[Anime Classics]

Release Info

Released in 1991. Produced by SMS Corporation. Animation by Studio Junio.

Plot Summary

On a dark, late night in New York City, Ryu is chased and attacked by assassins. After disposing of them, he finds an I.D. card for the Friedman Company. The next day, it is announced that Dr. Ned Friedman has discovered a cure for cancer. But after providing no information at his press conference, a reporter named Sarah decides to investigate with the help of her friends Robert and Jeff. When passing by Dr. Friedman's house one day, Ryu hears the voice of a young girl calling for help. When Sarah and her entourage investigate the house as well, they run into their colleague, Ryu. Upon that, they discover Dr. Friedman has been conducting experiments on live humans using biotechnology, and that it may have something to do with the power of the Evil Gods, whom Ryu had defeated in the past. But when Ryu's friend, Irene, is kidnapped, he must don his role as a Dragon Ninja once again to defeat this new enemy and save her.

My Thoughts

This anime is a bit slow. It takes its time developing the story and following the supporting characters. Neither does it have any strong resemblances to the Ninja Gaiden game series. What I do like about it is the dark look, mostly taking place at night with dramatic dark shadows everywhere. And the story is interesting to follow as it unfolds. Overall, it's an average anime. But don't take me too seriously. If this anime was awful I wouldn't have bothered to put it up on this site.

Buy From Amazon

You can buy this movie from Amazon. It goes for around $30 (US).

Download

Ninja Gaiden can be downloaded via torrents from Nyaa. This site is the best, safest, and most dependable resource to get anime for free.

Download from Nyaa

Notes

• If you don't know what torrents are, YouTube has tutorials. Be mindful that torrent downloads aren't instant. Depending on your Internet speed and number of seeds, it could take up to 24 hours for an anime to download.
• If you need a torrent client, these are the best (they're all free).
• The majority of video downloads from Nyaa are in “MKV” format, and less commonly in “AVI”. If you need a good video player to play these formats, VLC Media Player is the best (and it's free). It's available on every OS, including iOS and Android.

Is the MKV too big?

If you download a large Blu-ray quality MKV from Nyaa, it is possible that your computer or phone/tablet isn't fast enough to play it at full speed. In this case, you can use HandBrake. It's a free video converter; use it to shrink down the video. If you need help using HandBrake, YouTube has tutorials. Another option is to use Plex (mentioned below) because it automatically downsamples large videos when it streams them to your TV.

Playing on your TV

The easiest way to play MKV and AVI videos on your TV is with Plex. It streams movies from your computer to your TV through your Wi-Fi. It's a free app. Install it on your Windows or Mac, then install it on your set-top box (Apple TV, Roku, Fire sticks, etc.). Just note that Plex will only detect these movies in an Other Videos library because the “Movies” library doesn't detect rare/obscure anime classics. If you need help, YouTube has tutorials.