Ganbare Goemon(がんばれゴエモン, lit. "Go for it, Goemon!"), known as Goemon or Mystical Ninja in North America and the PAL region, is a long-running video game series produced by Konami. Ebisu Etsunobu is the joint producer of this franchise.
These games revolve around the main character, Goemon, and his exploits. As the name suggests, his character is loosely based on Ishikawa Goemon, the noble thief of Japanese folklore. While the early games of this title emphasized Goemon as a noble thief, he eventually becomes more of a standard video game hero character. His trademarks are his blue bushy hair and weapon of choice, the kiseru. The games are set in a cartoon-like, mystical Feudal Japan. Within this world, every bit of folklore and legend about Japan is true. Although the series has its roots in action adventure, the Ganbare Goemon series has features from genres including RPG, puzzle games, and board games. Ganbare Goemon has proven to be widely popular in Japan with its many video games, with its success spawning a wide series of merchandise and an anime and manga series.
Anime Ganbare Goemon(アニメがんばれゴエモン,Anime Ganbare Goemon) is an animetelevision series, based on Konami's best-selling video game franchiseGoemon. The television series was produced by Trans Arts, aired from 1997 to 1998, ran for 23 episodes, and 5 volumes of videos were released on VHS and DVD. It was eventually picked up in North America for an English dub done by ADV Films under the name Legend of the Mystical Ninja.
Plot
The Demon Lord Makamuge intends to conquer both the game world and the real world, and it's up to Goemon and his friends to prevent this from happening.
Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri Dōchū(がんばれゴエモン!からくり道中, "Persevere Goemon! A Tricky Journey") is a video game produced by Konami. It is the second game in the Ganbare Goemon series (known in English as Mystical Ninja) and the first released on a video game console and home computer. It was initially released for the Family Computer July 30, 1986 and later released for the MSX one year later. The Family Computer version was re-released in Japan only for the Game Boy Advance under the Family Computer Mini label and for the Wii, Nintendo 3DS and Wii U under the Virtual Console service.
Gameplay
The game revolves around the main character, Goemon, and his exploits. As the name suggests, his character was based on Ishikawa Goemon, the noble thief of Japanese Folklore. Unlike its sequels, this game still doesn't feature the comic situation and strange characters that define the series, and Goemon is portrayed as a noble thief rather than a plain hero.
The game plays a top view action/adventure game (similar to The Legend of Zelda) though it is separated by stages. In each level Goemon must find three passes in order to advance. Some of these passes are found in boxes, secret passages or can be bought. After finishing all the stages, the game will present you with a new Japanese province (eight total), but all the levels will remain the same. The ending, however, will be different.
Sasuke (stylized in Japan as SASUKE) is a Japanese sports entertainmenttelevision special in which 100 competitors attempt to complete a four-stage obstacle course. An edited version, named Ninja Warrior, is screened in at least 18 other countries. To date, Sasuke content has been aired in 157 countries.
Shot on location at Midoriyama studio in Yokohama, it airs on TBS between Japanese television drama seasons. Each 3-hour special covers an entire competition; there are normally 100 participants. There have been 31 specials produced, approximately one new special per season (twice per year). The show is produced by TBS and is one of the spin-offs of Muscle Ranking(筋肉番付,Kinniku Banzuke), another sports entertainment competition, which aired on G4 under the name Unbeatable Banzuke. Until the 10th competition, Sasuke was broadcast as a special part of Muscle Ranking, but it became an independent program when Muscle Ranking was discontinued. The first competition was held indoors, marking the only time Sasuke did not take place outside. Competitions generally start in the daytime and continue until completed regardless of weather or darkness. After Monster9's bankruptcy on November 2011, all rights to the show fell completely into the hands of its broadcaster, Tokyo Broadcasting System. Following their acquisition of all rights to Sasuke, TBS renamed the show Sasuke Rising for the 28th, 29th and 30th editions, but have since reverted to the original Sasuke title.
Masanori Murakawa(村川 政徳,Murakawa Masanori), (born July 18, 1969), is a Japaneseprofessional wrestler who is best known by his stage name The Great Sasuke, as well as a former Iwate Prefectural Assembly legislator. He has wrestled in Japan and in the United States in various professional wrestling promotions. He is said to have an incredible tolerance for pain, mainly in reference to the injuries he has had including a cracked skull on two occasions.
Professional wrestling career
In his early career, Murakawa wrestled under the name Masa Michinoku. Masa, from his given name Masanori, and Michinoku, after the alternate name for his Japanese home region, Tōhoku. Taka Michinoku adopted a similar gimmick to parody him. Later, on a tour of Mexico, Murakawa adopted the mask, uniform, and name Ninja Sasuke. This was the predecessor to the Great Sasuke gimmick he would adopt upon returning to Japan.
Murakawa is also the owner, and founder, of Michinoku Pro Wrestling, the first Japanese independentpromotion not to be based around the Tokyo area. Instead, it was centered around the northern area of Honshu Island. The 2 prefectures in the northern area of Honshu are Iwate Prefecture and Aomori Prefecture.
In addition to pitching in for anime roles, Hori even lent her voice to video game characters Sunakake Baba and Sasuke in the Gegege no Kitaro and Ganbare Goemon game series, respectively ... Hopefully the legend of karakuri Sasuke will continue.
