Ninja



""That man does not look anything like a ninja." "Ah, but that is exactly what a ninja should look like.""

- Freefall 1092

The shadow warriors of medieval Japan, reputedly possessed of all manner of mysterious powers including invisibility and intangibility. Able to infiltrate even the most heavily guarded fortress without being detected. They may be portrayed as cutting down any opposition with superhuman swiftness. Traditionally dressed in black bodysuits with black masks or veils to hide their faces. They are the ultimate spies and assassins, gifted with their own deadly magic and martial arts. Born in hidden villages, they are trained from birth to obey an alternative code of honor to bushido—to show no pain, feel no emotion, and remain loyal to their clans under pain of death, or the third code of getting as much money as possible.

Or so popular legend has it.

While ninja may have existed, their reputation for invisibility and infiltration more likely stemmed from their willingness to dress as members of a lower social class when no one else in Japan would consider doing such a thing. Their so-called invisibility was partly psychological in cause—by dressing as a peasant, they were ignored and dismissed, or never even noticed at all, by the Samurai and other upper classes, a useful thing despite the oft fierce travel restrictions on the lower classes.

More important, however, was their superior knowledge of survival skills, actual stealth, poisons, assassination techniques and unorthodox tactics. A common misdirection tactic, for example, would be to put one's clothing on a branch or a log while sneaking away (or planning a sneak attack). Ninja were also quite skilled with a variety of tools, such as the multipurpose kunai knife trowel. Plainly put, while a stereotypical ninja would jump around on rooftops in ridiculous clothing, a real ninja most likely would simply infiltrate the household staff and poison a meal. Among many other things, a good ninja always knew where his sanjaku tenugui was.

Ninja also actively encouraged the spread of rumors of their magical abilities. It's a safe bet that, somewhere in Medieval Japan, some idiot must have attacked a decoy log and, upon discovering the log dressed in the ninja's clothing, came to the natural conclusion that the ninja had magically swapped places with the log.

The "classic" ninja costume (see picture) is, in fact, the outfit worn by stagehands in traditional Japanese theatre. Japanese stagehands are frequently in full view on the stage, but the audience is trained to ignore them and thus they are considered "invisible" by the audience. It became the practice to hide ninja characters in full sight by putting them in the same outfits as the stagehands, for a startling effect when other characters were suddenly attacked by "thin air".

Female ninja are often called kunoichi in a pun on the Japanese kanji for woman (女, onna/jo), which looks like it's made up of ku (く), no (ノ), and ichi (一). Kunoichi are often portrayed in media as experts in seduction, poisons, or poisonous seduction. Kunoichi are also often seen in outfits that combine a hodgepodge of traditional clothing, fishnet, bared skin, and strategically-placed weapons.

In American movies, especially the ones from the '80s with "ninja" in the titles, only the hero ninja and the Big Bad ninja make any pretense of stealth or invisibility—and sometimes, not even them. Any underling ninja will be the class of Mooks known as Highly-Visible Ninja.

One of the earliest Japanese cultural tropes to make it to the West, where it has now branched out into the McNinja franchise. Look for ninja to make use of the Smoke Out, the Flash Step and the aforementioned Ninja Log.

In the late 20th Century, they became the arch-enemies of Pirates, for no reason other than the Rule of Cool. They were not, however, usually enemies of the samurai or shogun. Often they were hired by powerful figures to perform deeds that honorable samurai would not do. They were mainly used for espionage and sabotage, and sometimes assassination.

Compare The Hashshashin, the Middle-Eastern counterpart.

They did tend to come from lower classes (at least compared to samurai), but any media that says they were all peasants self-trained to attack the samurai as freedom fighters Did Not Do the Research.

Due to the way the Japanese Language handles plurals, "ninja" is both the singular and plural form.

Sub Tropes include:
 * Conservation of Ninjutsu
 * Highly-Visible Ninja
 * Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja
 * McNinja
 * Ninja Brat
 * Ninja Log
 * Ninja Maid
 * Ninja Run
 * Stock Ninja Weaponry
 * Technicolor Ninjas

