A truly magical thing has happened to the Ninja Slayer main manga series not too long ago: it was split into two. And I don’t mean that it’s two separate series now: rather, it comes up twice as often nowadays, covering two different episodes at a time. Since that might’ve went under the radar of some Western ninjaheads, I would like to explain it in a little bit more detail.
Continue reading “NinSatsu Lore: Cloning Ninja Slayer manga”
From part I, “Neo-Saitama In Flames”: “Back In Black” #5
“I’m glad we could come here this year, as well”, Fuyuko smiles gently. Right next to her, “I’m a ninja! A ninja!” – little Tochinoki loudly plays with his toy nunchaku. “My, my, Tochinoki sure loves ninjas”, Fujikido Kenji gives a strained laugh. “Why in the world would he bring up ninjas?”
And, behind them, another Fujikido stares at this happy conversation, as if having an out-of-body experience. Where was this place? Fujikido looks at the surrounding white fog. Everything but his family is hard to see. Where was this place? When did this happen? He tries to remember, but the fog only grows thicker. Soon, even the smiles of his wife and son can no longer be seen in the fog.
From part I, “Neo-Saitama In Flames”: “Back In Black” #4
(Previously, on Ninja Slayer: The ones who rule Neo-Saitama’s underground are Soukaiya’s ninjas. However, right now, there is a presence of a mysterious killer who takes down one ninja after another. That person’s name is Ninja Slayer. Hatred and murderous intent build up, about to lead him down the path of madness and indiscriminate slaughter, but…)
From part I, “Neo-Saitama In Flames”: “Back In Black” #3
(Previously, on Ninja Slayer: the electro-cybernetic metropolis of desire, Neo-Saitama, ruled by the brute karate of dark ninja presence, the Soukaiya. And, a demon of revenge who slays those ninjas… Some say that he calls himself, Ninja Slayer.)
From part I, “Neo-Saitama In Flames”: “Back In Black” #2
(Previously, on Ninja Slayer: agents that work behind the scenes in the decadent acid-rainy megalo-city of Neo-Saitama, that’s ninjas. Even this night, they carry on their brutal, violent business. However, a mysterious ninja that calls himself Ninja Slayer appears out of nowhere and murders a ninja…)
Since the start of the anime, a lot of people have been discussing the “canon episode order”, whether the anime shuffles the episodes around or not, and how closely that order follows the novels. That confusion is perfectly reasonable, as Ninja Slayer’s legend is all about poor Japanese translators translating the episodes they can get their hands on in random order. However, some people also tend to state their assumptions as facts, which makes the matters even more confusing. An especially popular misunderstanding is that the Otakumode translations are divided into volumes 1, 2 and 3, even though they are single episodes taken from volumes 4, 1 and 1, respectively. Before I begin, I’d like to note that all information in this post is taken from the official Japanese wiki, so you can double-check me if you want. All I’m doing is translating publically available info. Oh, and I’m only going to cover the first part, “Neo-Saitama In Flames”, since that is the one being adapted in the anime. Now, let’s dive in and make sense of it all. Continue reading “NinSatsu Lore: Neo-Saitama In Flames – The Timeline”
It’s long past midnight. The rain polluted with heavy metals consumes blinking neon signs, making their chemical-colored blinking even brighter in this drenched night. The citizen hide themselves under bamboo hats with tired expressions, as if everyone is enduring something. “Cheap, cheap, actually cheap”. “Aka-chan…” Attracting the late-night crowd, the advertisements are even louder now.
POWPOWPOW… As a vehicle loudly honks with an automatic horn generator while sprinkling water from the puddles, overworked salarymen grip their wallets and credit chips even tighter, while the street yotamono punks turn around and show it the kitsune sign. In the narrow gap of the night sky between the skyscrapers, a maguro zeppelin passes by.
“Very uplifting stuff!”, “Tanning salon”, “Waana MIRROR store”, “Horse racing bookmaking”, “Lots of hot yoga”. The sheer mass of neon signs, crackling and blinking from poor cable protection. The steam rising from the foot carts. Chaos. Voices. Death. This is Neo-Saitama. For the capital of Japan, secluded both physically and electronically, this sight is all too familiar.
Busy people, idle people, businessmen, yakuza, oiran, tourists, runaways, suicidal people, Gulf Defense Force scouts, scouts for dangerous work, fast-food store hawkers, karaoke hawkers. Here on the main street, the noise won’t cease until it greets the coming of a yellow dawn. On the other hand, just by walking into a certain alley, one will see, darkness.
From part I, “Neo-Saitama In Flames”: “Back In Black”
From part I, “Neo-Saitama In Flames”: “Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow” #5
(All around Yamoto, the sakura-colored origami shapes start dancing once again. “Doomo, pleased to meet you. Me is Yamoto Koki.” As she greets her new opponent, she keeps staring at him. “Doomo. Yamoto Koki=san. I am Silver Karasu.” The dark-grey ninja returns the aisatsu. And then takes out his katana. “Why don’t you show me? Your wazamae.”)
From part I, “Neo-Saitama In Flames”: “Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow” #4
“Wait.” The ninja in a dark-green suit halts the large copper-colored ninja that goes behind him. “Traces of the target’s ninja soul are split in two here.” The dark-green ninja is Third Eye of Soukai Syndicate. The copper-colored ninja is a bounty hunter, Sword Dancer.
The cross-katana emblem on their suits demonstrate their allegiance to Soukaiya, and the eyes behind their menpo masks shine with cold bloodlust. That’s especially true for Sword Dancer and his mystical Oceanian mask, giving the freelance killer ninja an especially frightening atmosphere.
From part I, “Neo-Saitama In Flames”: “Swan Song Sung By A Faded Crow” #3
(It took six tries to kill the salaryman. Only one of them got cruelly killed, and one of his pals got badly hurt in his shoulder. “…Namu-Amida-Butsu.” [Okay], Smiling Jii is heard over the communication device. [And now, go to the corpse and take a picture of it.] “What? Me?” [Hai.])
(“Do I really have to go now? The mappo’s going to come any minute.” [Hai.] “That’s too much trouble.” [Please do.] “Send someone…” He doesn’t finish. “Okay, roger that. But I expect a bonus for this.” [Hai, otasshadee.] Silver Karasu gets up, shakes his head with a fed-up expression, and jumps down from the rooftop. “YEEART!”)
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