How "Ninja" Is Magic Tree House, Night of the Ninjas!? - (Which Ninja)

People have been asking me for MONTHS to have a look at the Magic Tree House book series #5 Night of the Ninjas. Did I expect historical accuracy from a children's mid-90's nostalgic series? Not a bit! BUT! I am blown away at JUST HOW ACCURATE this book is with REAL shinobi history!!!
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Research Books and Media:
Bansenshukai
Naruhodo Ninja Ozukan
The Ninja Shinobitte Nanja?
Ninja Attack!: True Tales of Assassins, Samurai, and Outlaws
#gaijingoombah, #ninja, #japan

[@akirajotaro]

An American children's book from the 90s has more realistic ninja than the majority of modern portrayals. I have no idea what to make of that.

[@DracoMagnius]

Mary Pope Osborne apparently knew how to do some damn good research.

[@gregorycourtney1532]

Yeah, the early books at least had kid approximate research books that just had facts and history at each realease. She took it seriously.

[@themarvelousemafia4457]

lol

[@Elmithian]

@@gregorycourtney1532 Your word imply that once it became a franchise that somewhat ceased to be the case?

[@gregorycourtney1532]

@@Elmithian It's more that I aged out of the books. The series is 48 books long with two separate eras. I can't speak for the later books since I've never read them.

[@Sumire727]

The magic tree house was basically my childhood. Never did I think anyone would mention or talk about it especially on KZbin.

[@coyraig8332]

I wasn't even born in the 90s and I grew up with them.

[@twitchcontrols1441]

NGL I once read one of these while waiting for my little brother’s doctors appointment... I’m 20.. and I honestly enjoyed it. Sue me.

[@adamthompson3437]

@@coyraig8332 Same here

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

I remember as a young kid I wasn’t talking a lot and I didn’t really care about reading or writing until i started reading this books and then my parents later buying me the whole collection. 15 years later and I grew up loving to read and learn new things and it all started with those silly fun books.

[@CloudFiraga]

Same for me read most of these books and I remember them fairly clearly

[@abigailblackmon1144]

This woman did crazy research for these, and a lot of The Magic Tree House Books had non-fiction companion books. As a kid I remember liking those more than the actual story she was telling.

[@emanuelrojas2]

Soon kids reading this book will be ninjas

[@TsukiCondor]

Yeah Marry Pope Osborn is awsome!

[@GaijinGoombah]

A true blast from the past on todays Which Ninja! I've had a LOT of people ask me to do this one, but I was hesitant. I figured there wasn't much to talk about. ...Boy was I wrong...

[@abelgonzalez7022]

Can you do Miraculous Ladybug Chinese miracle box symbol The symbol keep haunted me

[@andreysantiago6255]

Does Kim Possible and Totally Spies connected to real life spies?

[@kayohwai]

@@andreysantiago6255 They're more connected to James Bond and Mission Impossible, with the wacky magical technology. Real spies are a LOT more boring, even with their fancy tech.

[@akumaking1]

Since you showed Clan Eshin in the video, will they be next?

[@huntermccarraher8935]

There was a Poptropica Island that had Ninja game play after doing many good deeds for the village you get Ninja training and go on a mission where you use Shirikins to extinguish candles and distract and gather information to proceed instead of combat

[@CatsRul85]

I'd argue part of the 'too cold for Jack and Annie to cross' could be that they are also KIDS (and being grown adults with likely more layers of clothing as well they'd be able to handle the cold water easier then them) I never would have expected you to cover this and I am living for it. I love these books both for like their fantastical magical stories but also for like all the interesting tidbits of info you learn along the way. I'm an adult and this is making me want to go back and reread them.

[@darienb1127]

I'm pretty sure that the main reason Magic Tree House won isn't due to nostalgia, but due to the internet turning us all into agents of chaos.

[@EldricVanguard]

I'm sure it started with having *Fourteen Beers at Chili's,* ft. MatPat.

