Ninja Hattori (忍者ハットリくん, Ninja Hattori-kun) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Fujiko Fujio A (initially credited as Fujiko Fujio) which was serialized between 1964 and 1988. It was later adapted into a television drama that aired on TV Asahi (then known as NET) from 1966 to 1968; an anime series by Shin-Ei Animation, airing on TV Asahi from 1981 to 1987; a video game by Hudson Soft; four anime films by Shin-Ei and a live-action film. A remake of the 1981 anime series was produced by Shin-Ei and the Indian animation firms Reliance MediaWorks and later Green Gold Animations which aired on TV Asahi and Animax from 2013 – 2015.
Contents
Plot
10-year-old Kenichi Mitsuba is an average kid who goes to elementary school and struggles with his studies. He is very stubborn and lazy, therefore always ending up frustrating his parents and teachers. He loves to find an easy way out of everything much to the annoyance of Hattori.
Meanwhile, a young ninja named Kanzo Hattori becomes best friends with Kenichi. Hattori becomes a part of the Mitsuba family along with his brother, Shinzo and his ninja dog, Shishimaru. Hattori helps Kenichi with his problems, constantly keeping an eye on him as a good friend. Yumeko is portrayed as Kenichi's lover interest.
The main antagonists are Kemumaki, a Koga Ninja, and his ninja-cat, Kagechiyo. Kemaki always causes trouble for Kenichi and Hattori, sometimes inventing new devices to fight against Hattori but always ending up in mishap. Kenichi asking Hattori to take revenge is a recurring storyline present throughout many episodes. Although Hattori is a good friend, Kenichi sometimes fights with him due to misunderstandings created by Kemumaki. Sometimes Jippou, Togejirou and Tsubame help him.
There are five main locations in the series: Tokyo City, Shinto Temple, Iga Province, Iga Mountains, and Kōga Valley.
Characters
Main
Kanzo Hattori (ハットリ カンゾウ or 服部 貫蔵, Hattori Kanzō)
(voice: Junko Hori; drama actor: Kōtoku Nomura, drama voice: Kazuo Imakura, live-action film actor: Shingo Katori)
Hattori-kun is the protagonist of the series, a little ninja who is named after his ancestor Hattori Hanzō. He is 11 years old and, despite his age, a skilled ninja who left his home in Iga to train in Tokyo, where he took up residence in the Mitsuba household. The show follows his many adventures and daily life living in modern Japan and his friendship with Kenichi Mitsuba. Both boys find a rival in Kemaki (Kemumaki in some dubs), another young ninja in Kenichi's class. Hattori-kun's main weakness is that he is terrified of frogs (Ranidaphobia) . He has strong beliefs on what makes a good ninja and reminds everyone of the same.
Kenichi Mitsuba (三葉 ケン一, Mitsuba Ken'ichi)
(voice: Masako Sugaya (1980s series), Tomomi Tenjinbayashi (2012 series); drama actor: Katsumi Takamiya, live-action film actor: Yuri Chinen)
A 10-year-old elementary schooler who is very irresponsible, lazy and doesn't have much academic or athletic talent but enjoys photography. He has a huge crush on his classmate Yumeko, in the process of which he often gets into trouble with his rival Kemaki and convinces the hesitant Hattori to help him. He is not above tricking Hattori into lending a hand.
Shinzō Hattori (ハットリ シンゾウ or 服部 心蔵, Hattori Shinzō)
(voice: Yūko Mita (1980s series), Yukiko Hinata (2012 series); drama actor: Shigeki Nakajō)
Shinzo is Kanzo's five-year-old younger brother who followed him to Tokyo. Being only an apprentice ninja he uses wooden weapons. His older brother Hattori is his role model. He can cry extremely loudly, stunning people and even causing them to faint. He helps Kanzo fight Kemumaki, sometimes using his loud crying to immobilise opponents.
Supporting
Aiko-Sensei (愛子先生)
(voice: Yōko Kawanami (1980s series), Ai Fukada (2012 series))
One of Kenichi's teachers. Koike-sensei has a crush on her. The subject she teaches is unknown. Though in many episodes she is shown teaching the class music.
Koike-Sensei (小池先生)
(voice: Issei Futamata (1980s series), Hayato Nakata (2012 series), Tomokazu Yajima (2012 series))
Kenichi's teacher, also appears as a ramen chef in Obake no Q-tarō. He is caricatured after animator Shin'ichi Suzuki.
