PART ONE- General Stuff

Here's some background analysis on the game's weapons, heroes, items, shops, and enemies.

The heroes of Mystical Ninja are two guys called Kid Ying and Doctor Yang. The pun is obviously a reference to the Ying-Yang, which is a symbol of the Bhuddist faith. The Bhuddists believe that life is all about the co-existance of opposites, especially opposites working together to create a more harmonious whole. "Ying" and "Yang" are terms used to identify opposing entities within a whole.

The personalities of Kid Ying and Dr. Yang are certainly opposites, with one being a serious fighter while the other is a lazy goof-off. Clever as they may be, however, the Ying/Yang names were actually made up by the American translators.

In Japan, Ying and Yang are named "Goemon" and "Ebisumaru" respectively, and both are based on Two legendary "noble thieves"of Japanese folklore, Nezumi Kozo (Yang) and Ishikawa Goemon (Ying). Much like Robin Hood, these two characters were famous for robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Their stories are the subject of numerous plays and fables in Japan.

While King Ying is just a generic sort of hero character, Dr. Yang is supposed to be a ninja. This is why he dresses in all one color and wears the odd-looking hood thing on his head.

WEAPONS

Both Ying and Yang use "disguised" weapons; that is to say they fight using objects that were not designed for fighting. Ninjas would often use ordinary household objects as weapons because it helped them remain covert.

Kid Ying uses a traditional Japanese tobacco pipe, known as Kiseru, as his weapon. The weaker one is made of wood, while the upgraded one is made of metal, for improved skull-clubbing power.

Dr. Yang fights using a Japanese flute, known as Fue. Again, he upgrades from a wood to metal version. I'm sure I don't need to mention that Ying and Yang's ultimate weapons, the Yo-Yo and kazoo, have no basis in Ninja history.

As his secondary "throwing" weapon, Ying throws coins. Coins in ancient Japan were these large, heavy things. Some were as big as a human hand. If you were skilled, it was thus possible to heave coins at people and case quite a bit of pain. There is a famous Japanese legend about a guy named Zenigata Heiji who caught criminals by throwing coins as his weapon.

As his throwing weapon Yang uses Ninja Stars, or as the Japanese call them, Shuriken. Though Shuriken look like they were designed to kill, in reality they were originally supposed to be a humble carpenter's tool. The idea was you would use the sharp points to dig hammered-in nails out of wood. The Ninjas quickly adapted this blade of death into a weapon.

JUDO

Throughout the game Ying and Yang can visit a Jujitsu trainer who will teach them certain special moves. None of these moves are based on actual Japanese martial arts, but they do contain references to other things. Each character has their own distinct moves:

Yang rides around on a bull, ramming enemies. The design of the bull is based on a common Japanese good luck charm known as akabeko, or "red cow". They're made of paper-mache and have little bobbing heads. The red cow is a particularly common symbol of the Japanese town of Aizu.

Yang hovers in the air by flapping two traditional Sensu paper folding fans. His particular fans feature the design of the Japanese flag on them. Interestingly, this is the only time the Japanese flag appears in Mystical Ninja.

Yang dons a kimono gown and does a passionate little dance. The performance is known as Buyo and is the traditional dance of Japan. It's normally done by women, but hey, Yang is weird like that.

Each character has four Judo moves in all, but the ones I haven't mentioned aren't based on anything Japanesey.

Ying rides a tiger, which is also based on a paper-mache luck charm. I am not sure what his name is, however.

Ying dresses up as a weird-looking guy and whips his hair at enemies. The costume he's wearing comes from Japanese Kabuki theater (more on this later). The character is supposed to be a lion and on stage the actors really do swing their "manes" around like that.

HELPERS

There are a number of items and helpers the heroes come across during their adventure:

Lucky Cats

Two sorts of cat statues appear in the game. A plain lucky cat upgrades your weapon while a golden one extends your life meter.

These statues are known as Maneki Neko, or "beckoning cats" in Japan. Business-owners often place them inside their shops for good luck, as it is believed the cat will help "beckon in the business." The one raised paw is supposed to symbolize the cat waving in customers.

Raccoon Dog

The Raccoon Dog statue appears at the beginning of every action sequence and gives you a little warning about the dangers that lie ahead.

In Japan, this racoon-dog hybrid beast is known as Tanuki, and is an actual animal that lives in Japan. There are a lot of fables that ascribe Tanuki with magical powers, and the creatures are regarded as a symbol of good luck. They are also regarded as a symbol of fertility, and are usually depicted with gigantic... er, testicles.

Japanese restaurant owners often place tanuki statues outside of their business to bring in prosperity, just like the Lucky Cat statues. The tanuki statue seen in Mystical Ninja is done in the typical style. He wears the traditional large straw hat, and carries a fishing pole and bottle of sake rice wine in one hand and a tablet with a good luck message in the other. He even has the traditional tiny penis and giant testicles, which somehow managed to slip by the Nintendo of America censors.

