Anyway, Noboru Okamoto's dream was to become an equal to his father as an artist, and initially started off drawing images for kamishibai shows. In 1957, he was encouraged by Kazuma Maki (a female mangaka who was also in the same theater troupe as him) to enter manga, so after working under Maki as an assistant for a short bit "Sanpei Shirato" made his professional debut with the short story The Kogarashi Swordsman later that August. After two years of producing rental manga, Shirato made his non-rental debut in 1959 with Ninja Bugeicho/The Ninja Martial Arts Book, later getting the subtitle Kagemaru-den/The Tale of Kagemaru, which was published by Sanyosha (now known as Seirindo), a publisher founded by Katsuichi Nagai, who would later become the first editor-in-chief of Garo magazine. Ninja Bugeicho would run until 1962 for 17 volumes, its length being a rarity at the time (it rivaled the likes of Astro Boy & Tetsujin 28!), and today is not only considered one of the earliest gekiga stories, but it quickly found itself a fervent fanbase among left-leaning students & intellectuals, who felt that its themes mirrored that of the Anpo protests that were happening at the same time; Shirato denied that this was intentional, however. Though a pilot was made for a potential TV anime in 1969 by TCJ (now Eiken), which Shirato apparently denied, Ninja Bugeicho did find itself adapted into film in 1967 by Nagisa Oshima (Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, In the Realm of the Senses), which over the years has also been referred to as both Band of Ninja & Tales of the Ninja. For the sake of clarity, I'll use Ninja Bugeicho when referring to the manga, but Band of Ninja when referring to the movie.
However, Band of Ninja today is infamous because of the way it was produced, making it possibly the most unique film in Nagisa Oshima's entire catalog... Which, from what I can tell as a complete Oshima neophyte, is definitely saying something.
It's the year Eiroku 3 (1560), in the midst of Japan's Sengoku period, and Yuki Jyutaro is a young man without a family, after the home his family lived in, Fushikage Castle in Dewa Province, is conquered (& his family killed) by an Iga ninja named Sakagami Shuzen, who aims to rule a piece of Japan for himself. Jyutaro trains his hardest to get his revenge, but when he makes his move he's stopped by Hotarubi, Shuzen's sister, who cuts off Jyutaro's right arm. She would have killed Jyutaro, but luckily for him a ninja named Kagemaru from the mysterious Shadow Clan arrived on the scene, rescuing him & cutting off Hotarubi's right hand. Kagemaru brings Jyutaro to the populace that Fushikage Castle oversees, which encourages the people to finally rise up against Sakagami, as the common folk have been effectively starved to death. Kagemaru & Jyutaro's plan to storm Fushikage Castle with the rebellious villagers succeeds, but Shuzen manages to escape, mainly because Kagemaru allows it to happen, unbeknownst to everyone else. Over time, everything escalates as Shuzen winds up becoming a body double for Akechi Mitsuhide, Kagemaru encourages the rise of an insurrection army to go against Oda Nobunaga, & Jyutaro is pulled in all directions, mainly because of the mystery surrounding Kagemaru & the Shadow Clan.
Band of Ninja is, simply put, a lot to take in for a good variety of reasons. The first of which brings us to the "infamy" regarding how it was produced, because this is not what one can consider a "traditional" manga adaptation, by any means. From what seems to be due to a lack of budget being allotted to Oshima, because it was effectively impossible to do in live-action at the time & would cost too much to do via animation, Band of Ninja is literally just manga artwork being shown to viewers, with accompanying voice work, sound effects, & music, with the occasional image being given a quick pan to help sell movement at points. Now I actually have previously written about a similar type of production, namely the trio of "Manga DVD" adaptations for Kyoufu Shinbun, Ring ni Kakero, & Sanctuary that Shadow Entertainment & Sony produced back in 2003, so this style of production isn't exactly foreign to me. However, there's a 36-year span of time between Band of Ninja & the Manga DVDs, and it does show in the direction both went. The Manga DVDs obviously scanned in the manga panels digitally, resulting in them looking very clean & allowing for all sorts of visual effects being added in, as well as being able to manipulate the drawings themselves slightly, for added effect. Band of Ninja, though, was produced in a time when none of that was possible, and even the DVD cover art (seen at the end of this review) actually shows what Oshima did to make this film: He & cinematographer Akira Tada literally just placed Shirato's artwork on a standing easel, put a film camera in front of it, & filmed the still image (with the rare shot getting some slight camera movement). I imagine they either used some sort of macro lens, or Shirato gave them some high-quality master prints to film.
