I said exterminate the bugs, not exorcise them.
"Ninjutsu techniques were passed down by ninja masters and included the use of spells and incantations, known as kuji-in and kuji-kiri, which were believed to channel mystical energy for various purposes, from enhancing physical abilities to invoking protective forces."
— Stephen K. Hayes, The Ninja and Their Secret Fighting Art
In fictional media, whenever an assassin or Ninja are introduced, they are usually accompanied by a mystical power. This could be inspired by Japanese folklore, which would feature ninjas, with legendary abilities, such as walking on water, Invisibility, and control over natural elements. The Trope Codifier is probably author Futaro Yamada (1922-2001), who established the idea of "ninja skills as superpowers".
Since Ninjas have their own magic and spells, in most media, it is called Ninjutsu, which is named after the martial art. One quirk of this is that elemental techniques will generally be named with the character 遁 (ton, "Escape/Release"), a relic of their more mundane origins; e.g. a historical 火遁の術 (Katon no Jutsu, "Fire Escape Technique") was at most using fire or smoke to distract guards (possibly via specially-crafted arrows or bombs), but fictional katon is upgraded to straight-out Playing with Fire abilities.
A hallmark of the Wuxia genre.
This is a subtrope of Functional Magic. Compare with All Asians Know Martial Arts, Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting, I Know Karate, and Spell Construction. See also Magic Knight for a warrior who uses weapons and spells together, and Psychic Operative for when the ninjutsu techniques are hypnotic or mind-affecting. Tropes associated are Ki Manipulation, Supernatural Martial Arts, Kung-Fu Wizard and Ninja Log. See also Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Basilisk: Both clans (Koga and Iga) have a variety of abilities, such as controlling animals, using psychic powers, and manipulating body parts.
- Bleach: Yoruichi Shihoûin and Sui-Féng are master and apprentice respectively. The former was the 22nd head of the Onmitsukido and the first woman to ever lead their division, whereas Sui-Féng is her successor; making her the second woman to ever head the division and the first member of the Féng Clan to ascend to a position of leadership. Both are considered Soul Society's two most proficient hand-to-hand combatants and are both capable of using Shûnko — a Kido enhanced martial arts form.
- In GaoGaiGar, Volfogg and his combined form Big Volfogg are Ninja-themed giant robots who use technology to mimic many classic Ninja powers like vanishing.
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam: Schwarz Bruder is a practitioner of a set of ninjutsu known as "German Ninjutsu", which is the same as that classical Ninjutsu but with a more Germanic lean. This also translates into his skills as a Gundam Fighter as his Spiegel Gundam can perform the same abilities. However, because this Schwarz is a DG Cell-modified version of the real, deceased Schwarz to be made to resemble Domon's brother Kyoji, we don't know if this is something the real Schwarz could do or if this is something Kyoji added.
- Naruto: Almost every ninja in this series uses a spiritual energy known as chakra, which can be moulded through various techniques known as jutsu to produce Elemental Powers, swap places with an object, walk on water, etc. It's eventually revealed that chakra was a gift to humanity from a Semi-Divine figure known as the Sage of Six Paths, and Ninja ("Hidden Ones") were originally acolytes of his Ninshuu ("Creed of the Hidden")note who used chakra to connect to the hearts of others and understand them. This practice was distorted from its religious origins by the Sage's sons, who invented modern ninjutsu after discovering that chakra could be turned inwards instead of outwards, mixing it the user's life force to transform it into more dangerous forms.
- Ninja Scroll: The Eight Demons all have considerably magical powers, such as shapeshifting, cloning, and invincibility.
- One Piece: Zig-Zagged. The Ninja and Samurai of Wano all insist that their powers are 'jutsu', despite them obviously being derived from eating Devil Fruits, between their repetitive names (Kin'emon's 'Garb-Garb' powers, Raizo's 'Scroll-Scroll' powers, and Kanjuro's 'Brush-Brush' powers) and the weakness to water. Because of Wano's isolationist nature, it's doubtful that most people from the country know what a Devil Fruit even is outside of the artificial, defective SMILE fruits that Caesar Clown, Donquixote Doflamingo, and Kaido collaborated on.
- Rurouni Kenshin: Kenshin and other characters have been shown to have supernatural abilities, despite not being a series only exhibited by ninjas.
