Why was "Ninja" related things "off limits" in some countries for awhile?
For some reason, during the 90s (mid to late I think, but don't hold me on that) some countries (including the UK) decided that Ninjas or anything vaguely Ninja related could no longer be represented in the media - this lead to many Ninja related aspects to films, TV shows and video games being either removed, or being changed in some (in my opinion stupid) manner. For example (and I realize this contradicts something I said years ago, but I remember it now, and realize I was wrong) the "Ninja Turtles" were no longer allowed to be called "Ninjas" so the were called "Hero Turtles" on the TV series (of course most fans already knew them as "Ninja Turtles" and still reffered to them as such.)
Video games also suffered, "shurikens" (those cool star-shaped things) would either be removed, be replaced by throwing knives.
Nunchucks (or Nunchaku?) were also banned and needed to be removed from the media, one example I can think of is the video game "Soul Blade" (aka, "Soul Edge" - although it was only the "Blade" version that suffered) one character orignally used nunchucks, but in some versions these where replaced by a fictional(?) weapon which is never reffered to by name - the game just calls it "an unusual weapon" or "a strange weapon", the game even implies that the character created the weapon himself. :roll2 Strangley, there was another character in the game who actually was a Ninja, and the game still called her one, so maybe the ban was slightly weakening at that point...
The Anti-Ninja thing has obviously gone now (Ninjas and there equipment are now allowed to appear in media in these countries), but why did it take so long? Why were we unable to acknowledge the existence of Ninjas at first? Anyone know? Also any more examples of this?
On a side note; Are "nunchucks" and "Nunchaku"(sp?) the same thing? :confused:
