Trope Workshop:Ninja Magic

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Ninjas have long been renowned for being experts of stealth, trickery, deadly combat skills, and fleet footed assassination, either disguising themselves in broad daylight or sneaking about under the fall of night to strike. And yet, already with this mystique of alluring and deathdefying figure as a near invincible warrior of darkness able to evade danger and confront it without flinching, the ninja is known to be able to wield magical powers.

Welcome to the world of Ninja Magic, where ninja are able to replace themselves with wooden decoys in an instant, create multiple copies of their image of themselves as if the user has become their own army, literally walk on water as if it was just a part of the ground and frozen like in winter, and even command powers to manipulate the elements of nature, and this doesn't even cover the rest of its repertoire.

One may ask why would Ninja need such powers that would make them come across as so overpowered. The answers are many; Ninja may come to face dangers that cannot be merely cut down, are not of this world, or command magic themselves, they may come to face obstacles that would require ability beyond normal human ability, endurance, and even capability to overcome, and in the context of the phrase "a successful ninja is one who uses but one tool for multiple tasks", this tool may be one's own being by self reliance and great temperance by training, study, and refinement, and covers even one's abilities of spirit and the otherworldly that allows them to carry out their tasks and to face the neverending and seemingly overwhelming odds that they may face on their quest. After all, in the context of Buddhist thought, other myriad worlds of existence may be places of the fantastical, where there might be beasts and creatures feral and savage, where magic thrives as its own methodology as much as science, and where the borders of the spiritual and the netherworld may be closer and more open to the mortal world, allowing for affairs of the supernatural to occur and have greater effect on man, and where ninja may also dwell to know and be aware of these affairs of their world. For more practical and pragmatic context, ninja magic would likely be used for the purpose of enacting their philosophy of using surprise and trickery on their foes, and for subterfuge of hiding their acts as disasters and calamities of the natural world.

This, like much lore of the ninja, has Truth in Television; the once long kept secret ways of the ninja also included the studies of the mystic arts of well known Japanese esoteric ways, from Taoism adapted Onmyodo to Shingon and Mikkyo Buddhism, and to even direct Taoism rooted Chinese martial arts philosophies and military tactics and basic sciences, teaching ninja of the importance of learning how to use one's surroundings and the world around them to their advantage, from reading the weather and timing when the moon would appear or not to know when to carry out attacks, to helping to temper and develop themselves in spirit to attain mental fortitude and concentration to literally be "the ones who endure" in the shadows.

Its more fantastical depictions in media stems directly from Onmyodo inspired elemental categorizations of techniques, like katon no jutsu regarding firestarting and incendiary related techniques and suiton no jutsu regarding how to use water to cross and hide oneself in its depths, while multiple clone techniques are inspired by both said log replacement decoy techniques and exploiting the human eye's limitations of capturing speed blurs by constantly speeding up and slowing down one's pace to keep foes on their toes to psyche them out. Of course, all of these techniques did make use of actual tools, components, and study of the natural world that have scientific basis, making it a very early example trope of Magic From Technology. For the more recent direct idea of ninja having their own styles of literal magic, this stems from the ideas of horiki or attaining Buddhahood in Buddhist transmission, in that all beings are capable of achieving super powerful levels of existence like the Buddha upon great spiritual training, which then allows one to perform miraculous and mythical feats, to also adapting studying more esoteric aspects of martial arts like ki and applying that in their ninjutsu.

Of course, in the world of fantasy and imagination, be it just the work of applied sciences and legerdemain, actual magical and mystical powers, or both, much like anything they hold up their sleeves, Ninja Magic is another part of their arsenal to look out for.

Examples of Ninja Magic include:

Anime and Manga

• Naruto has Jutsu which falls into three types of Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu. While Taijutsu is centered more along close quarters combat and the martial arts, Ninjutsu and Genjutsu falls into Ninja Magic proper, which draws upon the in world dynamics of chakra to manipulate the forces of nature as to the user's will, while Genjutsu deals with both slight of hand and literally casting psychological illusions by use of chakra or otherwise as a defensive, evasive, and supporting form of Jutsu. There is also Kekkei Genkai, techniques inherited by ninjas based on their family genetics.
• In Ninja Slayer, has people who can possess a Ninja Soul thus allowing them to become Ninja and use Ninjutsu.
• Levi Kazama from Trinity Seven uses ninjutsu along with her brand of magic, Shamanic Spell, that uses the power of nature.
• Infinite Dendrogram have Jobs in the Onmitsu grouping where it specializes in stealth and concealment. Skills with these jobs involve concealing users' presence, disguising their appearance, and creating shadow clones.
• Flame of Recca has Flame Masters who were the leader of the Hokage clan of ninja. Each Flame Master can control fire along with having a unique technique utilizing the flame.