Comic Books
- Daredevil: The Hand and their enemies the Chaste are ninja clans trained in mystical arts, with the former's magic being derived from worshipping a demon named Krahllak. A story from Power Pack has Wolverine state the Hand's ability to use magic sets them apart from most ninja clans.
Fan Works
- Crimson Rising: The fic expands the lore of ninjas in the Power Rangers universe. Ivan Ooze and Toxa discuss how Ninjas and Ninjetti are particularly troublesome for the bad guys since they have powers even without a morpher, something which the former Ninjetti rangers were not aware they might have until the former Ninja Storm rangers point it out to them. Hunter Bradley discovers he is heir to the Crimson Phoenix Ninjetti powers, and the Ninjetti and Ninja Storm rangers get new, permanent abilities to defeat Ivan Ooze, which they must train to control.
Film — Live-Action
- Royal Warriors (aka Hands of Death and Ninja Operation 7): Near the end, the two rival ninja leaders fight, at which point they suddenly demonstrate the ability to teleport.
Folklore
- Japanese folklore is full of stories about ninjas using magic tricks like becoming invisible, shapeshifting, and disappearing into thin air. At least some of these stories were likely spread by the ninja themselves to enhance their reputation.
Literature
- The works of author Futaro Yamada are the Trope Codifier, which established the idea of "ninja skills as superpowers", his influence being obvious in many manga and anime.
- Takeshi Narumi was also a prominent author in the "magical ninja" genre.
- Katakiuchi Kidan Jiraiya Monogatari (original 1806-07, remake 1839-68) is one of the oldest examples of "magic ninja heroes" in literature. The protagonist Jiraiya is a heroic bandit who apprentices under a giant toad to learn various mystical techniques including the ability to conjure tsunami, and encounters a number of other characters with their own distinct ability sets.
- Nansō Satomi Hakkenden (1814-42) is one of the earlier depictions of Katon no Jutsu and similar element-themed ninja techniques as literal Elemental Powers. While katon user Dōsetsu is a vengeance-obsessed Rōnin who is not explicitly called a ninja, he uses his "Fire Escape" abilities for duplicitous purposes (including Smoke Out and faking his own death) and later discards it in order to live a more honest life. Dōsetsu claims that the five elemental escape techniques date back to ancient China (having learned his from an old scroll), and suggests that a number of historical figures who famously made narrow escapes may have used them.
- Tales of the Otori is set in a Low Fantasy version of Japan with an order of assassins called the Tribe. Some are born with the potential to learn outright supernatural powers like becoming invisible, creating an illusory duplicate, or inflicting Forced Sleep through eye contact.
Live-Action TV
- Henshin Ninja Arashi: Both Arashi and the villainous Monster Ninjas he fights assume their superpowered animal forms through the use of the mystic Henshin Jutsu.
- Kaiketsu Lion-Maru: Shishimaru transforms into a lion-headed ninja through use of a mystical technique taught to him by Kashin Koji.
- Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation: The series introduces Venus de Milo, a new, female Turtle he Ninja Turtles trained in the art of "shinobi". Even though in Real Life, "shinobi" is just a synonym for ninja, the series treats it as a type of mystical ninja.
- Power Rangers: Multiple installments feature ninja elements.
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: After the destruction of their Dino coins and Thunderzords, the Rangers seek out Ninjor, the original creator of the power coins who grants them new mystical ninja powers and Zords.
- Power Rangers Ninja Storm features two ninja schools, the Wind Ninja and Thunder Ninja academies. Along with superhuman speed, Wind Ninja students gain mastery over the elements of earth, water, and air, while Thunder Ninja students exclusively gain mastery of thunder. The Ninja Storm rangers gain additional abilities on top of their existing ninja skills.
- Power Rangers Ninja Steel: The Ninja Steel rangers utilize and protect the six Ninja Power Stars, gaining elemental abilities over fire, water, earth, forest, metal, and storm. One episode also has Preston gain actual magic from the Ninja Nexus Star.
- Plenty of the ninjas in Sekai Ninja Sen Jiraiya display supernatural abilities, with Jiraiya himself being able to transform his katana into a Laser Blade with his ninjutsu for his Finishing Move. There's also Madam Spider, who blurs the line by being a ninja and a Wicked Witch with powerful magic.
