Ninja Ryuukenden

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 ... that it didn't have that high of a budget. This is no Akira which was done three years prior to this OVA's release. The voice acting was average at times and the story really seemed to have started late. It started off strong for the first couple of minutes and then died off and didn't come back around until about 15 - 20 minutes in; which would be fine if this was a movie but its a 45 minute OVA. Becase of the time constraint you could tell that they wanted to rush things along the last 10 minutes so everything could wrap up when the credits rolled. If they turned it into a 4 part OVA or into an actual movie the story line and art would've been much better.

With that said, the action sequences were rather fun. You definitely got to see Ryu lay down his ninja awesomeness but it unfortunately wasn't enough to make this a must watch. Its something I would recommend people checking out if they are a fan of the games (old or new) or don't mind the old school art style. Just prepare yourself for a rather average OVA and check your brain at the start of the show. 6.5/10

"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.