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Saturday April 20, 1996, Kudanshita (Tokyo). This event, held to
promote the new AIC OVA NINJA-MONO, started with a quick introduction of the creators of
the show, and then led directly into a screening of the first
episode. NINJA-MONO chronicles the adventures of six ninjas: Sakura
(Konishi Hiroko), Matsuri (Nakajima Asami), Yume (Miyazaki Hitomi),
Pochi (Miyata Hajiten), Hayashi (Ishizuka Ken), and Kaoru (Suzumura
Kenichi). After years of training, their mentor has decreed that they
must return to their old stronghold and retrieve the magic scrolls from
the usurped castle. What the six do not know, however, is that one of
the girl is a princess of the old realm and still targeted by their
old-time enemies. As the six are paired up and start their journey,
three ninjas are sent by an old enemy of the clan to find and kill the
princess.The group is mixed, but each is pretty
skilled at what they do. Kaoru is the leader; Sakura, Pochi and Hayashi
have the skill. Yume is the cook, and Matsuri is the comic relief. The
first episode does a good job of introduces the characters and
illustrating their personality quirks.. The writing is good, and the
quality of the animation is decent, if not the best by OVA standards.
The music could use a little work in terms of inspiring the viewer to
watch more, but the overall tone fits the genre. Considering that
everyone involved with the project is starting from scratch, though,
this is a pretty good OVA.
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The Voice Actors After showing the first half of the series, the seiyuu came out and introduced themselves. Of course, not everyone was there (5 of the six main characters and Nikko - Suganara Junichi - taking the place of Hayashi). There was a short question and answer session with the audience. The voice actors briefly discussed
their other work. Suzumura Kenichi currently plays a series of small
parts on MIZUIRO JIDAI,
a current TV series; the girls are
working together on a radio program called TAMAGO
NO OMOI (An
Egg's thoughts), and the voice of Nikko is currently being heard
around the world as saying "Shoryuken!" via video game speakers -- he's
the latest voice of Ryu in STREET FIGHTER ZERO 2. After the
interview, the lights went dark and the guests were given a sneak
preview of the second episode of NINJA-MONO, not due out until the 12th of June.After the climatic fight against one of
the three ninjas mentioned previously, the gang continues their quest to
get to the castle and retrieve the magical scrolls. Splitting up, they
each find their own way to the castle eventually. The challenge is to
get to the scroll vault at the top of the castle without alerting the
castle guards. In the end there is a climatic battle between the two
remaining evil ninjas and the supposed princess and her friends, with
two of the six caught in the middle as their loyalty is divided...After showing the second half of the
series, the seiyuu came back out on stage and held a contest. With the
sections of the audience assigned to pairs of seiyuu, the seiyuu had to
rack up as many points as possible. The winners in the audience then
played a game of junken (rock, paper, scissors) with the seiyuu
in order to narrow down the audience to people who eventually got prizes
-- signed posters of characters, a signed piece of art done by the
writer of the series, and so on. While I didn't get any of the prizes,
I have to admit that it was pretty fun to play.The voice actors then performed the
songs that they sang for the OVA series. The girls sang 'Girls
Sunshine', then the guys sang 'Try to Try'. The songs were pretty good,
and the stage movements were choreographed.
--Orin Starchaser |
