Ninja Robots, known in Japan as Ninja Robot Tobikage (忍者戦士飛影), is a Japanese anime television series, produced by Pierrot, which aired from 6 October 1985 to 13 July 1986 on Nippon Television. It was also broadcast in English language in Australia and Anglophone Asia on Cartoon Network, but never aired in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

Plot

It is the 23rd century and Earth have colonized Mars and the Moon. Much like the legendary convicts in Australia during the 18th and 19th century, the settlers of Mars consist mostly of convicts from Earth. The Martian colony is run by a dictatorial Commander Hazzard Pascha, who tests every settler on whether they should serve in the military or become a laborer. Joe Maya is a 16-year-old who lives on Mars and dreams of returning to Earth. He has two friends: Mike Coil and Jenny Ai. When escaping from the Martian military police, Joe and Mike stumble upon a crashed spaceship, the Xenos 5, being attacked by huge robots. In his attempt to escape chasing robots, Joe gets into the spaceship where he encounters three human-looking aliens: the beautiful Princess Rowena, her willowy attendant Jade, and a young General Icelander. A robot locates them and the three aliens hide, leaving Joe to fend for himself. Joe tries hiding in a pile of glowing metal, which turns out to be a ninja robot named Black Lion. The battle leads outside the ship where a mysterious ninja robot Cybertron suddenly appears when the Black Lion struggles. It wipes out several enemy robots before merging with Joe's robot, transforming into a mechanical lion that destroys the remaining attackers. After the attack, Joe, Mike, and Jenny are forcibly taken to the alien spaceship. It transpires that the aliens are from the planet Ladorio (also romanized as "Radorio") in a distant galaxy (Andromeda, also "Black Star Galaxy" in the English version), and are at war with the Zaboom army who captured their planet. They came to the Milky Way seeking ninjas who could operate their three ninja robots. Joe, Mike, and Jenny agree to help them for a variety of reasons. Along the way, as they fend off the constant attacks by the Zaboom army and their allies, they make new friends and enemies, while Cybertron looms mysteriously in the background.

Characters

Humans

Ladorio

This is a list of the notable characters from the planet Ladorio.

Zaboom

A list of notable characters in the army of Zaboom.

Machines

Ninja Legend and Prophecy

The ancient legend, pieced together during the series, speaks of mysterious ninjas who, 500 years ago, fought off an invading Zaboom army trying to conquer Ladorio. They had been transported from Japan in A.D.1790 and brought to planet via Xenos 5. Subsequently, they were the models for the three ninja robots (Black Lion, Phoenix Thunderhawk, and Burst Dragon) and it was believed the robots could be piloted only by the ninjas. When the Zaboom army attacks Ladorio, King Ladorio VII entrusts Princess Rowena with the task of finding the ninjas from Earth who could pilot the three robots and defeat the Zaboom army. King Annex aims at not only preventing Rowena from finding the ninjas, but also use the ninjas and the ninja robots to conquer the universe. Both Annex and Rowena possess a torn piece each of a parchment containing the prophecy. Annex's parchment, with the latter half of the prophecy, states that the ninjas in Xenos 5 would emit a great light and would have the power to destroy stars and planets. Rowena's parchment (hidden in her tiara and discovered in the final episode), with the former half of the prophecy, states that when Cybertron and Zerokage meet at Xenos 5, they will combine to generate great energy, resulting in the transformation of Xenos 5. The prophecy is fulfilled when Icelander and Joe join hands to merge into Cybertron and Zerokage, emitting the great light, and enter the secret, forbidden chamber in Xenos 5 where they power and transform Xenos 5 and journeys back to Ladorio.