Anime and Manga

 * Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin features the Iga and Kouga clans of ninja dogs.
 * Almost everybody in Naruto. Not remotely stealthy about it, either, though they are pretty tricky with things like duplication, illusions, and replacing yourself with A LOG.
 * As is the Animesque counterpart Shuriken School.
 * Recca and several others in Flame of Recca.
 * The OVA version of Sakura Taisen slyly acknowledges the origin of the traditional ninja garb. The stage crew of the Imperial Theatre—the secret headquarters of the Flower Division—are all ninja, and ninja with all manner of "ninja magic" at that.
 * The Canon Foreigner Sasuke Sarugakure in Ranma ½ subverts the character type by being borderline incompetent (he's clumsy and has virtually no combat capabilities, but is a master of stealth and can move too fast to be seen) in a neighborhood filled with world-class non-ninja martial artists. In the manga, Wholesome Crossdresser Konatsu plays it a little more straight. Ukyo Kuonji uses a spoof style that merges archetypical ninja moves with cooking tools.
 * Similarly, the ninja in Ninin ga Shinobuden are incompetent ninja who usually don't even carry shuriken; when they all suddenly produce shuriken and every one hits its target, causing another character to think that maybe they are skilled after all, one calls his mother on a cell phone to tell her that he has touched a shuriken for the first time.
 * Takamura Suoh from CLAMP School Detectives.
 * Yamazaki Susumu is one of the two ninja who appear in Peacemaker Kurogane.
 * Almost assuredly parodied in G Gundam. Midway through the story a German ninja is introduced and takes on the role of surrogate mentor to the protagonist, Domon. He even practices German Ninjutsu. Hilariously enough, he shuns the traditional garb of a ninja and dresses in clothes that are not remotely useful in maintaining stealth. Most absurd is the mask he wears. While it does obscure his features, it is painted in the bright, primary colors of the German flag and sports a jester hat-like protrusion.
 * That doubles as a shuriken.
 * While he looks ridiculous, Schwartz is otherwise a straight example of a ninja. He's also extremely Badass, able to fight on roughly the same level as Master Asia.
 * Himawari! and its sequel series are all about the ninja. Most of the ninja in the series actually are fairly stealthy. The heroine herself...not so much.
 * Volfogg from GaoGaiGar is a Transforming Mecha Ninja.
 * Akira from My-HiME and Mai-Otome uses a lot of classic ninja tricks and tools, including shuriken, kunai and smoke bombs. She also uses the title "Secret Ninja", while fighting in disguise (which doesn't fool anybody). Curiously, sometimes she's seen interacting with other shadowy kuroko-wearers, implying that she indeed is a genuine ninja from a genuine ninja clan, even though that never becomes a major plot-point.
 * Yoruichi and Soifon from Bleach, as well as the entire Stealth Force.
 * Mahou Sensei Negima has Kaede. While she doesn't necessarily stick out like a sore thumb, she isn't very concerned with stealth either. Wields a big friggin' shuriken that from tip-to-tip is taller than she is. And that's saying something.
 * Ryuusei no Rockman (AKA Mega Man Star Force) has an entire episode devoted to Ninja. Highly-Visible Ninja with all the typical tricks. Though, the guy teaching the main cast the tricks of the trade is damn good at it. They add -de osaru on the end of every one of their sentences...and apparently, the art of ninjitsu was developed by people from the ancient civilisation of Mu. One of the Ooparts is a Shuriken, and Mega Man can take on the form of a ninja... Of wood.
 * The manga Hanzo no Mon (titled Path of the Assassin in the Dark Horse translation) subverts the stereotypes regarding ninja attire; although Hanzo (and his ) are ninja (usually called suppa), they wear light armor on the battlefield and the stereotypical ninja outfits when they need not to be seen at all, but otherwise wear context-appropriate clothing and act accordingly. Likewise, certain ninja have notoriety and may even appear openly when a lord holds court. In fact, Hanzo, his wife and Hanzo's ninja relatives have their wedding ceremony in normal noble/samurai clothing! (After she demonstrates her abilities as a ninja wearing "the" outfit.)
 * Kirino and her village from Ai Kora. Kirino herself doesn't exactly /hide/ the fact she's a ninja, but she doesn't announce it to the world, either. She's another subversion of the ninja attire stereotypes, in that she wears ninja clothes in her village, and context-appropriate clothes everywhere else.
 * The two main families of the anime Basilisk are all very competent ninja with unique skills that range from cool to plain freaky. Its story is often summarized as "Romeo and Juliet, with ninjas".
 * Change 123, in its later volumes, introduces an all-female ninja clan whose members infiltrate into Motoko's school to recruit Motoko (or, rather, to recruit her alternate badass personalities). Unlike typical Highly Visible Ninjas, they actually blend into the normal world, wear plain clothes (even when they're in their ninja village), and use weapons which are disguised as normal everyday objects.
 * Like their game counterparts, Koga and his daughter Janine in Pokémon Special are modeled after stereotypical ninja, but the author obviously had some fun making their techniques even more ninja-esque, such as outfitting their Pokeballs into shuriken. At one point, Janine even uses hand seals, presumably as signals to command her Grimer without having to actually say anything outloud.
 * There's also a trainer class in some of the games, whose methods involve hiding and then springing out to battle whomever passes by.
 * Furthermore, the moves "Double Team" and "Substitute" are based on popular ideas of ninja techniques.
 * One two-part episode of Speed Racer featured ninja who drove ninja racecars. Since American audiences at the time had not yet heard of ninja, the dub for American TV called them "assassins."
 * Black Star and Tsubaki. Black☆Star is your typical Highly Visible variety, and somehow manages to make a big deal of being 'stealthy' even when he bothers to try. Tsubaki is a member of a clan of ninja-associated Living Weapons (kunai, (big) shuriken, smoke-bomb, camouflage, katana, chain-scythe) and frequently has to remind her meister how he should be behaving. Such as the fact that telling your target you're here to assassinate them is a bad idea.
 * Digimon has a number of ninja-inspired monsters. Two notable examples are Ninjamon and Kougamon, his Palette Swap. It should be noted, in Japan, he and Kougamon both take their names from regions and styles associated strong with the ninja arts. Other examples include:
 * Falcomon, who's a rather straight example of this trope, along with his evolutionary stages. His Champion form, Peckmon, is a Ninja Ostrich.
 * Digimon Adventure 02 has Shurimon.
 * Monitormon from Digimon Xros Wars, which beats out all other examples in ridiculous by being ninja with televisions for heads.
 * Turuiemon, a ninja rabbit.
 * Finally, there's several digimon conflated with ninja in the american version, but these are more straight-up Samurai.
 * In Transformers Headmasters, Sixshot is presented as one of these. Subsequent series would feature Sixknight and Greatshot, who were all members of the same secret order of ninja six-changers as Sixshot, called the Six Clan.
 * In the Japanese version of Transformers: Robots in Disguise, the Spy Changers are portrayed as ninja.
 * Gintama is another example of the Highly-Visible Ninja variety. It has Ayame Sarutobi using her ninja skills for stalking of all things.
 * There's also Zenzo Hattori, The Oniwabanshuu and the Shinobi 5.
 * Ninku: The heroes are all Ninja who face off against some former Ninja as well as practitioners of other ethereal martial arts such as Feng Shui users. The Ninku gain their powers by drawing on the power of the elements themselves which take the form of a dragon. This means they aren't constrained to chi or chakra or some finite internal reserves.
 * One of the antagonists in Katanagatari is the Maniwa Corps, which is filled with ninja that rival Naruto in the visibility department.
 * Nabari no Ou takes place in a ninja world called Nabari which are full of modern day ninja.
 * Rurouni Kenshin has the Oniwabanshu, a clan of Kyoto-based onmitsu that are initially opponents to Kenshin under the leadership of Shinomori Aoshi. When Kenshin travels to Kyoto to fight Shishio Makoto, they become allies.

