Welcome, one and all, to the "Video Game Movie Marathon" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be checking out an OVA from 1991. That OVA is "Ninja Gaiden".
Now, I know some of you are probably looking at that title and your thinking to yourself "There's an OVA based off the Ninja Gaiden series?" And the answer is yes. I stumbled upon this thing on YouTube by accident about a year or so back, and I wasn't totally sure if I was ever going to cover it. And I thought to myself, back then, that if I ever end up doing a marathon dedicated to video games, and this movie was still up on YouTube, I would probably end up covering it. Well, sure enough, the movie is still up on YouTube, and I figured why not? I'll go ahead and cover this thing since I doubt many people even know of this OVA's existence.
While I'm on that subject, this movie's title is a bit...questionable. And the reason why is because this movie goes under a bunch of different titles. One of them is just "Ninja Gaiden", some refer to this thing as "Ninja Ryukenden", IMDB lists this OVA as "Ninja Ryu: The Dragon Sword Story", and another lists this OVA as "Legend of the Ninja Dragon Sword". So...yeah, this title is very inconsistent. However, I am going to stick with the original title that's listed on YouTube as "Ninja Gaiden", because that's how I first came across this thing when I accidentally discovered it.
Now, I actually have played one Ninja Gaiden game in my lifetime. That game being "Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge" on the Wii U. And it was OK, at best, but it wasn't really my kind of game. The game's difficulty was a bit too hard for my tastes. In fact, that's what most people think of when you ask them about the Ninja Gaiden games. They are hard as shit. Which is probably a reason why I haven't bothered to play the Ninja Gaiden games on the NES, because I don't think I would be very good at those games. But that's just a personal thing, really.
I have no idea if this OVA is going to be any good. The only thing I do know about it going in is that this thing is really short. It's only about 49 minutes long, so it's not going to be too painful if this thing sucks. Then again, the last time I said something like that was way back when I reviewed "Assault Girls", and that thing ended up being a fucking train wreck. I'm hoping that this OVA is not going to repeat what that film did. But the only way I'm gonna find out if this OVA is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Ninja Gaiden".
9 minutes later
Wait a second here. So, Friedman-Corporation just opened it's gate to all these reporters. And Ryu was just hanging out back when he got to the entrance, as he entered along with the other reporters. So...does Friedman-Corporation allow anybody to just enter the front gate? I ask this, because there were no security guards that were there to keep watch as the reporters went in. For all we know, one of them might actually be a fucking terrorist in disguise that's concealing some sort of a hidden weapon! I know it sounds like a very trivial thing to be bitching about, but it just seems really stupid on Friedman-Corporation's part, because they couldn't be bothered to hire actual security for this event, you know?
6 minutes later
OK, you know what? These experimental bodies that I'm seeing right now...look rather creepy. Especially that one body that has it's hands, head, and, I think, chest all in reverse, while on all fours. Again, it looks rather creepy. And if I ever saw that, that would be the last time I ever set foot in that building. Just thought I'd share that with you guys.
8 minutes later
Wait, so Ryu is actually telling Irene, his girlfriend, to not see him anymore because he doesn't want her to get hurt. I understand that what he's trying to say to her is all fine and dandy...except they could easily capture or kill her now so that they could make it easier for them to get to Ryu. I'm sorry, guys, but a moral conscience is not really gonna help this situation, you know?
1 minute later
And...I fucking called it. They just kidnapped Irene, so now it'll now be much easier for them to get to Ryu. Did I NOT just suggest that it wasn't a good idea for Ryu to break up with her? And in retrospect, it makes Ryu just a little bit stupid.
5 minutes later
Wow...so Robert and Jeff, instead of letting their friend, Sara, go with them to rescue Irene, they instead tied up and gagged her so that they don't risk her life. I will say that was actually sorta funny. But also, they actually had some bit of common sense, unlike Ryu, who just let his girlfriend get kidnapped like an idiot. Makes me question who the real heroes are in this OVA, you know?
11 minutes later
All right, well, I was wondering what the hell that creature was I saw on the thumbnail for this OVA. Now that I know where it came from, I guess I don't have to wonder anymore, now do I?
The Review
OK, that was a bit of a sappy way to end this OVA, but oh well. Well, guys, that was "Ninja Gaiden". I'm gonna shut this thing off...OK. Well...what to start with first?
