| Black Lion | |
|---|---|
 Page of Kuro no Shishi, showing a similar style to Satsujinsha | |
| Manga information | |
| Kanji | 黒の獅士 |
| Romaji | Kuro no Shishi |
| Other names | Il leone nero (it) |
| Genre | Historical fiction with robots and spaceships |
| Author | Go Nagai |
| Illustrator | Go Nagai |
| Original publisher | Kodansha |
| Other publishers | Asahi Sonorama (jp) Chuokoron-sha (jp) Island Comics Primo (jp) |
| Demographic | Shounen |
| Magazine | Shukan Shonen Magazine |
| Original run | 1978-05-28 ~ 1979-06-10 |
Inspired in Satsujinsha, one of Go Nagai's first works, this violent period piece takes place in the 1500s and stars a talented low ranking ninja named Shishimaru. In it, Shishimaru fights against Ginnai Doma (an immortal samurai who, despite being butchered multiple times, doesn't die) because Ginnai murdered his comrades. Despite being set in historical times, it has machine guns, lasers, robots, and atomic reactors with no real explaination for the first bit of the film. It was made into an anime and released in Japan in 1992 November 21 and in the 00's in America.
A montage of the highlights of the anime (its gory to the point of comedy and all the violence is packed into a few minutes makes it seem long)
Characters
Shishimaru Ginnai Doma Oyu Hayabusa Kojiro Momoji Saburu Nobunaga Nagatoji Saburota Yurimaru
Plot
First Confrontation
The OAV starts out with a building being attacked and alot of people getting brutally(and comicly since its so gory) killed. A man who looks just like the last few men who just got killed says that Oda Nobunaga's rifle team can't use their rifles in the rain. He is then Shot (FAR) more times than nessicary and the building (and surrounding area) is blown up by explosives that FAR exceed the periods technology. Then, Shishimaru and his team come in and kill some people and Shishimaru talks for a few seconds about how to win they must retreat. Suddenly, Ginnai Doma comes in and Shishimaru says they won't retreat so they can fight Ginnai. Ginnai chops up some of the ninja and the rest stab him, only to have their blades break off and for Ginnai to kill one of them. Oyu is surprized that Ginnai Doma was not killed and Shishimaru refuses to believe that anyman can be immortal and attacks Ginnai...but he gets owned. In an attempt to save Shishimaru, Oyu attacks Ginnai and gets killed. As Shishimaru's men fight and die, Shishimaru mourns Oyu and blacks out.
Flashbacks and Friends
After the rain Hayabusa and Kojiro talk about how the destruction from the first few minutes only took 30 minutes and talk about Nobunaga's expansion. Then they find Shishimaru and take him to get treatment for his wounds. Meanwhle, a man is working on a computer and viewing projections for Oda Nobunaga's future conquest of Japan. Then a ninja come to a cave somewhere and whips out some kind of gadget computer and a guy comes in asking for help when a light shines on him and goes into him and he becomes posessed. The scene is revealed to have been a flashback from the man at the computer and he says that the guy was transformed into Saburu Nobunaga and it then shows flashbacks about stealth Bombers nuking samurai. The man then says that Nobunaga has access to things that shouldn't exist in this time and that Nobunaga is changing the flow of history. The man says he must ask the time control department for guidance. Then an alert goes off and he comes out of his wall and a poster covers it after he leaves. A man comes and tells the computer man(who is revealed to be called Momoji) that Shishimaru has returned alive. It then cuts back to Shishimaru having a flashback about what happened when his friends were butchered and wakes up panting. He stumbles out of his room and down the hall calling for Oyo and is stopped from entering a room by the guards for being too low ranking. Shishimaru then punches out the guards and enters the room (despite being unable to walk properly mere seconds ago) and finds Many people in a room around a map. Shishimaru thinks a girl is Oyu but she punches him and says she is Hayabusa. Kojiro says Shishimaru was the only one alive and he weeps for the fallen and Hayabusa critisizes him for crying over a woman, which causes him to cuss at her and as, it is about to come to blows, Shishimaru's master Yurimaru says they saved his live and he should thank them. He goes on to say that Nobunaga has teamed up with Ginnai Doma and they are pwning them with new never before seen weapons and how they gotta pull together or every ninja dies. Shishimaru says he understands and wants to kill Ginnai but he don't wanna work with Hayabusa and that her klan has loud women. After Shishimaru leaves the rest of the ninja talk about him behind his back (Momoji defends him) and Nagatoji offers to make Shishimaru his responsibility. Momoji says that Saburota has been spying on Ginnai Doma and they will soon plan...but Shishimaru was listening from behind the door.
More Flashbacks and Death
Somewhere else, a ninja(Saburota) is fighting Ginnai Doma and stabs his head/body with kunai and wacks off a chunk of Ginnai's head with his katana...but Ginnai survives and kills him by spliting him in half. Then Ginnai has a flashback of his brutal ninja death and waking up as a cyborg made by tentacle monsters(aliens). He talks to Nobunaga and says with his wifeand child killed, he has no reason to live and to kill him. Nobunaga convinces Ginnai to kill the ninja who killed them even though killing them won't be enough and tells him he has an immortal body. After the flashback, Ginnai buts back the wacked off piece and it sizzles together leaving a white fluid cream. At Nobunaga's castle, Nobunaga (this time it's a different Nobunaga) talks about the men killed in battle and how it don't matter who dies as long as they all get iced. Later, Saburota's head is found in a river and Shishimaru is in the crowd that found it. Later, the ninja talk about Saburota and how he did his job. Shishimaru realizes/is angry at the fact they sent him on a suicide mission and after a few sentences, leaves with Yurimaru to kill Ginnai.