Comic Books
"Dwight: Deadly little Miho. She'll cut you quick, she'll kill you quiet. You won't feel a thing, not unless she wants you to."
 * It has been a common character type in American comics since the 1980s; for instance, the Marvel Universe villain clan, The Hand, cropped up then, and during that period, Frank Miller effectively changed Daredevil into one. Many, however, have noted that creators of Batman created him as a de facto ninja character without knowing it in the 1930s.
 * Miller also wrote a ninja into Sin City in the form of deadly little Miho, the primary enforcer of the girls of Old Town. She is the single deadliest Dark Action Girl of the series, the only one of the girls of Old Town who does not use guns, and a heroic example of the Psycho for Hire.

"Molly: Does being a ninja count as having powers? Victor: It counts double!"
 * Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow (among many others, some of whom we do not speak about) from G.I. Joe. The unnamed "narrator" of the Order of Battle series and the action figures File Cards (actually Card and comic series writer Larry Hama, writing in-universe observations about the characters) said "The great Ninja assassin clans disappeared a hundred years ago. If they were wiped out, nobody took the credit for it and if they're still around, who are they working for?"
 * Also from Larry Hama was Nth Man the Ultimate Ninja, featuring a white-haired modern-day ninja named John Doe, tasked with killing his childhood friend and Reality Warper in the midst of World War III.
 * Toyota, the female mercenary ninja in Y: The Last Man. Although first seen using modern night-vision goggles, she enjoys a chance to spar with an opponent using traditional bladed weapons.
 * Kingpin sics a bunch of ninja on the Runaways.


 * Often appear in the works of Adam Warren. Livewires has Hollowpoint Ninja, Empowered has Ninjette and several clans of ninja.

Film

 * The popularity of ninja in Western media may have started with the James Bond film You Only Live Twice from 1967. Most of those ninja were depicted as being more like members of an elite government special forces unit than invisible assassins, however. (Except for the one who killed the Bond girl, of course.)
 * In Licence to Kill it is revealed that Hong Kong Narcotics employs ninja as special agents. (Given that the Special Duties Unit of the Hong Kong Police Force were trained by the SAS before the colony was handed back to China, this may not be as far fetched as it first seems.)
 * Michael Beck as "Ken Sakura", an orphaned American adopted into a ninja clan, in the 1983 TV movie The Last Ninja.
 * Appear in The Last Samurai, with some of their methodology were accurately presented.
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
 * Three Ninjas
 * Surf Ninjas!
 * Lady Ninja: Reflections in Darkness!
 * Ninja Cheerleaders
 * Cheerleader Ninjas (not to be confused with the above)
 * Ninja Assassin, which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
 * The Shaw Brothers kung fu movie Heroes of the East features a ninja. Early in the film, the Japanese wife (Yuko Mizuno) of the kung fu hero (played by Gordon Liu) gives him a demonstration of ninjitsu. He is not impressed. Later, the hero fights the wife's old boyfriend, an actual ninja (Yasuaki Kurata) and out-tricks him at his own game. In both cases, the ninjitsu is based more on movies (Japanese ones rather than American ones): sneak attacks, hokey peasant disguises, gunpowder, etc., but does involve some real weapons. Even the costume is based on Japanese theater. The film subverts several ninja conventions: one, the ninja is portrayed as a man of skill and honor; two, the ninja is not out to kill anyone; three, his allegiance lies with his martial arts teacher, not a feudal lord.
 * Batman Begins had a ninja school. Which was, apparently, located in Tibet.
 * Hong Kong filmmaker Godfrey Ho produced about 50 ninja movies in the course of less than ten years. His style was to cut and paste using stock ninja fight-scene footage edited into unreleased Hong Kong films, many of which had nothing to do with martial arts. Ho also employed unemployed Caucasian actors, typically as villains, Vice cops, or Interpol agents. Veteran actor Richard Harrison played the role of heroic ninja master Gordon in a number of these films, although Gordon's role and backstory varied with films. Due to the cut and paste nature of these movies, it appeared that there were two different stories going on at the same time. It was easy to differentiate the fairly recent "ninja" footage from the grainy "old HK film". The two protagonists often appeared to interact with each other through clever editing or phone conversations. Godfrey Ho ninja movies were also known for the tacky ninja outfits that ranged from red, to yellow, and even metallic colors. Ninja frequently wore headbands with the word "Nin-Ja" embroidered on them. The word ninja was regularly pronounced "ninjer" in many of these films due to the accent of the English language voice actors.
 * Big Money Hustlas: "Magic magic ninja, what?"
 * The Japanese film Shinobi Heart Under Blade.

Literature

 * Shogun features realistic ninja, and it's amazing to read James Clavell actually explaining to the reader what ninja are.
 * Ninja in Cloud of Sparrows are rather more plausible than most other examples. They are very stealthy and good at dodging pursuit, but dress in normal clothes and are primarily employed as stealthy assassins and spies. Kudo, one of the two main ninja in the book, also indulges in a spot of Clark Kenting. He is also revealed to have poorer reflexes than gunslinger Matthew Stark.
 * The antagonists in The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway are a ninja clan turned corporate empire.
 * Eric Van Lustbader wrote a whole series of So Bad It's Good novels about ninja.
 * Phoenix Force battled the Tigers of Justice, a radical Japanese group using ninja techniques to attack nuclear power plants to avenge Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In later books they receive the help of John Trent, a Japanese-American master of ninjitsu.
 * The pulp magazine version of The Shadow was essentially a ninja...with guns and the coolness factor turned up to Eleven.
 * In Neuromancer, a Cyberpunk novel by William Gibson, Lady 3Jane has a ninja butler, Hideo.
 * Lady Catherine de Bourgh has ninja guards in Pride and Prejudice And Zombies, and can't see the logic of anyone not having them. Elizabeth, however, makes short work of them, even taking out a heart and eating it.
 * Timothy Zahn's "Blackcollar" commandos are obvious ninja In Space. Their favored weapons are shuriken and nunchaku—low-tech to avoid enemy sensors.
 * Ajutasutra in Belisarius Series is effectively an Indian "Ninja".
 * In the Discworld novel Thief of Time, the Monastary of Wen the Eternally Surprised has stereotyped ninja as Time Police. Lu-Tze is highly contemptious of running around rooftops in black outfits ("others trained them, I just tried to undo the damage"), and his own strategy of passing unnoticed as a humble sweeper is closer to the real ninja.

