Why is it that when there's an anime about samurai it's about samurai...

Why is it that when there's an anime about samurai it's about samurai, but when there's an anime about ninjas its actually about people with magical powers?

Are there any series which deploy cunning and deception like a historical series about ninja should?
Also, My little sister can't be this cute.

I'm sure there are ninja animes about regular fucking ninjas but I guess because Ninjas cliches are all about being stealth wizards. While Samurai have their cliches about being honorable melee warriors.
It's not like any are really accurate at the end of the day. Ninjas neglect that they weren't really trained warriors with a million ninja technique but mostly just normies and hoods who used their positions to steal and kill.
Samurai are boiled down to duels at dawn and the singular art of the blade when really they're just typical noble households roped into a warrior position.

Because historically ninja were believed to have magical powers. Seriously if you read their old stories about ninja they were said to be able to turn into mist,, turn invisible shapeshift into animals, fly, command fire, all sorts of shit. Most likely rumors spread by ninja themselves to induce fear lead to these stories becoming popular in the 18th and 19th centuries after the "golden age" of shinobi was long over, but yeah, basically everything that they do in Naruto is stuff that the japs believed ninjas could actually do. The black ninja costume you see comes from stagehands from japanese theater who would wear all black when manipulating props to be "invisible" against the dark background of the stage. The black outfit that became emblematic of the ninja through ninja movies is therefore symbolic of the ninja ability to turn invisible.

In reality ninja would dress in disguise and otherwise would dress like a samurai if not acting covertly, and they were good at sneaking, talking their way out of situations, using gadgets and generally doing anything they could to complete their mission. I'm sure some of the inventive stuff they did looked like magic to the less clever which bolstered these legends. For example a ninja's use of pyrotechnics could have been interpreted as a magic power by an observer.

Why would you make an anime if it didn't have fantastical elements? Just make a LA.

Depends on the type of ninja. There were ninja clans that had status similar to samurai, and even got samurai status eventually, and they were definitely professional operatives, not just hoods. But there's a whole diverse array of different roles that you could consider "ninja". Everyone thinks of the stealthy assassin, but there were also ninja who just spied and looked for information, some who spread disinformation and discontent, some who spread propaganda, saboteurs, and more. Some of these types might be just hoods that were on the payroll of someone more important, but that was another type of ninja, a guy with connections to the thugs and underworld types and could arrange their use in operations.

Because real ninjas was mostly hobos and farmers and their powers was diying a lot

No need to cut it down completely would be nice to see something a little more down to earth. I suppose I'm looking for the equivalent of Sword of a Stranger, which is a really tall order.

Historical Samurai were public figures. Historical Ninjas were decidedly not. Even "accurate" descriptions of them are largely guesswork.

How's the sequel?

okoi a cute

boring as fuck
girls are semen demons though

I think it would be nice to see ninja training and combat arts depicted as knowledgeable use basic martial arts, gear, environment and intel combined with acrobatics and rather than magical powers and nothin personnell tier fighting ability.

Ninja were not the greatest fighters in open combat, not that they were terrible but they were sneaky for a reason.

Man the sequel is so fucking inferior to the original Basilisk.
I swear it has to have one of the worst retcons to justify it’s existence.
Cake ninja and eyepatch slut are top-tier waifus however.

Although there is definitely some mystique to work around, there is also a lot of evidence to work with. We know for a fact about their secluded villages in forests and other hard to invade territories, their agricultural background, and how shoguns hired them for shady business. It's not hard to do some old-style espionage setting.

Best basilisk coming through.

>the worst retcons to justify it’s existence
What did they do?

Nothing. For as long as you can broadcast.

It's been a while since I read Basilisk, but I don't see exactly what they retconned.

I'm just not watching this but I love this guy female designs
Post some pics of said gals

Isn't the new season an original work though?

True that. Hotarubi design always felt out of place for some reason though.

Actually all the girls are good looking in this.
Here's illusion magic girl and gunslinger tomboy.
Well the original wrapped up pretty neatly with the death of the 2 leads and the rest being history,
but in the sequel it turns out Hattori Hanzo actually help them fake their deaths inorder to preserve their eyemagic, the two news leads are their children.