Because of this, there's a raw & natural feel to Band of Ninja, visually. While the wide majority of the drawings were filmed well, there is the rare shot that looks a little soft. Sometimes you might get a little bit of light shining through more than necessary in a shot, preventing it from feeling as "flat" as it really should. Also, there are absolutely no visual effects to be seen here, so everything lives & dies solely on the combination of Shirato's artwork, which at times can be extremely (& likely purposefully) rough & sketchy, & Oshima knowing when exactly to switch from one image to the next. Some drawings are on camera for longer, usually because of someone speaking, while some drawings are literally only one screen for barely a second, just enough to allow for quick movement & action to feel as close to "real" as you can get with sequential art. Also, while some sound effects are still shown on screen, verbal text is mostly excised, with only a handful of blank word bubbles actually getting shown on screen, & a literal single shot where text wasn't removed from a bubble; the Manga DVDs, in comparison, kept all text on screen. Without a doubt, actually filming Band of Ninja must have been a arduous task, and editing it all together must have been even more insane for editor Keiichi Uraoka (again, this was obviously edited the old-fashioned way, i.e. splicing), but the end result is actually extremely interesting, from a visual perspective. I certainly don't think anyone else should really attempt what Oshima did here, unless you're a sheer masochist, but Band of Ninja truly makes looking at nothing more than a long of sequence of still manga panels for an extended period of time feel dynamic & engaging, and it's a testament to how good of an artist Sanpei Shirato was, even this early on in his career; he truly did Toki Okamoto proud.
The second reason why Band of Ninja is a lot to take in is because of its plot. Simply put, this looks to literally adapt the entire 17-volume manga story in around two hours, and while that does bring about a lot of potential problems, I honestly think it manages to get away with it, even if only just enough. On the one hand, this results in a film that's never boring or lingers too long on moments (a side-effect of not wanting to simply film a static image for too long, I'm sure), while a heavy usage of a narrator to help explain certain moments & historical happenings (almost like a old silent film benshi) allows the overall plot of Ninja Bugeicho to be told without needing to rely on constant exposition & conversation from the actual characters; they certainly say a lot when it truly counts, however. On the other hand, the movie does rely on the narrator a ton, with some points literally being nothing but narration over scenes playing out, though this is usually reserved for larger scale battles, like those between Oda's forces & the insurrection, while more personal battles involving Jyutaro, Kagemaru, Shuzen, or Hotarubi tend to give their voice actors time to shine. This also gives the feeling that, while the overall plot of Ninja Bugeicho is told in an understandable way, you are obviously missing out on a lot of the finer details, like Hotarubi obviously falling for Jyutaro over time, more backstory for Jyutaro's lover (& Kagemaru's sister) Akemi, and Shuzen on the whole kind of becomes more of a secondary character in the second half of the film. On the whole, writer Mamoru Sasaki (Heidi: A Girl of the Alps) seems to have done an admirable job in apparently adapting 17 volumes of manga down into a single film, but it's in no way perfect, and that's possibly reflected in the length of the film... and it's variants.
From what I can tell, there are three different versions of Band of Ninja out there, none of which have ever received a home video release outside of Japan. There's the original full-length cut, which totals to roughly 135 minutes, which has mostly remained exclusive to Japan, though it has received the rare English-subbed showing at events like Nippon Connection 2014. Then there's a roughly 90-minute cut that's been shown much more often at film festivals & Oshima retrospectives, and is notable for having the narration dubbed into English, though the characters themselves are still Japanese with English subs. However, the version I saw for this review (& is the one you can generally find online, unofficially) only totals to just shy of 120 minutes, and that's including the 2-minute trailer that comes with it; unfortunately, the subs you can find for this version are absolute crap. While I can't exactly say what was seemingly removed from the full-length version to create the version I saw, I think I can definitely point out what was excised to help produce the 90-minute version. In the exact middle part of the version I saw, there's a series of backstories shown for the members of the Shadow Clan (minus Kagemaru), effectively splitting the rest of the film into two distinct halves. While the backstories told here are interesting & really good, almost none of them actually contribute anything of worth to the film, and they total to roughly 20 minutes. This is literally nothing more than a 20-minute sidebar that grinds the entire film to a halt, and aside from a single line explaining how Kagemaru apparently survived being decapitated & having his head displayed on a spike for all to see, has no real direct connection to the overall plot being told, since most of the remaining Shadow Clan members don't really get any screen time to themselves for development, with the sole exception being Onikichi, who actually does play a part in the overall plot focused on in Band of Ninja. While I haven't seen the 90-minute version, I'd be shocked if any of this Shadow Clan backstory sidebar actually was kept in it, as it'd be an obvious thing to remove for pacing.