- Power Rangers's parent show, Super Sentai, also loves this trope:
- Ninja Sentai Kakuranger: The heroes are a group of ninja. One of their supernatural abilities is that rather than piloting Humongous Mecha, they actually transform themselves into said mecha.
- Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger: The show that Power Rangers Ninja Storm was adapted from, and like it's American counterpart it features a combined team from various Ninja Schools that practice Elemental Powers. The villains, the Jakanja, are also ninja's, with among other things the power to make monsters grow giant sized.
- GoGo Sentai Boukenger: One of the four villainous groups opposing the heroes is a gang of ninjas called Dark Shadow. Their leader, Gekkou of Illusions, is a sentient owl who can use magic to create his Monster of the Week out of random objects and invoke the Once per Episode Make My Monster Grow. We later learn he was once a human ninja who defeated a giant owl monster by magically imprisoning the beast in his own body, turning himself into an owl in the process.
- Shuriken Sentai Ninninger: The show that Power Rangers Ninja Steel was adapted from. Here too, the heroes have elemental powers on top of their ninja skills.
- Super Space Sheriff Gavan Infinity: Kunai/Gavan Raiya's Kazanami Style of ninjutsu allows him to become invisible, pass through walls, commandeer machinery, and even travel between dimensions. It's implied to be a distinct power set from his powers as a Gavan.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition: The Ninja class is a variant of the Rogue that loses armor proficiency, a few skill points per level, and has a more-restrictive sneak attack, but in exchange gains a few magical abilities such as short-term invisibility. General consensus was that it was an extraordinarily weak class.
- Magic: The Gathering: The Ninja creature type is common on the plane of Kamigawa, and while few of them are explicitly spellcasters, several of them have spell-like abilities that trigger on combat damage, aided by the Ninjutsu ability, which allows a ninja to be put into play in place of another unblocked creature. The character of Nashi, an adopted child of the planeswalker Tamiyo, was introduced as a Rat Ninja for the purpose of mechanical cohesion in the Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty set but has since appeared as a Shaman using his mother's story-based magic.
- Pathfinder: Ninjas use Ki Manipulation to become supernaturally lightfooted, create illusory disguises or shadowy duplicates, become invisible or See the Invisible, and similar feats.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!: Ninjas are an archetype of the many different monsters seen in the game, and since magic is an essential part of the gameplay as well, naturally there are some magic cards specific for these ninjas, in particular the "Ninjutsu Art" series.
Video Games
- Dead or Alive has its fair share of magical shinobis.
- Kasumi uses several ninpo/abilities along with her acrobatic skills.
- Ayane uses explosive techniques unlike Kasumi.
- Ryu Hayabusa uses a variety of Ki techniques.
- Final Fantasy:
- Final Fantasy I gives the Ninja limited access to Black Magic.
- Final Fantasy IV: Edge the Ninja's Ninjutsu skill allows him to inflict various forms of elemental damage on enemies, paralyze them, instantly flee from a battle, or summon illusory clones of himself, thus being a combination of White and Black Magic, though primarily focusing on the latter (to the point its casting animation in some 2D versions is the same as Black Magic's). Rosa even comments that it seems similar to black magic, just different.
- Final Fantasy XIV: One of the jobs players can take up is the Ninja. Like other jobs in the game, users harness their Aether to perform various Ninjutsu skills via hand signs. Scion ally Yugiri Mistwalker is the most iconic user of this job, having even adapted it to the Rogue class for Eorzeans to use (which is needed for the player to get Ninja).
- In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy Tactics A2, most of the Ninja's skill set is themed around "Veils" themed around the wuxing elements of Fire, Wood, Water, Earth, and Metal, which all deal magical damage and inflict a status effect. Ninjutsu users even adopt a hand seal gesture when said Veils are used.
- Inindo: Ninjas are one of the magic using classes and have their own magic style, Ninpo. Ninpo spells aren't as powerful as the spells of other classes but this balances how versatile the ninja class is.
