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 THIS guy doesn't have to tell me to "Believe It"!
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 so popular legend has it. While ninja certainly existed — and probably still do exist — 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 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. Superior knowledge of survival skills and unorthodox tactics (plus the fact that the ninja actively encouraged the spread of rumors of their magical abilities) didn't hurt, of course. 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. : Face Palm:
...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 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.
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.
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 Teikokukagekidan Hanagumi — 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 pretence of stealth or invisibility — and sometimes, not even them. Any underling ninja 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.
In the late 20th Century, they became the arch-enemies of Pirates, for no reason other than the Rule Of Cool.
Sub Tropes indlude:
Examples:
Real Life
- Some of the more infamous Ninja in history (and some folk lores) especially originating from Jidai Geki:
- Hattori Hanzou, Iga ninja in service of the Tokugawa, and probably the Miyamoto Musashi equivalent of Ninja.
- Sarutobi Sasuke, one of the men counted as Sanada Ten Braves. Bodyguard of Sanada Yukimura.
- Fuuma Kotarou, Hojo's ninja, most famous for that myth about him luring and killing Hanzou in a naval battle, suicidally.
- Mochizuki Chiyome, Takeda ninja and credited as the founder of Kunoichi AKA female Ninja. And yes, that's a chick.
Film
- The popularity of ninja in Western media may have started with the James Bond film You Only Live Twice from 1967.
- Michael Beck as "Ken Sakura", an orphaned American adopted into a ninja clan, in the 1983 TV movie The Last Ninja.
- Appear in The Last Samurai, where they unfortunately fail to kill Tom Cruise (though he wasn't the target). Amazingly, a few aspects of their methodology were accurately presented.
Anime and Manga
- Almost everybody in Naruto. Not remotely stealthy about it, either, though they are pretty tricky with things like duplication, illusions, and replacing yourself with A LOG.
- Recca and several others in Flame Of Recca.
- The stage crew of the Imperial Theatre in Sakura Taisen, as noted above.
- Sasuke in Ranma 1/2 subverts the character type by being borderline incompetent in a neighborhood filled with world-class non-ninja martial artists. In the manga, Wholesome Crossdresser Konatsu plays it a little more straight.
- Similarly, the ninja in Ninin Ga Shinobuden are incompetent ninja who usually don't even carry shuriken; when they all suddenly produce shuriken and every one hits its target, causing another character to think that maybe they are skilled after all, one calls his mother on a cell phone to tell her that he has touched a shuriken for the first time.
- Takamura Suoh from Clamp School Detectives.
- Yamazaki Susumu is one of the two ninja who appear in Peacemaker Kurogane.
- Almost assuredly parodied in G Gundam. Midway through the story a German ninja is introduced and takes on the role of surrogate mentor to the protagonist, Domon. He even practices German Ninjutsu. Hilariously enough, he shuns the traditional garb of a ninja and dresses in clothes that are not remotely useful in maintaining stealth. Most absurd is the mask he wears. While it does obscure his features, it is painted in the bright, primary colors of the German flag and sports a jester hat-like protrusion.
- Himawari! and its sequel series are all about the ninja. Most of the ninja in the series actually are fairly stealthy. The heroine herself...not so much.
- Volfogg from GaoGaiGar is a Transforming Mecha Ninja.
- Akira from Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome uses a lot of classic ninja tricks and tools, including shuriken, kunai and smoke bombs.
- She also uses the title "Secret Ninja", while fighting in disguise (which doesn't fool anybody). Curiously, sometimes she's seen interacting with other shadowy kuroko-wearers, implying that she indeed is a genuine ninja from a genuine ninja clan, even though that never becomes a major plot-point.
- Yoruichi from Bleach.
- Mahou Sensei Negima has Kaede. While she doesn't necessarily stick out like a sore thumb, she isn't very concerned with stealth either. Weilds a big friggin' shuriken that from tip-to-tip is taller than she is. And that's saying something.
