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"Kamen No Ninja Akakage" (aka "Red Shadow," 1967) is a live-action ninja series, in color, that appeared on Japanese TV in the 1967-68 season. Its main heroes are a trio of gaudy ninjas: dashing hero Red Shadow (Yuzaburo Sakaguchi); his boy sidekick, Blue Shadow (Yoshinobu Kaneko); and an older ninja, White Shadow (Fuyukichi Maki). They fight armies of swordsmen and other ninjas and all manner of super-villains, as well as frequent giant monsters. Based on a manga by Mitsuteru Yokoyama ("Tetsujin 28"), it's a garish affair in the Ultraman style and looks forward to the live-action sentai shows of later decades and their superhero teams (the model for "Power Rangers"). Red Shadow has an incongruous modern hairstyle, like something an overly manicured mobster of the the 1960s would wear, complete with gallons of hairspray to keep it rock-hard. He wears a red mask over his eyes, a long red scarf and matching lipstick. He has numerous swordfights and kills a lot of his opponents. He can fly on occasion, which proves a useful skill when battling the monsters. He also shoots lightning out of his sword. Most of the (male) villains wear even more makeup than the hero, with colorful eye shadow a particular favorite.

I have a tape of this show, in Japanese with no subtitles, that offers an hour-long compilation of action scenes from the entire season, so I won't be able to provide much plot detail. But the monster battles are pretty wild, with an ordinary lizard growing in size to become a giant Gamera-style lizard monster, and an assortment of other creatures, mostly giant insects, but also a giant bird, a giant cat-like thing, and a plant monster or two. In one scene, the boy ninja, Blue Shadow, seems to have some control over a giant monster I can't quite describe that looks like nothing else I've ever seen, and he gets it to fight another one. Some of the monsters are man-sized.

There's a beautiful blind girl named Kagero who's apparently the sister of Blue Shadow and she's kidnapped by the villains at one point and later rescued. She has some kind of power connected to a jeweled eye mask that the villains seem to want badly and at a moment when things look rough for the heroes, that power comes into use. There are female ninjas around as well, including one who sits in a tree and plays an ocarina-like instrument that's used to summon monsters.

There's a nice mix of extensive outdoors work with studio sets. The matting of giant monsters with live actors is not the most polished, but if you're looking for state-of-the-art special effects in your entertainment, you're probably not reading this review. Just think of a Gamera movie set in feudal Japan, but with an even lower budget and you've got this series. Which is meant as a high recommendation. If you know enough to have even sought out this review, you're already likely to be a fan of this kind of show. I don't know if it will ever come out in English, but I'd sure like to see a subtitled DVD release. If I'm fortunate enough to find more tape copies without subtitles, I'll get those too.

The tape I viewed is listed as a 1999 release and includes a 15-minute discussion segment showing the three main actors from the series sitting at a table 30 years later and reminiscing. And no, this part isn't subtitled, either. I must say the quality of the compilation clips is quite good. One thing I've noticed about Japanese film-to-video transfers of old Japanese TV shows on VHS, live-action or anime, is that they're quite true to the film quality of the original, much more so than a digital transfer would be. "Red Shadow" is not something I want to see color-corrected; I want the original film color in all its gaudiness. In fact, this show is cited in "The Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953," by Jonathan Clements and Motoko Tamamuro, (Stone Bridge Press, 2003), as "the first all-color period drama on Japanese TV, luxuriating in its rainbow of hues so much that it often appears virtually psychedelic..."

There was a movie remake called RED SHADOW in 2001 that didn't seem to have much to do with the original series. (For one thing, there wasn't a single monster in it.) It replaced White Shadow with a female ninja. It aimed to be a straight historical ninja story, but it kept marring otherwise good action and a decent story with lame comedy and silly, anachronistic antics on the part of the often inept heroes. I'll stick with the original.

MASKED NINJA AKAKAGE was a colourful kid's TV series made in Japan in the late 1960s. This went for the fantasy approach in which a masked hero and his sidekicks go up against evil wizards, thugs, monsters, and the like. It has the breezy and effortless feel of much Japanese kiddie fare and remains entertaining even now thanks to the colourful, action-packed approach.

I was this under the title of NINJASCOPE, which seems to be an attempt to make a film version of the tale by compiling three episodes. What they've done is basically pasted them together as-is so if you're looking for sense and continuity, you've come to the wrong place. What you're left wish is a series of fun action scenes enlivened by basic special effects work and more than a little kaiju action.

