This is a site devoted to The Samurai, the Japanese TV series of the 1960s which was such a hit in Australia. It is constantly evolving as I find more information or add things I think fans of the show would like or find interesting. It began life as a fanzine published in 1988 which in turn was based on an article I wrote for Multiverse. In 1999, I scanned the fanzine and published it on my web site and have been adding to it ever since so that now it doesn't bear much resemblance to the original.

THE SAMURAI (ONMITSU KENSHI)

EPISODE GUIDE

Spy Swordsman

Koga Ninjas

Iga Ninjas

Black Ninja

Fuma Ninja

Fuma Ninja Continued

Ninja Terror

Phantom Ninja

Puppet Ninja

Contest of Death

The New Samurai

The 1973 revival

ADDENDA

Selected articles from the Australian press

(in 1965)

The Samurai on DVD
The Samurai feature film on DVD
Samurai Memorabilia
Shintaro, the Samurai Sensation That Swept a Nation some personal notes
Samurai Mystery

OTHER RESOURCES

NEWS

An independent producer and SBS made a documentary about The Samurai phenomenon in Australia in the 1960s, entitled Shintaro! The Samurai Sensation That Swept a Nation. It was broadcast on SBS on Wednesday 4 November 2009 at 8.30 pm. A DVD was released by SBS in April 2010 for $19.95. This was just the documentary as broadcast as it runs 60 minutes. No extras or extended versions of interviews or material not used as some fans hoped. It is available in places like JB Hi Fi and ABC Shops and Centres or via mail order through companies like Madman Entertainment.
Siren Visual released all 10 stories ( 128 episodes) of The Samurai in 2010. These have been remastered (though still have those rather naff cobbled together intros instead of the original ones) and offer the original Japanese soundtrack (with subtitles in a whole new translation) as an option as well as the English-dubbed version we are familiar with. For more information visit Siren's website.

Phantom Agents

LINKS

Glen Johnson's Samurai site

Milesago Samurai page

Rocket's Samurai site

Glen Johnson's Phantom Agents site

plus a site devoted to the ninja film series Shinobi no mono

IMDB has page plus comments on The Samurai

Thereare even are two Facebook entries The more interesting one is a group at http://www.facebook.com/?sk=app_2309869772#!/group.php?gid=95863139628 where people can discuss the show, post pictures, etc. The other item is a page which simply describes the show's history, based on Wikipedia, this website, etc.

Shintaro! page on the SBS website

SBS has a blog with comments on the Shintaro documentary

Heroic Cinema's review of the the Fuma Ninja DVD set.

TV Tonight has a section on Shintaro! with comments. TV Series Galore has a blog on it as well. There are even comments on the ABC website (and the suggestion the ABC repeat the old TV series! Well, I suppose it's nearly as violent as Doctor Who...)

Here is a Philippino remembrance of the series (it was big there, too)

Vintage Ninja.net An American site which does what it says on the tin, looks at ninja in all different media. This is the page on The Samurai

John Barnes Blogsite Contains an article on the SBS Shintaro documentary

There's a Wikipedia entry now (as of Nov. 2009)

Monkey (Saiyuki) A great site devoted to all aspects of this popular 1978 Japanese TV series starring Sakai Masaaki. (Includes article on the series I wrote for Multiverse #6)

Home