Ninja Clan Ranker

General discussion of topics that encompass more than one of Yoshihiro Takahashi's series, as well as topics relating to Takahashi himself.
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VenFenrir
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Ninja Clan Ranker

Post by VenFenrir »

So how would you rank the various ninken clans of the Ginga series. I'm counting the Koga, Iga, Sanada, Kurohabaki, Nokizaru, and Tenka's group (I don't recall them having a clan name, but correct me if they do). I'm not really counting the clans in Kacchū No Senshi Gamu, because I haven't read it yet, but if you really want to you can rank them here and I won't mind. Also this ranking the clan as a whole, not just individual characters or parts of the series. With that out of the way here is my list:

1 Koga- I really like both the Iga and Koga clans, so choosing one over the other was really hard. I'm giving it to the Koga mostly do to GDW. In most of the series we kinda get the Koga = Evil, Iga = Good troupe, but in GDW the war (and Iga clan for that matter) are gone, and so we see they get to not only have a good change of heart, but a complete rework to how the Koga clan functions. The Koga became the go to guys for stealth, recon, parkour, and any near impossible task, and they also show off a lot of cool techniques like whistling and playing dead (were cooler than they sound here). Also I love the buddy system the seem to have, where two Koga dogs work specifically with each other like Samu and Shinbe. But my favorite thing was that they were so muddled in with the army, despite being antagonist from the early parts of the series.

2 Iga- The Iga was great and has some of my favorite shinobi dogs, but they kinda just disappear in GNG and don't show up again until GDWO. Yes, Akame was always around, but he is one dog, not the whole clan, still I give him a lot of credit for being awesome and having a great (and unique) personality. I also love Shirozaru and his bros, but the felt a bit forgotten in last wars. I guess the main reason I put Koga above them is becuase I love all the development the Koga got, while the Iga just disappeared for a while, but they're still cool.

3 Kurohabaki- When these guys we introduced in GDWO, I was ecstatic. We finally had more ninja dogs aside from the big two, and they had some of the best characters in the series in my opinion. Terumune was a pretty good father figure (maybe not so much with Masamune), I adore Masashige, Yamabiko is precious at times and is pretty plot important in GDWO, and then there is Masamune. The best villain in the series (Opinion of course) he alone can safely put the Kurohabaki in third place for me.

4 Nokizaru- having other ninja dogs was still cool at this point and Kenshin is awesome. I like how he follows Masamune, because why not! (and you get to live of course) but he still sticks to his principles for the most part. Also he had an amazing self sacrfice in Last wars and made him one of the few characters to never be voided or de-characterized. The rest of the clan is kinda there, but it could be worse.

5 Tenka's guys- Ninja dog clans were growing too abundant at this point. I hate Tenka, bad design, bad character, bad mind power thing (that is useless). Gennai is meh, but somehow he manages to show up in a lot moments of the series I really enjoy, and is backstory and character development aren't bad. Gennai's followers are also really loyal and serve for some comic relief too, which is okay.

6 Sanada- I hate these guys with a passion! First off Unsai is just as bad as Tenka in design, I hate his personality, and he is also overpowered. Second off these guys never help anybody, the only actions they took in GDWO was pep talking a few guys and fixing Kosetsu's neck (actually was curious to see how he would live a handicapped life. Not because I'm a sadist, I just like most of the handicapped dogs in the series and that neck thing seem interesting). In last Wars they 'fought' Monsoon, and they went from over powered to no powered. The real icing on the cake though is that they stole the peace Ideology from Weed and Ohu, and actually use it more often and successfully. I don't want to see these bimbos convince guys like Masashige and Kamakiri to change their ways, Sirius and Weed should be doing that >:( !

Anyway hope you enjoyed and I'm interested to see what you think of the various ninja clans.
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Re: Ninja Clan Ranker

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1. Sanada
The Sanada ninjas are a breath of fresh air in a world where hot-blooded warriors are dime a dozen. They serve to protect the dogs of their homeland, an actually meaningful pursuit unlike the eternal Iga/Koga war or the Kurohabaki's vision of unifying Japan through blood and fear, they'll stick to their principles no matter what ("if I must to die for them, then I'll gladly give up this life and wish for better luck in the next"), and unlike the other GDWO clans their existence isn't riddled with plot-holes and there's an actual reason we haven't heard of them before. Their designs are interesting and the way they interact with each other shows that not only are they wise and powerful ninjas, they're also good friends who like to fool around with each other when they're not busy being the voice of reason in a world of madness. Unsai himself is a great character, filling the long-vacant positiong of Wise Old Guy and actually basing all his wisdom on experience, not magical protagonist powers, but this is more about the clans in general so I digress. TLW really did them dirty and just turned them into another splinter group of the Ohu army (Monsoon is an exception to their "don't join wars that don't affect us" policy because "he's a threat to all of dog-kind", because the first dog-eating giant bear or a cruel, soulless tyrant out for world domination weren't?), though.

2. Kurohabaki
The Kurohabaki are a terrifying embodiment of the ninja philosophy of "duty before all else". Everything they do serves to prove their twisted practicality: Have someone who could possibly get in your way? Just murder them and their family in cold blood. Need information about the enemy? Just grab one of their soldiers and torture them until they spill the beans. Need more soldiers? Kidnap children from their mothers on pain of death. And so on and so forth, all to fulfill a mission they believe to be their birthright. The internal conflict between Masamune and Yamabiko and their respective followers is also interesting, as is their centuries-long history - which is unfortunately one of their biggest problems, too. It's never explained why they literally did nothing to fulfill their "centuries-long" dream of conquering all of Japan prior to the Ohu army's founding, especially since pre-GNG the dogs of Japan were basically broken into warring tribes that were practically begging for someone to come along and unify them into one nation. Nevertheless, their cruel efficiency and strength definitely makes them quite possibly the best enemies the Ohu army has ever faced.

