{"id":8551,"date":"2014-11-06T14:00:59","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T20:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=8551"},"modified":"2014-11-06T02:30:24","modified_gmt":"2014-11-06T08:30:24","slug":"in-space-all-you-need-is-ninja","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=8551","title":{"rendered":"In space, all you need is NINJA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you heard the one about the skeleton, the pirate, and the Disney<\/strong> princess who walk up to eerily decorated houses on an inky Indiana<\/strong> night as their slightly freezing parental units and visiting relative wait patiently by the curb? Indeed, such was the role of those hardy adults on All Hallow\u2019s Eve<\/strong>, yet the nieces and nephew should not be the only<\/em> ones enjoying a sugary buzz. Starving for your fix, dearest readers? Well, then, open those minds and we\u2019ll happily drop in some tasty info-nuggets to sweeten the deal!<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s C-U Blogfidential<\/strong> confection is one of several notices we\u2019ll be sharing about projects that have recently premiered. Although we caught wind of it just prior to release on Friday, October 24<\/strong>, we\u2019re only now unmasking the Neon Harbor Entertainment<\/strong> DVD for SPACE NINJA: THE ANIMATED MOVIE<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, a compilation-slash<\/em>-expansion of their previous Web series based on the comics of Alex Mitchell<\/strong>. Described by producer Ed Glaser<\/strong> as a \u201ccrazy, [Akira<\/strong>] Kurosawa<\/strong>-meets-cyberpunk animated epic [that] tells the story of a former assassin who must protect a feudal society of spaceship dwellers from a sadistic, godlike tyrant,\u201d SPACE NINJA<\/strong> is a stylistic detour from the Neon Harbor stable (PRESS START, ROBOGIRL<\/strong>, etc.) in several respects including Mitchell\u2019s anime<\/em>-inspired designs and limited color palette, voice work provided not by in-house talents but the St. Louis<\/strong> firm Anime Midstream<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, and a music score composed by B-movie veteran Chuck Cirino<\/strong> (CHOPPING MALL, NOT OF THIS EARTH, CAMEL SPIDERS<\/strong>). Featuring a final cut of the adventure with new scenes and a never-before-seen ending, the disc also sports a making-of featurette, a production art gallery, a proof-of-concept short film, another short animation called JADE\u2019S OMAKE<\/strong>, a Space Ninja<\/span><\/strong> comic book, and a commentary track by Glaser and Mitchell.<\/p>\n

As should be clear from several of our previous posts<\/span><\/a>, Neon Harbor openly credits the Asian cinema that influences their titles<\/span><\/a> if not just personal tastes. The latter is represented by one additional perk on the SPACE NINJA<\/strong> DVD, a one-reel ninja fantasia from Japan<\/strong> called JIRAIYA THE HERO<\/strong> (G\u014cKETSU JIRAIYA<\/strong>, 1921) said to be the first ever tokusatsu<\/em> (special effects) film ever made in that country<\/span><\/a>. As well, Glaser points out on his Web site the current animated opus takes its genre-bending cues from a more contemporary rarity<\/span><\/a>, the feature CYBER NINJA<\/strong> (MIRAI NINJA<\/strong>, 1988) directed by Keita Amemiya<\/strong> (Z\u00cbIRAM<\/strong>) and available for free YouTube<\/strong> viewing in its mid-Nineties, English dubbed form courtesy of an outfit called The Wu-Tang Collection<\/strong>. May a bevy of movie ninjas nip at your heels this November!<\/p>\n

~ Jason Pankoke<\/p>\n

p.s.<\/em> The word \u201cninja\u201d appears in seven previous CUBlog<\/strong> headlines, all of them tied to Neon Harbor\/Dark Maze Studios<\/strong> news. We had to check, no ninja lie!<\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We forget sometimes that Neon Harbor Entertainment still harbors creative refuge here in Champaign-Urbana. Or, maybe, they are real-life ninjas who move like the wind. Hold on. Did you just feel that? [Shudder]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228,20],"tags":[1372,1373,1375,165,1374,1167,329],"class_list":["post-8551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-videos-du-c-u","category-videos-du-c-u","tag-alex-mitchell","tag-chuck-cirino","tag-cyber-ninja","tag-ed-glaser","tag-jiraiya-the-hero","tag-neon-harbor-entertainment","tag-space-ninja"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}