Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Ninja Academy Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 30, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of The Nico Mastorakis Collection from Arrow Video.

Arrow Video has been cultivating a really rather sweet relationship with Greek writer and director Nico Mastorakis for several years, bringing out any number of Mastorakis' films, including .com for Murder , Nightmare at Noon, Death Has Blue Eyes, The Wind, The Zero Boys, Hired to Kill and Island of Death. It's perhaps worth noting that as with this release, Mastorakis tends to provide his own masters, which may "cut out the middle man" and facilitate releases. Mastorakis quite frequently uses some incredibly luscious Greek locations for films that might otherwise not be much above what the back cover of this release overtly mentions as "B movie" levels, and that's once again the case with the sextet of films offered in this nicely packaged new set. That said, even when the films stray from the stunning Greek locations, there's another kind of "scenery" regularly on hand in these films courtesy of a bevy of beautiful women, often in little to no clothing. This collection has a rather broad range of subject matter as well as tonal proclivities, and makes a pretty cogent case that Mastorakis can be at least decently facile in any number of genres.

A brief parsing of the screenshots that have been uploaded to accompany this review may impart at least some of the unabashedly gonzo characters that fill this tale of two warring dojos. Yes, those are a mime, a James Bond-esque secret agent, a survivalist type, a bunch of guys in hazmat suits and your one relative "normie" who can be spotted, and that doesn't include the typically Mastorakis blandishments of half naked or in fact completely naked women. The underlying narrative here is actually fairly simple and straightforward, with Gerald Okamura starring as Chiba, whose dojo is stuffed full of a bunch of bizarre students. There's a showdown brewin', though, with some competitors, but any perceived "through line" is really not all that important since the film coasts on the patently weird combo platter of mismatched characters.

Ninja Academy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ninja Academy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet (really more of a pamphlet this time around) has the following generic information on all the transfers, which are lumped together on one informational page, as follows:

The Time Traveller, Sky High, Glitch!, Ninja Academy and The Naked Truth are presented in their original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with stereo and 5.1 audio.

Terminal Exposure is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with stereo audio.

The high definition masters were provided by Nico Mastorakis.

While not overly problematic in any major way, Ninja Academy probably offers the least overall pleasing video in Arrow's Mastorakis set. The element looks faded, so that all of the outdoor material is just slightly brown and dowdy in appearance, and there are some moments, notably some nighttime material, that look very rough, with a noisy, near pixelated, grain field and minimal detail levels (see screenshot 4). Things tend to improve after the first half hour or so, and some of the outdoor material in particular starts to pop a bit more convincingly. Passing close-ups can offer decent detail on things like the mime's white face powder.

Ninja Academy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

As with several of the other films in this set, Ninja Academy features either a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or LPCM 2.0 option. Again, as with many of the other films in this set, it's in the outdoor material (which is plentiful) as well as scoring choices (this features another bunch of songs by Tom Marolda, who did similar service on Glitch!) that the surround track most noticeably engages the side and rear channels. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

Ninja Academy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged Ninja Academy and The Naked Truth together on one disc. All of the films in this set feature "self interviews" by Mastorakis detailing that particular film's production, as well as other supplements, as follows:

• Nico's Self Interviews: Ninja Academy (HD; 15:42)


• Gerald Okamura, Ninja Academy's "Chiba" Remembers (HD; 15:53) is a fun career spanning reminiscence.


• Nico's Self Interviews: The Naked Truth (HD; 20:37)


• Trailers

  Ninja Academy (HD; 3:23)

  
  

  The Naked Truth (HD; 3:40)

Ninja Academy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are moments in Ninja Academy that approach true "WTF?" peaks of absurdity. My favorite moment in that regard had absolutely no real "plot" point, but featured the survivalist and another character stumbling down a trail toward the mime attempting to pay a taxi driver while a bunch of guys in hazmat suits run the other way (see screenshot 8). If the actual writing of this piece matched some of the just patent insanity of the visuals, Ninja Academy could have been some kind of cult classic. As it stands (and/or kicks, given its martial arts focus), it's another intermittently goofy Mastorakis effort, though this time without stunning location work. Technical merits are okay, though video is on the lower end of the quality curve seen in this set, and the two "self interviews" are hilarious in their own ways, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.