I guess I should start with something that I held off on mentioning before I started watching this OVA. From what I gathered, this thing was suppose to be a sequel to the Ninja Gaiden games on the NES. Specifically, it's suppose to be a sequel to the second Ninja Gaiden game. Which, I wouldn't even know about, if I didn't do some sort of research going into this thing. Now the reason why I held off on mentioning it was because, as I had stated earlier, I had never played the Ninja Gaiden games on the NES. Now I suppose the question you might have your mind is do you have you to play the Ninja Gaiden games in order to understand what's going on in this OVA? And the answer to that is not really. Because the Ninja Gaiden games weren't really story driven games. There were some kind of stories there, mind you, but they weren't really the focus. Most people who played those games were going into it for the hard as hell gameplay. That, and you also have to understand that back in the day, when the internet wasn't even a thing yet, NES games never really had stories that were the focus, unless if you were playing something like the first Final Fantasy game. The only way that you probably would've known that there was some kind of deep-driven story for the Ninja Gaiden games was if you still owned the game manuals for them, or if you actually played through all of them. And I mean that you had to do it without rage-quitting because of those games difficulties. But I'm getting a bit off topic. Point is, you can go into this OVA without any real knowledge of the Ninja Gaiden games. Because they do kinda summarize what happened at the end of the second game. At least, I'm going to assume they're summarizing the events of the ending of the second game. Because Robert, at one point, explains that a guy named Jakyo was trying to break the seal of the Evil Gods, and was ultimately stopped by Ryu. Other than that, this OVA can be viewed without having any prior knowledge of the Ninja Gaiden games. You can go into this thing as a standalone OVA with no problems. And the way they handled explaining the events of the previous game was handled better here than how "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children" handled it, in which that movie did a half ass job of telling an abridged version of the climax for Final Fantasy VII. Here though, it's just one event, and they move on with the story.
One thing I will give this OVA is that the pacing is rather good here. Because as some of you may or may not know, my history with OVA's for this series have been rather sketchy. Because just about everyone of them had some kind of issues that bothered me quite a bit. Two examples I want to bring up are "Black Magic M-66" and "Take The X Train". Both of those OVA's had problems with their runtimes and their writing. They really had problems with stuff that didn't make a ton of sense logically, and it would've helped better if both those OVA's didn't get stuck with such a short runtime. This thing, however, actually does make good with it's given runtime. Nothing here felt like a pace-breaker, and just about everything here moved well enough in order to advance the story. This thing is, honestly, one of the better OVA's that I've seen in a long time. Because it took advantage of it's short runtime and made use of it rather well. I'm actually rather surprised by that, because I genuinely thought that it was going to have the same problems that I've seen with the other OVA's that I've seen. But honestly, I didn't really find much of those problems here. I mean, I could probably poke holes into this story, but it's going to be minor at best. Such as, at one point, we see Sara, Jeff, and Robert exploring the Friedman-Corporation building to investigate a rumor that Ned Friedman was working on human experiments. And Sara mentions that Ned Friedman had died. Yet, somehow...Ned is actually alive. I'm kinda wondering why she even mentioned that? Was Ned, like, a villain at some point during the Ninja Gaiden games? I'm only asking this, mainly because she mentioned that Ned was dead, so I'm going to assume Ned was, like, the main villain of one of the Ninja Gaiden games. I don't know, but it was something that kinda stuck out at me. Now, I know I said that you don't have to play the Ninja Gaiden games in order to watch this OVA, but there are SOME things that they might reference from those games, and you might not understand them if you haven't played the Ninja Gaiden games, such as myself. But still, it's not something that's going to stick at you too much, but it might be noticeable to those that are not very knowledgeable about the Ninja Gaiden games.
As for our characters, I can honestly say that Jeff and Robert are instantly the best characters in this entire OVA. They're the sorta characters that you would see in a buddy cop film. They really do work off each other really well. Jeff is kinda like a discount John Rambo while Robert is a detective that got involved in this story because Sara was trying to get their help in order for Irene and Ryu to get together. As for Sara, she's OK, but she's really not that interesting when compared to Jeff and Robert. Both of those characters are definitely the most interesting from this OVA, and if they were given their own spinoff series, then I would watch the fuck out of it, because they were just that cool. What's sad, though, is that even though they were the best characters in this entire OVA, the same couldn't be said about our main character Ryu. Ryu has all the personality of burnt wood. Which is rather sad, because we're suppose to be following him as our main character, and he actually ends up being the blandest character out of this entire OVA. I didn't think that was actually possible, but this OVA certainly accomplished that. Now, I don't know, MAYBE he had some kind of character depth in the Ninja Gaiden games for the NES that I wasn't made aware of. But regardless, his personality in this OVA is just kinda nonexistent. Not only that, but he's also kind of an idiot. And I brought this up earlier, but it wasn't really a good idea to break up with his girlfriend just so that she wouldn't get hurt and get caught up in all of his battles. Now, while all of that sounds like he was trying to protect her with good intentions, it didn't help the fact that immediately AFTER they go their separate ways, she ends up getting captured by Friedman's henchman. So...yeah, great job, Ryu. You certainly know how to watch after your woman. At least with Jeff and Robert, they had the bright idea on keeping Sara out of this when they decided to go and rescue Irene. Granted, it might not have been the best choice to tie up and gag Sara, but at least it got the job done.
