Ninja in popular culture

Ninja in fiction are divisible into two large categories, those based on realistic accounts and those based largely on imaginative accounts. Purely fictional accounts of ninja are often the image many Japanese have of an assassin in a fantasy. In western popular culture, the ninja are often depicted as supremely well-trained martial artists who use many kinds of exotic equipment and skills to accomplish their missions. This, combined with the popular image of the ninja's legendary costume, often makes up the western take on the ninja as a popular foe of fictional spies (especially on missions in East Asia), superheroes and supervillains.

Ryotaro Shiba wrote two fictional works, a novel and a collection of short stories, based on ninja, Fukuro no Shiro and Saigo no Igamono. Fukuro no Shiro was made into a movie which also was a hit. Shinobi no Mono is another movie about ninja.

Eric Van Lustbader has written a series of closely ninja-related thriller books, the first one being The Ninja (1980). The series tells the story of half-Japanese, half-Caucasian Nicholas Linnear who received nearly full-scale ninjutsu training in his youth.

Ninja have long been a popular subject in anime and manga. The popular anime and manga series Naruto is a recent example of a ninja-based series.

In the Marvel Universe, the most popular ninja character is Elektra. The ninja clan that taught her, The Hand, is also a regular foe of superheroes like Daredevil and Wolverine.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a parody of Frank Miller's Daredevil stories which include a parody of The Hand, known as The Foot.

In Usagi Yojimbo there are several ninja clans, including the Neko who operate in the regular manner, the Komori, who are bats and attack from the air, and the Mogura, moles which attack from below the ground.

Ninjas appear also in Lone Wolf and Cub.

The GI Joe toy, TV and comic book franchise has ninja characters, especially the popular Snake-Eyes and his COBRA counterpart, Storm Shadow.

Ninja appears in many games and their characters are loosely based on historical facts. In a fighting game, a ninja are typically quick to strike but lacking in power or defense. Many a computer role-playing game had a ninja as its character. In the Final Fantasy series, the ninja made its initial appearance in the first Final Fantasy as an upgrade from the Thief character class, adept at equipping an array of weapons and armor and casting black magic. Typical of ninja in Final Fantasy is the ability to simultaneously equip two weapons and throw weapons at the enemy, inflicting great damage at the cost of extremely low defense. Several Wizardry series had an odd twist, because wearing an armor reduced ninja's advantage of evading an enemy attack, ninja were typically unadorned by players.

The first major appearance of the Ninja in Western popular culture is in the James Bond film, You Only Live Twice in which the Japanese Secret Service employs a top secret Ninja force to play a critical role in helping the British spy stop S.P.E.C.T.R.E.'s grandest scheme. Sho Kosugi was famous for his portrayals of ninja in several movies of varying quality.