Ninja Robots

The ninja robots are mechas that can be controlled only by individuals with special abilities. In the event of the pilots losing their physical strength, they merge with a special ninja robot called Cybertron (Tobikage) and transform into a more powerful combination. The pilots of both Cybertron (Joe) and Zerokage (Icelander) have a deeper association with their ninja robots. The robots instinctively respond to them and merges with them when their lives are in danger (as seen when Joe and Icelander are in their mortal forms when G-Excellent is destroyed, but are found by Hazzard drifting in space in their robot forms). They also have reciprocal power levels. They combine to form a luminous power source that not only energizes Xenos 5, but also has the potential to destroy stars (and their previous inadvertent combination contributes to a widespread damage of G-Excellent).

Zaboom Robots

Fortresses

Media

Anime

The anime series was produced by Studio Pierrot, and aired on Nippon Television network from 6 October 1985 to 13 July 1986 with 43 episodes. The initial plan was to finish the series with the recapture of the planet Ladorio, but financial difficulties stopped the show with the plot ending at Xenos 5 leaving for Ladorio. It was also broadcast across to South Asia, Southeast Asia and Australia (including Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Malaysia) by Cartoon Network in English. It was also dubbed across Russia by Ren-TV, across Ukraine by Pershyi Natsionalnyi, across the Philippines by Solar USA after Cartoon Network Philippines removed it from it airwaves, and across France by TF1, under the title Tobikage. A Latin American Spanish version was produced under the title Robots Ninja, and was broadcast across Chile by TVN de Chile, Mexico by Televisa Canal 5 and Peru by América Televisión 4. In 1995, it was dubbed & under the title Ninja Robots. The series was written, produced, and directed by Buz Alexander of Alexander Entertainment Group. The English cast credited Los Angeles-based voice actors Cam Clarke, Steve Kramer, Wendee Lee, Mike Reynolds, and Doug Stone for providing voices, however the actual voices were done by Miami-based actors at Sonic III Studios. It is rumored that a test pilot with done with those voice actors before the Miami cast was brought in. The first eleven episodes of this version do not follow the original order of episodes. The opening theme song is titled "Love Survivor" (LOVEサバイバー). The closing theme song is titled "Ichi Seikime no Angel" (一世紀めのエンジェル). Both songs were written by Kumiko Aoki, and the composition and arrangements were done by Yūichirō Oda. The songs were sung by HIT BOY. In the English adaptation, the opening theme song is used for both the opener and closer; the lyrics were written by Lisa McBride and the song was performed and arranged by Jerry Cobb. For the Latin American Spanish version of the show, the theme song, based on the English version, was performed by Ricardo Silva.

Episode list

Games

Aspects of Ninja Senshi Tobikage appeared in Super Robot Wars Compact 2, Super Robot Wars Impact, Super Robot Wars UX and Super Robot Wars X-Ω.

Release

Japan

The anime has been released in two DVD boxsets on March 22, 2002 and June 25, 2002 by PioneerLDC. The Blu-Ray box was sold on December 26, 2014.

North America

The series used to be streamed in North America via Yomiura Group's now defunct Anime Sols video service in spring 2013. In December 2021, the series became available for streaming on RetroCrush. Discotek has licensed the anime for a release in North America. On June 7, 2021, the company issued calls for assistance in locating the English dub tracks for episodes 34, 37, 42 and 43. The series was released with an English dub on Blu-ray on January 25, 2022.

Streaming

As of 2023, both the Japanese version and the English Blu-ray dub of the series can be streamed on RetroCrush. Some of the episode titles have been altered, and the order of the episodes in the English version matches the original Japanese release. The first 20 episodes of the English dub are available on Amazon Prime Video, Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel.

Reception

During its time at the Cartoon Network it was well received and popular. The show has 214 reviews on IMDb, with an 8.3 user rating. Animenewsnetwork user ratings gave the show an average score of 6.34 out of 10, ranking it #5788 of the 9076 shows on the website. Neil Lumbard of Blu-Ray.com gave the North American Blu-ray release a positive review, noting the hand-drawn artwork as "a fascinating example of how excellent traditional art looks with anime series," and calling the show overall "an exciting action series with a lot to offer fans of classic (vintage) anime."