I remember when I first learned that Ninja Slayer had a manga I was somewhat dumbstruck. Back when the Trigger anime aired I loved it sure considering it was the same sort of dumb actionhumor that Inferno Cop featured hell they even used the same animation style but I certainly didnt expect it to be the tip of this multimedia iceberg that continues to go by almost completely unnoticed by the Englishspeaking part of not only social media but the internet as a whole. Turns out what awaited me was an utterly bizarre and insane cyberpunk action manga just as full of incredibly clever satire as it is of the main characters enemies exploding. For those of you that are familiar with any of the Yuki Yogo/Yoshiuki Tabata duos previous works Akumetsu Wolf Guy Shin Mazinger Zero and its sequel I think a mental image of what to expect has already begun to generate but heres a little twist theyre merely adapting an already insane piece of literature which was initially published in short snippets on the official Ninja Slayer Twitter account by a duo of writers Lee Honda and Reika Sugi claiming to be humble Japanese translators helping an immensely popular American novel series become known in Japan. Allegedly the work theyre translating was written by an almost manzai comedy tropelike duo of Americans Philipp Ninj Morzez and Bradley Bond both of them and this alleged hyperpopular American novel series being fictional naturally. In official material one of them is referred to as quote ... to ninja what Joseph Campbell was to Nordic mythology. He was also the first to draw parallels between the two. If youve ever heard about the many controversies of Campbell and realize what this bio is actually saying in an attempt to sound smart and exotic I think youre already getting the gist of what to expect from this series sense of humor. Additionally a true underrated gem of an artist was hired to do character design for the novels Warainaku of KEYMAN fame.https://anilist.co/staff/115791/Warainaku As such you can guess the sheer insanity of Yogo and Tabatas previous works would not only be perfect for such a crazy mixture but itd enchance the groundwork provided by the source material accordingly. And thats exactly what happens. What we end up with is an immensely charming love letter to all things schlock with major focus on ninjasploitation movies and action cinema. Even the premise itself is beyond cheesy. The story takes place in NeoSaitama a cyberpunk dystopia so stereotypical bleak and dystopian that if you can think of a trope related to the genre it 100 has it to a comedic degree there are even evil megacorps with names as cheesy as Yoroshisan Pharmaceuticals . Our main character a salaryman named Fujikido loses his family in a tragic incident which was the result of ninjayakuza Soukaiya Syndicate turf wars. Clinging onto dear life he manages to forge a pact with a mysterious spirit a Ninja Soul calling itself the Naraku Ninja. This contract turns Fujikido into the titular Ninja Slayer a sort of Grim Reaper figure for all other ninja hellbent on exterminating each and every one of them. What ensues is a series of hyperviolent struggles between Fujikido and other ninja commanded by the fearsome ninjayakuza boss Laomoto Khan with a healthy dose of absurd worldbuilding sprinkled in constantly. For example not only are ninja these superpowerwielding humans theyre outright demigods at times. Later parts even tie the downfall of Rome and Egyptian pyramids to ninja culture and infighting. All historical events and code of conduct are catalogued in The Kojiki a Record of Ancient Matters a book written by Miyamoto Masashi whom the narrator and wiki claim is a completely different person from Miyamoto Musashi as the two have lived in different time periods and the uncanny resemblance between the two is allegedly purely coincidental and its considered a rookie mistake to confuse the two. Regardless of circumstances all ninja are expected to bow and introduce themselves with a Domo my name is Xsan and they all scream the likes of YEAAAARRRRTT ABAHHHH and SAYONARAAAAA when they fight. Why? Because the Record of Ancient Matters says its polite to do so and Buddha forbid serial killer mafioso ninja act impolite. Initially coming across as a dimeadozen action revenge seinen Ninja Slayer quickly becomes an obvious stab at needlessly edgy and serious pieces of media American cinema popculture and everything inbetween. You have an annoying unhelpful narrator who spends more time overexplaining irrelevant things stating the obvious and having