Technicolor Ninjas

Like shadows in the night... Or not.

A Technicolor Ninja is a character, most frequently some manner of costumed adventurer, who is really stealthy. Not just Badass; not just a Ninja, not just someone skilled in the Stealth Hi Bye, but so very, incredibly, impossibly, unbelievably stealthy and sneaky that neither Muggles nor Mooks will spot this stealthy individual sneaking around in their garishly colored costume.

They're so good they can foil electronic devices and some people with better-than-human abilities. This ability is rarely one that comes from their superpowers, nor from any manner of onboard gimmickry. It's either a natural talent or a skill they have trained into themselves through years of devoted and rigorous practice.

Technicolor Ninjas are most frequently seen in Comic Books, Anime, and Animated Series, though it sometimes turns up in Live Action TV as well.

For Comic Books, the trope is justified in that until about 25–30 years ago, the process used to print comics was only a four color process. The Animation Age Ghetto may also have some culpability here because bright colors attract the attention of children.

Ninjas whose costumes are black or other dark colors but can sneak around unseen in civilian clothing also fit this trope. Unlike the Highly-Visible Ninja, they don't necessarily travel in packs of 20. They don't yell "kiai" or "Hyaaaqaaa", nor do they twirl their weapons and pose at great distances from the enemy unless they have a weapon or superpower that makes it worth it to do so. They don't tend to worry about the Conservation of Ninjitsu, either; alone or in pairs, these ninjas are good enough to take out lesser ninja without wrinkling that costume.

Technically speaking, it is possible for someone not trained as a ninja to be so stealthy they're unnoticeable even in garish colors, but it is rarer.

Technicolor Ninjas are the result of a natural ability or developed skill of people who start out and are always basically humanoid shaped (or whatever passes for same on their world of origin).

Exceptions:

• Shapeshifters who can take on a shape no one will notice.
• Speedsters also don't count, as any streaks or afterimages are mainly for the benefit of the audience/viewer so they can tell where the character is who can move faster than the human eye can detect. Plus, it makes a better looking scene setting.
• People who can naturally turn invisible are actually opposite the point. Technicolor Ninjas can't turn invisible yet the people around them behave as if they are.

Contrast with Highly-Visible Ninja.

Examples of Technicolor Ninjas include:

Anime

• Science Ninja Team Gatchaman (aka Battle of the Planets aka Eagle Riders aka G Force) wore garishly colored bird themed uniforms that came with their own "swish!" sound effect. Said suits were activated by Transformation Trinkets, and they still could sneak practically into the heart of the Big Bad's Humongous Mecha of the Week before the Mooks noticed them.
• Lafitte of One Piece. His costume doesn't stand out quite as much as some of the other characters mentioned here, but he snuck into what is arguably one of the most heavily guarded buildings in the world and went completely unnoticed before he intentionally revealed himself, all the while wearing tap dancing shoes.
  • He seems to have eaten a bird devils fruit as he can sprout wings, so he probably just flew to the window where he appeared.
• Apparently, being dressed like his nation's incredibly colorful flag doesn't prevent German ninja Schwarz Bruder from practically turning invisible when he wants to.
• Despite his bright orange outfit, Naruto has proven himself capable of great stealth, when he actually chooses to act stealthily. A couple of different takes on Naruto himself give his reasons as wearing his "Safety Orange" outfit as either stealth training or it was the only thing he could get to wear.
  • Post-Time Skip, Naruto does incorporate a large amount of black into his outfit, like a ninja should. Based on his recent proclamation to Kushina it seems he chooses orange just because he likes it.
  • Notable occasions of Naruto displaying stealth include:
    • Breaking into the Hokage tower and stealing a top-secret document with only one person discovering him by accident.
    • Even more notable in that the one person was the Hokage himself and Naruto took him out of action with a Sexy No Jutsu. He took out the leader of his village and its most powerful ninja... why is he considered "dead last" again?
    • Successfully hiding a dozen clones of himself in a small room in such a manner that the best student of his year didn't notice them.
    • Evading the notice of Haku and Zabuza, experts at tracking opponents in a heavy mist, while attempting to link up with Sasuke.
    • Replacing a hostage held by Iruka, the man who knows all of Naruto's tricks and abilities.
  • It should also be noted that considering how an average person dresses in the Naruto-verse, an orange jumpsuit is infinitely better for blending into a crowd than a black stagehand uniform.

