the karate ninja show
Dash no Chris said:
Looks like those pics were scanned from a magazine -- the title screen mock-up incorporates a title "logo" that utilizes a font often seen in Gamest magazine, and the 4 kanji beneath the title are "saishin jouhou" ["latest information"].
Also, I'm curious who it was that decided on the "SHOW" spelling of the last kanji ( 翔 ) in the title. This kanji would be best represented in English as "SHOU." In this case, "SHOW" is a particularly poor spelling choice, as it gives the average English-speaking reader (myself included) the impression that the game's story focuses on a show of some kind (tv show, live stage show, etc.) that features one or more karate ninja. Now that I've seen the title in Japanese, it appears that the game's main character is a ninja named Shou, who practices karate (but, as yagamikun pointed out, isn't it a bit unorthodox for a ninja to practice karate?) -- better English interpretations of the title would be "Karate Ninja Shou" or "Shou, the Karate Ninja." BTW, Amano Jacu, so far I haven't been able to find any indication of a Karate Ninja Shou manga, so perhaps the game was an entirely original project on the part of Yumekobo.
--Chris
EDIT: Don't know where Billy Pitt got the "circa 1995" info (did Billy Pitt put together the title screen mock-up, or did someone else do that thereby giving Billy the 1995 estimate?), but this site indicates that Karate Ninja Shou had a location test during the middle ten days of July, 1996 in Tokyo.
Gentlemen,
Heres the whole story on this directly from the protoman himself.
My protopage has been up for several years now. Over the course of time, I have made several updates and changes to the site. The first time I reported on this game, I listed it as "Karate Ninja Sho". This was the name given to me by the source who sent me the SOURCE pics & information (all in japanese mind you) on the game. I had (have) no way to confirm or deny his interpretation of the text for the games title (nor for the description for that matter) so I simply took whatever he said at face value.
All of the screenshots were B/W and they were all "adjusted" to be "useable" for the website. They were not the best of quality because they were cropped images from a low resolution scan of a magazine article. (I had/have no complaints as for me "beggers can't be choosers" and ANY information that comes my way proto-wise is not only MUCH appreciated but also SHARED immediately with the community on my protopage).
After about a year or so of sitting on my site, On one night I suddenly received an instant message from Chris Ray of NGF. He told me that the game was a "mistake" on my protopage and was NOT a neo-geo game. I took that at face value. Unsure wether or not to believe it. The same source (and time period) that sent me the pics & info on KNS had also sent me the source info on Warlocks of the Fates. Why the hell would they be right on one thing, but yet "LIE" on another? Made no sense to me!
However, at the same time, it did at the very least seem slightly possible. Afterall I only had an article that I could not read...black & white pictures, and no title screen.
I stuck to my guns and my instincts and decided to leave it on the protopage. I felt it "innocent until proven guilty".
About a year after that, I was making some more adjustments to the site and decided to "spruce up" the entry slightly. I added the "w" to the end of the word "sho"and came up with the theory of it being based on a popular japanese television show. (this theory had NO BASIS IN FACT!) It merely seemed somewhat believable and might lead to some feedback which in turn could yield some legit information.
Shortly after that, I cropped what I THOUGHT to be the CLOSEIST thing in my source material to be the possible "TITLE" for my "artists' conception" title screen. NOTE: I am VERY clear on my site if/when I place unofficial screens by labeling them as such.
Anyhow, long story short, that is how I came to call the game "The Karate Ninja Show". Truth is, the majority of people don't seem to notice or care about any of these games until someone else discusses them or one of them is found, etc. Then all of a sudden they "FIND" (ridiculous as it need not be found since it has been and is always there) my page and then every single little detail is disected to hell.
Anyhow, for the guy above whom I quoted in this post...you seem to be very knowledgable on reading and/or interpretting japanese text. My protopage site can only display so much and my bandwidth is very limited. Therefore not EVERYTHING I have on every proto (pics & info) can be shown on the site. Long story short, if you are willing to TRANSLATE the text for the benefit of the entire neogeo community, I can/will send you the actual SOURCE pics & info on this game which contains 2 or 3 entire pages of descriptions on the game.
Let me know, hope this helps clear things up.
Billy Pitt -- The Protoman
