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 2,270 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: #8442

Members: 5,012

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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May 25, 2008

MrRedrum

Mixed Feelings

First things first, you have to remember that this anime is now 17 years old. The art style is definitely dated as well as the story line and action sequences. Also, if you could find a good release of this I'm sure it would help out immensely in your enjoyment of this anime. As a result, my review is a little biased since the version I was able to get my hands on looked to be a rip of an old VHS that was watched too many times.

Putting that aside, it is a decent OVA. Unlike most OVA's, at least now, it would appear ...

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Jul 20, 2011

ktulu007

Not Recommended

The NES Ninja Gaiden games are known for their high quality and challenging gameplay. They also don't have very complex stories, so you'd think a fifty minute adaptation would be able to provide a pretty good experience, if only for fans of the series. You would be wrong.

Let's start with the story. A scientist supposedly develops a cure for cancer, although this entire piece of information turns out to be completely pointless but I'll go into more detail about that later. Some reporters hear rumours that he's been performing unethical human experiments so they break into his house to find out that the rumours ... are true and the scientist is involved in a plot to revive the evil Gods. To be fair scientists trying to revive the evil Gods could be a good Ninja Gaiden plot. The problem is that the execution is horrible. You'll notice that the entire cancer cure could've been left out without losing a single thing. There's actually a lot of padding involved in this. Establishing shots drag on and there are several scenes in the beginning that don't have any impact on the plot whatsoever. There's also a lot of clunky dialogue that really doesn't serve a purpose. You might ask, are the action scenes at least good? Well, no they aren't. Part of the problem is the monsters themselves, I'll get to that later. There's also the more serious problem of them being boring. The characters go through the enemies very quickly and they don't seem to pose any real threat which causes a complete lack of dramatic tension. In the games slicing thorough hordes of enemies works because you know that a slight error could result in you dying, but in this it's just boring.

As for the characters, Ninja Gaiden II has very few important characters. There's Ryu, Irene, and Robert. This OVA takes place directly after Ninja Gaiden II. All three of these characters are included along with Sara, Jeff and a random girl with glasses. This is another problem. They have too many supporting characters. None of whom are given developed personalities or characters. The worst part is that the story focuses more on the support characters than Ryu, and he's the bloody protagonist of the games. Aside from the cardboard cutout support characters, let's look at the characters we actually know from the games. Robert is reduced to the cliche, grumpy, ex-soldier. As for Irene, remember in the NES games when she was actually competent and the only reason she got captured was that the odds were heavily against her? In this she's a completely incompetent and cliched damsel in distress. She can barely shoot a gun, when she tries to use a sword she fails miserably, and she gets captured by two guys without even struggling. It's really a disservice to her character since she was a CIA agent in the second game. Where did all her skills go? Ryu isn't even done well. What little we get of his character makes him look like a melodramatic moron.

Let's move into the art. It's bad, even for 1991. The backgrounds are just lazy. When they're actually present they're done as simplistically as possible. There are a lot of cases of characters going cross-eyed for no reason. As for the monsters, I told you I'd get to this, they look ridiculous. Any dramatic tension that the battles might have had vanishes when you see the monsters. They look like they belong in a children's fun house rather than a legitimate threat.

The sound is bland and the voice acting is pretty bad. None of the actors emote very well. This is especially a problem with Ryu and Irene, voiced by Nanba Keiichi and Touma Yumi respectively, since they both get some lines that should be emotional. I honestly blame the Direction since I've heard both Nanba Keiichi and Touma Yomi deliver very emotional lines. Zoisite in Sailor Moon and Refill Sage in Tales of Symphonia being two obvious examples.

There's no yuri in this. So its yuri factor is a 1/10. It's just as well. Given the writing it wouldn't have been any good anyway.

My Final rating for Ninja Gaiden is a 2/10. It's very bad. The premise could have been good but everything else is just terrible.

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Ninja Ryuukenden

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Background

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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

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Visit MALxJapan
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