Space Ninja!

Space Ninja: Sword of the Space Ark (1981)

After Message from Space played in theaters in 1978, it was followed by a TV series called Message from Space: Galactic Battle, which ran on Japanese television in 1979. The series was later dubbed into English, condensed into a seventy minute movie, and released on American audiences in 1981.

I used to own a VHS copy of it, unfortunately, I no longer have it, and boy do I miss it. How good is it? Well, not very good; but definitely silly fun, and well worth checking out. I’d certainly recommend it to anyone who grew up watching the Power Rangers, because this is the sort of thing that certainly informed that series, and I have to admit it, I’ve always been a bit perturbed by the fact that most of the people who grew up watching that show never knew exactly what they were actually looking at. But, I digress.

Like the movie, the TV series starred Hiroyuki ‘Duke’ Sanada, and also featured appearances by numerous members of the Japanese Action Club.