A traditional Tanuki statue at the entrance to someone's house.

Elephant statue

Halfway through most of the action stages you reveal an elephant statue that serves as your midway save point.

However, I have so far been unable to determine what, if any, cultural significance elephant statues of this sort have to Japanese culture. Please help me out!

SHOPS

Mystical Ninja world is home to a wide variety of shops and stores which Ying and Yang can visit. Most are highly anachronistic- travel agencies, burger joints, arcades and the rest. But a few offer some glimpses of classical Japanese culture:

 

The hotel features a large painting of an ocean wave. This is supposed to be a rendition of "Stormy Sea off Kanagawa" a famous woodblock print created by the famed 18th Century Japanese artist Hokusai.

You can also see the Konami logo in the background, in one of its many, many cameo appearances in this game.

The maze / concentration / trivia huts feature a weird-looking guy wearing a winged hat as part of the decor. The fellow's name is Konami Man, and he was the official Konami mascot at the time.

Image on the right is from the title screen of Wai Wai World, a Japan-only NES game which he starred in.

One of the games you can play in the mini-game hut is this thing where you have to try and throw balls into a "Goblin's" head. The beast is a traditional Japanese devil-creature known as an Oni. The game itself seems to be based on the mamemaki ritual of the annual Japanese Setsubun festival.

Mamemaki is a light-hearted, silly ceremony where people gather in the town square and throw packages of beans at other folks who are dressed up as Oni. This symbolic gesture helps ward off evil spirits for the coming year.

If you look closely, you can see that the cards in the concentration mini-game each have the wavy Konami logo thing on the back.

FOOD

Throughout the game the characters can shop at restaurants and purchase a variety of food items to replenish health. As you might expect, they're all traditional Japanese dishes.

Here are the 20 distinct meals available to Ying and Yang:

Unagi Kabayaki, slices of fried eel on kabob sticks.

Two pieces of nigiri-style sushi. The yellow one is rice topped with fried egg with a seaweed band (tamago) while the red is raw tuna (maguro).

Sakuramochi, a pink cake made of sweet rice, wrapped in a cherry blossom leaf.

A pot of Nabe stew on a heating stand.

Udon rice noodles in broth topped with sliced chicken

Ramen wheat noodles in broth, topped with onions, chili pepper and pink kamaboko fish cake slices.

Okonomiyaki, the "Japanese pizza." A fried pancake topped with onions, meat, cheese, and various other fix'ems.

A traditionally bland Japanese desert; coconut tofu pudding with bits of cherry and peach.

Three differently flavored Dango rice dumplings on a skewer.

Nikujaga beef stew with a bottle of Sake rice wine.

Japanese Cheese Cake.

A traditional Japanese tea set with pot, cup, and tea container.

I have no clue what this is. It's most likely a desert of some form or another.

In the interests of completeness I'll note that you can also purchase three Western-style meals, including a slice of pizza...

Oyako Donburi, a hearty bowl of rice, with chopped onions, eggs, and pork.

...a whole pizza...

Tonkatsu, deep fried pork cutlets.

....and a hamburger. Western-style fast food is very popular in Japan these days.

Miso soup, a broth made of fermented soybeans, topped with diced onions.

ENEMIES

Mystical Ninja has a lot of enemies, many of which only appear in one level and will be thus analyzed on the levels page. However, the game also features a bunch of "generic" enemies who reappear throughout the game in multiple levels:

The guys with the buckets on their heads are known as Komuso monks. The Komuso were famous nomadic priests who would wander all over Japan playing music on their Shakuhachi flutes. To keep themselves protected from the rain they wore wicker baskets on their heads.

If you feel bad for beating up monks, keep in mind that a lot of Komuso in ancient Japan were actually just criminals in disguise.

The little guys with their hands together in prayer are supposed to be Japanese pilgrims. The give-away is their giant straw hats, called Gasa. As they journeyed to visit important shrines, pilgrims trekked for many days in the blazing sun, so hats like these were a must. Pilgrims still exist in modern-day Japan, and so do these hats.

This fellow is a Bhuddist monk. You can tell because he carries a staff known as the shakujo, which is a metal poll with dangling rings on it. The rings jingle as he walks, which helps inform the common people that a monk is near. Judging from his costume, this guy is from the Yamabushi sect, which were a gang of monks who were also warriors.

This guy is a sort of Japanese "thief" archetype. In other video games and Anime and so on you often see very similar-looking thief characters, with purple costumes and big green bags. I wish I could find out more information on where this character originality comes from, however. Please let me know if you have any info,

This guy is likely supposed to be a caricature of one of Japan's northern indigenous people, known as the Ainu. The giveaway is the savage clothing and facial hair. They're generally stereotyped as an uncivilized, barbaric people.