Ninja Gaiden

Information of Anime

Ryu is a Dragon Ninja that fights against the Evil Gods.  Time has passed since he defeated Jakyo who tried to break the seal of the Evil Gods.  Ryu now spends his time with Irene.  However, he gets chased by a couple of assassins at night who are from Friedman Company.  Ryu's peaceful life comes to a halt as he gears up in his Dragon Ninja role again.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  This section does contain some spoilers.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

Dr. Ned Friedman from Friedman Company has announced that he has found a cure for cancer.  Although he loves the media, he says nothing during the press conference.  Later that day, Ryu walks down a neighbour & hears a girl calling out to him in his head.  The voices come from Dr. Friedman's house.  Meanwhile, Sarah, a news reporter, visits Robert & Jeff & tells them about a rumour that Dr. Ned Friedman is conducting biotechnology experiments on live humans at his house.  At night, all 4 people run into each other at Friedman's home & discovered a room where biotechnology experiments are being done.  As Sarah tries to make a scoop out of this finding, Ryu tells her not too.  A series of events occur where past history of Ryu defeating Jakyo occurs.

The next day, Sarah, Robert, & Jeff visit Professor Bucky-wise to talk about Dr. Friedman.  There, Robert learns how their enemy is.  Later that day, Ryu & Irene were attacked by assassins at their store.  After the battle & escaping, Ryu tells Irene to leave town for her own safety.  When Robert & company tries to get Irene from her home, she gets kidnapped by the Friedman Company in front of their faces.  This leads to a wild car chase with the bad guys being the victor.

At night, Ryu goes to the Friedman Company to destroy the biotechnology lab.  At the same time, Robert & Jeff are making their way to the lab as well to save Irene.  After Ryu destroys the lab, he heads to Dr. Friedman & finds Irene at his office.  There, Ryu learns about how the power surge from the Jakyo from his battle with him was record & made into this biotechnological experiment.  Robert joins Ryu in the room later.  The real culprit behind this suddenly appears & it was Professor Bucky-wise.  It was revealed that he wanted to force Dr. Friedman to make the experiments by kidnapping his daughter, Katherine Friedman, who watches as her father is killed by the professor.  Later, he transforms into a monster & fights with Ryu; with Ryu being the victor in a near death fight.  The story ends as Ryu & Irene are together again & Katherine picking up a body remain from the Evil God & reacting to it.

My Personal Review

Ninja Gaiden is based on a highly popular video game by Tecmo that started during the NES & Sega days.  This OVA seems to be fan service to get the hype going at the time this OVA was made.  Having some background or playing the game will most like give you a better idea about the story.  I haven't played the game before, so I was a bit lost at times

Animation

The drawings aren't bad, considering the year the OVA was made.  The girls look like men with sturdy chins & medium sized eyes.

The background was okay as it was a bit blurry at times.  This is where you see them from a far distance.  Also, you can see where some of the lines aren't drawn straight.

The colours are very dull.  This is probably because I was watch a VHS source.  Even if there was aging involved, it would still be dull & a bit pale due to it's year it was made.

The flow of animation is pretty good at most parts.  It was the ones where you see person from a far distance that looked funny.  When I was watching how Irene was writing from a far distance at the beginning of the OVA, her movements wasn't natural.  It was like she was a robot & moving at superhuman speeds.  The fights are very good & very close to today's standards.  It was exciting to watch the battle moves that Ryu pulls off.  One very minor problem is where we see no blood on Ryu's sword when he slices his enemy & blood flies around the place.

Sound

The sound effect are your stand old school sounds.  The slicing of enemies don't really sound like something you hear in real life.  It has that splitting effect.  Also the timing isn't too good at some parts.  When we see a character walking, the footsteps don't go together with the sound effects.  It's like a 1 second delay between each other.

I didn't notice any background music in the OVA.  Either that or the volume of the music is very soft.  That's another thing to mention. 

The volume level is quite low except when explosions or sudden sounds goes off.  Also, the sounds was very fuzzy.  Even when the characters talked it was fuzzy; even at normal voice level.

Story

For 50 minutes & the year it was made it, I think the plot is reasonable.  Even though it leaves with a cliffhanger, I think playing the games after the OVA fills that up.  The pace was just right & I was able to understand what was going on.  Very little plot holes were left at the end.  Some things in the plot appear sudden, such as the battle with Jakyo, but that shouldn't be a problem if you played the game beforehand.

Overall Conclusion

Ninja Gaiden isn't a bad OVA, considering the time it was made.  The fights are pretty graphic with blood & body parts flying around the place & human bodies in their dried up fleshes are shown.  If you have a weak stomach, I suggest staying away from this as there is quite a lot of it.  Die-hard fans of the series will most likely enjoy this OVA.

Out of ten, Ninja Gaiden gets a seven.  The story is good & the pace is reasonable.  The fights was thrilling & the characters have some nice personalities.  The lost points is mainly from my lack of background of the series. 

I would recommend watching this show if you want some blood filled action & are a fan of the game.

Last updated on January 14, 2008