Kentaro Mitsuba (三葉 健太郎)
(voice: Yuzuru Fujimoto (1980s series), Eiji Yanagisawa (2012 series); drama actor: Teizō Muta)
Kenichi's father. He usually smokes and comes from his office late in the evening. He likes eating and golf a lot. Though a rather plump man, in some of the episodes, his size seems to change, going from stouter to slimmer. He gave Kenichi his name, hoping for his son's good health.
Taeko Mitsuba (三葉 妙子)
(voice: Yukiko Nashiwa (1980s series), Miwa Kitahara (2012 series); drama actor: Chiharu Kuri)
The mother of Kenichi. She is a slim housewife who is busy keeping order of a house inhabited by six, including Shinzo who often wets his futon. She likes Tsubame and thinks that Kemaki is a good boy (not knowing of his ninja identity and pranking habit). Kenichi constantly stresses her out with his bad grades and his preference for playing over studying, making her lecture him.
Tsubame (ツバメ)
Other
Professor Shinobino (シノビノ博士, Shinobino Hakase)
(voice: Reizō Nomoto (1980s series))
A professor who lives in the United States (USA) and invented Togejirou.
Togejirou (トゲ次郎, Togejirō)
(voice: Hiroko Maruyama (1980s series))
A cactus having supernatural powers is sent by Professor Shinobino from the United States. Shisimaru does not like Cacto-chan and loves to compete with him.
Isa Yohi
A koga ninja girl who is a senior of Kemumaki and a frenemy of Hattori. First she start to fight Ninja Hattori. Later She also helps Hattori and His Friends. This character was appeared in 2012 Anime only.
Robert
An american ninja who is a student of Ninja Hattori. He learns only wrong Ninja techniques. Later these become very useful to him.
Saizo
An iga ninja boy who tries to achieve primary school certification. His power is creating a cloud and using for a transportation.
Gosuke
An iga ninja boy who tries to achieve Primary School Certification. His power is do anything within few seconds.
Surasuke
An iga ninja boy who tries to achieve Primary School Certification. His power is speed.
Old Grandma
Media
Manga
The first manga series was published in Kobunsha's Shōnen in 1964 and ended in 1968. A second manga series was published by Shogakukan in various kids magazines like CoroCoro Comic, Televi-Kun and others from 1981 to 1988.
TV drama
It was made into a live-action TV drama. Aired from 1966 - 1968. This was a work of special effects sitcom. This drama was aired on NET and was divided into 2 seasons, first season aired from 7 April to 28 September 1966, second season aired from August 3, 1967, to January 25, 1968. Each season consists of 26 episodes, in total 52 episodes from 2 seasons.
Anime
The first animated series aired on TV Asahi in Japan from September 28, 1981, to December 25, 1987, for a total of 694 episodes and 11 special episodes, in total 705 episodes.
Amazon Prime Video India began streaming the series in English, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi in December 2016. Netflix began streaming the "fifth season" (53 episodes) of the Indian English dub in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and India on December 22, 2018. Since May 15, 2020, Netflix no longer streams them. In Korea, from December 19, 2005, it was aired on Talent TV until the 5th season (JEI Talent Broadcasting at the time of the first airing in 2005). Currently, Nickelodeon is broadcasting New Ninja Hattori. The main character, the ninja Hattori Ganjo Hanzo (Tori), has a distinctive dialect accent and a 'nin nin nin nin nin' tone.
In Vietnam, the series was re-released by POPS Kids on digital platforms and YouTube with a Vietnamese dub version by Purpose Media from 2018 and 2022.
In January 2012, Nikkei announced on its website that a remake of the animated series under production by Indian production company Reliance MediaWorks and Shin-Ei Animation. The announcement was part of a move to produce several remakes of popular animated television series to be broadcast across television stations in the Asian market to counteract Japan's stagnating domestic animation marketplace due to its declining birthrate. Shin-Ei Animation is currently collaborating with Green Gold Animation to produce new episodes of the series. Yūichi Nagata, producer at Shin-Ei Animation, stated that the current collaboration will be between Shin-Ei's "creative content" and Green Gold Animation's "quality of skills in animation making and diligence".
The new series began airing in India and Indonesia on May of the same year, as well as China. It premiered on Animax in Japan on May 13, 2013.
Netflix, initially set to stream the Indian English dub of the first two seasons in early 2019, began streaming them in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and India on December 22, 2018. Since May 15, 2020, Netflix no longer streams them.
Live-action film
A live-action film entitled Nin x Nin: Ninja Hattori-kun, the Movie was released in 2004.