Line #22 Main/NinjaSchool


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7	[[quoteright:195:[[Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ninjaschool.GIF]]]]
8	[[caption-width-right:195:[-Yeah, my graduation party was crazy too!-] ]]
9
10	->''"A secret ninja school? Wait, is it a ''public'' secret ninja school?"''
11	-->-- '''Ron Stoppable''', ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible''
12
13	Subtrope of ExtranormalInstitute.
14
15	Learning how to be a ninja is rather straightforward. Normally one learns from a personal master, or sometimes a dojo. But there are those that believe that learning the skills of a ninja can be made to look like a [[HighschoolAU public school]]. After all, you call your ninja instructor "sensei", which means "teacher", so it's the same thing. Right?
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17	Calling the instructor "teacher" is about the only thing ninja training has in common with schooling. There are no written tests, homework, or grades. You learn the skills and move on when you master them. Don't expect graduates of this [[GratuitousNinja Ninja School]] to act like [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything real ninjas]].
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19	The comic ''ComicBook/NinjaHighSchool'' is the TropeNamer, although it is not (usually) an example of this trope. Compare WizardingSchool, especially in settings like ''Franchise/{{Naruto}}'' where ninja have more in common with mages than actual ninja, and SpySchool, where other types of secret agents learn their trade.
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21	Compare the RivalDojos.
22	----
23	!!Examples
24
25	[[foldercontrol]]
26
27	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
28	* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'':
29	** There's a three-year Ninja School in Konoha, and other ninja schools are assumed to exist in the other Hidden Villages ([[HufflepuffHouse although little is known beyond that supposition]]).
30	** We know Hidden Mist has one because Zabuza graduated early before he was even enrolled by [[DeadlyGraduation killing off an entire graduating class of students.]]
31	* ''Manga/NintamaRantarou'' is a rare example of a Ninja School that actually teaches actual ninjutsu techniques and has students, graduates and teachers that act like real ninjas (when they carry out their missions). It's reasonably realistic.
32	[[/folder]]
33
34	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
35	* ''Film/NinjaAcademy'' is a spoof of this trope.
36	[[/folder]]
37
38	[[folder:Literature]]
39	* ''Literature/ConstanceVeritySavesTheWorld'': Hiro admits that he learned ninjitsu at a secret monastery where kids are trained from a very young age in "the way of shadows". In spite of its curriculum, it was basically like a regular school with cliques and drama, Hiro having gone there with the Siege Perilous assassin Akane.
40	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': The Assassins' Guild in Ankh-Morpork would probably fit the trope as well, especially considering the inspired final test in ''Literature/{{Pyramids}}''. On the other hand, the young gentlemen (and recently ladies) who study there receive such a well-rounded education, many upper-class families enroll their children only to withdraw just before the distasteful "final exam".
41	* They are [[NotUsingTheZWord never called ninjas]], but the House of Black and White in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' is basically a ninja school where acolytes are trained to become magically face-swapping {{Deep Cover\|Agent}} assassins.
42	* ''[[http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/j/benedict-jacka/beginning.htm To Be a Ninja]]'' is a series of novels by Benedict Jacka. A brother and a sister escape a drug baron father in a secret ninja school in Britain country. A third of the pupils are British, the others Japanese.
43	[[/folder]]
44
45	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
46	* In one of the [[GratuitousNinja Ninja Specials]] of ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'', Grant, Tory, and Kari try ninja weapons and fail. The narrator suggests that they won't be passing Ninja School anytime soon.
47	* ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm'' has at least two, the Wind and Thunder Ninja Academies. Both are attacked in the season premiere, with only a handful of students avoiding capture -- the rest spend the entire series held prisoner on the BigBad's spaceship. Despite the elemental names, the ''Wind'' Ninja Academy teaches manipulation of multiple elements -- Air, Earth, and Water. The BigBad talks about the ninja schools as if there are ''way'' more than the two, or were before he wiped them out. The ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' twin, ''Series/NinpuuSentaiHurricaneger'', is similar.
48	** That said, it's never clear whether the academies are full-time schools or just afterschool classes -- it's impossible to tell since the regular lessons were suspended while the entire student body was missing. The Rangers did mention homework from time to time, but never said whether it was ninja homework or regular homework. We do, however, see an academy graduation, which is similar to normal school right down to getting "diplomas".
49	[[/folder]]
50
51	[[folder:Music]]
52	* The Scottish indie pop band Bis did a song called Ninja Hi Skool
53	--> It's cool! It's cool! It's cool cool cool! It's cool cool cool for YOU! NINJA HI SKOOL!
