By Drew Dietsch
| Published
Back when I did THE Super Mario Bros. video For this channel – that you should watch because it is a good video and it prevented me from becoming homeless – I mentioned possibly make a video on the real video game film.
Before I can even do this, I must say that it is not The big mission to save Princess Peach! Or Running boy: Star Soldier no Himitsu. Not because I don’t like it or I realize animation, but because they are smaller productions more similar to television specials than major features adaptations with a real budget.
For this, we return to the 80s and look at what is still one of the best video game movies of all time and prove that there has never been a video game curse to start.
We are talking about the real first video game film, Mirai Ninja.
Mirai Ninja is an arcade game Namco 1988 which was only published in Japan, so it’s just if you’ve never heard of it. In the game, you play as a rocker Ninja which must stop an Evil Empire and the resurrection of their chief. What reminds me, I need to replay Cyber Shadow. This game rocks.
Anyway, the Mirai Ninja Arcade Game was developed with the intention of publishing a feature film companion, so it was not a question of adapting an existing game in a film. Instead, the game and the film were made to compliment itself directly.
The Japanese title of the film would be Mirai Ninja: Keigumo Kinin Gaiden, translated by Future ninja: side story of the Cloud Stealth Joy Steal apparatus. Bless the Japanese and their wonderful titles.
The film would get a number of different titles depending on its release. Through the pond in the United Kingdom, it was Robo Ninja. My wonderful neighbors of the North have obtained Military chief. Sorry, Canada, you deserve a better title. And here in the United States, that’s how I learned it, it was Cyber ninja But I will call it by its Japanese title because I am a weeke loser.
Now before talking about Mirai Ninja He himself, I think I have to correct an omission from a previous video. In My video on Guyver: black heroes – that I would also like you to look at that my beautiful kitty does not die – I neglected to mention the term Tokusatsuwhich is used in Japanese productions live to designate intensive use of special effects.
Over time, Tokusatsu has also become a term which applied to a particular style of production of special effects, as what is seen in Japanese television series such as Came rider or the Great series. And Mirai Ninja is almost as pure Tokusatsu As you can get. I could look at these sparks that explode again and again.
Since the game and the film were produced together, the Mirai Ninja The film deliberately tried to be as faithful as possible for the arcade game. So much so that the film’s director and co-series of the film, Keita Amemiya, also worked on the conceptions of the characters for the game. All this leads to a film that could not be more faithful to his source of video games. The first stage of the video game is almost directly suitable for the opening of opening credits, and even the music of the game sometimes obtains a new orchestration for the film.
So the basic story of Mirai Ninja will seem very familiar to anyone with even the smallest familiarity with …
The film begins with text saying: “Once upon a time, in the distant future …”, there is an evil empire that kidnaps a princess dressed in white, a naughty mercenary is used to save it, there is a evil emperor who is a big floating head, need of things? The compulsory statement of “Star Wars was influenced by Samurai cinema, in particular Akira Kurosawa The hidden fortress“Before someone in the comments wants” uh, in fact “.
The more “not star wars” part of the story concerns a soldier who dies at the start of the film and has resuscitated as a Ninja robot by the Dark Overlord clan. This is our hero, Shiranui, who tries to reach the fortress of the dark to recover her body in front of him and the princess is used to resuscitate the dark suzerain.
You don’t get much easier than that, and it’s the best thing about Mirai Ninja From the point of view of writing. At 75 minutes, it is not complicated. As Joe Bob Briggs would say, “there is not much intrigue to hinder history.” It is Robo Ninjas and Techno Baddies who shoot lasers and cutting off with swords.
Which is the best thing about Mirai Ninja. It is pure cartoon madness on Saturday morning rendered in the real world. And that does exactly what video game is. He doesn’t need to do the leg Jack Black To make it as largely attractive as possible. He can reflect and embrace the simplicity of his video game while managing to tell a functionally melodramatic story on Shiranui thanks to the public knowing that he is in fact the brother of another star character. It’s not new but it works.
And if you are hung on the story and the characters of Mirai NinjaYou go ahead and pout while I bask in the EDO style attack walkers and my man, Shoki, the great henchman of the evil who finds himself as the ship for the dark suzerain. He has head tentacles that stab you if you try to sneak on him! Shoki Rules.
Shiranui rules. Mirai Ninja Damn of rules.
And the only reason why more people did not feel this way when Mirai Ninja Released in 1988, it was because the film remained in Japan because the arcade game is not exported to other countries. He obtained a video and an exit in English at home in the 90s on VHS and a DVD release in Japan in the 2000s, but he did not obtain a loving catering or a better outing on Blu-ray.
And for so many reasons. When people deplore “The Video Game Movie Curse” which has tormented so many adaptations for decades starting with Super Mario Bros.They need to know Mirai Ninja. The first live video game movie was not cursed at all. In fact, it was produced just about as well as it could have been in 1988.
Keita Amemiya would continue to direct the similarity Tokusatsu Films like Zeiratwo Came rider Films and another film on which I will make a video on if it is doing well. From Mirai Ninja It was his first theatrical feature film, he needs this preservation for his filmography.
And it’s the first live video game movie, not Super Mario Bros. This fact alone should grant Mirai Ninja A ton of admiration, respect and a modern home video version appropriate for the public around the world.
You can find a copy of Mirai Ninja Here in cyberspace, but I hope that we can all wait a day when a new loving version with high definition can be made. The first real video game film deserves nothing less.
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