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Ninja Bugeichou Pilot Film

Ninja Bugeichou Pilot Film

Finished

忍者武芸帳 パイロットフィルム

In 1969, director Nagisa Oshima produced a pilot film for an anime adaptation of the manga Ninja Bugei-chō, originally created by Sanpei Shirato. The project was conceived as a follow-up to Oshima's controversial 1967 live-action film based on the same work. However, Shirato himself rejected the pilot, deeming it unsatisfactory, which led to the cancellation of the planned television series. Instead, the production shifted to an adaptation of a different Shirato manga, Ninpuu Kamui Gaiden, though Oshima did not participate in that project. The pilot film remained unreleased for decades, finally seeing public distribution in 2000 as a bonus feature on the DVD release of Ninpuu Kamui Gaiden volume 7. This special offers a rare glimpse into an abandoned early attempt to bring Shirato's gritty ninja tale to animation, showcasing Oshima's distinctive visual style and the creative conflicts that shaped its fate.

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