Ninjai

Ninjai
Official poster
Created by	The Ninjai Gang
Original language	English
No. of episodes	12 [1]
Original release
Release	June 4, 2001 (2001-06-04) [2]

Ninjai: The Little Ninja is a Flash cartoon. ^[3] The cartoon has not been available online since April 2015.

Overview

The cartoon is a creation of The Ninjai Gang. ^[4] Ninjai is a web-based animation that centers around the life of Ninjai, a young samurai/ninja who is traveling the world looking for meaning and purpose. Along the way, his path is crossed by rogues or people who help him. Ninjai's best friend is 'Little Bird', a cute and brave sidekick with whom Ninjai often converses. ^[5]

History

Ninjai first appeared on June 4, 2001 as a trailer created using Adobe Flash, ^{[2] [4]} and had a trademark filed for its title on June 14, 2001. ^[6] The animation series drew a strong following with its unique style and storyline at the time, and ended up producing a total of 12 episodes thereafter, ^[1] each a few minutes in length.^{[ citation needed ]}

Despite being made by martial artists who did animation only as a hobby, ^[4] the quality of the animation grew steadily as the episodes progressed, with more time between each episode as a result. After the release of episode 12, production came to a pause, with the promise of further episodes on the way. Some time later^{[ when? ]}, news broke that the group was abandoning the short-form animations and aiming for a feature-length production with a complete studio. In early 2015, the group posted to their social media channels on Facebook and Twitter with media kits and wallpapers, and asked their followers to recommend blogs to advertise Ninjai in exchange for inside scoops on the series' production. ^[7] On March 5, 2015, a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign was announced and possible reward ideas were shared for the following 5 months, ^[8] but the campaign was never officially launched on Kickstarter.

The Ninjai website remained functional through at least August 2019, ^[9] and the Ninjai Gang had a presence at New York Comic Con in 2021. ^[10] The feature-length film that had been announced previously was then slated for release in 2022; ^[11] however, this did not come to fruition and, as of April 2025, IMDb still indicates that the film is in post-production. ^[12]

References

1. "Ninjai: The Little Ninja". Ninjai. Archived from the original on 9 April 2011.
2. "Ninjai Teaser Trailer". Newgrounds. 1 June 2001. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
3. Eastman, Susan Tyler; Ferguson, Douglas A.; Klein, Robert A. (2006). Media promotion and marketing for broadcasting, cable, and the Internet. Focal Press. pp. 239–. ISBN   978-0-240-80762-1 . Retrieved 29 June 2011.
4. "Little Ninja is a Big Hit on the Web". Black Belt . April 2002. p. 66. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
5. Smith, Krispijn (4 May 2006). "Filmpjes als snacks: Atom onafhankelijk platform". NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 15 July 2012. Retrieved 29 June 2011.
6. "NINJAI THE LITTLE NINJA Trademark of Sunset Studios - Serial Number 76272124 - Alter". alter.com. Retrieved 5 September 2022.
7. "Ninjai: The Little Ninja - Home". Facebook. Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
8. "Ninjai: The Little Ninja - Home". Facebook. Archived from the original on 14 August 2019. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
9. "Ninjai: The Little Ninja". Ninjai. Archived from the original on 29 August 2019.
10. "New York Comic Con - Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
11. "Ninjai: The Little Ninja (2022)". IMDb. Archived from the original on 21 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
12. "Ninjai: The Little Ninja". IMDb. Archived from the original on 7 February 2025. Retrieved 7 April 2025.