Here's eyepatch girl, who's power is that her body fluids (tears/sweat/etc.) are an overpowering aphrodisiac, and a better view of gunslinger girl.

>that spoiler
I don't know if I should be happy or disappointed

because not everything needs fantastical elements
because someone might prefer the anime aesthetic which they have complete control over visually vs real life where you don't

Comparing the two casts I feel the newer ones, while cute are a lot less daring in their designs. This industry standard coupled with the Japanese need to conform is killing so much author creativity it's not even funny.

Well hey at least it's blood related twincest

Sure. Enjoy your mature Ninja anime user :^)

Japs can't handle the truth that their precious Ninjas were anything other than mediocre assassins.

>spies/Hitman in Edo Japan
What's there not to like?

Not anime but a very old manga Hanzo no mon.

Well tone-wise the first 5 episodes were pretty much the same as the first series, but post time skip it's clear that this show's a lot lighter and goofier than it's predecessor.
For example, the enemy of the week for the latest episode was pretty much The End from MGS3.

No right, it's the concept that's to like. Fucks said about the execution.

The male characters are similar I feel, but I dig the juggernaut here and the guy that can project his vision everywhere using painted eyes is quite interesting.

My qualm is about the graphic direction. The contrast and color pallete contributed a great deal to set the original basilisk apart from other anime at the time.

Ninjitsu was taught to humans by Tengu, it's inherently mystified as being magical.

Oh yeah, I mean compare the two leads of this to the prequel. Their bright blue and red hair make them stand out, and not in a good way.

Even though, it's mystical in a deceptive way right? Why do we have all these anime describing open field battles with people screaming at the top of their lungs if this is the opposite concept of a shinobi?

Thanks for the recommendation man, a few chapters in and I'm already absorbed.

Because the magical association just leaves an easy wiggle room for powercreep found in battle shounin.

Take early Naruto abilities for example, a lot of them at least vaguely had some useful technical application for the sort of stealth shit associated with ninjas. Naruto's token power was basically inspired by the ninja trick of substitution. But over time the atatata just appeared with the power creep as Kishi ran out of ideas.

here's the redpill

samurai are government employees, they represent the government. ninjas were private contractors. they represent the power of the individual. modern japan is just like nazi germany, the natsoc government is trying to hold on, even though they single handedly crashed the economy after they took power in the 1990's. the anime is run by the NHK, and as such, the NHK is not allowed to say anything that could embarrass the government, while at the same time encouraged to make anything capitalistic look stupid or uninteresting.

that's all i can say for now. this line is being monitored.

Most anime about samurai give them magical powers too though.

because instead of shonen manga you should be looking for ninja stories in gekiga manga.
not to mention Nagai and Ishinomori's henshin concept replaced ninja stories from disenfranchised and downtrodden people for adults into quick buck product placement for kids.
also, since has alrady been mentioned, look for Kamui Gaiden or Azumi

Realistic samurai fighting would be who could cut the other up the fastest
Realistic ninja fighting would be who could poison the other's tea the fastest

Assassination is often meant to be non-flashy, but that's boring, so they dramatize and exaggerate the techniques ninja had for the sake of entertainment.

Wouldn't that be cool though? Like a Joker Game set in Sengoku/Edo period.

Joker Game was awful though.

Welcome to the NHK

Gintama is about samurais but there are ninjas too and they don't have magical powers.

But the concept was good, at least for the first few episodes.

The concept was just "spies". And even Princess Principal was a better spy anime than Joker Game.

Modern ninja anime/manga/whatever are all more or less based on Futaro Yamada's books, which heavily feature the supernatural.

To be fair the Gonzo anime wasn't good either, only the last 2-3 episodes were kind of decent.

What was her gimmick again? I only remember her getting raped by an old guy or something.

Probably because they were secret societies that encouraged disinformation. Many of the answers in the thread are quite good enough.

she absorbed people's blood through physical contact

MOOOOOOOOODS

Because ninjutsu is literally magic.

>when there's an anime about samurai it's about samurai
HAH.

well it would be boring if it's about guys on horses with guns.

Fun

>spoiler
You have my errction, now what is the story about this time?