Round 2 with Ginnai
Later Shishimaru is training and says that Saburota's message said that Ginnai is coming by the road they are now at. Yurimaru says that Shishimaru is the best of the lower ninja and later Ginnai comes in. Yurimaru is burning something as Ginnai walks by him and Yurimaru puts something in the fire that makes blue smoke. As Ginnai walks through the smoke he comes across a robe on a stick man with a sign that says that Ginnai will die there. Then the Stickmen(scarecrows) start moving around and Ginnai stabs one, only to have it come back up with Shishimaru's face. Shishimaru reveals his family name (Tenoh) and that he will revenge his klansmen! He claims to be immortal and taunts Ginnai as the Stickmen circle around him and Ginnai cuts one down. Shishimaru pops out of a Stickman and clashes blades with Ginnai, only to be split in two by Ginnai's long hard blade! But it turns out it was a Stickman and Ginnai reveals that Shishimaru was using the child's trick of using marajuana in the barley that Yurimaru was burning to make him see an illusion(despite it not affecting Shishimaru and saying that marajuana is a childs trick. After a short fight, Ginnai/Shishimaru are in a oily place with bamboo (Ginnai on the oil and Shishimaru on the bamboo) and Shishimaru uses some fire pell to burn/blow up the area. Shishimaru seems to be comfy with avenging Oyu but Ginnai comes out of the fire and splits Yurimaru in helf with a katana slash! Shishimaru fights Ginnai and is almost kiled but is saved by a bright distracting light and Nagatoji by taking him underwater until Ginnai walks away a few seconds later(much like Violence Jack). He implys that Shishimaru's vendetta is what got Yurimaru killed, to which Shishimaru replys that Nagatoji sends his own men on suicide missions. He tells Shishimaru that Ginnai killed Kojiro/Hayabusa's parents 1.5 years ago on another one of his killing sprees and Shishimaru suspects they ignored their parents assassinations, to which Nagatoji says they kinda did. A flashback shows that they were leaving the Koga village right after Ginnai started attacking and, while Hayabusa wanted to go back, Kojiro made them go onward(away from Koga village). He trys to convince Shishimaru that he isn't the only one who feels like that but Shishimaru leaves.
Moar Spatter/Assassinations
Later at Ginnai's place, Kojiro/Hayabusa's team nails Ginnai while he was sleeping with a dart and, while he is seizuring they shank him alot with their blades. As they start to leave, Ginnai gets up and starts killing them but when he is about to slice Hayabusa, Shishimaru nails Ginnai's hand with a kunai, which makes Ginnai stop his death blow for some reason despite it being a small wound and basicaly only attracting his attention. After some dialouge, alot of Ginnai's men come out and ninja slices a candle dow and it causes Ginnai's place to explode part by part since a ninja set up explosives and power to blow it up. Kojiro/Hayabusa's team + Shishimaru go under the building's floor but Ginnai is following them above somehow and comes out of the fire at them. They throw bombs at him and after the smoke clears, his head rolls down but is still alive and, after the body comes out of the rubble, puts his head on and takes a guys head off. As they run away, Shishimaru says Ginnai is right behind them so he will stay behind and wait for him to kill him. Ginnai comes in and fights Shishimaru but Nagatoji catches Ginnai in a chain web. He says he is old and whips off his coat to reveal lit dynamite but Ginnai breaks out of the web and beats up Nagatoji. Nagatoji urges them to go but Hayabusa doesn't want to leave until gets his throat ripped out after telling Shishimaru to look after her. He blows up off camera and the ninja's escape the tunnles they were in and agree to set a trap while using comicly bad dialouge and Shishimaru agrees to be bait.
Final Fight 4
Ginnai comes and fights Shishimaru in the Violence Jack like background and the other ninja's come out with guns and blow up gunpowder barrels in the rocks to make a rockslide to kill Ginnai. They find Ginnai's arm but its a machine and Ginnai comes out of the rubble, with half his face open and machine looking, and breathes fire on someone. He explains he pushed his body too far and his atomic reactor will over heat and kill everyone. Shishimaru headlocks him in an attempt to save the others but Ginnai's head rockets off and kills most of the other ninja's before returning to the body. Ginnai cuts off Shishimaru's right arm and slashes Hayabusa. Kojiro gets Ginnai's spare sword and gives it to Shishimaru while getting beat up and, after a sword wrestling match(think arm wrestling) Shishimaru cuts through Ginnai's blade and splits him in two causing a massive explosion and a mushroom cloud that is shown as a still image slow pan for twenty-nine seconds. The three ninjas are somehow alive after the explosion since the aliens teleported them away and healed their wounds while saying they will meet again and to call him the Black Lion.
Unanimated manga chapters
Shishimaru meets up with some other time warriors includeing a caveman, encounters strange creatures (God like mammoths) and a Darth Vader Samurai.. (Who turned out to be Ginnai Doma. Huh, go figure.)