- Ryuusei no Rockman (AKA Mega Man Star Force) has an entire episode devoted to Ninja. Highly Visible Ninja with all the typical tricks. Though, the guy teaching the main cast the tricks of the trade is damn good at it. They add -de osaru on the end of every one of their sentences... And apparently, the art of ninjitsu was developed by people from the ancient civilisation of Mu. I Am Not Making This Up. One of the Ooparts is a Shuriken, and Mega Man can take on the form of a ninja... Of wood.
- The manga Hanzo no Mon (titled Path of the Assassin in the Dark Horse translation) subverts the stereotypes regarding ninja attire; although Hanzo (and his wife) are ninja (usually called suppa), they wear light armor on the battlefield and the stereotypical ninja outfits when they need not to be seen at all, but otherwise wear context-appropriate clothing and act accordingly. Likewise, certain ninja have notoriety and may even appear openly when a lord holds court. In fact, Hanzo, his wife and Hanzo's ninja relatives have their wedding ceremony in normal noble/samurai clothing! (After she demonstrates her abilities as a ninja wearing "the" outfit.)
Video Games
- Oboromaru in Live A Live.
- One of the more interesting portrayals in recent memory comes from a level of the video game Elite Beat Agents. It starts as a subversion: Ken Ozu, lazy heir to a car company, is forced into a ninja outfit by his father and forced to retrieve stolen automobile plans from a rival company, despite having little to no talent. After this, however, the player's success (or lack of) determines what happens. If the player fares poorly, it remains a subversion, as Ken fails miserably whenever called upon to use his "ninja powers". If the player does well, however, it becomes a Double Subversion, as Ken runs smoothly through the "classic" ninja abilities and completes his mission.
- The King Of Fighters' Mai Shiranui. Highly visible...yes, she is.
- Which means that Mai's native game series, Fatal Fury, goes here as well. In Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Hokutomaru takes her place as the game's ninja.
- And let's not forget Eiji Kisaragi, imported from Art Of Fighting 2; and Jazu, a guest from Kizuna Encounter.
- Eiji's ninja nature starting to be played for laughs, such as the inability to sneak up on a housewife (true, The Hero's mother... but still) and also refusing to chance his outfit when spying on his archenemies in a fancy restaurant.
- Spinoff Maximum Impact 2 introduced Nagase, another Highly Visible Ninja described in-game as "The Ninja Computer Geek".
- Samurai Shodown had a number of them, the most typical one being Hattori Hanzo.
- Hanzo also appears as a Ninja in the Samurai Warriors games (though in real life, he was actually a Samurai). In the first game he was contrasted with Sanada Yukimura in a "ninja vs. samurai" way, but in the second game he's contrasted with Fuuma Kotarou, another ninja, in a similar way to their World Heroes counterparts. The other ninja is Kunoichi ("female ninja"), an original character based on the Sanada Ten who supposedly did Yukimura's dirty work for him (subverting his own archetype).
- Samurai Warriors 2 adds Fuuma Kotarou and Nene, although the latter is a samurai's wife whose "ninja-ness" is in being a gameplay replacement for the removed Kunoichi. (This would be acknowledged by Hanzo, who if they meet in one stage would comment on her having gotten stranger, "since the last time we met.")
- Semi-Subversion: Altair from Assassins Creed fits the MO of a historical ninja in that he is an assassin who escaped notice by blending in with a crowd, but lives in crusade-era Palestine rather than feudal Japan.
- Possibly a real life semi-subversion as well. Hashshashin could be called 'Western Ninja': they are what we name 'Assassins' after, after all.
- Ryu Hayabusa from the Ninja Gaiden and Dead Or Alive franchises. The latter series has a few others, including Kasumi, Hayate, and their half-sister Ayane.
- Strider Hiryu, from his eponymous game series.
- Crypto questions why there are Ninja in Japan in 1969 in Destroy All Humans 2. Everyone he asks tell him to go with it, and that "everyone loves ninjas".
- Yuffie in Final Fantasy VII, of course.
- The titular character from Izuna: The Legend of the Unemployed Ninja and its sequel.
