Ninja - Television Tropes & Idioms

The shadow warriors of medieval Japan, reputedly possessed of all manner of mysterious powers including invisibility and intangibility. Able to infiltrate even the most heavily guarded fortress without being detected. Traditionally dressed in black bodysuits with black masks or veils to hide their faces. They are the ultimate spies and assassins, gifted with their own deadly magic and martial arts. Born in hidden villages, they are trained from birth to obey an alternative code of honor to bushido — to show no pain, feel no emotion, and remain loyal to their clans under pain of death, or the third code of getting as much money as possible.

Or so popular legend has it. While ninjas may have existed their reputation for invisibility and infiltration more likely stemmed from their willingness to dress as members of a lower social class when no one else in Japan would consider doing such a thing. Their "invisibility" was part psychological in cause — by dressing as a peasant, they were ignored and dismissed, or never even noticed at all, by the samurai and other upper classes, a useful thing despite the oft fierce travel restrictions on the lower classes. Superior knowledge of survival skills, a lot of actual stealth, poisons, assassination techniques and unorthodox tactics (added to the fact that the ninjas actively encouraged the spread of rumors of their magical abilities) were the most important though. A common misdirection tactic, for example, would be to put one's clothing on a branch or a log while sneaking away. (or plan a sneak attack) Somewhere in history, some dumbass must have attacked the tree, and upon discovering the log dressed in the ninja's clothing; came to the natural conclusion that clearly the ninja had magically swapped places with the log. (Oy.) Ninjas were also quite skilled with a variety of tools, such as the multipurpose kunai knife. Among many other things, a good ninja always knew where his sanjaku tenugui was.

...The Ninja were basically rural types who had to think outside the bushido box, and therefore got a reputation for deception and trickery; the legends of mystical powers came later. It's like assigning magical powers to The Beverly Hillbillies^*
^{Though now that I think of it, that's not too far off the mark - Ellie Mae could commune with animals, Jethro was nigh indestructible, Granny could move with rapid speed and Jed was some sort of Zen master. I bet if you started some crap with Jed in a bar, you would suddenly find yourself on the floor bleeding all the while swearing that the poorly-dressed patriarch never moved. I bet Darth Vader would've thought twice about picking a fight with Jed Clampett. I'm digressing already. That's a bad sign.}
and then having them topple governments and hire out to the highest bidding supervillain. Okay, my version of The Beverly Hillbillies movie probably would have sucked, too, but it wouldn't have been dull.

— Dr. Freex of the Bad Movie Report

, in the intro to his review of the B Movie Ninja Phantom Heroes

The classic ninja costume is, in fact, the outfit worn by stagehands in traditional Japanese theatre. Japanese stagehands are frequently in full view on the stage, but are ignored and considered "invisible" by the audience. It became the practice to hide ninja characters in full sight by putting them in the same outfits as the stagehands, for a startling effect when characters were suddenly attacked by "thin air".

The OVA version of Sakura Taisen slyly acknowledges this origin, by the way. The stage crew of the Imperial Theatre — the secret headquarters of the Flower Division — are all ninja, and ninja with all manner of "ninja magic" at that.

In American movies, especially the ones from the '80s with "ninja" in the titles, only the hero ninja and the Big Bad ninja make any pretense of stealth or invisibility — and sometimes, not even them. Any underling ninjas will be the class of mooks known as Highly Visible Ninja.

One of the earliest Japanese cultural tropes to make it to the West, where it has now branched out into the Mc Ninja franchise. Look for ninja to make use of the Smoke Out, the Flash Step and the aforementioned Ninja Log.

In the late 20th Century, they became

the arch-enemies of Pirates, for no reason other than the Rule Of Cool.

Sub Tropes include: