01. After thirty years, I still haven't been able to become first-class
Ninja is an elusive special profession.
According to legend, ninjas are a group of spies with special abilities, and those who have learned ninjutsu can fly around, summon stand-ins, and infiltrate heavily guarded places to kill people. In modern times, ninjas are active in a different way.
From time to time, Kotaro, the wind demon of Fgo, is summoned by the master to save Renli or turn into a green square;
Although it is not known how Blizzard will change after being acquired by Microsoft, players have not forgotten the passion brought by Hanzo and Genji in Overwatch;
The wolf in "Only Wolf: Shadow Death Twice" takes the player to see the ninja's world from another perspective;
Since we talk about ninja characters, of course, we have to mention the people in Naruto, in this world of ninjutsu, each ninja has their own joys and sorrows;
However, the characters in Hirohito may have to be expelled from the ninja at various levels, after all, the "ninjas" here are actually more than 108,000 miles away from the ninjas in people's minds;
These works and characters based on ninja culture are the opportunity for many people to understand ninjas, but for the audience after the 80s and 90s, they give different answers.
For example, "Ninja Chaos" is .
More than a decade ago, when domestic television stations were still able to broadcast foreign animations, a group of ninja gakuen students were active on television.
This group of students all wore "battle clothes" that were convenient for activities and learned various ninjutsu in the school. The protagonist,"Shotaro", whose family has been poor third-rate ninjas for generations, is studying hard in response to his parents' expectations of "becoming a first-class ninja".
However, for some reason, Taro is always caught up in a bunch of troubles. Although this kind of life spared him a lot of distances, on the way to solve the trouble, Shotaro always met many partners and harvested friendship, affection and growth from them.
It's just that to people's surprise, The road to growth of Taro is longer than Conan's road to completion.
(Interestingly, both Shotaro and Conan's voice actors are Takayama Minami, is that a cv curse?) ）
On February 22, 2022, the "second", the official "Ninja Chaos" officially released the main visual image of the thirtieth season on social platforms, which is expected to start broadcasting on April 4.
The anime has been updated almost every year since its inception in 1993, and now Ninja Chaos is in its thirtieth year.
In the new public main visual, the main characters who appeared in the original work are gathered together to stage a hilarious story in ninja academy again.
For new entrants to the otaku, Ninja Chaos may be a rare super-long animation, but for some viewers, it is a continuation of childhood joy.
02. Record-breaking ninja
At a time when television was still the main form of entertainment, Ninja Chaos was introduced to China by four translation studios, the most impressive of which was the version translated by the Liaoning People's Art Theater (referred to as the Liaoyi Edition).
Prior to this, the translation team has also translated classic works such as "Smart Rest", "Legend of the Demon Hero", "Dragon Ball", "Football Boy" and so on, and for young children, familiar sounds can often bring them into the work quickly.
As a result, when the protagonist, Shotaro, says in a voice familiar to the children, "I must become a super-first-class elite ninja", many children have entered the animation world and enjoyed the pure fun it brings.
Although Shotaro's goal in school was to learn ninjutsu and become a first-class ninja, and his story revolves around his growth, there is no "main line" in this anime. The author sets up various small stories in the form of unit dramas, without sadistic stories, without telling the philosophy of life, but with all kinds of nonsensical jokes that have been played uninterruptedly for more than thirty years.
In it, Shotaro gets acquainted with the clever and mischievous Komaru, who aspires to live a rich life; the new guards from a wealthy family and are very greedy, and the three of them often act together, sometimes causing trouble at school, sometimes getting into trouble, and in a series of small episodes, they move towards the goals they have set.
Without the main line, it is difficult to establish the image of the character, and the animation of "Ninja Chaos" has achieved the creation of laughter and the shaping of the character at the same time.
For example, the gluttonous attribute of the recruit guard is not only its own highlight, but also a laughing point maker.
In episode 14 of the first season, the principal's calligraphy is destroyed by unknown people, and before that, the protagonist trio has caused many accidents, so they first suspect their class. Faced with this baseless question, the students, led by Shotaro, naturally chose to refute the principal.
