Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger - Thoughts & Opinions

[Black Fang]

Sorry, I deleted my post because it read more jerkier than I wanted it to -- it was supposed to sound sillier, pointing out how nearly every fricking ninja story Japan tells is the same...!

I missed it! :shakefist

 

[Dr Kain]

Everything you say is comical.

Good, because this is a discussion board, which means nothing should be taken literally. :thumbs:

 

[Painted_Outlaw]

I missed it! :shakefist

You and me both, dude.

 

[rangergod]

I actually think the Jakanja might have been more suited to be Earth-based villains rather than aliens. Besides the fact that the concept of space ninjas seems strange,



.

What? I'm sorry but I'm suprised you found space ninjas strange yet you accept space pirates from Gingaman or Space biker gangs from Carranger.

 

[Black Fang]

That's because pirates and gangs are more or less generic, whereas ninjas stem from a specific culture. If they were just "alien martial artists" that would be different, but unless you want to argue that in this universe ninjitsu was inherited by the Japanese from aliens centuries ago.... I find it a bit hard to swallow.

 

[rangergod]

That's because pirates and gangs are more or less generic, whereas ninjas stem from a specific culture. If they were just "alien martial artists" that would be different, but unless you want to argue that in this universe ninjitsu was inherited by the Japanese from aliens centuries ago.... I find it a bit hard to swallow.

I'm sorry but I dont buy it just because ninjas is mostly part of japanese culture dose not mean is aliens from other planets could develop their own ninjas. Any way in the toku universe logic never really applies anyway.

 

[Lynxara]

That's because pirates and gangs are more or less generic, whereas ninjas stem from a specific culture.

I sometimes wonder if language turns into a problem with stories like this? Ninja to the Japanese basically just means a sort of peasant guerrilla fighter that used speed and improvisation where more well-off classes like the samurai could use... uh, decent weapons.

To foreigners the concept of ninja is culturally specific because we think of it as something that just happened in Japan. There are historic counterparts to the ninja phenomena worldwide, though. It could really happen in any society where lower classes weren't allowed to own high-quality weapons.

So it's not inconceivable to me you could have ninja-like peasant fighters arising from a space culture. Yeah, they're not going to become a ruling power and start invading other planets, but Hurricanger pretty much just treated its ninjas as Japanese-style fighting sorcerers anyway.

 

[Black Fang]

I'm sorry but I dont buy it just because ninjas is mostly part of japanese culture dose not mean is aliens from other planets could develop their own ninjas.

That would be an awfully big coincidence if so. Much bigger than I'm comfortable with.

Any way in the toku universe logic never really applies anyway.

I didn't know you were a writer for Toei >.>

I sometimes wonder if language turns into a problem with stories like this? Ninja to the Japanese basically just means a sort of peasant guerrilla fighter that used speed and improvisation where more well-off classes like the samurai could use... uh, decent weapons.

To foreigners the concept of ninja is culturally specific because we think of it as something that just happened in Japan. There are historic counterparts to the ninja phenomena worldwide, though. It could really happen in any society where lower classes weren't allowed to own high-quality weapons.

So it's not inconceivable to me you could have ninja-like peasant fighters arising from a space culture. Yeah, they're not going to become a ruling power and start invading other planets, but Hurricanger pretty much just treated its ninjas as Japanese-style fighting sorcerers anyway.

But there is a 'ninjitsu' martial art that is (or was at one point) used predominantly by ninjas, right? I can't think of any other equivalent for "ninja-like" groups in other societies, except maybe the capoeira of Brazilian slaves.

Bottom line, if Hurri is a story about ninja clans, why not make the Jakanja another clan rather than a space empire that happens to use ninjas?

 

[Lynxara]

But there is a 'ninjitsu' martial art that is (or was at one point) used predominantly by ninjas, right?

Sorta? Ninjutsu exists, but real-world ninjutsu is less a fighting art than it is an assassination art. If you read up on what real-world ninjutsu masters teach people, it's stuff like moving completely silently, killing people very rapidly with simple weapons or bare hands, and escaping pursuers. The better you are as a ninja, the less likely it is you'll ever get into a real fight.

A lot of other cultures never really gave a name to people who did this besides "assassin," which in English isn't a culturally loaded term... well, though it should be. The roots of it refer to a specific sect of Arabic stealth-fighters called the Hashshashin who were in real life the raging badasses that ninjas only ever were in manga and folklore.

Bottom line, if Hurri is a story about ninja clans, why not make the Jakanja another clan rather than a space empire that happens to use ninjas?

I would attribute this to the basic gutlessness of modern tokusatsu. If the Jakanja were a rival clan, then they'd be human and that means the Hurricangers have to kill other human beings. This introduces the idea that... you know, ninjas are killers.

Toei in 2002 is so not going there. It's going to do... well, what it did: make the Jakanja alien monster ninjas so nobody has to feel bad when the Hurricanger kill them. This simplifies the conflict to something purely black-and-white.

That said, I really don't think Hurricanger is really a story about ninja clans. It's a story about magicians funneled through the aesthetic of shinobi folklore. Shinobi folklore is all about using your magic powers to warp reality and dominate opponents. That's basically how Hurricanger fights go.

 

[MattComix]

Could be that maybe for you demons from a nether world or a rival clan of human ninjas are easier to take than aliens in the context of a Sentai story that is ninja or samurai themed? Like it's putting in a sci-fi element in something that is usually more mystic based? If that makes sense. Basically you feel it's incongruous to have it be aliens?