- The Legend of Zelda features the Sheikah, a Ninja clan in service to the royal family. While Ocarina of Time and subsequent games showed them using Smoke Out and Offscreen Teleportation it's not really until Breath of the Wild that we see how magical their techniques are. The benevolent Sheikah are mostly dead by then, but the Magi Tech they'd left behind informs much of the setting. We unfortunately only see their offensive capabilities through the Yiga Clan, their rebellious offshoot, whose powers include teleportation, weapon summoning and telekinesis using mudras and paper talismans. (This contrasts with Link's use of a Sheikah Slate, which offers him the same abilities.)
- Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity: Impa's special ability involves collecting Sheikah runes to summon clones of herself to widen the otherwise meager area of her attacks. Once she has three runes, she can perform a jutsu that massively powers up her Special Attack to have a much larger area of effect.
- Lost Sword: Tales of Britannia: The first collaboration for this game was with Senran Kagura, so the sage Merlin tells the Senran Kagura ninjas Asuka, Hikage and Yumi that their ninpo techniques are virtually identical to the magic found in Britannia, so it would be easy for them to learn the local magic. She then gives the girls a quest to find a spell book from a long-dead alchemist who lived in the local ruins.
- Ninja Gaiden:
- Ryu Hayabusa and the other ninja in the games practice the mystical art of Ninpo. It requires Ki to cast and typically involves manipulating elements — specifically, fire, ice, lightning, wind and void. Ninpo spells that heal or unleash explosive bursts of energy also exist.
- In 1992's Ninja Gaiden for the Master System, the player/Ryu (who is the ninja) can find scrolls throughout the stages that serve as powerups. Three of them are simply variations of Shuriken-throwing; one is a Ring of Fire that creates fireballs that circle Ryu as protection, and a homing fireball spell that shoots four projectiles at a target.
- Ninja: Shadow of Darkness: The ninja Kurosawa can cast different attacking spells on enemies by collecting the right scrolls (or purchasing them in shops at the end of each stage), ranging from summoning a powerful explosion where he stands to raining thunderbolts on all surrounding enemies. He still prefers using his fists and weapons most of the game though.
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: Shinobu, while playable, is able to use Gentoken, a Sword Beam.
- Mortal Kombat: The main Palette Swap characters all possess a special elemental power. However, Scorpion is the only real ninja (better as Lin Kuei, since they find it an insult to be called ninjas.) using fire elements.
- Samurai Shodown has its resident ninjas, Galford and Hattori Hanzo, utilizing magical attacks in their movesets: Galford can throw electrically-charged projectiles, while Hanzo can unleash fire along the ground.
- Shinobi
- Shinobi (1987): In the original arcade game, once per level, you can use ninja magic to either seriously damage a boss or kill all lesser opponents on the screen. Depending on the level, the magic takes the form of a tornado, multiple copies of your ninja, or a thunderstorm.
- In The Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master, the player has access to four types of magic from the start, but only one use per life.
- Ikazuchi is a protective magic that generates an electric field around Joe that prevents damage four times. Ninjas can't catch you if you are shocked.
- Karyu is an offensive magic that summons several dragons of fire that damage everyone on the screen.
- Fushin is an auxiliary magic that simply enhances Joe's jump height(jump distance less so).
- Mijin detonates Joe on the spot to deal heavy damage on foes and then regenerates him at full health and with a Ninjutsu available. Nothing keeps it from causing a game over at 0 lives...
- Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi: For the Sega Genesis, Musashi/the player has access to three types of magic, which appear as a ninja scroll in the bottom left corner: tornado, meteor shower, and fire. However, the magic appears at random and only once per stage.
- Shinobi: Art of Vengeance sees the Ikazuchi, Karyu, and Mijin jutsus return, but with slightly different functionality: while Karyu is by-and-large the same, Ikazuchi — now renamed Raijin — reduces damage instead of outright nullifying it, but also makes it easier to perform executions. Meanwhile, since the game doesn't use Video-Game Lives, Mijin does not outright kill Musashi upon use, but it does reduce his HP to near-zero upon use. In addition, with Musashi gaining various tools and abilities that aid in aerial mobility, Fushin is made redundant and is replaced with Shisui, which restores Musashi's HP fully upon use. The game also introduces several "Ninpo", less powerful arts such as a Razor Wind or Breath Weapon that aren't as powerful, but can be used much more often.
