporting

Ogawa, Shinji
Japanese

Messenger Girl

Supporting

Urawa, Megumi
Japanese

Bucky-Wise

Supporting

Ogawa, Shinji
Japanese

Friedman, Catherine

Supporting

Sugimoto, Saori
Japanese

Sarah

Supporting

Sakakibara, Yoshiko
Japanese

Friedman, Ned

Supporting

Ishizuka, Unshou
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kanbe, Mamoru

Director

Oishi, Tatsuya

In-Between Animation

Inoue, Toshiyuki

Key Animation

Umehara, Takahiro

Animation Check

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Opening Theme

No opening themes have been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding an opening theme here.

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Ending Theme

"Call Me Again" by Yoko Kubota

Reviews

Oct 4, 2019

cobcap

Recommended

I just had to watch this OVA after I beat the NES/Famicom trilogy which is famous for how hard it is. So I am biased about this one as a fan.

The OVA is a direct sequel to the first game picking up some time after the final battle against Jaqiuo. Though there are some minor changes like Irene not being a special agent or making Robert an "ex" soldier. They still do their jobs pretty well. Irene being a damsel in distress and Robert being a rad dude. And Robert has a few more buddies to hang out with. That is fair.

The story ...

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Mar 19, 2018

literaturenerd

Mixed Feelings

"Of course you are excited by battle! We all love violence! We all love getting drunk! We all love sleeping with women! Some of us even enjoy sleeping with men! The point is that we are MANLY men and that is nothing to be ashamed of! Now lets go kill some fucking demons and celebrate with some fucking beer!"- Robert Sturgeon from Ninja Gaiden: The anime

Overview:

So besides having one of the greatest speeches in anime history, why should you watch Ninja Gaiden? It is a fun, old school, schlock anime that knows exactly who its audience is and what it wants to be. If you ... are a fan of classic NES games and early 90s cheap OVAs, this is a real treat.

Story:

This is a direct sequel to the original Ninja Gaiden game from 1988. The world is constantly under threat by demons, who are held at bay by the ninjas of the Hayabusa Clan. Our hero is Ryu Hayabusa, who currently lives in New York City and does...uh...ninja things. His girlfriend is a Chinese American named Irene who runs a Chinese antique shop. In my head canon, it's the rival shop to Uncle's from Jackie Chan Adventures. Suddenly, a pair of mad scientists want to summon demons and bring chaos to the world. One of them also kidnaps Irene, so now its up to Ryu and his 2 American mercenary friends to save the day! The plot is simple, but it works. This is an adaptation of a game where the main plot is that you keep getting knocked into holes by birds. This doesn't need to be Shakespeare.

Characters:

Ryu is a stoic, badass ninja who kills people in awesome ways. This anime doesn't try to force a tragic backstory or shoehorn in some forced character moments. It knows it only has 40 minutes to tell its story and those 40 minutes should be filled with cool Ninja stuff. Honestly though it is Ryu's mercenary pals that steal the show. The character Robert Sturgeon is voiced by the incomparable Norio Wakamoto and it just shows how a great actor can take a cheesy speech and make it GLORIOUS. Think Raul Julia in the Street Fighter movie and that's like Wakamoto in this anime. This is the guy who voiced Cell, Alexander Anderson, Oskar von Reuenthal, Vicious, M Bison, and everyone's favorite, the floating cat from Azumanga Daioh. His charisma is off the scales and here he is allowed to ham it up as much as he wants.

Animation:

This anime was made by a nobody studio on a limited budget in 1991. Considering all that, it looks pretty damn good for what it is. The action scenes are plentiful and the blood is heavy. It has an annoying habit of often being lit really dark to hide the limited animation, but besides that I have no complaints.

Overall:

So this an adaptation of a video game with a 3 sentence plot, made on a limited budget by a nothing studio. This has NO right to be a decent anime, and yet it honestly is. Who directed this beautiful schlock? Mamoru Kanbe. Of COURSE it was Kanbe. I have never seen an anime director so good at salvaging the worst possible situations. This dude is like The Wolf from Pulp Fiction. Why do I say Kanbe is underrated? Just ask the internet what it thinks of Elfen Lied. "Ugh..it's overrated crap for casuals just like Sword Art Online, Attack on Titan, Tokyo Ghoul, and Code Gayass!" Is there a difference between Elfen Lied and those others? Why yes there is. All of the other "casual trash" anime had budgets 40 times higher, were made by A-tier studios, and were based on red hot properties. Anybody could have directed Attack on Titan or Tokyo Ghoul and it would still be a hit. Kanbe was able to take a frankly horrendous manga and with a terrible studio and limited budget, craft one of the most beloved anime of its decade in countries around the world. The man has some SERIOUS talent.

Ninja Gaiden is no masterpiece...obviously. However, it is an enjoyable piece of oldtaku schlock that will only take up 45 minutes of your time. I honestly enjoyed it quite a bit and I think other people who love old, bad anime will get a kick out of this one.

Open

Gift

Jan 31, 2019

matthigh

Not Recommended

It's just a single episode story, and I just watched it maybe five hours ago.

I read through the story description/synopsis. I recognize some of the names. And that's about it.

In short, this anime was so exceptionally unexceptional, that even though I watched it mere hours ago, it's all a wash. I retained almost nothing from this. Nothing of interest -- at least nothing worth remembering.

At all.

Well, I guess the quality of the artwork and animation were decent enough. But what's the point if the story ...

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Ninja Ryuukenden

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Characters & Voice Actors

Hayabusa, Ryu

Sturgeon, Robert T.

Lew, Irene

Hammond, Jeff

Narrator

Messenger Girl

Bucky-Wise

Friedman, Catherine

Sarah

Friedman, Ned

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

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Ninja Ryuukenden

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

Resources

Synopsis

Background

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

Recent Featured Articles

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
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