Nintama Rantaro

Aired: 1993 - 1994

An Asia-do-produced TV anime based on Souibei Amako's manga Rakudai Ninja Rantaro, beginning its first season on NHK General TV in April 1993 in a ten-minute slot. In the Warring States era, the hapless would-be ninja Rantaro enters Ninjutsu Academy and, with his classmates Kirimaru and Shinbei, spends each day swamped with lessons in ninja arts, gunpowder and physical training under an eccentric faculty. The show mixes chaotic school life, childhood friendships and sharp slapstick in a daily-life ninja gag comedy that would go on to run for decades and become a national favorite.