NINJA GAIDEN (1991)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*

NINJA GAIDEN was a popular eighties video game, enough to spawn this OAV of less than an hour's length. GAIDEN the OVA sustains a little curiosity in that it was a sequel to events in the immediately preceding video game, in contrast to most video adaptations of games, which are usually independent. I don't know if anyone watching films today remembers the video game well, but probably anyone can watch the OVA without previous knowledge.

The story is a simple good vs. evil opposition between "the Dragon Gods" and "the Gods of Evil," an opposition which has lasted into modern times. Apparently the game's protagonist Ryu Hayabusa won a great victory over the Evil Gods, but they're still not down for the count. Their earthly collaborators set up a scientific institution in New York, supposedly medical in nature, though the actual purpose is to create monsters, in which the Evil Gods will become incarnate on Earth. A sidenote claims that the Dragon Gods have been sealed away, but Ryu, the Dragon Gods' champion, also happens to live in New York with girlfriend Irene. This leads me to wonder what might have happened had the Evil Gods set up their operation anywhere but where their nemesis happened to live.

 An online history relates that only Ryu, Irene and one other support-character are from the game proper, and the OAV adds three other allies to Ryu and Irene. None of them prove any more memorable than the simplistic main character, so the additional characters were probably included just to provide more talking heads. There's one amusing sequence where a lady reporter has some "girl talk" with Irene about the state of the latter's relationship with the hero, and that's it.

There's not a lot of action, though when the story ramps up, the fight-scenes display the bloodiness characteristic of nineties anime. Some of the demons are reasonably grotesque, which is all that makes up for the sketchiness of both good and bad guys. If this had been a longer OAV it might have expanded on the history of the warring deities, but that would be no guarantee that the characters would have been any better. GAIDEN is a pleasant diversion for those who like nineties action-anime, nothing more.