Is the Ninja returning?

[Jinx999]

http://www.slate.com/id/2257107/pagenum/all/#p2
Not new for anyone who's heard of Naruto (who's not very ninjay anyway), but interesting.

[robkelk]

Ninja never left. Just because you couldn't see them doesn't mean they weren't here.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Wiregeek]

not seeing them is perhaps the best indication that Ninja _are_ there...
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[OpMegs]

"People see action movies and all sorts of things and think that that's ninja. That's not ninja. That's the reason you know the word ninja. Ninja aren't any different than any garden variety assassins. But much like the katana that comes from the same place, they have the single greatest PR campaign of all time."
---
"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

[Rev Dark]

Did the Ninjas ever go away? Are they now returning like a black clad boomerang, their splayed bum cheeks spread in preparation for some strange martial attack that is one part professional wrestling and one part Powdered Toast Man.
No. The Ninja has never truly gone away, nor were they merely hiding; they have been among us.
It is sad that they have fallen so far though; no more do we have Retsudo Yagyu, sending his straw-hatted minions out, while looking like a Japanese Willy Nelson who has really let his haberdashery habits go. Even the squinting, dark eyes of Sho Kosugi have been forgotten in a veritable flood of black-clad nimrods (And not in the classical mythology sense); who have infested popular culture like squishy martial termites.
Then a bright light. Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; taking the concept and granting it the ridiculous form it truly deserved. Then, and I must stress this, I do not blame them one bit; they were offered a choice. To point out to the slavering marketing machine that was sniffing at their arses like a lovelorn hound, that it was a contemporary satire; or smile quietly to themselves and cash the check. They cashed the check.
Christopher Lambert; still mumbling in a post Highlander Eurotrash accent fought them. There were classic ninjas, acrobatic ninjas, American Ninjas, Gymnastic ninjas, Lady Ninjas, sex ninjas, fighting-the-mafia-ninjas, plush ninjas, furry ninjas; and even Ultimate Fighter/MMA ninjas.
Even the deadliest (and cheesiest) warrior had an infestation of ninjas; where they were smeared by the Spartans. I liked the ninjas whining about not being in a standup fight; and the Spartans not bothering to mention that they wouldn’t show up to fight without at least 300 of their friends.
The ninja have remained with us; there is a surplus, like seals. I had to club three of them just to get to my desk this morning.
And Ops - I completely agree.