While not featuring the censoring mosaics of the original Japanese version, the US release of La Blue Girl was edited during the initial VHS release and all scenes featuring Miko's companion Nin-Nin engaged in a sexual act were removed, probably to avoid the charge of pedophilia, in spite of the fact that the character is not a minor but a dwarf ninja.

In 1984, Van Cleef was cast as a ninja master in the NBC adventure series, The Master, but it was canceled after 13 episodes.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the most visible presence of martial arts films was the hundreds of English dubbed kung fu and ninja films produced by the Shaw Brothers, Godfrey Ho, Joseph Lai, and other Hong Kong producers.

Historically, the word ninja was not in common use, and a variety of regional colloquialisms evolved to describe what would later be dubbed ninja.

In the West, the word ninja became more prevalent than shinobi in the post-World War II culture, possibly because it was more comfortable for Western speakers.

Historian Stephen Turnbull asserts that the ninja were mostly recruited from the lower class, and therefore little literary interest was taken in them.

It was around this time that the word shinobi appeared to define and clearly identify ninja as a secretive group of agents.

The account of this assault is given in the Mikawa Go Fudoki, where it was written that Kōga ninja infiltrated the castle, set fire to its towers, and killed the castellan along with 200 of the garrison.

Espionage was the chief role of the ninja.

Arson was the primary form of sabotage practiced by the ninja, who targeted castles and camps.

Rokakku Yoshitaka, the same man who had hired Iga ninja just years earlier, was the fortress holder – and target of attack.

In 1571, a Kōga ninja and sharpshooter by the name of Sugitani Zenjubō was hired to assassinate Nobunaga.

According to a document, the Iranki, when Nobunaga was inspecting Iga province — which his army had devastated — a group of three ninja shot at him with large-caliber firearms.

A ninja named Kirigakure Saizō ( possibly Kirigakure Shikaemon ) thrust a spear through the floorboards to kill Hideyoshi, but was unsuccessful.

He was " smoked out " of his hiding place by another ninja working for Hideyoshi, who apparently used a sort of primitive " flamethrower ".

Uesugi Kenshin, the famous daimyo of Echigo province was rumored to have been killed by a ninja.

According to Turnbull, the ninja was trained from childhood, as was also common in samurai families.

Some evidence of medical training can be derived from one account, where an Iga ninja provided first-aid to Ii Naomasa, who was injured by gunfire in the Battle of Sekigahara.

When a retreat was needed during the Siege of Osaka, ninja were commanded to fire upon friendly troops from behind, causing the troops to charge backwards in order to attack a perceived enemy.

Instead, it was much more common for the ninja to be disguised as civilians.

The mizugumo was a set of wooden shoes supposedly allowing the ninja to walk on water.

Miura Yoemon, a ninja in Tokugawa's service, recruited shinobi from the Iga region, and sent 10 ninja into Osaka Castle in an effort to foster antagonism between enemy commanders.

Hearing of the pending invasion, the Wa Emperor enlisted the aid of a counselor named Nobunaga who prepared Wa's defenses and sent the ninja master Fukio to infiltrate Shou Lung.

* Ibuki-An aspiring ninja who is sent to retrieve the G File from Gill's organization.

The next night, a team of Mochizuki Koga ninja is sent to investigate the plague in Shimoda village, but on their way they are slaughtered.

As World War II began, Strucker was appointed wing commander of the Death's Head Squadron by Hitler, and, in 1941, he was sent to Madripoor to help the Hand ninja cult transform young Natasha Romanova into their master assassin, only to be defeated by Logan ( yet to acquire the adamantium skeleton which would transform him into Wolverine ), Captain America, and Ivan Petrovitch.

That night, Hideyoshi's men sent a number of ninja into the Mitsuhide camp, setting fire to buildings and generally causing fear and confusion.

" Oboro-maru ( おぼろ丸 ) is a ninja of the Enma with great potential sent on an important mission.

Then one night one of the ninja sent to protect Heishiro bribes her to poison his sake for one thousand gold.

According to the historian Stephen Turnbull and non-fiction writer Joel Levy, there is a historical record of a failed assassination attempt by a ninja called Kirigakure Saizō, sent by the warlord Tokugawa Ieyasu to kill his rival Toyotomi Hideyoshi ( Tokichiro Kinoshita ).

To stop Garuda and avenge the innocent lives that were lost in his reign, two ninja masters from the Iga clan, Lord Hayate and Lady Kaede, are sent to infiltrate Garuda's impregnable stronghold and assassinate him.

She is a representative of the Koga ninja clan and actually Momochi's younger sister, sent away to Koga when she was young.

Hanamaru is a young masked ninja in training who is sent to Leisure Land, a theme park made for children to investigate the strange disappearances of kids.

He was sent after Roga to retrieve the Dragon Stone but attacked by the Kimon ninja instead.

Yagyu Renya is a government ninja who was sent to find Shigure and collect the Dragon Stone.

When a band of ninja sent by Daijo Yuki try to attack Ikazuchi-Maru, the young ninja puts his skills to the test.

ANNA is an " Automaton Nuclear Neo-human Android ", a robot ninja from the planet England sent to rid the world of the king's tyranny.

The cyborg ninja suit has been donned by multiple characters, most recently by the character Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Fueled by fictional depictions in martial arts movies, this led to the ninja craze of the 1980s United States.

Other more subtle changes to the game include new physics to the ninja rope, and the removal of an in game glitch that allowed players to inflict huge damage to another worm, by aiming the mortar ( a common weapon with high ammo ) vertically above another player.

Drawing of the archetypical ninja, from a series of sketches ( Hokusai manga ) by Hokusai.

Following the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate ( 17th century ), the ninja faded into obscurity, being replaced by the Oniwabanshū body of secret agents.

These professional ninja were actively hired by daimyos between 1485 and 1581, until Oda Nobunaga invaded Iga province and wiped out the organized clans.

Following the Battle of Okehazama in 1560, Tokugawa employed a group of eighty Kōga ninja, led by Tomo Sukesada.

The Kōga ninja were recruited by shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu against Christian rebels led by Amakusa Shirō, who made a final stand at Hara Castle, in Hizen Province.

The ninja were stealth soldiers and mercenaries hired mostly by daimyos.

A chunin captain led a force of 48 ninja into the castle by means of deception.

Deaths of famous persons have sometimes been attributed to assassination by ninja, but the secretive nature of these scenarios have been difficult to prove.

While pieces of light armor purportedly worn by ninja exist and date to the right time, there is no hard evidence of their use in ninja operations.

There were lightweight concealable types of armour made with kusari ( chain armour ) and small armor plates such as karuta that could have been worn by ninja including katabira ( jackets ) made with armour hidden between layers of cloth.

The chain and sickle ( kusarigama ) was also used by the ninja.

Later, explosives such as hand-held bombs and grenades were adopted by the ninja.