[@mathphysicsnerd]

I mean, I personally like the variation of looking into a kid's book for once instead of the umpteenth video game, even if I do like said game

[@huntermccarraher8935]

The Poptropica Island is actually pretty Ninja. You avoid guards instead of fighting, you use ninja stars to extinguish candles and gather information

[@metumortis6323]

Wow I have been thought about that game in years.

[@jeremyhearne]

..... No.

[@cagedcreature439]

You know what’s weird. There’s an anime adaptation of the magic treehouse series (mostly adapting the first few of the books: dinosaurs, knights, Pompeii, and pirates) and yet they didn’t adapt the one with ninjas that’s set in an accurate portrayal of Iga Tensho No Ran. Talk about Golden opportunity lost

[@cadethumann8605]

You mentioning a golden opportunity missed reminds of me of one thing I wonder about Gaijin Goomba: did he ever discuss about the idea of Ninjas wearing swords across their backs? I mean, it is one of the more iconic visual depictions besides their outfit. When the book of this video mentioned about "longswords on their backs" and the mini-gaijin groaned, I was expecting him to talk about the wearing method but he didnt.

[@thomasecker9405]

@@cadethumann8605 Probably because he's already talked about that pop culture aspect in other videos (see Gajin's review of Genshi from Overwatch as a good example of this).

[@cadethumann8605]

@@thomasecker9405 From what I have seen, he mostly talked about the type of sword itself. Sure, he mentioned that the odachi/nodachi could not be drawn from behind but he mostly talked about how the sword would be unwieldy to draw in general. What I am looking for is his discussion about the image of a back-strapped sword (many ninjas are portrayed with shorter swords like a katana or ninjato) and how it relates to history.

[@Jacky_boy001]

I read this book about two decades ago. The fact that the writer had so much knowledge of ninjutsu and could apply it to a children's book just baffles me in the best of ways.

[@batspidey7611]

Dude, I read the Magic Tree House books when I was a kid. They were fun.

[@JaelinBezel]

I only read a few. I only remember having read this book and Sabertooths at sunset.

[@annacaligan8352]

The elementary kid is screaming with happiness while outside me is excited to see what goomba would find what was right and wrong. In short, I LOVE this " Which Ninja" episode, this is officially my favorite!

[@allanroberts7129]

Magic Treehouse was always one of my favorites. I'm happy to see just how well the books accurately described historic settings and cultures, amidst the magical plot.

[@DarkbladeDuelist]

And I feel that a circle in my life has been closed. This book sparked my interest in Japan and in Japanese culture, so to see this video about how accurate (or not accurate) the book was warms my heart. Thank you for this video, GaijinGoombah. It makes me proud to know that this book is fairly accurate as it is one I hope that my future kids will read.

[@thegaveon5546]

10:48 Me looking at my wings of fire and warrior cats books, and remembering the dark moments in those.

[@kawaiiconcept7479]

warrior cats was DARK. working my way through WoF now.

[@JammySammy9934]

Osborne put a lot of research into all of her books. The ones that I’ be read so far are insanely accurate

[@pokeperson1000]

Now this is quite the blast from the past. The magic treehouse series was one of my favorites as a kid

[@isaacyeon6334]

Wow, never thought you would tackle the topic of Magic Treehouse which is probably my favorite book series when I was in elementary. For which ninja can you cover Scott Adkin’s Ninja and Ninja: Shadow of a Tear And for Yokai Hunters can you cover the Satsui No Hado from Street Fighter Thank you and have a good day

[@solarixstar]

All my childhood AR tests have prepared me for this; let’s gooooooooo!

[@pierre-mariecaulliez6285]

"Who reads anymore ?" Reminds me of a joke I heard : a writer was giving autographs and the clerk was like "One day, your children will look intently at these books to try and figure out where the batteries go, but right now, you can buy them and get them autographed by the autor !"

