, known as ''Cyber Ninja'' in the United States, ''Warlord'' in Canada and ''Robo Ninja'' in the UK, is a 1988 Japanese science fiction action film directed by

Keita Amemiya is a prolific Japanese character designer and director from Urayasu, Chiba. Amemiya is known for his distinctive fantasy designs and directorial style. Biography After graduation from the Asagaya College of Art and Design, he joined the Den ...

, which was co-produced and released by

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

that premiered on October 1988 at the Tokyo International Fantastic Film Festival. Two months later, it was released as a

direct-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

film on December 2, 1988. The film is based on the arcade game of the same name which was also developed and released by Namco.

Plot

In a future time a war is being waged between humans and cyborgs. One of the elite cyberninja of the enemy goes rogue and sets out to assist the royal family after their headstrong princess is captured and destined to become the final sacrifice needed to summon the cyborg legions digital overlord from another dimension. The resistance army sends a small band of soldiers in, among whom is a determined young man out to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of the robots. After suffering many losses and battling towards the enemy castle it is revealed that the cyberninja Shiranui is in fact the lost brother, transformed into the robot and now determined to regain his human body. The survivours must storm the technological castle and rescue the princess before the resistance army fires a super cannon to prevent the summoning of the electronic evil.

Cast

Beverly Hills Video Group produced an English dubbed version of the film in 1994 directed by

Carl Macek Carl Frank Macek (September 21, 1951 – April 17, 2010) was an American screenwriter, script editor, producer and voice actor on numerous English language adaptations of anime during the 1980s and 1990s. His work is considered by many to hav ...

and distributed by

Streamline Pictures Streamline Pictures was an American media company that was best known for its distribution of English-dubbed Japanese animation. History Founding Founded in Los Angeles, California, in late 1988, Streamline Pictures was one of the first No ...

for a 1995 release in North America.

Additional English Dub Voices

Richard Cansino Richard Elias Cansino (born August 10, 1953) is an American voice actor. He is also known as Richard Hayworth because he is the nephew of Rita Hayworth. Richard is best known for his voice work as Kenshin Himura in the anime adaptation of ''Rurou ...

- Clansman *

- Shogi Subordinate * Don Pugsley - Clansman * Barry Stigler - Clansman * Daniel Woren - Clansman

Release

The film was originally screened in Japan back in October 1988 at the Tokyo International Fantastic Film Festival for a premiere release and later first released on VHS by

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

on December 2, 1988. Later it was released in North America ''Cyber Ninja'' for VHS on July 25, 1995 with an English dub, and on

region 2 DVD DVD region codes are a digital rights management technique introduced in 1997. It is designed to allow rights holders to control the international distribution of a DVD release, including its content, release date, and price, all according to ...

in 2003 (Japan, Europe, Middle East, Greenland, and South Africa). The U.S. DVD was released in 2009.

Reception

The movie met with mixed reviews from Western film critics. It holds a 44% "Rotten" approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

. Writing in the ''

Montgomery Advertiser The ''Montgomery Advertiser'' is a daily newspaper and news website located in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1829. History The newspaper began publication in 1829 as ''The Planter's Gazette.'' Its first editor was Moseley Baker. It ...

'', Rick Harmon was highly critical of the film, saying it does not reach the level of ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

'' as promised by promotional materials. Specifically he criticized the

special effect Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...

References

External links

{{CC-notice, cc=bysa3, url=http://strategywiki.org/wiki/Mirai_Ninja 1988 films 1980s science fiction action films Japanese martial arts films Japanese science fiction action films 1980s Japanese-language films Ninja films Martial arts science fiction films Martial arts fantasy films 1988 martial arts films Live-action films based on video games Films set in castles 1980s Japanese films