The students were suspected of being a trivial matter, but the new guards were hungry, so whenever the students refuted a sentence, the new guards always had no scruples about saying what they really thought.
(Students: Doubting us again? Stand! Recruit Guard: I'm hungry! Students: I really can't imagine that the principal is such a person, it is too much! Recruit Guard: I want to eat noodles! Students: Principal, what evidence do you have that we did it? Recruit Guard: What evidence do you have that I eat soba noodles? Students: ??? ）
Another character, Amaru, is the opposite of the new guard in terms of identity, and during the war, Amaru lost his parents, and he could only make a living by doing odd jobs.
Because every penny is not easy to come by, Amaru is always unwilling to share what belongs to others, and will seize every opportunity to make money.
(Left: Rantaro Right: Amaru)
On a certain day, the school organized the three protagonists to go to the beach to practice, and before leaving, the teacher reminded Xiao Maru that he was not allowed to open a stall on the beach to make money.
In this regard, Komaru used the excuse that "making money is just his hobby" to reassure the teacher. But unfortunately, the words did not fall, and the goods hidden in the corner of the small pill were found, and finally the money and goods were empty.
As for the protagonist, Shotaro, he is a typical protagonist, who looks decent but has great ambitions, and his grades are not excellent but he has a studious heart.
If the first two are the makers of the trouble in this film, then Shotaro is the victim of the trouble. When the aura held by the other protagonists seeks their benefits and avoids harm and achieves their goals, Shotaro's aura always leads him into the troubles caused by other characters.
For example, when Amaru was careless and failed to recognize the counterfeit money mixed in the tuition fee, the school asked him to find out the source of the counterfeit money on the grounds that he was a ninja but failed to carefully distinguish the counterfeit money.
Faced with this sudden task, Amaru finds Sakataro without a clue and forgets who gave the money, which also makes Sakataro, who was resting, have to get involved in this muddy water.
These nonsensical jokes are undoubtedly one of the driving forces for this anime to be broadcast for thirty years, but "Ninja Chaos" is not only a funny animation, in the midst of joy, the animation will also explain some small knowledge related to ninjas and dark weapons.
For example, on the way to the beach, the trio encounters a fireball attack; and when the group avoids the fireball, the teacher tells the trio that the real body of the fireball is actually a dark weapon commonly used by pirates--- a curved ball.
However, the positioning of "Ninja Chaos Taro" is still a bubble noodle animation after all, and the knowledge points are only scattered in the plot everywhere, and the points are so far that they will not go deep;
In terms of world view and character setting, there are not too many complex components. However, the so-called "setting is to serve the plot and characters", and sometimes in order to promote the development of the plot, there will still be some contrary settings in the animation.
For example, the story is set during the Sengoku period in Japan, between the middle of the 15th century and the 17th century, but in the anime, there are wonderful settings such as vending machines that have only been invented in modern times, students playing tennis on the playground, and teachers using RPG bazookas.
(I have enough evidence to hammer "Hirohito Biography" to copy "Chaosaro")
In fact, the reason why we miss the animations of the past is not because we can see through the big truths hidden behind the plot at a young age, but in that era when entertainment means are scarce, these animations bring us countless joys.
At that time, we were not under pressure, and we could enjoy the fun brought by animation in the purest posture.
In the comment area related to "Ninja Chaos", there are many netizens who miss the past, and some people still talk about the plot and characters in it; some people take this as an opportunity to miss other animations of the same type;
Some people also sigh as if unconsciously, this animation suddenly disappeared.
Let's get rid of the word "as if" because since 2006, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has stipulated that domestic television stations are not allowed to broadcast foreign animation in prime time, and with the tightening of policies, all foreign animations, including "Ninja Chaos", have withdrawn from the domestic television market. One of the purposes of this is to pave the way for the development of domestic animation.
After this, domestic animation has indeed increased in quantity, but in the past ten years of development, there have been few qualitative leaps.