Live-Action TV

 * Several Sentai series have them, such as the "Ninjetti" arc of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers and Power Rangers Ninja Storm.
 * The original Japanese names of these sentai shows are Ninja Sentai Kakuranger and Ninpuu (Ninja Wind) Sentai Hurricanger, respectively.
 * Lee Van Cleef played fugitive ninja master John Peter Mac Allister on the short-lived TV series The Master.
 * Shown as the film in two episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
 * Ninja using both 'traditional' weapons and explosives attack John Blackthorne and Mariko in the 1980 miniseries Shogun.
 * Charlie from Spin City once daydreamed of winning the World Series, and fighting ninja.
 * The Spike TV show Deadliest Warrior had a Ninja go one-on-one with a Spartan.
 * Aasif Mandvi of The Daily Show is a ninja. He has an ability to disappear into the green screen effect.

Music
"What up, ninja?"
 * Insane Clown Posse often reference ninja in their songs, particularly in the song "Ninja". Juggalos also refer to themselves as "Ninja".

New Media

 * In Lonelygirl15, Bree describes Tachyon as a ninja in "Training Hard". Ninja are also parodied in "My School Project" and the remix version, "Ninja Video by ElizKM86", during which Danielbeast makes a movie about ninja.
 * Charlie depicts herself as a ninja in the animated segments of Kate Modern.
 * Ask A Ninja is a website where viewers e-mail a guy questions and he answers them as a ninja would.
 * The Onion did a piece about a ninja parade. No ninja were actually spotted, although they were kind enough to leave candy in children's pockets when they weren't looking.

Tabletop Games

 * The Skaven of Clan Eshin in Warhammer Fantasy are essentially ratman-ninja.
 * As are the Assassins of the Dark Elves. Their leader, Shadowblade, is so awesome he can disguise himself as a mook of the enemy army. Even if they are composed of magically-reanimated corpses. Did we mention his skill with weapons is so great he can match an incarnation of the God of Slaughter in terms of sheer skill, and outmatch it in speed?
 * A certain fan-made army book for Nippon gives them squads of ninja as a Special choice whose main strength is mobility, and individual elite ninja as Hero choices that function like Dark Elf Assassins.
 * All 'proper' ninja (not counting changelings et al.) in Magic so far come from the Betrayers of Kamigawa expansion set. They all have the ability (known, of course, as ninjutsu) to pop into play by replacing an attacking unblocked creature on their side plus a variety of followup abilities that trigger off of their dealing combat damage to a player. The implication of this is that an individual ninja can masquerade as absolutely anything, from a flock of squirrels up to an Eldrazi. Talk about Paranoia Fuel...
 * Two more Ninja (as well as reprints of Ninja that originated in Kamigawa), Sakashima's Student and Silent-Blade Oni, appeared 7 years latter in the "Night of the Ninja" deck intended for the variant game Planechase.
 * The Complete Adventurer expansion for Dungeons & Dragons (3.5e) features the Ninja base class. They are a viable alternative to the traditional Rogue, trading in more efficient sneak attacks and extra skill points for supernatural dodging and, at higher levels, the ability to turn invisible or incorporeal for a short duration.
 * In Exalted, each type of Exalt has at least one caste that focuses on stealth, deception, and similar acts of larceny. Sidereals fit the ninja archetype best, though, what with their being snapped up and subjected to intensive training within days of Exaltation, their undisputed mastery of martial arts, their residence in a hidden community that most in Creation can't even find, much less enter, and that whole business with the Arcane Fate that makes them all but impossible to track or keep records on (or even, for that matter, remember clearly). The term 'fate-ninja' really sums them up very nicely.
 * Feng Shui lists the Ninja as a PC archetype. Their Martial Arts skill and Fu attributes are just one point lower than the Martial Artist, and they have the second highest Intrusion skill in the game (the Thief has the highest with a 16 AV). In addition, one of the Fu paths of the game, the Path of the Shadow's Companion, is tailor-made for the Ninja, with powers that allow you to make silent martial arts attacks and bypass the Toughness of your opponent when attacking someone unawares. You also get to fight ninja a lot as both mooks and named characters.
 * The Scorpion Clan, especially the Shosuro Assassins and Bayushi Ninja Infiltrators, in Legend of the Five Rings. Plays the trope straight and subverts it at the same time: the real assassins rely on disguise to blend in the crowd, while the "typical" ninja in black pajamas are Highly-Visible Ninja Mooks used often as a distraction.
 * In fact, the ninja mooks are aspirants to be "proper" shinobi; if they can survive trying to be "stealthy" in the worst way possible for a year, then they're ready to learn how to do it right. The books even point out that "ninja" gear, by and large, is completely awful. Never use a ninja-to against a katana, for instance.
 * They ask that you call them "shinobi", though. The term "ninja" is somewhat offensive, as the other ninja in Rokugan are primarily shapeshifting servants of a Cosmic Horror that's also an identity-stealing version of The Virus.
 * One of the books states that all Clans have their own ninja-style groups, like the Daidoji Harriers of the Crane Clan (who focus on guerrila tactics) or the Ikoma Spymasters of the Lion Clan (who focus on information gathering). This despite the fact that ninja are outlawed by Imperial Edict, and thus do not officially exist.
 * The ninja from GURPS: Dungeon Fantasy is a mix between the thief, artificer and swashbuckler, even getting a whole installment of the series devoted to it.

