Ninja Ranks

[Inquisitor77]

That is a good point - they might be keeping things hazy just so they can explain it in the future...

I completely forgot that ANBU and hunter-nin might not be the same thing. I remember in the first episodes, Haku was called a "hunter-nin" when he wore the mask, and later on the Leaf Village ninja wearing masks were called ANBU. I guess different mask types denote different roles? The ANBU masks are all animal-like, while the hunter-nin mask Haku was wearing was just decorative, with a spiral... Anyone know if there's actually a difference?

[Stoopider]

Take Anbu as being like in the MP!! Military Police!! Are they Captains?? Are they Majors?? Or are they Seargents?? Their just different.

Just like pork and ham.

[jonny-mt]

I believe ANBU is just the name for Konoha's corps. As for hunter-nins, they seem to be members of a part of each corp. The actual meaning of 'ANBU' is "dark side"...it is a real word and it does have kanji, even in the manga.

My evidence for this comes from the manga...NOT A SPOILER PART! I don't believe this is in the anime, but right before Kakashi launches Chidori at Zabuza, he says:

'ore mo moto anbu "ansatsusenjutsutokushubutai" ni ita hitori da'

which translates to....

'I, too, was originally one of the ANBU "Assassination Tactics Special Forces".'

If you have the Fan Book, this is on page 97. And yes, that is definitely the ANBU he's talking about...the caption below talks about Kakashi's 'anbu jidai', or 'time in ANBU', and has a picture of him with the ANBU mask next to it.

Actually, while I was looking through the book, I ran across something interesting...A NINJA FLOW CHART!! Page 153.

Here we go from bottom to top up through the middle.

'ninjya wo kokorozasu mono': Those who aspire to be Ninjas [block]
'shigan/nyuugaku': Volunteering/School entrance [arrow]
'ninjya gakkou sei': Ninja Academy Students [block]
'sotsugyou/nintei': Graduation/Certification [arrow]
'konoha shinobi gundan': Konoha Ninja[Shinobi] Army Corps [big pyramid]
'hokage': Hokage [circle at top of pyramid]

From 'Hokage', there are two arrows leading out and down.

RIGHT PATH
'toukatsu/kanri': Unification/Management [arrow leading back to Academy]

LEFT PATH
'senbatsu/ninmei': Selection/Nomination [arrow leading down]
'omo ni chuunin/tokubetsu jyounin': Primarily Chuunin/Occasionally Jounin[box]
'kanri/kyouiku': Management/Education [arrow leading back to Academy]
'dannen': Giving up [arrow leading back down to 'konoha no sato jyuumin', or Konoha Village's Inhabitants, which is the label outside of the flow chart under the Academy]

The header for the chart reads as follows:

'soshikizu': Organization Map
'ninjya gakkou wa sato osa no hokage ga toukatsu shi, kyousi ni erabereta mono wa, genba no unei/kanri mo ninau.'
The management of the Ninja Academy rests on the shoulders of those picked for that task by the Hokage, the head of the village.

[note: This was a toughie of a sentence, so if anyone with better Japanese wants to take a shot at it, feel free. I'm pretty sure I'm right.]

So...doesn't look like it quite figures everything out, but every little bit of info helps [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

[EpoC]

Ok. ^_^


What about Special jounins? Is it a Rank? It must be.
I think a special jounin is a Former ANBU.
If ANBU is a special force containing Jounins and one of them decides to leave the ANBU then maybe he/her becomes a special jounin. And special jounins Have ordinary Ninja jobs, from tutoring to Assasinations insteed of only dangerous A class missions all the time. It wouldn't be apopriate to have a ANBU help you clean the garden.

And all the rookie gennins are under a Special jounin. Am I right?

[Inquisitor77]

...that's a mouthful to decipher... =P Let me take a crack at graphically representing it, and you tell me if I got it right. I'll skip the Japanese, since anyone who wants to "fix" the translation can just refer to your post. What do the blocks and arrows mean? I'm assuming that when you say "block" you mean that the group named is inside a block, and when you say "arrow" the group named is inside an large triangle/arrow? From first glance, this looks like the organizational hierarchy of the entire village (flow of power/responsibility), not necessarily the hierarchy of the different ninja that exist... But like you said, any information is better than no information. Here we go:



Organization Map
The management of the Ninja Academy rests on the shoulders of those picked for that task by the Hokage, the head of the village.

<----(LEFT & DOWN)---(RIGHT & DOWN)---->
.............................|^|.................. ............
........................"Hokage".................. .........(circle atop pyramid)
_________________O___________________

"Konoha Ninja [Shinobi] Army Corps" - ???Chuunin/ANBU??? (within large pyramid)
________________/_\___________________
_______________/___\__________________

"Graduation/Certification" - ?Genin? (arrow)
_________________/\__________________

"Ninja Academy Students" - Students (block)
_________________[]__________________

"Volunteering/School entrance" - Entering Students (arrow)
_________________/\___________________

"Those who aspire to be Ninjas" - Non-Students (block encompassing all but KONOHA VILLAGE)
_________________[]___________________

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KONOHA VILLAGE INHABITANTS (Non-ninja, completely separate from all other boxes)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



From the top, where it says "Hokage," there are two arrows leading out and down. The one to the left is as follows:
.............................<======<======& lt; (Hokage)
.............................V.................... ....
.............................V.................... ....
"Selection/Nomination" (downward arrow)
In order to progress, you must be nominated by your immediate superior? Like when the "Rookie Nine" had to be nominated by their Special Jounin instructors in order to take the Chuunin test?
-----------------------V-----------------------