The episodes chosen for NINJASCOPE consist of the introductory opening episode, a middling episode, and then a climax of sorts. Scenes with the giant rubbery lizard creature are a lot of fun, as are the protagonists; the heroic Red Shadow looks more than a little like Robin from the BATMAN TV series, which was clearly a massive influence on this. Like BATMAN, it remains difficult to dislike.

I would like to add additional details to the excellent review done by Mr. Brian Camp. As one of the viewer of this show who've watched this show in real time, I have fond memories of Kamen no Ninja Akakage.

The series consists of 52 episodes, and was originally shown between April 5 1967 to March 27 1968 on Wednesday's 7:00 p.m. time slot. The broadcast stories were comprised of four different segments in the following order:

Part one (Episodes 1-13) Battle with Kinme kyo

The story starts with Tokichiro Kinoshita (Later to become Hideyoshi Toyotomi the first ruler to unite Japan) who was worried about the mysterious religious cult called Kinme Kyo. He goes to the village of Hida ninjas to seek help. Three ninjas Akakage, Aokage, and Shirokage are dispatched to help him.

Koga ninja Genyousai had plans to invade Kyoto using religious cult called Kinme Kyo. He had seven ninjas called Kasumidani Shichininshu who worked for him. Their appearances were based on Kabuki characters and were very colorful. There's also a large statue of golden eyed robot that shoots laser beam from its eyes, that had piloting cockpit within it.

Part two (Episodes 14 - 26) Battle with Manji Tou

Genyusai who was thought to have died in part one was still alive. He forms a new squadron of seven ninjas called Manji Tou. His goal is to take possessions of three bells that conceals the secret of powerful energy developed by a foreigner named Pedro. Genyousai also pilots a large sphere called Daimanji that can fly and go underwater. Seven ninjas are just as colorful as the ones in part one. Each of them wears a cape with different colors, and has a swastika (Manji in Japanese) on their forehead.

Part three (Episodes 27 - 39) Battle with Negoro Ninjas

Negoro ninja Kurayami Kidou works with samurai lord Yuzato DannoJo who plans to take over Japan. Their objective is to assassinate Nobunaga Oda (Tokichiro Kinoshita's lord). The thirteen ninja working for him uses kaijyu style monsters when they attack their opponents. This results in Akakage having to battle monsters in almost every episode.

Part four (Episodes 40 - 52) Battle with Mafuu Ninjas

Mafuu Ikazuchimaru is the head of twelve ninjas. His goal is to steal the golden mask that is kept in Akakage's home village. In an attempt to take the mask, he murders Akakage's father Reppusai. Each of his twelve ninjas have outrageous weapons, and few have monsters as their weapon.

This series was created due to cancellation of planned Watari series that ran into trouble with Watari's author Sanpei Shirato (see my review for Watari for details). Toei then went to Mitsuteru Yokoyama who was also penning successful ninja manga called Iga no Kagemaru to create characters for this new series. Yokoyama's rendition of Akakage is a strait ninja story, but this made for TV series had more colorful and outrageous take on it. This was chiefly due to insistence of directors Junji Kurata and Tetsuya Yamauchi. Both directors asked his staff to come up with ideas that would make this series as entertaining as possible. The staff in tern asked their children what they wanted to see, and came up with the moves the ninjas perform in the story. As a result, much of the enemy ninjas had looks that didn't look like feudal era ninjas, and wielded weapons like UFO, robot, usage of revolver pistol, aqualung etc. that without a doubt, are machination from the modern society. Producer of this series Tooru Hirayama was said to have gotten stomach aches each time he saw the previews of the show due to their borderline passable depiction of the weapons. In the latter episodes the usage of modern weapons became scarce and in their place kaijyu or Godzilla style monsters was put to the forefront to antagonize the heroes.

As was mentioned earlier, this was a series that was supposed to become Watari, and the actors who played Watari and Shikanme in the movie Watari played the roles of Aokage and Shirokage in this series.

Ski wears were used as the basis for Akakage's ninja uniform, and was said to been so hot to wear during the summer season.

Akakage were translated for TV series twice, first this series and as an anime in 1987. There're also Akakage movies, first the movie version of this series that is an edited version of Part one, and second starring Masanobu Ando as Akakage in 2001. The Akakage of 2001 lacks the fire that was in this series, and I'd have to agree that I prefer this series over the remake.

Complete four parts of this series is available on DVD from Amazon.co.jp.