All that being said, however, Band of Ninja is still very cool to watch, as it shows just how influential Ninja Bugeicho was in establishing all of the various tropes, stereotypes, & elements that the world as a whole generally associate with ninja today, and it's all because of the Shadow Clan. Onikichi (a.k.a. Zoroku) can run faster than a horse & can hide his head in his chest, like a tortoise. Kusare can swiftly dig underground, allowing him to catch foes by surprise at any moment. Shibire can emit electricity from his body, which he tends to use with water to help fry multiple foes at once. Iwana has literal gills that allow him to breathe underwater, and can even remain buried in the ground for long period of time without running out of air. And, finally, Mitsu is actually triplet siblings who are often used to act as "Kagemusha/Shadow Warriors" for Kagemaru, giving us an early example of the modern day "shadow clone". Kagemaru himself is a master of deception, being fully capable of things like kawarimi, or somehow making his decapitated head capable of still smiling & laughing, scaring his foes to no end. In comparison, characters like Shuzen & Hotarubi feel like much more generic ninja, as while they are certainly capable in battle their techniques are much more straightforward & simple, like blinding an opponent with powder, dousing them with oil bombs, and then lighting them on fire. Meanwhile, the Shadow Clan can literally turn mice into miniature remote gunpowder bombs! Truly, Ninja Bugeicho was literally the "book" (or "manual", as some translate "帳/cho" as) that all other writers of fictional ninja would take influence from, in some way or another.
Beyond that aspect of portrayal, it's very easy to see why Ninja Bugeicho wound up becoming so popular with left-leaning Japanese folk, which in turn would essentially help define Sanpei Shirato's career in manga, in general. In comparison to how the samurai used to be portrayed as regal & steadfast warriors, a portrayal that was apparently banned for a time after WWII (which is why post-war samurai stories of that time tended to either star "dirty" ronin or made the samurai villains), the ninja weren't beholden to something like bushido & expected to fight fairly. Ninja were capable of causing rile, both in upheaving the plans of the aristocracy of the various lords during the Sengoku period, & in encouraging the common folk to fight back against oppression from said aristocracy. Essentially, in banning the old positive portrayal of the samurai, this resulted in storytellers instead focusing more on the ninja, who in general were always much more relatable to the common person than the samurai ever were. Because of this, the Japanese populace found characters that they related to much stronger, and in seeing the ninja help foster the people of old to fight back, it encouraged the people of the people of the 50s, 60s, & on to protest when they felt oppressed by their government, especially in relation to its connection with the United States. Even if it was never Shirato's intention to actually encourage people to actively protest & find literal modern-day connections in his work, it's not hard to see why readers would find those connections, on their own.
That's not to say that Band of Ninja, or seemingly Ninja Bugeicho before it, is simply a romanticized look at ninja helping the weak rise up against the corrupt elite, or anything like that. No, it's arguable that most of the main characters really only behave according to their own personal wants & greed, and there's no mercy to be found by anyone; it's arguable that there isn't even anyone that can truly be called a "hero". Obviously, Shuzen wanted power of his own, beyond that of simply being an Iga ninja, which in turn led to him conquering Fushikage Castle & killing Jyutaro's family. Because of that, Jyutaro's entire purpose becomes almost exclusively about getting his revenge against Shuzen, to the point where he becomes easily manipulated by others, even if said manipulation winds up resulting in the deaths of those he actually does care for. Because of that manipulation, Jyutaro winds up hunting after Kagemaru for the last part of the film, but it's not exactly hard to accept Jyutaro turning against the man who once saved his life, since Kagemaru remains enigmatic for the entire story, never revealing his past, while his various ninjutsu are almost exclusively based around deceiving people, so you never truly get an idea as to what his true goals are. It seems that Kagemaru fights for the common people, but at the same time his assuredness of someone taking his place, should be finally die, almost comes off like gloating, as though he knows that he's already long manipulated the people to act as he wishes them to; I mean, the guy even has no qualms seeing a squad made up entirely of children kill people. Combine all of that with the violence that shows no hesitation in depicting decapitation, amputation, evisceration, mutilation, stabbing, shooting, burning, & impaling, along with showing just how crappy it was to live as a commoner during the Sengoku period, and it's easy to see that "fun" was the farthest thing from Shirato's mind with the manga, and Oshima definitely carries that feeling through intact with the movie.