Video Games
""I am one of the Ninja Trio! Being discovered means I must battle!""
 * Yoshimitsu from both Tekken and Soul Series.
 * Raven in Tekken 5.
 * Oboromaru in Live a Live.
 * In Shogun: Total War you can hire both ninja and shinobi as strategic units. The game makes a distinction between ninja (who assassinate enemy characters) and shinobi (who are spies, saboteurs and seditionists), although historicaly there is no such distinction. The ninja is also horribly outclassed at his job by the Legendary Geisha unit, an ultimate assassin which gets close to the target in her role as a geisha before killing them with concealed weapons, probably much closer to how real-life ninja worked. The expansion also allowed you to train small units of "battlefield ninja", tiny but elite squads which used stealth on the battlefield to get close to the enemy general.
 * The sequel has the Ninja and Shinobi as the same unit (it's called a ninja but refers to himself as both when clicked) taking over all aspects of spying, sabotage and assassination. The Geisha still exists but is also given a heavy Nerf; while she can never be caught and killed during a failed mission, she's much more expensive, easier to spot than a ninja and just as vulnerable to enemy Metsuke. Also, the building that recruits geisha also allows for recruitment of rank 2 ninja, which when constructed in a ninja speciality province like Iga allows for rank 4 ninja straight off the bat, which horribly outclass the Geisha. Battlefield ninja, called Kisho Ninja, also exist, and are the speciality of the Hattori and Tokugawa clans.
 * Fall of the Samurai flips the whole thing around a bit further. It doesn't even have ninja agents, instead having the shinobi agent fulfill the same role as the ninja has in the base game. It really doesn't differ all that much from it's core game counterpart, the core difference being that it has a slightly different skill tree and retainers. Oh, and the kisho ninja units are still around and recruitable by traditionally focused daimyos.
 * One of the more interesting portrayals in recent memory comes from a level of the video game Elite Beat Agents. It starts as a subversion: Ken Ozu, lazy heir to a car company, is forced into a ninja outfit by his father and forced to retrieve stolen automobile plans from a rival company, despite having little to no talent. After this, however, the player's success (or lack of) determines what happens. If the player fares poorly, it remains a subversion, as Ken fails miserably whenever called upon to use his "ninja powers". If the player does well, however, it becomes a Double Subversion, as Ken runs smoothly through the "classic" ninja abilities and completes his mission.
 * The King of Fighters' Mai Shiranui. Highly visible... yes, she is.
 * Which means that Mai's native game series, Fatal Fury, goes here as well. In Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Hokutomaru takes her place as the game's ninja.
 * And let's not forget Andy Bogard, who is Mai's Love Interest in both Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters
 * And let's not forget Eiji Kisaragi, imported from Art of Fighting 2; and Jazu, a guest from Kizuna Encounter.
 * Eiji's ninja nature is starting to be played for laughs, such as the inability to sneak up on a housewife (true, The Hero's mother... but still) and also refusing to chance his outfit when spying on his archenemies in a fancy restaurant.
 * Spinoff Maximum Impact 2 introduced Nagase, another Highly-Visible Ninja described in-game as "The Ninja Computer Geek".
 * Samurai Shodown had a number of them, the most typical one being Hattori Hanzo.
 * Hanzo also appears as a Ninja in the Samurai Warriors games (though in real life, he was actually a Samurai). In the first game he was contrasted with Sanada Yukimura in a "ninja vs. samurai" way, but in the second game he's contrasted with Fuuma Kotarou, another ninja, in a similar way to their World Heroes counterparts. The other ninja is Kunoichi, an original character based on the Sanada Ten who supposedly did Yukimura's dirty work for him (subverting his own archetype).
 * Samurai Warriors 2 adds Fuuma Kotarou and Nene, although the latter is a samurai's wife whose "ninja-ness" is in being a gameplay replacement for the removed Kunoichi. (acknowledged by Hanzo, who, if they meet in one stage, would comment on her having gotten stranger, "since the last time we met.")
 * In one Warriors Orochi gaiden mission, Kunoichi and Nene face each other on the battlefield, and Kunoichi points this out: "Well, if it isn't my Spiritual Successor!" (exact words)
 * Hattori Hanzo was an actual legendary figure in Japanese history, rumored to have been a ninja as well as a pretty decent soldier.
 * Then there are Sogetsu & Kazuki Kazama, and their magical.
 * Altair from Assassin's Creed fits the MO of a historical ninja in that he is an assassin who escaped notice by blending in with a crowd, but lives in crusade-era Israel rather than feudal Japan.
 * Ezio in Assassin's Creed 2 is more or less the same, only he can swim, is Italian and FABULOUS!!
 * YMMV. Altair is based on the actual group where the word "Assassin" was derived from. There are even several events in the game based off of stories about that group. On the other hand, that group acted far more like the Ninja trope than historical ninja actually did.
 * Ryu Hayabusa from the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises. The latter series has a few others, including Kasumi, Hayate, and Ayane. Hayabusa in particular has the distinction of being known as the most famous videogame ninja in the eyes of many video game players.
 * A certain not very good Neverwinter Nights module had the player as part of a sect of female ninja called Kunoichi (which happens to be a historically accurate term for female ninja).
 * Strider Hiryu, from his eponymous game series.
 * Crypto questions why there are Ninja in Japan in 1969 in Destroy All Humans! 2. Everyone he asks tells him to go with it, and that "everyone loves ninja".
 * The titular character from Izuna Legend of the Unemployed Ninja and its sequel.
 * Edge in Final Fantasy IV.
 * Shadow from Final Fantasy VI.
 * Yuffie in Final Fantasy VII, of course.
 * And her gameplay clone in Ehrgeiz, Sasuke.
 * Kage-Maru from Virtua Fighter.
 * The Commodore 64 game The Last Ninja and its sequel make this Older Than the NES.
 * The village of Mizuho in Tales of Symphonia and the village of Japoni from Tales of Phantasia are hidden ninja villages. Sheena, one of your party members, is from the former, and in the remake of Phantasia, you can get Suzu in your party from the latter.
