Ninku
Ninku
Ninku (NINKU -忍空- Ninkū) is a Japanese manga series by Kōji Kiriyama. The original manga spanned 9-tankōbon volumes and was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump manga magazine between 1993 to 1995. A second manga titled Ninku Second Stage: Stories of Etonins (忍空 -SECOND STAGE 干支忍編-) ran from 1994 to 1995, but recently restarted in the seinen magazine Ultra Jump in October 2005, with its sixth tankōbon volume being issued in November 2008. It ranked number 21 among the top-selling manga volumes during the week of its release.
The story in Ninku is about an odd-looking 12-year-old boy named Fuusuke (Fuusuke of the wind (風の風助 Kaze no Fūsuke)) who is a powerful warrior from the Ninku school of martial arts, a style that mixes ninjutsu and karate. It is explained that before the present time in the story that those who could use Ninku were targeted by an evil empire and the Ninku corps were formed to combat the menace. The names of the corps were taken from the twelve Chinese zodiac animals (干支 Eto) and each captain of the corps was called the zodiac animal Ninku master (干支忍 Etonin). Their powers are derived from nature and a specific dragon to their own element, with the Tenkudragon being the almighty master of all the elements. The Ninku were disbanded by their master before the end of the war and as such, the Empire was victorious. After which the Ninku became villified by the Empire as the perpetrators of the war and made attempts to eliminate any surving members. At the beginning of the story, three years later, Fuusuke, the young former captain of the 1st Ninku corps and controller of the wind and Hiroyuki (ヒロユキ), his flatulent penguin, start searching for the other Ninku captains, each of whom can control various elements. However, a new group of Ninku users has arisen and are trying to take over the world. Fuusuke and his penguin must defeat the new Ninku empire with the help of his old comrades.
(Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, s.v. "Ninku")