- Shadow from Final Fantasy VI
- Kage-Maru from Virtua Fighter
- The Commodore 64 game The Last Ninja and its sequel make this Older Than The NES.
- The village of Mizuho in Tales Of Symphonia and its successor the village of Japoni from Tales of Phantasia are hidden ninja villages. Sheena, one of your party members, is from the former, and in the remake of Phantasia, you can get Suzu in your party from the latter.
Webcomics
- And then there's the the title character of the SNAFU Webcomic, TIN: The Incompetent Ninja who takes incompetent to it's logical extreme and is able to commit unbelievably violent acts to anyone except his target.
- Dr. McNinja, as well as his mother, father, and brother. There are other ninja in the plotline too, but they're less prominent.
Live Action TV
- Several sentai series have them, such as the "Ninjetti" arc of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Power Rangers Ninja Storm.
- Lee Van Cleef played fugitive ninja master John Peter Mac Allister on the short-lived TV series The Master.
- Shown as the film in two episodes of MST 3 K.
- Ninjas using both 'traditional' weapons and explosives attack John Blackthorne and Mariko in the 1980 miniseries Shogun.
Western Animation
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, naturally.
- Kim Possible is infested with them: a few one-shot bad guys, some specialized "embarrasment ninjas", a secret ninja high school where Ron spent a week as an exchange student, and of course Monkey Fist's ninja clan made entirely of monkeys.
- Basically every and any action/adventure cartoon in the U.S. is bound to feature Ninja at some point.
- In Jackie Chan Adventures the Shadowkhan, a milita of demonic ninja, were often deployed by the bad guys to fight Jackie. Season 4 featured nine different groups of Shadowkhan.
- It took four seasons before Samurai Jack fought a ninja, but he did - a robot ninja at that. It was, at least, a stealthy one, made completely invisible whenever it stood in shadows. And then Jack revealed he could do the same trick with sunlight, leading to one of the most visually incredible fights in the series (which is saying something).
- Transformers Animated has Prowl and Jazz as goddamn NINJA ROBO Ts. How much cooler can you get? Ironically, Prowl's a pretty honourable guy as a ninja (as is Jazz) but the moment he puts on the Samurai Armour Upgrade, he becomes a totally arrogant asshole one step away from turning into a villain.
Comic Books
- It has been a common character type in American comics since the 1980s; for instance, the Marvel Universe villain clan, The Hand, cropped up then, and during that period, Frank Miller effectively changed Daredevil into one. Many, however, have noted that creators of Batman created him as a de facto ninja character without knowing it in the 1930s.
- Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow (among many others, some of whom we do not speak about) from G.I. Joe.
- Toyota, the female mercenary ninja in Y The Last Man. Although first seen using modern night-vision goggles, she enjoys a chance to spar with an opponent using traditional bladed weapons.
New Media
- In lonelygirl15, Bree describes Tachyon as a ninja in "Training Hard". Ninja are also parodied in "My School Project" and the remix version, "Ninja Video by ElizKM86", during which Danielbeast makes a movie about ninja.
- Charlie depicts herself as a ninja in the animated segments of KateModern.
- Ask A Ninja is a website where viewers e-mail a guy questions and he answers them as a ninja would.
- The Onion did a piece about a ninja parade. No ninja were actually spotted, although they were kind enough to leave candy in children's pockets when they weren't looking.
Literature
- Ninjas in Cloud of Sparrows are rather more plausible than most other examples. They are very stealthy and good at dodging pursuit, but dress in normal clothes and are primarily employed as stealthy assassins and spies. Kudo, one of the two main ninjas in the book, also indulges in a spot of Clark Kenting. He is also revealed to have poorer reflexes than gunslinger Matthew Stark.
Truth In Television
- This troper has seen two "genuine" ninja portrayed on the Discovery Channel. One was a spry young guy demonstrating the trick to ninja agility, and the other was a friendly looking old dude who infiltrated a test compound dressed as a maintenance guy.
Game Show
Other
- In a story published during spring training of 2007, Chicago Cubs then-closer (now starter) Ryan Dempster claimed to be training as a ninja. He was joking...we think.
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