Day 14: Ninjas!

A monkey, a ninja and a gentleman.

I realize that this topic is done to death on the internet and in real life. When I was a kid, ninjas were not quite everywhere. I remember watching a movie called "Unmasking the Idol" and leaving that movie thinking "Black ninjas are awesome and red ninjas are jerks". I rewatched that movie a few years ago and found out that it was actually horrible but in a kind of likable, ridiculous way. Shortly after we watched this movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out. So now, my friends all had a sort of touchstone for ninja stuff. The best thing about ninja turtles was the toys of the basic figures came with crazy extra weapons that "real" ninjas used.

I researched the whole ninja tradition and the various weapons. Yes, I did research even though I was ten but of course, it wasn't about anything that was relevant to school. It was about ninjas. I learned a lot of cool stuff but there was a lot of conflicting information. What I took away from everything was that ninjas were the poor man's hero. A rich guy could be a samurai but anybody could be a ninja. I always thought that was cool that in a society that was so concerned with loyalty and knowing ones place, a ninja just did whatever he wanted.

Of course, I also knew about Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow from GI Joe. Storm Shadow was probably my favorite ninja ever because first of all, his name is Storm Shadow and second, he dressed in all white. I suppose that if your primary job is stealth and sabotage, wearing blinding white is probably an occupational hazard. I always looked at it like he was just that good and really cocky about it.

Ninjas! Wearing bright outfits and firing loud weapons! Masters of deception!

 

When I was a kid, I don't think I ever really connected with any super heroes. Batman was a rich brat and Spiderman was a science genius. Superman was an immigrant. Punisher was the guy I liked the most but he was a psychotic, violent vigilante and also some kid stole my action figure of him. Ninjas were the guys I looked up to. For some reason, I thought I could be a ninja. It was just a matter of changing how you look at things. There were dozens of ninjas; Ninja Gaiden and the guy from Shinobi, those two up there, all the Turtles, the guys from Mortal Kombat...I guess I figured that even if I wasn't the best ninja, there was a spot for me somewhere.