 * The Shinobi series features a ninja hero, who battles scores of enemy ninja in a variety of different situations, including while being on a ninja surfboard in the third game.
 * In no particular order from Mortal Kombat: Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Reptile, Noob Saibot, Kitana, Mileena, Jade, Chameleon, Khameleon, Cyrax, Sektor, Smoke, Ermac, Rain and Frost. Fifteen ninja in the course of one very ninja-happy series.
 * Technically, Sub-Zero's clan are the Chinese warriors that Japanese ninja ripped off, and they hate being called ninja. Not that it stops anyone...
 * Technically, only Scorpion is a ninja. Sub-Zero, Noob Saibot, Cyrax, Sektor, Smoke, and Frost all belong to the Lin Kuei. Jade is Kitana's bodyguard, who is a princess, and Mileena is a clone, both of whom would likely be trained in some form of self defense. Rain, also royalty, is also likely trained in self defense and Reptile is another bodyguard. Ermac might count just from the sheer amount of souls he is made with, probability might dictate one of them was a ninja in life. Chameleon may too, I don't know his backstory well, but Khameleon is just a warrior as well. Most of them are made fairly moot anyways, as only Scorpion and the Lin Kuei are from Earthrealm anyways.
 * The Tenchu: Stealth Assassins series, in contrast to many ninja series, places full emphasis on the ninja's true strength: stealth. Ninja in this series are unsuited for the open hand-to-hand combat of the Samurai, but are the undisputed masters of the stealth kill.
 * The pop cultural version of ninja are a common character class in JRPGs:
 * Final Fantasies I, III, V, and Tactics.
 * Disgaea and its sequels.
 * Maple Story.
 * ShadowMan. Who scores double points for being a ninja robot.
 * Don't forget what arguably may be his Expys, Phantom and ShadowMan.EXE.
 * Triangle Heart 3 ～sweet songs forever～ has Shiro, Kyouya, and Miyuki Takamachi. They're usually bodyguards, but occasionally do some assassination work as well.
 * City of Villains has Mastermind characters who summon ninja minions, and Stalkers who have the Ninja Blade (attack) and Ninjitsu (defense) power sets.
 * The main character of Ninja Blade.
 * Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell is repeatedly confused for one by guards. Might go to the point of a running gag as whenever the topic is brought up in conversation the other guard calls them an idiot saying they don't exist. Possibly played for laughs as interrogating a certain guard will prompt him to ask you to kill him with your blowpipe.
 * At one point in the first game, Lambert explicitly refers to Sam as a "SIGINT Ninja".
 * Guild Wars has ninja as well in the form of the Assassin profession. Their primary weapon consists of a pair of daggers, they can vanish in a puff of smoke and instantly reappear at at different spot, and they have a variety of spells that fit with the media portrayal of a ninja.
 * The Dark Templar of StarCraft are Alien Ninja who can bend light to make themselves invisible.
 * One of the seven samurai from Throne of Darkness is actually a Ninja.
 * Jago from Killer Instinct is a Buddhist Ninja.
 * Kisuke from Muramasa: The Demon Blade is an Iga clan ninja. This is notable because Iga was one of the actual places in feudal Japan where there actually were shinobi clan.
 * The Komoris in Red Steel are a clan of ninja who fight with guns and poisoned swords, and yes, they wear the stereotypical black pyjamas. Scott himself gets to undertake some ninja training over the course of the game.
 * There are ninja in Mad Karate Man that serve as obstacles to prevent your revenge against businessmen from being fulfilled. You can just click them away though.
 * The Wario Ware games have Kat & Ana, twin ninja preschoolers!
 * A good number of ninja feature in the Suikoden gameverse, most of them being more visible than not.
 * Shinobido is about ninja.
 * Kasumi from Mass Effect 2. Thane could also qualify.
 * Mass Effect 3 brings us Cerberus Phantoms, which are ninja armed with insanely sharp wakizashis and are protected by barriers. There's also Kai Leng, who's basically the boss version of a phantom.
 * The Soul Series gives us Taki. She's got the kunai/tanto/wakizashi, uber-agility and magical demon-sealing powers. Plus the purple skin-tight bodysuit.
 * Also, the "create a character" in 3 had a class called "ninja" that could learn how to wield kuni (with use of ninjustu), a katan and over sized shuriken (blatant use of jumping and the overly large throwing tool), a sickle that seemed to have been the love child of Ivy's whip blade and a chain whip with some sickle thrown in as an afterthought, Taki's moveset, and (the closest to actual ninjaness) Setska's parasol with a blade hidden in the handle of it. Any character creation after forwent any movesets only available to custom characters, so they then had to use character weapons.
 * Gale from Virtua Cop 3.
 * In the Street Fighter series, Guy uses traditional ninjustsu with street fighting influences, Geki and Ibuki fits the popular image of a ninja, and Vega mixes savate and ninjutsu.
 * In Sengoku Rance, ninja units are among the various types available. While they generally have high Search stats (making them useful for strategic sabotage), they're also effective at tactical sabotage and assassinating enemy commanders in battle. They're not very effective toe-to-toe against warriors or foot soldiers, though.
 * Shinobi from Red Alert 3, who can throw Shurikens, smoke bombs and kill with a single sword blow.
 * In the Sonic the Hedgehog series, Espio the Chameleon, ever since the Chaotix crew's return in Sonic Heroes. Complete with invisibility powers and giant shuriken.
 * He's a ninja in Archie's Sonic the Hedgehog, but not in Sonic the Comic, due to the fact it ended before he was made into a ninja.
 * Rogues of World of Warcraft can do things like turn invisible, flash step, walk on water, and pick locks. They also make use of intangibility, smoke bombs, poisons, and countless dirty tactics.
 * The Scyther, Nincada, and Shelmet lines from Pokémon all have ninja motifs. Curiously enough, they are all also Bug-type Pokemon (Scyther=praying mantis, Nincada=cicada, Shelmet=snail) as well.
 * Koga, the Poison-type Gym Leader from Pokémon Red and Blue, has a ninja motif as well. He's training his daughter Janine in the art, and when he makes it to the Elite Four of the Indigo League in Pokémon Gold and Silver, she takes over the Gym.
 * Plus, in Hoenn and Sinnoh there are several kid ninja trainers running around.