So overall, the writing in this OVA is pretty good. It's not amazing by any stretch of the matter, but it certainly is one of the better OVA's that I've seen in a long time. And along with the good pacing, it certainly helped this OVA very much. As for the acting, well, I have to go by what I watched from the Japanese version, since it's the only version that was available to me on YouTube. And the acting itself is OK. Like, I really couldn't spot any instances of bad acting, but I will say that, at times, some of it can be seen as being rather hammy. Such as when Jeff and Robert are storming the Friedman-Corporation building and they're going gung-ho with guns blazing while killing a bunch of mutated monsters that are after them. And one of these monsters that ends up dying gives out the most hammiest death sound I've ever heard. It's kinda hard to describe it, but I will say that it was one of the most unintentionally funniest death scenes from this entire OVA. In fact, some of this acting can be seen as just being hilarious to listen to, because it honestly sounds like the Japanese voice actors were having a blast with their given roles. And when some of them are giving these kinds of hammy acting to their roles, it actually makes this thing all the more lovable to watch. But as for the rest of the acting, it's OK, but when it wants to be hammy, it is some of the funniest shit you will ever hear, especially from an OVA such as this.
Animation in this thing is pretty good. Everything here, for the most part, moves rather fluidly. The art style is really good. Every character here has a unique look to them. So you won't have a character design that was reused for anybody else, save for some of the mutated monsters that you get to see when Jeff and Robert storm the Friedman-Corporation building. But other than that, the art style for this movie is rather good. In fact, for something that was made in the early 90's, this is a really good-looking OVA. Certainly much better-looking than "Black Magic M-66", but that's more of a personal preference to me. The color palettes are also pretty good, too. So overall, I can say that the animation for this OVA is pretty good, especially for the time that this thing came out.
Sound-mix here is mixed fine. I should also mention that the subtitles are fine for the most part, save for one word that was a miss typo, but I do have a question about something. And this is just a minor thing that caught my attention, but what's the difference between English hard subtitles and Russian soft subtitles? I ask this, because it's what's listed here in the original title on YouTube for this OVA. And I'm left wondering what's the difference? Because I honestly didn't notice ANY difference with the subtitles when I was watching this thing. And it's just kinda leaving me a little bit confused. So, if there's anybody out there who is an expert on subtitles, could anyone explain the difference between the two listed subtitles that I just mentioned? Because I honestly am not an expert on this, so any help would be of use here. Anyway, setting that aside, the music here is pretty good. It's certainly not memorable, but it's definitely serviceable here. So really, there's not much I can say about the music.
Overall, guys, when all is said and done, can I recommend "Ninja Gaiden?" Most certainly, yes. Like I said earlier, this is honestly one of the better OVA's that I've seen in quite a long time. Especially when you consider the subpar OVA's that I had to watch for this series, this one is certainly a breath of fresh air when compared to those. Mind you, it's not mind-blowingly amazing, but it's certainly rather good. And again, you don't necessarily have to play the Ninja Gaiden games for the NES games in order to get into this OVA. It pretty much stands out as it's own thing, while keeping the callbacks and references to the previous Ninja Gaiden games to a minimum. Granted, I wish Ryu's character was more fleshed out, but oh well, at least Jeff and Robert were able to make this thing worth watching. So yeah, I can definitely recommend this OVA. Plus also, it's really short. This thing is only 49 minutes long, so if you have that much time to spare, definitely check this thing out. It certainly is a pretty good OVA, and I'm quite happy that I was able to finally watch it for myself. I don't think this thing necessarily motivated me to play the Ninja Gaiden games, but I did have some fun with it overall. Now, as for myself...I'm gonna go watch something a little bit more light-hearted. I think I'm gonna go and watch my copy of "Porco Rosso". I see it on my DVD shelf next to quite a bit of Studio Ghibli films, so I'm gonna go do that after I'm done putting this review together.
Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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