Shadow Warriors (TV series)

Kage no Gundan
Also known as 影の軍団
Genre Jidaigeki
Ninja
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku
Eiichi Kudo
Starring Sonny Chiba
Etsuko Shihomi
Hiroyuki Sanada
So Yamamura
Kirin Kiki
Jyunichi Haruta
Teruhiko Saigō
Shôhei Hino
Kantarō Suga
Renji Ishibashi
Kaho Shimada
Mikio Narita
Narrated by Asao Koike (1-2)
Isao Hashizume (3)
Akira Kume (4-5)
Theme music composer Shigeki Watanabe
Ending theme "G no Inori" by Nobuyasu Okabayashi (Series 1)
Country of origin Japan
Original language(s) Japanese
No. of series 5
No. of episodes 119
Production
Running time 46 minutes (per episode)
Production company(s) Kansai Telecasting Corporation, Toei Company
Release
Original network Fuji TV
Kansai Telecasting Corporation
Picture format Film
Original release April 1, 1980 – December 30, 1985

Shadow Warriors (影の軍団 Kage no Gundan, lit. "Army of Shadows") is a Japanese television jidaigeki show featuring Sonny Chiba that ran for four seasons in the early 1980s. The first season was a reimagining of the film Kage no Gundan: Hattori Hanzō which was released on February 23, 1980.

Chiba played different ninja characters in each series. In the first series he played Hattori Hanzō III, in the second he played Tsuge Shinpachi, in the third he played Tarao Hanzō, and in the fourth series and in Bakumatsu Hen he played Hattori Hanzō XV. In the 2003 direct-to-DVD series Shin Kage no Gundan (New Shadow Warriors) he played Hattori Hanzō I.

Seasons

DVD release

The complete first season of the show was released on April 17, 2007 on Region 1 DVD by BCI Home Entertainment.[1]

In other media

Chiba reprised the Hattori Hanzō character for Kill Bill. Quentin Tarantino stated in the supplementary material on the Kill Bill DVD that the character was named in tribute to Chiba's former role as Hattori Hanzō (the historical 16th-century Iga ninja) in Shadow Warriors (Kage no Gundan). The joke is that Chiba played multiple generations of the character: when the character died, the next installment would shift to covering his descendant, also named Hanzō after his famous predecessor. The implication is that the character in Kill Bill, whom Tarantino called Hattori Hanzō XIV, is another descendant of the same lineage. Chiba's daughter Juri Manase also appears in Kill Bill as a member of the Crazy 88.

References

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