[@commandersieg5759]

Finished my finals and this is uploaded. Today is a good day.

[@barrybend7189]

14:47 i hope you cover the Skaven Ninjas of Clan Eshin from Warhammer Fantasy Gaijin.

[@christiant.-sg7719]

This book series was my childhood growing up!

[@cherrybombstudios1671]

That’s right. Magic Treehouse was where I first learned about Shuko and Ashiko!

[@adamchastan2703]

There's actually been other which ninja videos where you mention something ninja and it reminded me of this book, so I am glad that you reviewed it!

[@aecol3902]

Truth can be found in unexpected places. Even something as simple as a butterfly flapping its wings contain the secrets of the universe.

[@maxspecs]

Magic Tree House was an amazing series, I loved em back in grade school.

[@katagon]

Man, I remember I loved the Magic Tree House as a kid! I think I had the first ten or so books and, other than the dinosaur one, this one was my favorite! One of the most striking memories about this series I have is seeing the picture of the Samurai. I was so scared by it, and yet so intrigued... if I had access to the internet at the time I probably would have looked up a ton of stuff on Samurai and gone through some sort of Samurai phase.

[@Arcanedoom]

The instant I saw the thumbnail i was sent back to being ten or so and remember reading the part where the kids became rocks. Nostalgia hit me like a truck and now i'm recalling all kinds of things when i read this series. now while its not necessarily ninjas, the rangers in ranger's apprentice fill a considerably ninja like role and itd be awesome if you guys covered it(though theres a lot of books so probably not).

[@theresablack9261]

Dont forget that there is also a poptropica island based on the book. I dont know how accurate it is, but the segment where you actually act as a ninja is very interesting.

[@avalasialove]

You’ll be happy to know that the clothing color inaccuracy has been corrected in the graphic novel adaptation. About time!

[@autobotskyflame6287]

Thank you for making me remember the series that piqued my original interests in the cultures across the world.

[@B4dr4bbit]

These books bring me so much joy

[@krealyesitisbeta5642]

Loved this book series so much that it blew my mind that it became an island in poptropica.

[@Morgil27]

I grew up around this time, and I was big into my local library's summer reading program, yet I've never heard of this book series.

[@gabeskai]

I never thought id be learning from the magic treehouse in 2021. 😢 thanks for a great video!

[@Imaginita]

Y’know, as you were walking through the book, I realized it may be the original reason why I always liked ninjas more than samurai. As a child, I read the Magic Tree House books sporadically, picking up whichever ones the library had when I visited, so I can’t remember if I read Night of the Ninja. But for *sure* I have always preferred ninja to samurai, and there is a good chance that Night of the Ninja was my first introduction to the concept of a ninja.

[@quetzalcoatl974]

I think who did it best for the ninja representation was the game Poptropica, specificly the "Red Dragon Island" which is a recreation of the book in videogame form, in which, the player character meets a now old shinobi master that teaches them how to do proper sneaking, jumping, ussing suriken and smoke bombs to distract enemies, and ussing a bo staff to defeat them instead.

[@jakepalermo9181]

4:15 Black ninja garb in daylight is probably for the sake of contrast. Fight scenes that you can't see well doesn't look very exciting; Samurai Jack's ninja duel is probably the best way to fight in the daylight with this contrast while still retaining the ninja aesthetic.

[@Symbolic-Sky]

I loved this book as a kid

[@Rukdug]

Man, this was a huge blast to past for me. I remember loving these books as a kid.

[@juanmanuelpenaloza9264]

Wow! The book got more things right about ninjas than SK8 the Infinity did about skating. My childhood is validated.

[@corinnedeichmeister7513]

This was my favorite magic tree house book as a kid!!

[@johnny_boi5456]

Absolute childhood right here

[@Lampent12]

This would have been a bigger nostalgia blast for me if I hadn't very recently uncovered my CD audiobook of the cowboy Magic Treehouse book.

