The Checklist: Shadow Warriors (S1 Ep1) “Tigers Sharpen Their Claws in a Storm”
For all its flaws social media can also be a source of good… like recently when I saw some fellow ninja fanatics discussing the Sonny Chiba series Shadow Warriors and the fact that it was now streaming for free on Tubi!
I am always looking for different TV shows to put to The Checklist test, but when you throw in the fact that Shadow Warriors is about ninjas and stars Sonny Chiba it put it at the tippy top of my watchlist.
Instead of randomly selecting an episode from the series like I usually do, I decided to start at the beginning with Episode 1 titled “Tigers Sharpen Their Claws in a Storm”, which first aired in Japan on April 1, 1980.
#1. Does the show have a quality theme song and opening?
The theme song for Shadow Warriors has an almost noble quality to it and really fits with the tone and tenor of the drama and action contained in the show. Having ninja action highlights and Sonny Chiba in the open certainly doesn’t hurt. 1/1
#2. Is anyone assassinated?
Ninjas have the reputation of being some of the greatest assassins in history, therefore it is reasonable to assume that in a show about ninjas that there are going to be some casualties along the way and “Tigers Sharpen Their Claws in a Storm” did not make an ass out of you and me.
As the show opened we learn that the third Tokugawa shogun died suddenly and now his five year old son has assumed the throne… at least in name. Obviously a five year old is not equipped to handle the Shogun responsibilities so a committee of high ranking officials step up to handle things. If you think that sounds like a recipe for disaster, you’d be right. The plotting and scheming is almost immediate and one member of the committee ends up dead… and who ends up getting blamed for this assassination!?!? The Shadow Warriors led by Hattori Hanzô (Sonny Chiba, The Street Fighter). 2/2
#3. Does the premise have legs?
After being wrongfully accused, Hattori Hanzô and the Shadow Warriors sped the rest of “Tigers Sharpen Their Claws in a Storm” tracking down those truly responsible for the assassination and ultimately righting the wrong. This lays the groundwork for what is to come for Hanzô and his ninja clan. History has proven that the well filled with political power plays never runs dry, so the Shadow Warriors won’t run out of things to do. 3/3
#4. Was any ninja weaponry featured?
There were plenty of swords featured in “Tigers Sharpen Their Claws in a Storm” but I was a little disappointed that there weren’t sais and shuriken involved… although a shuriken was prominently featured in the bumpers going to commercial break.
However the lack of sais and shuriken were offset by the fact that one, this was only the first episode of the series, no need to blow their ninja wad right out of the gate. Two, there were self destructing ninjas and three, there was some master of disguise/chicken blood action too! 4/4
#5. Were there any surprises?
Ninjas often use the element of surprise to their advantage and the thing that surprised me most about Episode 1 of Shadow Warriors was the nudity! When I think about TV shows from 1980, topless women at a bathhouse seem extremely out of place. Can you imagine Daisy Duke topless on The Dukes of Hazzard!?! Well, I am sure some of you can/did imagine it, but the possibility of it actually happening on American television was less than zero percent back in 1980.
My knowledge of Japanese TV is limited to Battle of the Planets, Tranzor Z, Voltron and MXC so bare breasts may very well have been commonplace on Japanese television back then and quite possibly to this very day. 5/5
- Final Score = 5/5 (100%) While American shows like The Master and Raven capitalized on the ninja popularity and worked ninja characters and lore into their shows and helped give American audiences more exposure to the world of the ninja, Shadow Warriors is as pure of a ninja show as I have ever seen. Sonny Chiba as the star gives the show some real badass credibility that you don’t get with Lee Van Cleef’s stunt double.
