Year 1963 was completed basically in 100%, next one caused more propbelms tho, animes are rarely available unfortunately, the bigger suprise I had when I found whole Shounen Ninja Kaze no Fujimaru in one place and even found original dvd from some ebay third party seller (I actually hope I'll receive it, quite expensive shit).
Well, entrance to 1964 was quite very enjoyable, with great enjoyment and some decent art quality and nice setting. Very well done 65 episodes...
STORY: 8
Quite strong rating, but well, it's one more of the 'first ever' animes. This time it's ninja shounen subgenre (yer all know Naruto, right?).
Story ... of young ninja Fujimaru on his way to find his family and gaining secred ninja knowledge from an ancient tome is well written, quite reliable and very much enjoyable. The samurai/ninja era japanese setting is great by itself. Everything starts with yourg mc being kidnapped by an eagle and shortly after is resqued by samurai named... Sasuke, yeah, u right. The samurai takes him as his disciple and teaches him... ninjutsu and multiplication technique that allows Fujimaru to create multiple shadows to confuse his enemies... yeah, you're completely right on your thinking now. As the story goees on mc decides to find his lost mother and fins the ancient Ryuen Tome that contains forgotten ninja techniques. His biggest enemy is Japusai, master of fire techniques that's as well after the ancient scroll.
Pretty good piece of story and most importantly it's not too long, perfect for the story.
ART: 7
That's one of the highest ratings in 60s animes I gave so far. There's 2 main reasons why, no.1 - Hayao Miyazaki and Yasuji Mori and no.2 - it's one of the best looking animations from the time and well, many animes from 70s and even 80s were much worse. Toei Animation animators did great job, early Miyazaki is already very focused on the backgrounds while character designs showing his later works. That combined with Moris's maestro works giving true great quality that back in the day would deserve true max score in art quality. Today of course it's nowhere near being even good, however it's much easier to handle than most animest from the 60s. I loved designs, especially of the main characters and great background works are great until this day, especially in remastered version.
SOUND: 6
Another nice suprise, well recorded seiyuu voices, nice syns and quite easy to understand without much downs at all. Same goes to OST, which was guite enjoyable mix of traditionad japanese music with some epic instrumetalisations, didn't like opening and ending songs tho.
Overall as for 60s show it's the first time I was able to understand everything without bigger propblems, record were clear and well preserved. Good job.
CHARACTER: 9
The strongest part of the show. Main character, Fujimaru, strong and talented ninja with great character develompment and well psychological backstory. Precedessor of all young ninja/samurai mc's. Smart, bit childish, greatly talented, with BIG heart. So far one of my favs in genre. His sensei, Sasuke is your very typical 'sensei' in every way u can think of. Powerful, strong and quiet. With great influence on mc and finally has taken the role not only of his mentor but as well father he never had. Amazingly written character tho. And finally my favourite, the bad bastard Japusai. Imagine your typical mc enemy, add to that tons of great story where u actually starting to understand and like the guy. And don't get me wrong, his motivations are just as evil as they can be, no crybaby backstory, well, his backstory's great tho. And well, he's master of fire (AANG - I KNOW FROM WHERE U TOOK THESE INFLUENCES FINALLY).
ENJOYMENT: 8
I just loved it, great story, great characters and suprisingly well watchable even today. One of the titles that actually survived the tome without much harm. Even for people that doesn't like old titles this one should be quite enjoyable. Some great ninja shounen, not the best, but definitely over the average and well - influencing af, just watch Naruto again after this show.
OVERALL: 8
Strong 8, no mistake. Great piece of history again, but this time much better preserved and enjoyable by young people now. Shame it's almost forgotten. Shame and disgrace (64 bloody ratings!), what's even bigger disgrace is it's score, barely reaches 6,0 with incredibly low amount of ratings. Shame on u mal users, shame again.
One of the biggest, if not the bigger title for the genre of all time, influential and well, it's the first one after all. Suprisingly well even today. Nothing to be worry about. It's your typical, good shounen at it's finest.
I wish that ine day animes like this one will be well recognised and praised by modern society, especially without animes like that your favourite genres could look completely different. One piece of true history and as I can see it's remembered again only by mentioning is terrible articles like 'First Anime Series of Every Genre (Well, 10 of Them Anyway)', the heck. Go for it while it's still available.
And lemme go for next 1964 title, see ya'll soon with another review.
Alternative Titles Synonyms: Samurai Kid Japanese: 少年忍者風のフジ丸 Information Type: TV Episodes: 65 Status: Finished Airing Aired: Jun 7, 1964 to Aug 31, 1965 Premiered: Summer 1964 Broadcast: Unknown Producers: None found, add some Licensors: None found, add some Studios: Toei Animation Source: Unknown Theme: Samurai Demographic: Shounen Duration: 24 min. per ep. Rating: None Statistics Score: 6.231 (scored by 267 users) 1 indicates a . Ranked: #85172 2 based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #12671 Members: 1,236 Favorites: 7 Available AtResources |
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