Studio: Studio Junio
Director: Mamoru Kanbe
Screenplay: Tomofumi Nobe
Based on the video game by Tecmo
Voice Cast: Keiichi Nanba as Ryū
Hayabusa; Norio Wakamoto as Robert T. Sturgeon; Yumi Touma as Irene Lew; Daisuke
Gouri as Jeffrey Hammond; Saori Suzuki as Katherine Friedman; Shinji Ogawa as
Prof. Bucky Wise; Unshō Ishizuka as Dr. Ned Friedman; Yoshiko Sakakibara as
Sarah
Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles
An eighties straight-to-video
title at heart, though finding itself published in the early nineties, this is
an obscure anime adaptation of a video game. This particular one has a
fascinating history, as many may know this video game franchise first through a
reboot series from Team Ninja, which
were released entirely for Microsoft's
consoles, part of their history of attempting to make the Xbox successful in Japan against stiff competition, starting with Ninja Gaiden (2004). This is adapting
from the first era, of the Nintendo
NES/Famicon era though with the original game a 1988 arcade cabinet. This
anime was released at the time between Ninja
Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos (1990) and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom (1991), a franchise
which had already established Ryū Hayabusa, a figure you may also know from the
Dead or Alive beat em up game
franchise, as Team Ninja developed those games and brought
him from his own franchise to become a key member for that one, which is
interesting as a rare case of someone not being a cameo character. It is also in
knowledge that game series got a live action adaptation, DOA: Dead or Alive (2006), which means Hayabusa has also been
played by Kane Kosugi, son of
Japanese martial arts film star Sho
Kosugi, a huge figure of the ninja boom of pop culture in the eighties
which lead to Ninja Gaiden and Sega's Shinobi video game franchise existing, which is a deliciously
intricate web of influences and crossovers.
The story here is very simple off
the back of this franchise, good ninja versus an evil group in a forty plus minute
anime, connecting to a previous demonic villain being defeated and the
aftermath with the threat of their return transpiring. The feeling of this
being an eighties anime in tone was a legitimate mistake, not realising until
later this was released in the nineties, as it feels from the get-go from the
same lineage of eighties straight-to-video titles, even the lower budget ones, which
still had a style to them. It begins here with a shot, set in New York City, at
night in the fog covered streets where our lead finds him being accosted by two
masked assassins in suits and arm hidden blades, which shows there is some
creativity that sparkles at times throughout. This is still the era you could
get away with recreating the exact poster to Les Misérables, the 1980 musical version of Victor Hugo's novel, in the background to establish the location
where Ryu the ninja is drawn closer to the Friedman Corporation, up to no good
as with other corporations, with their head Professor Ned Friedman behind
diabolic human experiments of a biotechnical kind. The gore in the work as
well, and the weird monsters thrown about, regardless of the era it was
actually made in feels distinct to at least the time when straight-to-video
anime from these decades.
Anime straight-to-video titles
were once so prolific that numerous ones like this existed, likely never had a
Western release anywhere, and were entirely unknown of once time had passed. It
is a generic story with only some drama in Ryu's love for a woman, working in a
store with him, who forces him to confront the duality of his life, but this is
an action work with a slant into horror first-and-foremost. It does evoke the
most curious and enticing video game from this period you wish you could play
with this horror slant, inexplicably evoking Castlevania if with ninjas, when you will have freakish white fish
men or goons who have skinless faces with just eyes under their masks as
antagonists, casually introduced in the character designs for a scene never to
be seen again. (Let alone the human headed wolf in a motley crew of them in the
final skirmish at the Friedman Corporation). It justifies the idea of how much
creativity was burnt up even on a moderately interesting title like this one
from the time, let alone one of the future classics of this medium of anime.
Studio Junio is a more obscure studio, one which has collaborated
with other studios in areas like in-between animation. Their own work is a
curious mix, from Amada Anime Series:
Super Mario Brothers (1989), an obscure Mario tie-in in which the Nintendo characters reinterpret fairy
tales, to Saber Marionette J (1996-7),
likely their biggest title in terms of how it developed sequels and was once a
huge title in the nineties. Founded in 1970 by Takao Kozai, their last title in animation was the 1999 film Gundress. Infamously an
"unfinished" version had a theatrical premiere in Japan, this work
based on the work of Masamune Shirow involved
test animation and animatics being used for the ninety minute length in a story1.
It was infamous for how customers were greeted with an apology note from the
producers ("This film isn't finished at all") and a form to be sent a
free finished VHS copy upon its release2. Tragically, this was how Studio Junio finished in the animation
industry.
Ninja Gaiden itself is not something to convert people to, one of
the virtues also a flaw to these many OVAs from the past that so many of them
were made, to the point that you will encounter ones like this that can have
moments of virtue but also may not entirely be the best of its genre. What this
is a generic story about guys with the tropes its small plot usually have, one which eventually becomes macho, with a band
of male soldiers who, unfortunately, when their female reporter friend wishes
to help in the last raid, tie her at the base on a chair for a joke scene. Admittedly,
there is also the moment where one of them named Jeff, mid-gun battle, talks of
how military man like men as much as women and alcohol, so I also give credit
for unexpected progressiveness in this anime too.
Beautifully as well, this slight
work still introduces director Mamoru
Kanbe back in my writings, who I knew original for the notorious Elfen Lied (2004), a television series
whose flaws cannot undercut, for its lurid and transgressive content, the ideas
which did stick out for me. He went on with The Promised Neverland (2019), the first season at least acclaimed
at the time, and it is cool to stumble on this early production he directed
without realising it; there is nothing here which could suggest a trademark,
but when he was not directing comedy like Robonimal
Panda-Z: The Robonimation (2004), which is literally about a giant panda
robot, Kanbe throughout his career
lent into horror and you can see it even here, a genre he would return to or be
the right person to bring in for the likes of The Promised Neverland to a Go
Nagai adaptation Demon Prince Enma (2006)
which took the source into a much more adult version. He is becoming the unsung
person I admire the more I find his work, and whilst the screenwriter only has
a few credits, and the studio had a tragic ending, this also an obscure title
for its animation director and character designer Osamu Horiuchi. Horiuchi would
go on with a healthy career from this with the likes of the Full Metal Panic franchise in similar
roles, making them a figure of note to pick out too if not a more prominent one.
Figures already working in the industry at the time, and those who would be working
into the 2000s on, crossed paths on this obscurity in a variety of roles, and
yes, the fact that Ninja Gaiden
would get a significant reboot in the original video games cannot be ignored
either. That franchise would struggle into Ninja
Gaiden 3 (2012) which adds its own tale-within-a-tale here too; with the controversial
figurehead of Tomonobu Itagaki leaving,
those in Team Ninja attempted to take
a franchise into a more accessible form, originally designed to be hardcore
difficult in gameplay, leading to a divisive inclusion. Alongside the Dead or Alive franchise slipping alone
in later sequels, Ryū Hayabusa has found himself in a fascinating number of
tales, even when they have been disasters or part of the unfortunate nature of
any industry where your next title can fail or be released unfinished in the
cinemas. This anime is one of the minor tales from his career, be it commerce
or evil demon warriors, but it is an enticing curiosity which, at forty
minutes, is too short and with enough within it to not watch.
=====
1) Shirow's
Kids, part of The Mike Toole Show
series of articles, written by Mike Toole
and published for Anime News Network
on July 3rd 2011.
2) Do
Movies Experience "Production Crunch" Like TV Series Do?,
written by Justin Sevakis and
published by Anime News Network on
June 12th 2019.