 * You'll get a Ninja no matter what Branch you go on in Vanguard Bandits. What type of ninja they'll be is path-dependent though.
 * Though they're technically not ninja per se, the armor for the Dark Brotherhood in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim certainly looks the part. The Brotherhood's signature skills also mesh fairly well with the assassin part of the trope.
 * The protagonist of Robo Aleste is Kage, a ninja piloting a Humongous Mecha.
 * Chipp Zanuff from Guilty Gear is an American Gaijin who learns the art of ninjutsu. Unfortunately, he's rather loud and yells "FIND ME!" when trying to hide himself.
 * Bang Shishigami from BlazBlue is the Spiritual Successor of Chipp, though he's 100% 'Japanese' (as much as the setting allows it), and twice as loud. And Hot-Blooded like hell.
 * Aztec Wars has Ninja, clad in blue, as one of the Chinese units (supposedly, the Chinese empire in the game has conquered most of Asia). They're the basic infantry unit, and they fight with martial arts.

Webcomics

 * And then there's the the title character of the SNAFU Webcomic, TIN: The Incompetent Ninja who takes incompetent to it's logical extreme and is able to commit unbelievably violent acts to anyone except his target.
 * The Adventures of Dr. McNinja's titular Dr. McNinja, as well as his mother, father, and brother. There are other ninja in the plotline too, but they're less prominent.
 * The obscure, unknown webcomic Dreamaniac has resident ninja Andrew (who's actually from Switzerland and his younger brother, ninja-in-training Mark.
 * Freefall had an arc involving a restaurant run by French ninja who would deliver food to your table without you ever noticing, with the nod to real ninja invisibility noted in the trope quote.
 * Megatokyo features Junpei, nowadays a l337 ninja, thanks to his training under Largo.
 * Ninja appear a few times in The Order of the Stick including a half-orc ninja who falls for Elan. A Running Gag is for ninjas to go undetected by other characters even when they're not actually hiding.
 * Ninja play a large part in the final arc of Buck Godot, because every race in the known universe has them...
 * Springiette features Chop Chop Ninja Doom, who throws chips instead of stars.
 * Toshubi is a ninja mouse.
 * Feskus of the Nami Warriors is a very skilled ninja...who apparently communicates with just the word "hoy".
 * introduced for the Show Within the Show of Nip and Tuck.
 * Mountain Time takes place in a universe where onions use their ninja training to kill condors.

Web Original

 * Ask a Ninja!
 * Greek Ninja
 * Real Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Webpage!
 * Ultimate Ninja, leader of the Legion of Net.Heroes.
 * Can't forget the Ninja-Style Dancer.
 * In V3E1 of RWBY, Nora describes Ren as a ninja, even though he is (pseudo-)Chinese and not (pseudo-)Japanese.

Western Animation
"Monkian: I don't see anyone! Mumm-Ra: Look behind you. [Monkian looks behind himself, only to fall over in surprise.] Mumm-Ra: This... is the NINJA! If the samurai has all honor, then the ninja has none. His methods are silence, secrecy, and stealth. And his weapons -- dagger and disguise..."
 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, naturally.
 * Kim Possible is infested with them: a few one-shot bad guys, some specialized "embarrassment ninjas", a secret ninja high school where Ron spent a week as an exchange student, and of course Monkey Fist's ninja clan made entirely of monkeys.
 * Sumo Ninja ftw!
 * You mean Tubbimura?
 * Basically every and any action/adventure cartoon in the U.S. is bound to feature Ninja at some point.
 * Skunk Fu!, ostensibly a children's show, has Ninja Monkies!
 * In Jackie Chan Adventures the Shadowkhan, a milita of demonic ninja, were often deployed by the bad guys to fight Jackie. Season 4 featured nine different groups of Shadowkhan.
 * It took four seasons before Samurai Jack fought a ninja, but he did - a robot ninja at that. It was, at least, a stealthy one, made completely invisible whenever it stood in shadows. And then Jack revealed he could do the same trick with sunlight, leading to one of the most visually incredible fights in the series (which is saying something), as the series is made of cool
 * Transformers Animated has Prowl and Jazz as goddamn NINJA ROBOTS. How much cooler can you get? Ironically, Prowl's a pretty honourable guy as a ninja (as is Jazz) but the moment he puts on the Samurai Armour Upgrade, he becomes a totally arrogant asshole one step away from turning into a villain.
 * Prowl was slightly arrogant already, as he seems to think a lot of his own abilities. This is tempered by the fact that he actually just is that Badass.
 * Animated went on to reveal that there's an entire order of ninja back on Cybertron, which includes Animated versions of almost every Autobot martial artist, melee-weapon user, fist fighter... and Grandus.
 * The short Australian CGI spoof Samurice. Ninja Rice steal the sacred Soya Scroll, and Samurai hero Ricesashi has to get it back.
 * Kyodai Ken (a.k.a. the Ninja) from Batman: The Animated Series.
 * In an episode of Thundercats, Mumm-Ra summons a samurai named Hachiman and tries to trick him into fighting Lion-O. When that doesn't pan out and one of his minions is captured, he tries to salvage the situation by doing the unexpected: Summon a ninja.

