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Ando Masanobu’s turn as the machine-gun wielding Kiriyama in 2000’s adaptation of Battle Royale caught everyone’s attention. For a while there, on the back of the popularity of films such as Space Travelers—also staring Kaneshiro Takeshi and Watanabe Ken—Ando could do wrong. It may seem strange, then, that his next films were a Catalonian film festival nominated medical drama… and an adaptation of a comic from 1966.
Kamen no Ninja Akakage began serialisation in Weekly Shounen Sunday as the warmly received new work from mangaka, Yokoyama Mitsuteru, the author responsible for such fundamental works as Sally the Witch and Tetsujin 28-go. The basic thrust of the story is thus: the mysterious ninja, Akakage, in his striking crimson domino mask, is set on restoring order during Japan’s Sengoku period. Accompanied by his youthful companion, Aokage, and the bumbling yet well meaning Shirokage, our hero finds himself combating evil ninja, local warlords, evil wizards and giant monsters, all in the name of protecting the people! So popular was Akakage that in 1967, Toei adapted the story as a live action show featuring Sakaguchi Yuzaburo in the lead role—episodes #1 and 2 of which were released on Toei’s Jidaigeki YouTube channel with English subtitles.
So resonant were these characters that once more, in 1987, the series was adapted in a more widely available animated show. In 2001, however, with the announcement of Ando’s new project, it became very clear that Akakage: Red Shadow was a different kettle of fish.
Having established himself as a director with an eye for style, director Nakano Hiroyuki’s take on the source material is strikingly different, considerably stylised, owing perhaps more to his earlier film, Samurai Fiction, than the narrative of Yokoyama’s manga or its adaptations. Featuring a prominent soundtrack composed by Kishi Toshiyuki, Akakage is very much a film about dance, about the parallel between the grace of martial arts and choreography, a subject that you might expect your loyal correspondent from Planet C with her interest in idols to be heavily invested in. What is truly appealing about its treatment of violence, however, is in its symbolic value, the way conflict can be depicted as abstract. This stylistic treatment reminds slightly and is comparative with the way Samura Hiroaki often illustrates confrontation as a mandala of violence across two pages in volumes of Blade of the Immortal, the unusual way it is presented ensuring that even after all this time, the film remains fresh.
In addition to the way in which the style of the film is presented, Nakano’s movie also changes the dynamic of our three ninjas, adding a fourth member, Asuka, not explicitly referred to as Kikage, and yet decked out in yellow, nonetheless. You may sense where we I am going with this.
When first we picked up broadcasts of Akakage via Hong Kong, it was during the same year as Toei’s Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger aired, the series centred around three similarly coloured ninjas, red, blue and yellow. It is an understatement to suggest that we were excited about this overlap, Akakage stirring in viewers on our planet the hope that, in producing a feature film with a larger budget and a renowned cast, Toei might also one day give Hurricanger the same treatment. Sadly, such did not occur until many years later, and even then, it was with far less fanfare than Akakage, but it did signal Toei’s intentions to return to older entries in the Super Sentai franchise.
Paving the way for this was also 2006’s direct to video release, Chou Ninja Tai Inazuma!, the cast of which came from later contemporary Sentai instalments, the story once more focused on three ninjas with their own colour scheme, this time red, yellow and purple.
Why all these ninja movies, you may ask with exasperation as you read this. Putting aside such moments over the last few decades as the ninja boom in Hong Kong cinema during the 1970s-1980s, and the overall fascination with ninjas during the ’90s, eagle eyed viewers of Kamen Rider Gotchard will have noted episodes #9-10, in which the main characters visit Kyoto, and, more specifically Toei Kyoto Studio Park. Offering a variety of theme park styled experiences in which tourists can dress up in costumes from the Sengoku period, it goes without saying that Toei has made full use of the grounds for several television and straight to video projects, and Gotchard’s recent framing of this trope in a story set within the park is something that genuinely charmed us. It does not, however, stop us from yearning for a new Akakage project.
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The history of Kamen no Ninja Akakage’s appearance in the West is chequered to say the least. Receiving three compilation movies dubbed in English and broadcast on Canadian television—the first being retitled Ninjascope: The Magic World of Ninjas!, the second two being marketed as sequels to an unrelated film as part of the middling success of the 1966 film, Watari, Ninja Boy—it may seem like our fondness for these stories is misplaced. Yet 2001’s Akakage: Red Shadow appeared at a time when Toei was really pushing for big budget cinematic adaptations of older stories. Nakano’s vision, the strength of its cast—including Aso Kumiko (Ring 0), Okina Megumi (Ju-on: The Grudge), and a cameo from Boøwy’s Hotei Tomoyasu—make for a loving tribute to the original material, and whilst we do not believe the film necessarily holds up, it is one we will happily recommend to your Earth scholars for further study.
Would you like to see a revival of Akakage? Are you concerned by contact with Planet C? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below!
