Trivia / Shuriken Sentai Ninninger

• Acting in the Dark: Megumi Han had no idea about Kyuemon’s true nature - both as a character and as a gendered individual.
• Bonus Episode: Shuriken Sentai Ninninger: AkaNinger vs. StarNinger Hundred Nin Battle! was released with an issue of TV Magazine.
• Casting Gag: Megumi Han, the voice of Kyuemon, is also Sayla Mass on Gundam The Origin, and Kyuemon actually gets a Humongous Mecha down the line... but it's based on the Qubeley. Someone got their references crosswired...
• The Danza: Kasumi Yamaya plays Kasumi Momochi, this year's pink ranger. (Though, the two names are written with different kanji.)
• Delayed Release Tie-In: The toys became this after the previous series had its' penultimate episode delayed for breaking news; since they still came out around the time the original series was supposed to air. Even the television advertisements for said toys that aired on the final Toqger noted that they were now available instead of saying they would be released the next week as usual.
• Hey, It's That Place!: Apparently Kinji's family's monster hunter business took them as far as Gunman World. Specifically "The Maverick" saloon!
• Meaningful Release Date:
  • The series debuted on February 22nd, known as "Ninja Day" since "2" sounds like "ni", or "Nin-nin-nin", even if that wasn't the show's intended launch date.
  • The Milestone Celebration episode fell on April 12th (yo-i-ni), with the Next Episode Preview dubbing it "Good Ninja Day" (佳い忍日). If the Release Date Change wouldn't have affected the show's schedule, it would have been aired in April 5th, the premiere day of the first episode of Himitsu Sentai Gorenger.
• Milestone Celebration: This series celebrates the 40th anniversary of Himitsu Sentai Gorenger. To celebrate it, the April 12th episode had the Ninninger team up with Ninja Red and Hurricane Red, with Akarenger making a surprise cameo.
• Mythology Gag: It has its own page.
• No Export for You: Surprisingly, averted in South Korea. They skipped Power Rangers Ninja Storm/Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger, going from Power Rangers Wild Force to Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger, and then skipped Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Kamen Rider Gaim, all because of their overtly Japanese motifs of ninja and samurai. You'd think then, that Ninninger would be skipped as well. But nope, they're getting Power Rangers Ninja Force.
• Prop Recycling:
  • Past Youkai defeated by the team tend to reappear during their subsequent training. For example, Kamaitachi, the Youkai of the Week in Shinobi 1, reappeared in a training simulation in Shinobi 4.
  • The Hyper Battle DVD brings back the Mooks from Kakuranger and Hurricanger!
  • Played straight in Shinobi 26, with a new Nekomata, except it's called Mataneko, whose watch face is a different color and has a new Verbal Tic too. Then it's done yet again in Shinobi 42 — this time they add a pair of glasses to it and call it Meganekomata, but it has a different VA this time... because it's actually Tsumuji in disguise.
  • Shinobi 43 goes even further with several past Yokai being summoned by Fudagaeshi, even revisiting the places they appeared in as well. Even Yakumo's lawnmower makes an appearance!
• Real-Life Relative: Two of Takashi Sasano's sons have roles in the series. His eldest son, Shota, played the younger Yoshitaka Igasaki in episode 44 and his second eldest son, Yuma, plays one of Nagi's classmates in the final episode.
• Real Life Writes the Plot
  • Shinobi 21's baseball match came out of an idea by Shunsuke Nishikawa (Takaharu Igasaki) which he put forward to writer Kento Shimoyama.
  • Yoshi Sudarso (Koda in Power Rangers Dino Charge) happened to have been visiting Japan when Shinobi 34 was filming and so was invited to make a cameo as a civilian.
• Release Date Change: Was meant to launch on February 15th, 2015, ended up moved back a week after ToQger 46 was pre-empted for news coverage, meaning that episode 47, it's finale, needed the timeslot.
• Role Reprise:
  • Tsutomu Tareki narrated Choujin Sentai Jetman and reprised the role for Shuriken Sentai Ninninger twenty-four years later.
