The time is the Sengoku period, and the characters are ninjas-in-training who have entered Ninjutsu Gakuen. Their sights are set on becoming first-class ninjas, but they usually end up creating chaos.

Rakudai Ninja Rantarou was serialized daily from April to June and October to December of each year. After author Soubee Amako suffered a stroke in January 2019, the series went on hiatus, and that year's serialization was replaced with a series of "best of" reruns. Due to the difficulty of continuing a daily serialization, the author decided to end the serialization, with the last reruns appearing in the December 28, 2019 issue.