NINJA RYUUKENDEN

DESCRIPTION

CAST

REVIEWS

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  MegaTheRealOne

  68/100
  Man, He Sure Was Quite the Ninja... Gaide- I Don't Fucking Know, Read the Review

  (Originally Reviewed on Letterboxd)

  So, are we not gonna talk about how the main villain of this OVA was creating a super-army of furries to use to take over the world?........ no? Alright then.

  It has been quite a while since we have covered any sort of OVA based on any kind of video game that I know of all too well, so I figured it was about time to cover another one, and I was excited to do so as well. While I never grew up with these kinds of OVAs, there's just something about them that feels so... home-y, you know? Like, you know they aren't gonna be anything all too special or long, and it's just something you can turn on, sit down, watch, and have a good time with. Of course, there have been plenty of good ones, as well as plenty of bad ones out there, which can make your experience more pleasant or unpleasant depending on which one you are watching, but I still manage to have a good time with them either way. So, let's go ahead and have ourselves a grand ol' time by talking about the subject of today's review, Ninja Gaiden.

  I am quite a big fan of the Ninja Gaiden series, with me having played through every single one of the original Ninja Gaiden games from the 8-bit era, and I have even recently started to get into the modern era of Ninja Gaiden and those games. However, despite how much I love those games and have played them, it was only till around, say, two months ago or so when I discovered that this OVA for the series was even a thing. It makes sense why I never found out about this sooner, considering that the blurb of it on the Ninja Gaiden Wikipedia page just says "this thing was made at one point" and nothing else, but I am still shocked I didn't notice this sooner, so I knew from that point that I had to watch this as soon as possible. So naturally, 2 months later, I finally sat down and watched the thing, and yeah, I'd say it was a good time. It isn't perfect by any means, and it does have several issues a lot of these OVAs generally have, but it was a decent distraction for almost an hour or so, and I am glad that I finally checked it out.

  The story is pretty simple, one that you would expect to see from a special like this, with nothing that's really gonna shock and surprise you, but the way it was presented was still fun and enjoyable enough to where I didn't care too much, the characters were good, with Ryu himself being as you would expect from this kind of OVA, and all of the other new characters they introduced were also pretty enjoyable to watch as well, each one having an enjoyable personality and memorable moments, the voice acting is good, although nothing about it is gonna wow you, as it just gets the job done and not much else, the animation is pretty good, being one of the best looking OVAs that I have seen so far in this category, but again, nothing is gonna blow you away from looking at it, the action is good, being frequent enough, impactful, and interesting, which is definitely one of the best aspects an OVA like this can nail, and it ends on a note that you definitely see coming, but one that is fun and enjoyable regardless.

  Honestly, I don't really have any big complaints against this thing at all, but if I had to pinpoint some criticism, I guess I could say that this kiiiiiiiiiinda doesn't feel like a Ninja Gaiden OVA. Don't get me wrong, Ryu is there doing things for a good majority of it, and they do reference the events of the video games themselves several times, but really, this could just be seen as another ninja anime that they just slapped Ninja Gaiden's name on and nothing more. Hell, for a majority of the OVA, Ryu isn't even the main focus, as it follows this other group of three news reporters for almost half of the whole thing, and while I don't mind this, it does become a little distracting, with you wondering where the hell Ryu is at points and what he is doing. Then again, I guess I can't give the OVA too much crap for that, can I? I mean after all, they only had a few NES games to base this on, so they had to come up with quite a bit more around all that, so it makes perfect sense as to why this ended up like this.

  Overall, despite some character focus issues and some other stuff that doesn't matter, this was still a perfectly fine and perfectly fine OVA that I am glad that I decided to check out, one that gives you a fun little journey with these characters, some pretty good action, and isn't too long to where you would think you wasted your time. I would definitely recommend it for those who are big fans of the Ninja Gaiden games, as well as those who like these kinds of OVA in general, because while it isn't anything that is gonna blow your mind, it could serve as a nice little distraction for you for a while, and I think that's all that matters at the end of the day. Although, I'm kind of surprised that this is the only sort of TV or movie thing that Ninja Gaiden ever got, and we never got any sort of other movie or TV show that would've been made alongside the modern games. Then again, considering how much Koei Tecmo likes to ignore that series now, it makes perfect sense why we never got that.

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