  • Shinobi 7 sees the return of Teruaki Ogawa as Sasuke (Ninja Red) and Shun Shioya as Yousuke Shiina (Hurricane Red).
  • Shinobi 34 sees the return of Takumi Tsutsui as Toha Yamaji (Jiraiya).
  • Shinobi 38 has The Cameo by Hiroya Matsumoto as Tsubasa Ozu (Magi Yellow).
  • Shinobi 43 guest stars Taiki Matsuno as the voice of Shurikenger.
• Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy:
  • The Shinobimaru, Dragomaru, Rodeomaru and Surfermaru toys cannot move their legs well due to them being attached together by their shins. The former two even have hands at their knees and thigh area, respectively. There are, however, "Super Sentai Artisan" collector's edition toys of Shinobimaru and Rodeomaru that represent the individual versions of those mecha; they can't perform all the combination functions of the regular DX versions of them but are still to scale. Shinobimaru can be used to sit in the center of Shurikenjin, while Rodeomaru can ride the Bison King Buggy. Same for the Akaninger Chozetsu articulated figure included with the SSA Rodeomaru, for use with the Lion HaOh.
  • For King Shurikenjin, the show will only play its own jingle, while for the toy, you will inevitably hear the regular Shuriken's jingle in the process, while combining the mechas together. This is also the case for Ha-Oh Gekiatsu-Daioh, where Ha-Oh Shurikenjin's sound will activate.
• Both Goton Shuriken (Nin and Yo) all refer to something of relevance to the Japanese: the Goton Nin Shuriken's elements are derived from the five classical Chinese elements, while the Goton Yo Shuriken are how the Japanese pronounce the 5 vowels of A, I, U, E, O.
• What Could Have Been
  • An early proposal for the 39th Super Sentai was a corporate Sentai based on the dream jobs of children. Ninjas were then added into the mix and, once the development of job motifs was deemed too much a challenge, the dream job aspect was dropped altogether and Ninninger was born.
  • All five Ninningers were planned to be cousins before a sibling duo was added in. Given a choice between a "little brother" or "little sister" character, the latter was chosen as it was deemed to have more story potential and so Shironinger was made into Akaninger's little sister.
  • The series would have been set in a full-fledged ninja school like the one the Hurricangers came from (which was massacred by the Jakanja in their first episode), but was reduced to the Igasaki family home doubling as a ninjutsu dojo.
  • There was some hesitation in making Yōkai the Monster of the Week due to the overlap with not only Kakuranger but the Yo-kai Watch game series. It was ultimately decided that the growing popularity of Yokai amongst children would only be positive for Ninninger.
  • There were originally 108 Yokai-birthing Sealing Shuriken in reference to the 108 earthly temptations in Buddhism. This was amended to 48 to differentiate Ninninger from Kamen Rider Drive, which already had 108 Roidmudes. Writer Kento Shimoyama is on record that it is a coincidence that 48 is also the number of the subordinates of the legendary Doshun Igasaki who was the inspiration for the Ninninger family.
  • Fuuka was initially to have been a more serious character cooler in personality before pilot director Shojiro Nakazawa took a more comedic route.
  • Takashi Sasano's schedule led to projections that the character of Yoshitaka Igasaki may only be able to make a total of five appearances throughout the entire year. These projections were flipped when he ended up a constant fixture for all but a handful of episodes in the series.
  • Director Noboru Takemoto revealed that Starninger's debut was brought forward as a result of the series having premiered a week late due to a Breaking News Interruption.
  • Director Katsuya Watanabe also revealed that #6, in which Fuuka is taken hostage, was modified in light of the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris.
  • Super Starninger was not part of the original plan and was only devised with the introduction of the Ninja Gekiatsuto, the form's design being based one of the initial ideas for Starninger.
• Write What You Know: Kento Shimoyama has admitted that Fuuka is inspired by his own experience of living with a younger sister, in particular her unamused reactions to the antics of Takaharu and Tsumuji.