Sarutobi Sasuke - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

As Sarutobi Sasuke is most likely a fictional character created for popular consumption in the first place, he could be said to exist only within popular culture. Whatever the case, his image has been very influential in ninja fiction, in which he is usually portrayed as a young boy. The character was immortalized in contemporary Japanese culture by the popular Tachikawa Bunko (Pocket Books) children literature between 1911 and 1925, as well as in Sarutobi Sasuke, one of the more famous gag manga by Shigeru Sugiura from the 1950s (followed by Shōnen Jiraiya).

He is the titular character of the films such as Ibun Sarutobi Sasuke (known in the west as Samurai Spy), Sânada Daisûke to Sarutobi Sasuke, Sarutobi no Ninjutsu and Sarutobi Sasuke Senjogadake no Himatsuri, as well as of several other movies simply named Sarutobi Sasuke in 1918, 1919, 1922, 1966 (the last one also known as Ninja Spy). He is also the lead character in the musical film Brave Records of the Sanada Clan. Toei Animation's second full-length movie was Shônen Sarutobi Sasuke, dealing with Sasuke's childhood, which was followed by a TV series. This film was also the first time when both Sasuke and anime were introduced to the western audience (in 1961 as Magic Boy), although all the references to him being a ninja were removed in the English-language version. He is also the titular character of an anime series Manga Sarutobi Sasuke, of the video game Ninja Boy Sasuke, and of Sampei Shirato's 1962 manga, as well as of the manga series I am Sarutobi! by the "father of the modern manga" Osamu Tezuka two years earlier.

The adult Sarutobi Sasuke is a character in the anime and manga series Samurai Deeper Kyo, in which he serves Sanada Yukimura as the leader of the Ten Braves - the same role he has in the manga and anime Brave 10 and in the film Kamen Rider Den-O: I'm Born!. Sasuke also appeared in the historical anime and manga Shura no Mon (serving Sanada Tsubura), in the taiga drama series Tenchijin, in the anime Sanada Ten Braves and in the film Goemon. In the video game and anime series Sengoku Basara, he is portrayed as a laid-back but cunning ninja, aiding Yukimura. In the film Shogun Assassins (Sanada Yukimura no Bouryaku), Sasuke is even shown to be literally an anthropomorphized ninja monkey. In the Super Sentai series Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, the main character Sasuke (a.k.a. Ninja Red) is a direct descendant of Sarutobi Sasuke, as it is in the case of Ecchan in the manga and manga series Sarutobi Ecchan.

The very name Sasuke became something of a default ninja moniker. For example, the sports entertainment show known in the other countries as Ninja Warrior is titled Sasuke in the original Japanese version, while Great Sasuke is stage name of the Japanese professional wrestler Masanori Murakawa. Various ninja characters by the name of either Sasuke or Sarutobi appear in the anime series Gin Tama, Haō Taikei Ryū Knight and Ranma 1/2 (Sasuke Sarugakure), the video games Captain Commando, Ehrgeiz, Shall We Date?: Ninja Love (a romance option or the player character), Gotcha Force, Kessen (a female ninja), Ninja Master's -Haoh-Ninpo-Cho- (where he is the protagonist), Samurai Warriors and Suikoden II, in the Legend of the Mystical Ninja video game series (as a robot ninja), and in the trading card game Yu-Gi-Oh!. His legacy is also almost omnipresent in the anime and manga franchise Naruto in which several characters are named after him, including Sasuke Uchiha, Asuma Sarutobi, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Konohamaru Sarutobi, and a character actually named Sasuke Sarutobi (Hiruzen Sarutobi's father). In the parody series Ninja Nonsense all of the male ninja are named Sasuke.