54	[[/folder]]
55
56	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
57	* In Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, it's assumed that monk characters were trained at a monastery that specializes in the eventual Path they will choose. Any monk who chooses the "Way of Shadow" is assumed to have gone to a Ninja School, though whether or not this is true is up to the player.
58	[[/folder]]
59
60	[[folder:Video Games]]
61	* Rasen Ninjustsu University, AKA Ninja College, serves as one of the backdrops for battles in ''VideoGame/{{ARMS}}''. One of the competitiors in the ARMS Grand Prix, Ninjara, is a senior at this university, and is fighting in the tournament as his senior project.
62	* The setting of ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'' is a conflict between schools of 'good' and 'bad' shinobi. The franchise mix elements from light-hearted comedic highscool anime with some of the most serious ninja tropes : basically, the characters are cute high school girls who cut down scores of other students.
63	** The established schools appear properly accredited as high schools, as their students have legal identities and potentially the need for a legitimate high school diploma and education. The Hanzo Academy is unusual in that rather than only serving the children of traditional ninja families, it's a ''public'' high school with a few secret facilities and classes and whose shinobi students mix with the general population. Hebijo is a much more straightforward ninja school.
64	* ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'': One of the Challenge missions shows that the Empire's ninjas are trained somewhere in the Carribean.
65	* ''VideoGame/KidNikiRadicalNinja'': In the game's introduction, Kid Niki leaves Ninja School to rescue Princess Margo from the Stone Wizard.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Web Comics]]
69	* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'':
70	** Therkla mentions that she was valedictorian at Ninja School. A flashback panel reveals that she [[KlingonPromotion took the title]] using her [[ImprovisedWeapon graduation cap]].
71	-->'''Therkla:''' I am salutatorian -- no more!
72	** The Order's waiter at "T.G.I. Wednesday's" in Azure City mention she's working there to [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0312.html put herself through ninja school.]]
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Web Original]]
76	* Ariadnio in ''Literature/GreekNinja'' is this.
77	* In [[http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2610805/1/Ninja_Academy_WTF_Journal_Prequel Ninja Academy:]] [[http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2583351/1/The_WTF_Journal_of_Thalia_Evans WTF Journal Prequel]] [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin there is a]] NinjaSchool
78	* The Yama Dojo in the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', which has also trained some Japanese mutant children in ninja techniques. Some of them didn't exactly learn everything you'd hope.
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Western Animation]]
82	* The Huntsclan Academy in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDragonJakeLong''. Rose even showed Jake that, despite the fact the students there are trained to slay magical creatures (there's even a class named "Dragon Slaying 101"), it was still a school by starting a rumor (Jake needed a distraction).
83	* On ''WesternAnimation/ChopChopNinja'', the characters train at Chop Chop Academy to become the next "Chop Chop Ninja".
84	* Ron Stoppable in ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' gets a special episode where he enters an exchange student program and gets sent to one of these. It partially averts this trope by being a live-in dojo secluded in the mountains, but it still has classes and school staff.
85	* The Nickelodeon cartoon ''WesternAnimation/ShurikenSchool'' is set at one.
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:Real Life]]
89	* "Dojo" is a term that can refer to a formal training place for any of the Japanese martial arts. The concept of a dōjō as a training place specifically for martial arts is a Western concept; in Japan, any physical training facility, including professional wrestling schools, may be called dōjō because of its close martial arts roots.
90	* "School" as we think of it, is based on the grammar schools of the Tudor period. Grammar school taught reading, writing and arithmetic and sometimes Latin or French: with large class sizes, although they were of multiple ages and ability levels. Think of a classic one-room schoolhouse. Students learned at their own pace (albeit with stiff competition from their age-mates to keep up). Boys left grammar school at between 10 and 13, and then went either to an apprenticeship or university. Either way, their schooling was much more like how modern martial arts or music lessons are taught: a master and one or a few students, with a focus on experiential learning and mastery. As a result, while most people were educated in fewer subjects than an average person of today: they had generally learned about their subjects of specialty much more thoroughly. This is the reason why martial arts, music and post-doctoral studies all have the more informal format that they have: the point is to focus on one subject, and learn as much as possible about it. The point of a public school of course, is to give students a passing familiarity with each topic of study rather than an in-depth knowledge of any: hence the larger class sizes and more rigidly structured curriculum.
91	[[/folder]]
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Context Main / NinjaSchool