show about magic animal rings *reposted from reddit*

At first I thought you were talking about Captain Planet since that involved magic rings, and one of the characters did have a monkey, but then you mentioned the villain having magic rings, and was confused, until I saw the image you had attached... then it hit me, I actually remembered what you were talking about.

Is "Legend of the Dragon" the show you're looking for?

Because I do remember one of the characters looking like a ninja, and the villain going after magic rings that had animal powers, specifically themed after the Chinese Zodiac. The main character even looks similar to the one you had posted, and if I remember right, he had fire powers.

I also remembered that it aired in the US on the now-defunct Jetix network, now Disney XD.