Live-Action TV

• Different ninja themed Super Sentai use their ninjutsu to fight their Monster of the Week.

Video Games

• The Final Fantasy series has portrayed this even in its first installment, where the Ninja job class was able to cast a limited variety of black magic spells along with being an agile fighter. Ninjutsu proper was established since Final Fantasy IV, where they gain their own repertoire of unique elemental spells that target all on the field and ignores the Reflect status. Later installments come to further depict their own manifestations of Ninjutsu magic:
  • Final Fantasy XI's form of Ninjutsu involves a unique mechanic of item magic to cast different jutsu, with each kind of item related as a special catalyst to enact their ability. In example, Hyoton: Ichi and Ni is an ice spell that requires a icicle to cast. Furthermore, the elemental variety of Ninjutsu allows for a secondary effect of inflicting an effect where the weakness of that spell's element gains increased damage if followed up, allowing for gradually increasing damage or to help out magic users.
  • Ivalice's form of Ninjutsu comes in two different schools depending on the installment. Final Fantasy Tactics hosts Ninjutsu informally as the Throwing ability for the Ninja class, where a Ninja can learn to throw practically all weapons in the game for big damage, as well as unique elemental magic ball weapons and being able to catch thrown weapons and steal them for their party. Final Fantasy Tactics Advance's Ninjutsu is more formal in its depiction, being more rooted in the Taoist Onmyodo Wu Xing elemental system, and is in turn adapted to the tactical gameplay as single target hindering spells that can damage as well as inflict hindering status effects.
• Chipp Zanuff from Guilty Gear, uses ninja skills along with the power of his Ki for lighting, ice, and fire techniques.
• Ninja Kirby is a form that give access to ninjutsu with different abilities like walking on water or showing enemies with cherry blossoms.
• Ninpo from Ninja Gaiden are mystical arts that ninjas can cast by using their ki.
• In Overwatch, the Shimada Clan are a family of ninjas who pass down supernatural arts.
• Tokyo Afterschool Summoners have different Transients who use ninjutsu either through their Sacred Artifact or previous training.
• Trials of Mana features this with the Dark path Ninja job class branches found on Hawkeye, allowing him to cast Ninjutsu spells that allow him to manipulate the classical four elements and even create shuriken and afflict foes with stat reductions by utilizing his own spiritual energy to manifest these spells. This is developed further in his Dark master classes, the Ninja Master allowing him to target all foes on the field with his Ninjutsu to turn the tide of battle in its entirety, while his Nightblade class allows him to gain a plethora of wide ranging assassination aimed spells to inflict status effects and deadly abilities to surprise and wipe out the opposition when they least expect it, from being able to manifest blowdart needles and giant wrenches to bring the pain, to summoning black magic rain to being able to execute kage bunshin no jutsu to allow his body doubles to tear apart all foes on the field.
• Kenji from Warzard displays ninja magic that is both rooted in slight of hand and mythical powers. For the more mundane, this ranges from being able to conceal and unsheathe his weapons, change his clothes and appearance in a blink of an eye, and holds a huge plethora of items on him. Said weapons include not only kunai and his signature arm blades, but to enormous manriki kusari sized kusari gama and a huge cannon sized teppo flintlock rifle. For his mythical side of ninja magic, Kenji is able to perform the traditional kage bushin no jutsu by splitting himself into threes for a dangerous guessing game, breathe out blasts of fire and powerful wind, teleport by morphing into the wind, telekinetically aim and guide his kunai at his whim, summon explosive pyres of fire from the ground, and practically holds hammerspace in his scarf, which mimics the divine tenne scarves found on Buddhist deities, which further implies that he has a lofty level of mastery that truly cements his status as the leader of the Oniwabanshu elite ninja squadron of Zipang.
• The Power of Shinobi from Ninjala are abilities that certain people who are descended from ninjas which can be awakened through Ninja-Gun with added benefits.

Visual Novels

• In Dengeki Stryker, Jack is a Texan ninja who can use fire and water ninjutsu along with other ninja skills.

Western Animation

• Enid from OK KO! who uses ninjutsu as her main skill set for stealth and discretion.
• Hamato Ninpō in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles allow the Hamato family to use their energy for supernatural techniques.
• Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja is the current holder of the Ninja Mask that changes him to the Norrisville Ninja where he has access to supernatural powers.