Comic Books

• The Marvel Universe:
  • X-Men is an egregious offender, and that's without taking into consideration the telepaths who can shield their presence from others, or people who turn invisible or can fly.
    • Wolverine wears bright yellow and frequently sneaks by the Mooks. Several of Wolverine's girlfriends are capable of the same:
      • Yuriko is almost not a ridiculously stealthy ninja, except she likes to shout "GOTCHA!" at people she's sneaked up on.
      • TigerTyger is ridiculously stealthy.
      • Viper is ridiculously stealthy, despite wearing a bright green patent leather catsuit and spiked heels.
    • Gambit has been known to wear a color somewhere between fuchsia and hot pink, and also is sneaky enough to go unnoticed in this color combination.
    • Enemy Ms. Locke, who wears a red cheongsam, is ridiculously stealthy.
    • Kitty Pryde is a trained ninja and tends to go unnoticed in the yellow and black "bumblebee" costume. And this is without taking into account that she can phase.
    • Nightcrawler, whose costume is largely red and white, turns invisible (except for his eyes) in shadow, and can Wall Crawl like Spider-Man. As long as he doesn't teleport and give himself away, he's super stealthy. (He does have a "secondary mutation" of camouflaging while wearing a suit of unstable molecules. But this is never mentioned.)
  • Deadpool is a borderline Cloudcuckoolander example. If he's concentrating enough to stop the constant stream of crazed, manic, fourth-wall breaking babble, he can be quite stealthy.
    • Of course sometimes he is stealthy because of the constant stream of crazed, manic, and fourth-wall breaking behavior. The Skrulls were not looking for a Super 'hero' hidden dressed as a baseball mascot.
  • Spider-Man comes close because of No Peripheral Vision and the fact that he's got faster reflexes than normal humans. Apparently no one in the Marvel Universe ever looks up.
  • The ever present Hand clan (originally from Daredevil, but now they're everywhere) wear bright red costumes. And let's not forget former Hand disciple Elektra's revealing leotard and loin-cloth... thing.
• In The DCU: Robin from Batman. The original Robin grows out of it; as Nightwing, he has the sense to wear a mostly black costume. But in his civilian clothing he can still pull off ridiculous stealth. Successive Robins have had more muted red and greens in their costumes (also pants). Tim Drake's costume is dark red and black, and he has a black cape with relatively muted yellow lining inside, which he uses to cloak himself. Damian Wayne has added a hood, presumably for extra stealth.
  • Pretty much anyone in the Bat Family can pull this off, no matter how eye-catching their outfit might be. The master would have Jean-Paul Valley, who somehow managed to be stealthy in both his AzBats armor and in his Azrael costume, which included flaming swords.
• David Mack's Kabuki has a brief appearance of the preppy ninjas. Ninjas who wear golfing duds on their missions. Doesn't make them any less deadly.

Film

• The various "ninjasploitation" movies by Chinese director Godfrey Ho featured a myriad of multi-colored ninjas, often wearing headbands with the word "Ninja" on them. Probably the most memorable example is Pierre Kirby's character in Full Metal Ninja, who is dressed in bright pink.

Live Action TV

• Super Sentai/Power Rangers: The ninja-based incarnations feature rangers in such non-stealthy colors as bright pink, yellow, red, and blue. The last two form an almost subversion, there was a pair of "crimson and navy" rangers whose suits were dark colored. Still too bright to be stealthy, but much better than their neon-red-and-sky-blue counterparts.
  • Even better, Shurikenger from Hurricaneger^[1] calls himself "ninja of ninja"...while wearing a bright green costume with lots of gold accents including an armored vest.