[@GabMacedoo]

As someone that haven’t seen a video of yours in years, I can tell I miss the squeaky voice. I was one of the people that really enjoyed that.

[@Kartoffelkamm]

I actually have a copy of this book, among others in the series. Though, for some reason, the German title roughly translates as "In the Land of the Samurai" which, to me, seems kind of weird because the samurai are the bad guys in this story. Plus, they haven't even taken over the land at the time the story takes place. As for how the author knew those ninja techniques, two options: 1. She did her research. 2. The books are diaries.

[@noelhann5262]

You know, I’ve used the stick direction thing in the day, and it works with the sun, but I’m not entirely sure if it would work with the moon. The idea is that since the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, most of the time you can tell directions by seeing the suns position in the sky if you know if it’s rising or setting, but if you don’t know that, or it’s around noon, you put a stick in the ground and angle it so that it lines up with the sun and you can’t see the shadow. Then you wait about 15 minutes and recheck your stick. Since the sun is moving from east to west, the shadow will move from west to east. When you check the sticks shadow, the way it’s pointing is east, and you can orient yourself from there. At night, I’m not sure if it would work that way because the moon moves differently from the sun. At night, you can use the stars. First you find the Big Dipper. You take the ring of the Big Dipper, and you look at the two stars that are furthest from the handle. You make a line that goes through them, and the line should about go through another star, about five times the distance between the two stars that you used to make the line. That star is Polaris, the North Star, and it is pretty much right above the North Pole. The direction of Polaris is north.

[@elijahdage5523]

Looking back on it now, this was probably the reason I got into ninjas.

[@colineliason6669]

The child in me is satisfied keep up the good work! 10/10

[@erikferal]

Magic treehouse just timewarped me back to elementary

[@XtreemAlan]

Thank you for making my childhood awesome

[@spencersholden]

I remember reading this book.

[@McGusder]

13:25 oh hey a black scarf with blue clothes

[@beeniecat9411]

Never imagined my favorite books from when I was a kid be on here c:

[@teencomment]

Hey, even if they ARE kid's books, Mary Pope Osborne did do a lot of research for each book.

[@akumaking1]

Magic Tree House? That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.

[@synderthmc]

Someone with a patreon needs to suggest Aragami: path of shadows. That game deserves its own analysis.

[@callibor3119]

OMG. I have that exact book in storage. In fact I have quite a few of them in storage and I haven't read since middle school. Those are a blast from the past to me. I heard that there is going to be an anime bsed off the books. I'm curious when it is going to be released in America.

[@anonymousfellow8879]

I’m not sure what’s wilder-Morgan la Fay as a good guy or fairly accurate portrayals of ninja in a 90s kids’ book. Call me pleasantly surprised on both counts

[@NotRealThisIsABurner]

i actually was waiting for this forever

[@actualpresidentfunnyvalent7471]

God this brings memories from a distant age

[@AZero887]

Good memories having my mom read these to me as a kid

[@commandergs]

I read so many of the MTH books as a kid, dont remember them very well now though. Also i still recommend looking at Obi-wan Kenobi for Which Ninja.

[@gatereaper]

You've acknowledged Snikch now... Skaven Clan Eshin video when?

[@GaijinGoombah]

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[@WiiMan25]

So, the "E-hy!" thing... If you've ever been to an American-style karate dojo, they use "osu!" (or rather, "uhss!") as a greeting/affirmation of sorts...and also as a kiai when practicing katas. And I've also even heard kids literally yelling "KIAI!" or "HAI!" when practicing katas. And maybe conflating that with the Japanese "hai" for "yes"? My guess is that this "E-hy!" thing somehow comes from that?

[@shawnheatherly]

Having never heard of these books, I am stunned by their accuracy.

[@gaidencastro9706]

Gaijin, I watched your D&D ninja video. How do we create our own njnjas without directly ripping off of Greckles?