exaggerated reactions like oh Buddha and truly an act of COPS DECADENCE than actually serving as a narrator. You have characters making extremely obvious linguistic mistakes every fighting style is some form of jutsu or karate katana swords and shuriken throwing stars are plentiful... and jokes that a person who knows more than one language is sure to enjoy for example God is always translated as Buddha oiran refer to their clients per akachan as a hilarious act of mistranslation on purpose and much more.... A character has artificial PTSD of the Vietnam war implanted and his Ninja Soul is I kid you not called Nguyen Ninja. https://files.catbox.moe/6r203s.png Every piece of machinery has quote UNIX display UNIX cables and people communicate exclusively via IRC relay chat. Meaningless tech babble par for the course in crime dramas and action flicks is not only plentiful but so inyourface you just know the authors knew what they were doing and loved every second of it. At its core the first part of Ninja Slayer can be enjoyed as a fairly straightforward action title with the exact sort of insane goodness youve come to expect from the Yogo/Tabata duo. Theres lots of action amusingly crappy Gmodlike CG backgrounds sex and of course high impact ninja on ninja violence even though the official word is that the chapters can be enjoyed in any order with the manga even occasionally adapting stories from Parts 2 and 3 which may appear unrelated with characters and plotpoints never before introduced or alluded to showing up every now and then but theres a clear beginning and end to the first part for those who may want it. Nonetheless enjoying Ninja Slayer for what it actually is an incredibly subtle yet immensely and charmingly stupid parody of all things schlock and action is quite easily the best choice considering how unknown it remains to a broader audience outside of Japan and Korea and how much it brings to the table in terms of clever parody that nonetheless manages to encompass a rich world full of charming characters and ideas. On top of that choosing a unique veteran artist like Yogo does nothing but enchance the source material tenfold. https://files.catbox.moe/42ydaw.jpg Regrettably the manga did recieve a limited official English release but it hasnt even managed to conclude Part 1 before getting axed as a side effect of Vertical Comics getting absorbed by a larger publisher. However Japanese versions of the chapters can be easily found online with some even being published on the official Twitter for free. There are also fully complete scanlations of the first part in Russian out there if you wanna dabble in that. Theres also a very active Korean fanbase which seems to be enjoying exceedingly highquality official releases and a thriving online community of fans. Further reading and helpful links in case youre interested in getting into the manga proper: The official Ninja Slayer Twitter account in Japanesehttps://twitter.com/NJSLYR where you can find the newest chapters of the manga and novel as well as the TTRPG official fangame AREA 4643 4643 being a funny wordplay on Yoroshisan the evil pharmaceutical megacorp and various other events. lThe official Ninja Slayer Wiki in Japanesehttps://wikiwiki.jp/njslyr/ The official guide to the 4 parts currently available in Japanesehttps://diehardtales.com/n/nc13c0c39a52f Largely defunct but still quality blog with some info for newbies to the series as well as translations of some of the novels published on the official Ninja Slayer Twitter.https://yeeartranslations.wordpress.com/. I especially recommend this basic guidehttps://yeeartranslations.wordpress.com/2015/11/09/ninsatsuloreninjaslayermangaseries/ to the continuity and different adaptations. Indepth analysis of the franchise amusingly enough done by the same person afaikhttps://ootoriarchives.wordpress.com/2023/02/22/theculturalphenomenonofninjaslayer/ in case you wanna read more about the linguistic jokes present as well as some of the worldbuilding. If youre one of these exceedingly rare Englishspeaking Ninjaheads out there Im currently trying to gather us all in one place so youre welcome to join the Unofficial NeoSaitama IRC Space message me for a link even if youre reading this many years later. Ive managed to find a grand total of two people so far anybody who might want to help catalogue information about the series in English or just wants to have a chat about the story and characters is more than appreciated my utmost apologies to the Anilist moderator reading this if they consider this segment to be too much.