"Primarily Chuunin/Occasionally Jounin" (block)
Either this implies that you have to be nominated to become Jounin, just like you had to be nominated to become Chuunin, or I'm missing something... Maybe Jounin are "Selected," while Chuunin are "Nominated"? *sigh*
-----------------------[]-----------------------

"Management/Education" (arrow)
Chuunin and Jounin can choose or are chosen to be teachers/administrators at the Academy, hence the arrow from this box leading back into the central "Ninja Academy Students" block?
-----------------------V------------------------

"Giving Up" (arrow)




The arrow that leads out and down from "Hokage" to the right is as follows:

(Hokage)>======>======>
.............................................V.... ......................................
.............................................V.... ......................................
"Unification/Management" (Arrow leading directly back to central "Ninja Academy Students" block)
No idea what this means...ninja bureaucrat? Hehehe... More likely these are the people handpicked by the Hokage to run the Academy. Kinda like the Superintendent and the Principle?






OK, I hope that made sense... Anything wrong? Anyone care to take a crack at it?


[Edit Add: Made the corrections jonny-mt pointed out. Made some graphical changes. Other than that, everything is the same.]


I wouldn't mind seeing a scan of the chart, though. =P

[jonny-mt]

Originally posted by: Inquisitor77
...that's a mouthful to decipher... =P Let me take a crack at graphically representing it, and you tell me if I got it right. I'll skip the Japanese, since anyone who wants to "fix" the translation can just refer to your post. What do the blocks and arrows mean? I'm assuming that when you say "block" you mean that the group named is inside a block, and when you say "arrow" the group named is inside an large triangle/arrow? From first glance, this looks like the organizational hierarchy of the entire village (flow of power/responsibility), not necessarily the hierarchy of the different ninja that exist... But like you said, any information is better than no information. Here we go:



Organization Map
The management of the Ninja Academy rests on the shoulders of those picked for that task by the Hokage, the head of the village.

<----(LEFT & DOWN)--
..............................|
........................"Hokage".................. .........(circle atop pyramid)
_________________O___________________

"Konoha Ninja [Shinobi] Army Corps" - ???Chuunin/ANBU??? (within large pyramid)
________________/_\___________________
_______________/___\__________________

"Graduation/Certification" - ?Genin? (arrow)
_________________/\__________________

"Ninja Academy Students" - Students (block)
_________________[]__________________

"Volunteering/School entrance" - Entering Students (arrow)
_________________/\___________________

"Those who aspire to be Ninjas" - Non-Students (block)
_________________[]___________________

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KONOHA VILLAGE INHABITANTS (Non-ninja, completely separate from all other boxes)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


From the top, where it says "Hokage," there are two arrows leading out and down. The one to the left is as follows:

"Selection/Nomination" (downward arrow)
In order to progress, you must be nominated by your immediate superior? Like when the "Rookie Nine" had to be nominated by their Special Jounin instructors in order to take the Chuunin test?
-----------------------V-----------------------

"Important Chuunin/Special Jounin" (block)
Either this implies that you have to be nominated to become Jounin, just like you had to be nominated to become Chuunin, or I'm missing something... Maybe Jounin are "Selected," while Chuunin are "Nominated"? *sigh*
-----------------------[]-----------------------

"Management/Education" (?block?)
Chuunin and Jounin can choose or are chosen to be teachers/administrators at the Academy, hence the arrow from this box leading back into the central "Ninja Academy Students" block?
-----------------------?------------------------

"Giving Up" (?block?)
Is there supposed to be a split between "Management/Education" and this box, flowing from "Important Chuunin/Special Jounin"? Or does it go straight down from "Management/Education" to "Giving Up"? Either way, this choice seems to be a dead end in terms of ninja career, hehe.




The arrow that leads out and down from "Hokage" to the right is as follows:

"Unification/Management" (Arrow leading directly back to central "Ninja Academy Students" block)
No idea what this means...ninja bureaucrat? Hehehe... More likely these are the people handpicked by the Hokage to run the Academy. Kinda like the Superintendent and the Principle?






OK, I hope that made sense... Anything wrong? Anyone care to take a crack at it?

Your graphical representation was pretty much right on! The only thing I see that needs correcting is that "those who aspire to be ninjas" is actually a block in a larger field, the outside of which is marked "Konoha Inhabitants"...it's below a dotted line which apparently seperates Ninja from citizen. If I was smart (which I'm not), I would have brought the guide with me and scanned in the page so you could see it....

I do, however, have a correction to make. I mistranslated 'omo ni' as 'important', which is the meaning of the word 'omo'...but when combined with the 'ni' particle, the meaning changes to "mainly, or primarily". So 'omo ni chuunin/tokubetsu jounin' is better translated as "primarily Chuunin, occasionally Jounin". 'tokubetsu' does mean special, but in this case it is not describing the Jounin because there is no 'na' particle after the word. I believe this path is concerned with the selection of teachers for the Academy; we see during Shikamaru's teacher's (whose name I forget) spiel about him that he taught at the Academy, too, but we also know that the students are primarily taught by Chuunins.

Gomen. I've gone back and updated my post.

And 'Management and Education' as well as 'Giving Up' are (if I remember right) supposed to both be arrows. The only split in the paths is right at the top from Hokage; everything else falls in a straight line.

[Inquisitor77]

Edited my post. =)