- Sonic the Hedgehog: Espio the Chameleon straddles the line between this and Hollywood Chameleon, being a ninja chameleon who can whip up whirlwinds and turn himself invisible.
- Spiritual Assassin Taromaru: Taromaru is a "psychic" ninja who can cast attacking spells, his default being a Hand Blast he unleashes on various foes. He can also upgrade his powers into fireballs or thunderbolts. The game's common ninja mooks seem to avert this, attacking Taromaru with shurikens or arrows instead.
- Tactics Ogre: The Ninja Class has exclusive access to particular spells, learned through Scrolls like traditional magic spells but requiring one-off items to be used in the spellcasting. These can either be damaging summons or useful buffs.
- Tales of Phantasia: Local Optional Party Member Suzu hails from the Ninja Village, and can summon lighting, throw fireballs, and Summon a giant toad through artes classified in-game as "ninpou". It's definitely not magic, since humans can't use magic in this setting. On the other hand, Cress can do almost the same through plain old Implausible Fencing Powers.
- Tekken have three mystical ninja characters.
- Yoshimitsu throughout the series becomes more powerful with the abilities he possesses, such as being able to teleport, which he uses for his Rage Arts in Tekken 7 and 8. His blade is also a demonic one that thirsts for the blood of evildoers.
- Kunimitsu shares similar abilities with Yoshimitsu, being able to teleport.
- Raven has the ability to teleport and turn intangible. His appearance in Tekken 8 gives him the power to conjure clones of himself to aid in battle.
- Trials of Mana: Training Hawkeye in the ninja Prestige Class gives him access to a series of elemental attacks called "Jutsus" which are themed around the 4 classical elements and function similarly to the spells cast by the other characters.
- Warframe: The titular Warframes are Living Weapons utilized by the Tenno. Every Warframe has superhuman strength, speed, durability, and mobility, and are explicitly meant to be Ninja-esque in nature (the game's Tagline for several years was "Ninjas Play Free"). Every Warframe has access to supernatural powers thanks to utilizing power from the Void, which allows for everything from creating storms of fire and barrages of highly caustic water to turning invisible, flight, and opening ways into the 'Rift Plane', a space adjacent to reality that most enemies can't harm the Tenno in.
Visual Novels
- Danganronpa: While Gundham Tanaka is not a traditional ninja, he does have the exceptional ability to communicate with several animals, such as 4 hamsters known as the “Four Dark Devas of Destruction”.
Webcomics
- The Adventures of Dr. McNinja:
- While Doc normally doesn't truck with magic (for very good reason, given the number of villains he fights that do use magic, on top of his Dark and Troubled Past) he does have one ability that's explicitly supernatural: by humming the theme to Ghostbusters, he gains the ability to punch ghosts with his bare hands.
- At one point, Doc and Chuck Goodrich are hurled into a Bad Future where the Earth has been conquered by dinosaurs, and Doc's little brother, Sean 'Dark Smoke Puncher' McNinja has taken on the mantle of "Dr. McNinja", using techno-wizardy to emulate magical powers. Sean denies it's a tribute to his brother, who had been missing, presumed dead for decades at this point, and claims it's a mix of Doctor Who and Doctor Strange.
Western Animation
- PJ Masks: Night Ninja and his Ninjalinos frequently use magic or magical relics in their plans. Per Season 2, one of the more frequently seen magic powers is a technique called Ninja Fingers, which allows them to telepathically levitate objects. Their fingers glow with yellow sparkles when they use this ability. In the first episode of season 6, Night Ninja gains a power-up when he steals the six rings of ninja magic from the museum and combines them with fragments of a magic asteroid.
- Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja: The town of Norrisville is protected by a mystical ninja whose powers are passed on to a different host every four years. Randy Cunningham is the latest in the line, and as the Norrisville Ninja gains a number of powers and mystical weapons, including Elemental Powers and Healing Hands. While much of this comes from the Ninja Suit, it is pointed out in "The Ninja Identity/Supremacy" that it's Randy's courage and compassion that lets him use the suit to its full potential.
- South Park: Played with in "Good Times With Weapons''. When the boys get their hands on ninja weapons, they begin to imagine themselves as ninja's with various supernatural powers, such as clearvoyance, transformations or, in Cartman's case, any power he wants. However, it's all make belief.