[@Starry_skies_]

If we're still on the nostalgia train... what about the ninja level in Poptropica? Thinking back on it I think there may be a lot to talk about there.

[@dragonflower1251]

My childhood is complete lol. I love Magic Tree House!

[@AutisticPhantomOtaku]

I've seen The Magic Treehouse books in libraries before, especially the ones where I volunteered at, but I've never actually read the books myself. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't find this interesting. Also, I'm still waiting for your video on Ninjago.

[@VlogGirl-uo7br]

My brain be like: Did I just hear *LOOOORE?!!* Me: I swear if you go full MatPat on me.... My brain: *But that's just a theory. A BOOK THEORY!* Me: Does this series even have LORE?

[@jamesd8169]

Thats actually cool, I remember reading those books when I was younger! Great, now I feel old...

[@carlcarlington7317]

Magic tree house, now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time

[@gamerlizzy8421]

Ah yes my child hood. I loved these books so much

[@isaacgreen6402]

Yo, right in my childhood and so much accuracy too!

[@techoftheblind1374]

I loved that book as a kid

[@coraline2770]

I am so surprised by magic tree house lol the video was great thanks

[@berandom2000]

I remember this book series with a passion. My favorite is Midnight on the Moon.

[@bobalinx8762]

Here’s a weird idea for a Which Ninja subject: the Nincada Pokémon line.

[@okami-chan9772]

* sighs * Such sweet nostalgic memories ❤

[@CK895-YT]

Magic tree house... Now there's a name I haven't heard in a long time...

[@noelhann5262]

Never expected this, but hey, I’m not complaining

[@雨-z5l]

You should do splinter cell and break it down with whether how ninja it really is

[@tinypumkin2561]

I was thinking of reading this book since my brothers had it just to see

[@gabrielcormier2096]

You should check out the cheezy as hell “Ninja Master” movies starring Lee Marvin

[@Twilarose77]

OMG!! I loved this series so god dang much as a child, and I actually remember alot of the stories and twists from it! SPOILERS: Peanut the mouse is Morgan Le Fay XD

[@skunkfu1x]

My FAVORIT BOOK SERIES and i dont even know if i read it or not D: man! im a little bit upset with me not knowing this!

[@ridewild1956]

the moonstone makes more sense when you read the 4th book in the arc if i recall correctly

[@RazgrizXMG0079]

I completely forgot about this book series

[@richardwitt2334]

Correct me if I'm wrong since I haven't read the Magic Treehouse books in a while but wasn't Morgan La'Fey the mouse or was it Merlin?

[@hotwheelsbrothers687]

I have a few magic tree house books

[@TeamSoraPresents]

"Media's most popular shinobi-" Since when was the Magic Treehouse series 'popular'?

[@GaijinGoombah]

You should look at my announcement posts for this video. You'll be surprised.

[@ImADeity]

I didn't expect this

[@narutofreak974]

The magic tree house.... That is my elementary childhood.

[@ShinKyuubi]

Huh...that's actually a pleasant surprise, given the time frame the book was made in..early 90's, just after the Ninja Boom of the 80's with all the hype around them being so far out there compared to the truth and the amount of accurate info being pretty small, especially in the west at the time...got a lot more things right than I would have thought. And speaking of the Mudra, one of the emotes for Ninjala from one of the more recent seasons is called "Mudra"..with more people knowing more factual info now even games like that are putting in the actual terms and not something westernized for the local audience.

[@Quincy_Morris]

Have you done a Which Ninja on Randy Cunningham if you haven’t yet.

[@Mariokemon]

is it just me, or is Goomba's voice more gravelly than usual?

[@davidblaising-wimmer9972]

MY CHILDHOOD! 😁

[@Jj-yo2kd]

@GaijinGoombahMedia Are you going to do assassin’s creed on your next Patreon pole?

[@MrAnthonyramon]

I loved that book series