It is important to remember that Band of Ninja isn't technically an anime, so aside from Mamoru Sasaki (who did work on a handful of Isao Takahata shows) the staff who worked on this movie have no real notoriety when it comes to anime. The the same is true for the music composer, the late Hikaru Hayashi, who worked with Nagisa Oshima for some movies. However, Hayashi was by no means a "movies only" music composer, as his name was attached to all manner of productions, including orchestral work, chamber music, brass bands, stage productions, theatrical movies, TV productions, & he even wrote various books about music! All that considered, though, Hikaru Hayashi's score for Band of Ninja is actually rarely heard throughout the movie, only really playing during segments where the narrator takes center stage, while segments that feature the characters talking go by mostly without music playing, with only a few exceptions. However, that's not to say that the music is bad by any means, because it definitely works whenever it's used, and the movie does feature a vocal theme song focusing all around Kagemaru, which is probably the most "anime" thing about this movie. It's just that when you consider just how prolific Hikaru Hayashi seems to have been, it's surprising just how rarely you actually hear his score, at points.
The lack of anime-experienced staff also applies to the voice cast for the most part, though there are a couple of actors who also plied their craft for anime to some extent to be found here. Leading the cast would be Kei Yamamoto, known for acting in a variety of taiga dramas, and he likewise does a good job here as the young & impetuous "main" character, or at least the closest thing to one a definitive one. After him would be the late Rokko Toura, another Taiga veteran who apparently actually got into acting after Nagisa Oshima told him that he'd be good at it, and here he plays Kagemaru with a very good self-assuredness to his voice; he definitely gave Kagemaru that mystery of "What exactly is he after?". Then there's the late Kei Sato (Hyodo in the live-action Kaiji; his last role), who plays Shuzen in a perfectly deceitful fashion, though he also gets moments to shine as someone who gets fooled himself, like when he realizes that Mitsuhide looks exactly like him; amusingly enough, though, Mitsuhide is voiced by another actor, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi. For Hotarubi we have the late Noriko Matsumoto, in one of her last few movie roles (she'd switch over to stage acting come the 80s), and she does a nice job conveying the young kunoichi's varying emotions, whether it's steadfast dedication to killing her foe or hesitation in regards to her feelings toward Jyutaro. Finally, in terms of major roles, we have the late Shoichi Nozawa as the narrator, and this was honestly a good pick, especially once you realize that Nozawa was also known as a haiku poet, essayist, & even a researcher on Japanese folk art, giving his moments more of an actual feeling of expertise to them. Even though I usually point out how stage & film actors tend to have a noticeably difference cadence to their performances when compared to traditional seiyuu, I honestly didn't notice that much here, but that could just be due to the fact that everyone here were primarily stage & film actors, especially of the taiga variety, so it all just sounded more natural.
There's no doubt that Ninja Bugeicho, while nowhere near as legendary as Sanpei Shirato's later Kamui manga, is a very important & influential manga in its own right. It's tale featuring the downtrodden commoners standing up & fighting back against their oppressive lords definitely struck a chord with a lot of Japanese citizens of the 60s, while its portrayal of ninja would go on to become the building blocks to how we all tend to view them today. Personally, I'd love to read the original manga, maybe even that full-color reprint that happened in 2009 & 2010 to celebrate its 50th Anniversary, but the chances of that happening are next to none. In that regard, Band of Ninja makes for a perfectly fine way to experience the Ninja Bugeicho story, and while much of the finer details of the story are obviously nowhere to be found, you get the feeling that Nagisa Oshima still managed to find the heart & mood of Shirato's manga, nonetheless. It definitely is a bit of an odd duck of a film to watch because of the way it was produced, but at the same time that has helped keep it something to look out for & experience, should you ever get the chance to watch it at one of those special showings it still gets on rare occasion.
That being said, I would love for this to receive a home video release in North America, especially since much of the localization work, i.e. subtitle translation, has already been done. I'd love to watch the full 135-minute cut & see what I still missed out on from the version I watched, while I'm honestly really curious to see how that 90-minute cut fares, especially with that English narration. Unfortunately, while a place like the Criterion Collection does offer some of Nagisa Oshima's catalog, both physically & digitally, one film that it does not offer is, unsurprisingly, Band of Ninja. Because of the way it was produced, it seems like this specific Oshima film is simply "too anime" for the likes of Criterion or Arrow Film, and while North American anime companies have occasionally shown interest in something of this vintage, it simply may "not be anime enough" for any of them to bother with.
Rest in Peace, Sanpei Shirato
Anime © Nagisa Oshima Production
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