In order to defraud subsidies, most animation producers use shoddy pictures and young and childish content to cope, and they have also misled many parents, so that they have believed that animation is for young children for a long time.
But what is even more ironic is that when "Ninja Chaos" faded from the vision of the Chinese people, it secretly "returned" to the domestic TV station in another form.
Time came to 2007, when it was the first year to restrict foreign animation, and domestic animation companies supported by policies began their "rise" road, the first to occupy the time and place, and the one who stepped on the screen was the blue arc's "Jelly Three Musketeers".
The animation tells the story of Orange Liuxiang from a third-rate swordsman family, in order to become a first-class swordsman; pineapple blowing snow from an ordinary family, in order to become a millionaire; Lu Xiaoguo, who came to the Proud Gate family, in order to realize his dream of food, and came to the Jelly Martial Arts Academy to study.
The first episode of the anime tells the story of the encounter of three jelly.
One day, Orange Liuxiang, who waded through the mountains and came to the martial arts academy to study alone, secretly vowed in front of the academy that he would become a first-class swordsman expected by his parents.
But before the words could be heard, Lu Xiaoguo, who was riding a horse, crashed directly into Orange Liuxiang, which was the first encounter between the two; and taking this as an opportunity, the two began to reveal their origins in front of the school gate.
When Orange Liuxiang told that he had been a third-rate swordsman for generations, a rabbit who came out of the academy began to ridicule his origins; the teacher "Hero" who followed him offered the two generous conditions of "as long as you pay tuition to enroll", in the face of this sudden situation, although the two showed no words, they finally chose to enroll.
In the subsequent unfolding, Lu Xiaoguo pays with a convenient credit card, and the pineapple blowing snow that finally appears presses the mountain of gold coins to the orange.
A series of accidents also occurred in the subsequent classroom teaching, the teacher's perfunctory teaching methods surprised the three people, Orange Liuxiang accidentally fell off a cliff in the projectile practice class, the female students fished kaizi in the corner, and when the trio each found the girl they liked, the hilarious stories continued...
It is not difficult to find that the characters who appear in "The Three Musketeers of Jelly" can find archetypes from martial arts novels and movies, and the full of homage elements has made many older audiences interested in this unusual animation.
However, in the creation of domestic film and television, "tribute" is the most elusive word, because many times, it will justify plagiarism and make it impossible for people to give a deeper critique of the work.
For example, the above settings, plots and even storyboards are actually no different from the content of the early stage of "Ninja Chaos", but a large number of tributes make this animation have enough confidence to cover up its own plagiarism;
And because of the weak copyright awareness at that time and the withdrawal of foreign animation, "Jelly Three Musketeers" provided sufficient preconditions for becoming a classic of a generation, so that fans who loved this animation were subconsciously unwilling to admit its plagiarism.
Perhaps fortunately, these small episodes that happened to domestic animation did not affect the fame of "Ninja Chaosaro" in Japan, and the continuous improvement over the past three decades is not only a proof of its popularity, but also makes it the most popular anime in Japan during his heisei period.
However, this record may soon be broken by a feature-length anime, because the final volume of the original manga "Fallen Ninja Chaos" was released on November 30, 2019, ending the 33-year series, and it is only a matter of time before the rest of the plot is animated.
As for whether it will be "One Piece" or "Conan" that will break the animation record, it is also necessary to see the two authors of Eiichiro Oda and Tsuyoshi Aoyama, who can laugh to the end.
03. Conclusion
There are many things that can be changed in thirty years.
It is enough to make a country go from poverty to richness, or from wealth to decline; it is enough to make a city change dramatically, from a small village without a name to a metropolis; it is also enough to make the young boys and girls who sat in front of the TELEVISION and waited for the program to start to be fathers and mothers.
So if there is something that can remain unchanged for thirty years, there must be some immeasurable force behind it.
And what makes the animation of "Ninja Chaos" serialized so far must be the original heart that wants to bring joy to the audience.