Video Games

• The ninja characters from the Mortal Kombat series, though strictly speaking, the only ninja of the bunch is Scorpion - the others just happen to use similar uniforms (a practice largely eschewed by the time of Deadly Alliance). The funny thing is that, in the MK universe, ninja are considered a Japanese offshoot of the Lin Kuei clan (to which Sub-Zero, mutually Palette Swapped with Scorpion, belongs).
• The "Stalker" Character Type in City of Villains has such high stealth that even allies aren't necessarily sure the character is there, regardless of what kind of ridiculous costume combo a player can come up with. There's at least one mission where they turn their heads in confusion and ask, "Is that you [Name of Character]?"
  • Similar in World of Warcraft. A Rogue's "Stealth" skill is so effective that the rogue can be wearing a bright green outfit with Spikes of Villainy on Shoulders of Doom and that constantly trails a sickly yellow-green smoke without ever being noticed by his enemies. Even his allies will find him hard to spot unless he's close enough.
• Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell, at first glance. He's incredibly stealthy, he sticks to the shadows picking off his targets without anyone knowing about it, he has three bright green lights on his head and another on his back. Word of God states those lights are just for player benefit. The lights don't show up in the mirrors, nor do they show up in multiplayer from the mercenary perspective.
• Espio the Chameleon, but only in Shadow the Hedgehog. Usually when has to sneak as part of the plot, he has the ability to go invisible, which renders him an exception. However, the ability was absent in this game, thus he was simply running around Mad Matrix in his bright purple colours. Worse when you consider that Shadow was probably camouflaged better given his black fur and almost neon-esque stripes. Even worse when you consider that he can sometimes tell Shadow to stop attacking lest they get caught when he's homing a robot to pieces himself, which arguably draws more attention to them than firing some quick and long-range bullets. And even worse than that when you consider that he can sometimes say that when in full view of Eggman and his Egg Breaker in the level's boss fight. There might be a reason why his ninja status is surprisingly downplayed in the games...
• Gale from Virtua Cop 3. He mostly avoids being caught after being defeated in a boss fight since he has stealth camouflage.

Web Comics

• We can probably add Quill from Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures to the folder. She's the 8-foot tall giraffe towering over the cast, and a combat teacher at SAIA (that one is her first appearence, though she was already mentioned in supplementary files). This is her second

Web Original

• Dark Maze Studios' Ninja The Mission Force is an Affectionate Parody of the film example above.

Western Animation

• The BOTS Master had Ninjzz, a three-armed robot ninja on rollerblades, who was still so stealthy nobody noticed him unless he wanted it so.
• The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are, out of necessity, stealthier than your average Ninja. They are anthropomorphic turtles in a world not widely populated by anthropomorphic animals.
• Kim Possible has bright red hair and a bumbling Sidekick. Nonetheless, she has been known to successfully sneak unnoticed while in her cheerleader uniform.
  • Shego can also be pretty sneaky, even though half her outfit is bright green.
• Pretty much every "ninja" in G.I. Joe other than Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and Firefly. Of course, even they got some odd repaints. And Snake Eyes was actually purple in the cartoon. However the winners are the Cobra ninjas—the Night Creepers (after the new toys changed their appearance.) Before they were dressed in dull maroon and purple with ninja masks and visors, relatively loud for their job. But after the movie, when the series relaunched in 1993, they came back sporting bright purple armor, with neon blue helmets and gloves. And while they were mooks (even Night Creeper Leader couldn't square off very well against any other named character) they were known for being able to sneak into highly secured areas.
• Young Justice has Robin again, able to Stealth Hi Bye in the middle of the desert while wearing red and yellow. Noticeably the rest of the team gets stealth-suits that can change color to a dark grey/black, while he uses his normal outfit.

1. ↑ changed to the Green Samurai Ranger in Ninja Storm