3. Koga
The Koga dogs are another example of great villains (they're cannibal ninjas with mohawks, for crying out loud). Their designs are memorable, particularly in GDA where they're all not just copy-pasted brown dogs, and they actually had a backstory prior to GDA, unlike the Iga dogs. Once they become allies of the Ohu dogs, they still have some new tricks up their sleeve: the Elder trains Kyoshiro's pup followers into ninjas, their "dog whistle" communication technique was a mainstay during GDW and GDWO, and Tesshin trains an entire squadron of Battouga users (seriously, if this guy had become the leader of Ohu, he'd have ended all the series ten volumes early due to sheer efficiency), and their ancestral hot spring has gotten some serious mileage ever since its introduction in GDW. I'm docking some points for GDA and the Ganin short story both depicting them as Always Chaotic Evil, instead of showing that they can be reasoned with like in GDW or even depicting them as reluctant villains turning against their old allies because it's their duty, instead of more or less gloating about it like any old villain.

4. Tenka
The ninjas of the Imperial Court (aka Tenka's ancestors) are an interesting concept, so it's a shame we never actually get to see them (are Tenka's followers even ninjas?). We learn practically nothing of them, not even why they were chosen the serve the Emperor himself in the first place or why they were abandoned, and the whole thing is just ripe with story potential. The one thing we do know of them - killing an entire army by luring them into a pass filled with toxic volcanic gases - paints them as possessing cunning and efficiency that puts even the Kurohabaki into shame, and if Tenka's powers are a remnant of their glory days then they were basically the elite ninja dogs, further adding to the intrigue. The concept of a canine Emperor who held all of Japan under his sway is also interesting and, again, it's a shame we never learn how they became a relic practically no one's heard about. Like the Kurohabaki, however, they're sitting in a giant plot hole, as we'd never heard of them before despite Ben's platoon running right through their territory during their quest for true males, and there's no way in hell Tenka (or whoever was in charge back then) would have just let them through without demanding an explanation for why they were trespassing on his lands with a giant pack in tow. I would put them higher in the list but the sheer amount of unknown surrounding them is disappointing.

5. Iga
The Iga ninjas basically have no defining traits other than "Good Ninja" in contract to the Koga dogs, which was enough to set them apart back in GNG. However, after GDWO threw in all the other ninja clans, they basically have no unique characteristics - they can jump in the trees, but so can the Kogas, they have the Raikaken, but so do the Kogas (as of GDW), which is quite possibly the worst special attack in the series anyway (we've literally never seen it actually kill - or even seriously injure - a single dog on-screen, ever), and so on. Even their designs are boring, with 99% of them even being pure white or some other solid color. They managed to be unique in GNG by virtue of being the only good ninjas around, but now that the Ohu army has no less than four or five different ninja groups among its allies, they feel redundant.

6. Nokizaru
The Nokizaru are basically just another pack of side characters with "ninja" tacked on top in an attempt to make them stand out. They barely act like ninjas to begin with and abandon their principles the second it becomes apparent they could either die for them or sell their souls to a power-hungry madman to survive. We know absolutely nothing of their history, further making them seem like a random pack who just decided to start calling themselves ninjas to look cool. Their only saving grace is Kenshin himself, who is a great character, but again, I'm basing this ranking on the clans in general and not the individual characters in them.
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Re: Ninja Clan Ranker

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VenFenrir wrote: Mon Aug 05, 2019 2:35 am
5 Tenka's guys- Ninja dog clans were growing too abundant at this point. I hate Tenka, bad design, bad character, bad mind power thing (that is useless). Gennai is meh, but somehow he manages to show up in a lot moments of the series I really enjoy, and is backstory and character development aren't bad. Gennai's followers are also really loyal and serve for some comic relief too, which is okay.

6 Sanada- I hate these guys with a passion! First off Unsai is just as bad as Tenka in design, I hate his personality, and he is also overpowered. Second off these guys never help anybody, the only actions they took in GDWO was pep talking a few guys and fixing Kosetsu's neck (actually was curious to see how he would live a handicapped life. Not because I'm a sadist, I just like most of the handicapped dogs in the series and that neck thing seem interesting). In last Wars they 'fought' Monsoon, and they went from over powered to no powered. The real icing on the cake though is that they stole the peace Ideology from Weed and Ohu, and actually use it more often and successfully. I don't want to see these bimbos convince guys like Masashige and Kamakiri to change their ways, Sirius and Weed should be doing that >:( !

Anyway hope you enjoyed and I'm interested to see what you think of the various ninja clans.
I agree with your opinion on Sanada, I hate him and he has a terrible design and it makes no sense of his peacekeeping is better than Ohu's. As for Tenka, I'm suprised Yoshi even made a character like him because he dis-guarded the Wolf Arc's magical elements so why bring it back with this? He also doesn't serve much of a purpose and what breed is he meant to be? The whole arc of all these clans is actually quite confusing for me, why not just regular dog packs instead of this ninja stuff that the outsider looking in knows nothing about?
I did a Ginga dog horoscope and according my calculations, I am most like Gin! Am I lucky?

I took one of those 'Which character are you?' tests, one which happened to be Ginga related and it said I would
be most like Tesshin! I feel quite honoured!
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