"Starscream: "Do you not see that you are vastly outnumbered?" Wheeljack: "I see fellas who might vastly enjoy watching me pound some dents into you.""
 * In Avatar: The Last Airbender, Katara and Zuko dress in all black and stealth their way around several Fire Nation navy commands, seen by no one until they attack, in order to get information on the man that killed Katara's mother. It's all kinds of bad-ass.
 * The Dai Li are Earthbending Ninja. While they don't do the all black attire normally attributed to the profession, the training and combat style they use fits the bill perfectly. Given that unlike most Earthbenders, or any capable bender in the series, they use hidden weapons and misdirection in their combat style.
 * Also, Zuko in Blue Spirit mode. Silent, stealthy, wears all black, incredibly badass, one of the only characters to be actually deadly in each appearance... total ninja right there.
 * Kabuto, the main villain of Tokyo Mater has ninja racing cars for henchmen. He summons them to distract Mater about halfway through the short, only for them all to be knocked out by Dragon McQueen. At the end of the short, Mater wins the race, and since Kabuto threatened him that if he lost the race, he will strip Mater of his modifications, when Kabuto lost, he is stripped of his own modifications, and is laughed at by his own ninja who then turn to the side of Mater, now "King of all drift racers."
 * Transformers Prime has Wheeljack. No longer a wacky scientist with a penchant for inventions that blow up. He's now a badass ex-Wrecker ninja with a pair of laser-deflecting katanas and a mask to boot. Not to mention quite cocky.


 * American Dad: When Roger shows up in one episode: "I'm a ninja everybody! I'm doing NINJA stuff now!!"

Other

 * In a story published during spring training of 2007, Chicago Cubs then-closer (now starter) Ryan Dempster claimed to be training as a ninja. He was joking... we think.

Real Life

 * MythBusters tested some ninja powers.
 * Ninja can catch arrows in flight - BUSTED! Guiness book or Records champion Ninja, they shot safety arrows at him. 6 arrows hit him. He jumped away from 3 and caught the 10th arrow; in a real fight, he would have been dead before that 10th arrow.
 * Ninja can lie in a carp pond all night breathing through his blow-pipe and when the victim goes for a morning stroll, shoot him with poisoned darts. PLAUSIBLE. Using a blow-pipe underwater takes a bit of practice, but is doable. Tory managed to stay under cold water for one hour.
 * Ninja with sword versus archer 30 yards away. Archer shoots. Ninja knocks away 1st arrow with sword and charges before Archer can reload. CONFIRMED! Jamie guessed he could have reloaded if the distance were 100 yards, but they never tested it.
 * Similar to MythBusters, the show Fight Science also did some work with ninja (also special ops of various nations, and fighters from other schools).
 * They proved that ninjutsu really does have a deadly punch (compressing the ribcage enough to cause fatal damage to the heart).
 * Insane Balance: While standing on one foot on a pole five feet tall, a ninja can dodge shuriken and not fall.
 * Some of the more infamous Ninja in history (and some folk lores) especially originating from Jidai Geki:
 * Hattori Hanzo, Iga ninja in service of the Tokugawa, and probably the ninja equivalent to Miyamoto Musashi.
 * Actually, Hanzou is more of a proto-Ninja; as at that time, he was seen more as a retainer with an exceptional special skillset and known for tactical bravado (earning him the moniker 'Devil Hanzou')- however he was also reknown for swordsmanship excellence, and skills with a spear (he is NOT however, the same person as another historical Hanzou, Yari-Hanzou, who as the name implies, was a master of yari/spear combat). His appearance as a ninja nowadays is probably a direct result of his tactical choices that earned him his Devil nickname; tactics along the lines of subversion, misinformation, assassination, etc. Don't mistake him for wearing all-black or anything like that, pictures and portraits exist, and he looks quite like a normal samurai of the times. Legend or not, all aspects considered, he's quite the interesting figure what with being both ninja-and-samurai all in one.
 * Sarutobi Sasuke, one of the men counted as Sanada Ten Braves. Bodyguard of Sanada Yukimura.
 * He inspired not one, but FOUR Ninja in Naruto: Hiruzen Sarutobi the Third Hokage; Konohamaru Sarutobi, who is basically Naruto's apprentice; Asuma Sarutobi who is Shikamaru's sensei; and finally Sasuke Uchiha himself.
 * Technically five, as we have recently been told that the Third Hokage's father was actually named Sarutobi Sasuke.
 * Fuuma Kotarou, Hojo's ninja, most famous for that myth about him luring and killing Hanzou in a naval battle, suicidally.
 * Mochizuki Chiyome, Takeda ninja and credited as the founder of kunoichi.
 * The SAS, Navy SEALs, Spetznaz etc. are ninjs in all but name.
 * Or rather, Ninja are part of SPECWARCOM in all but name (and time period).
 * Masaaki Hatsumi, who claims to be part of the last remaining ninpo lineage.
 * And yes, they wear the black pajamas. They also wear pajamas in various colors that fit the environment.
 * Ninja schools exist, even in America. They're usually specifically trained for the army.
 * Besides Ninjutsu, there is another (and uniquely American) martial arts style developped for use in hand-to-hand combat. It's called MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts Program). You won't find schools in shopping centers that teach MCMAP, though, as only members of the US Navy or Marine Corps are permitted to study MCMAP. MCMAP is unique in that it is the only style in which people train in full combat gear, including training in the use of pocket knives and bayonets as offensive weapons (as opposed to something you might disarm an enemy of and use it against him). Basically, it's Ninjutsu adapted to modern combat.
 * There's also the Bujinkan system which teaches unarmed and armed combat techniques from Ninjutsu while omitting the stealth and infiltration training. One of the more prominent teachers of the school, Stephen K. Hayes, since removed from the rolls, is famous for having released a number of "how to" books on Ninjutsu.
 * Ashida Kim is a self-proclaimed ninja who is based in Lake Alfred, Florida. Having written over 30 books on the subject, he claims to have learned his ninjitsu from someone named Shendai. He also claims to have met Count Dante (who is best known for his "Deadliest Man Alive" ads appearing for years in comic books) and trained under him. He also has posted a $10,000 challenge to anyone who wants to fight him. It should be pointed out that the aforementioned $10,000 is not awarded to the person who defeats Kim. It is Kim's fee (plus travelling/lodging expenses and a $25,000 appearance bond assuring the challenger is "serious") for showing up to the fight. Long suspected to be the pseudonym of a Christopher Hunter, recent investigations have confirmed that Ashida Kim's birth name is Radford Davis.