8 Man (manga/anime)

8 Man (8マン) or Eightman (エイトマン, Eitoman) or 8th Man (8人目, 8 Hitome, in the US) is a manga and superhero anime created in 1963 by science fiction writer Kazumasa Hirai and manga artist Jiro Kuwata. 8 Man is considered Japan‘s earliest cyborg superhero, pre-dating Kamen Rider.  The manga was published in Weekly Shōnen Magazine and ran from 1963 to 1966. The anime series was produced by Eiken in association with TCJ Animation Center. It was broadcast on Tokyo Broadcasting System and ran from…

Zeni Geba (manga/TV drama)

Zeni Geba (銭ゲバ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by George Akiyama. The series was originally serialized in Shogakukan‘s shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1970 to 1971, with its chapters collected into two tankōbon volumes. Shōnen Sunday was once specified as “harmful” in some prefectures when the series has started, because of its violent and drastic depiction. The story was about a boy named Fūtarō Gamagōri (蒲郡風太郎) who…

Yakuza Reincarnation (manga)

Yakuza Reincarnation is a Japanese manga series written by Takeshi Natsuhara and Hiroki Miyashita and illustrated by Miyashita. It has been serialized in Shogakukan‘s seinen manga magazine Monthly Sunday Gene-X since July 2019, with its chapters collected into eight tankōbon volumes as of June 2022. Premise A good-hearted old man yakuza dies on the job. He wakes up in another world in the body of a young princess,…

The Walking Man (manga)

The Walking Man (歩くひと, Aruku Hito) is a Japanese manga by Jiro Taniguchi. It was serialized in Kodansha‘s Morning Party Zōkan from 1990 to 1991. It has been published in English by Fanfare/Ponent Mon and in French by Casterman. It was nominated for Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Japan at the 2007 Eisner Awards. The work has been described as poetry or meditation and compared to the works of Yasujirō Ozu. References…

Vampire Game (manga)

Vampire Game (吸血遊戯, Kyūketsu Yūgi) is a manga by the Japanese author and artist, Judal. It originally ran in the monthly manga magazine Wings, with its last chapter serialized in the November 2004 issue. The series has 15 volumes in all. It was licensed in the U.S. by Tokyopop. The story One hundred years ago, Vampire King Duzell led a war against the…

Ultimate Girls (manga/novel/anime)

Ultimate Girls (UG☆アルティメットガール, UG☆Arutimetto Gāru) is a Japanese anime television series produced by m.o.e. which parodies the genres of tokusatsu, kaiju, and superheroes; mainly themes from the Ultra Series and Kyodai Hero subgenre. It was broadcast in Japan from January 10, 2005, to March 28, 2005 and had a total of 12 episodes which ran for 13 minutes each. The series has been licensed in North America by Media Blasters and…

Takane and Hana (manga/anime)

Takane and Hana (高嶺と花, Takane to Hana) is a Japanese shōjo manga series written and illustrated by Yuki Shiwasu. The series has been serialized in Hana to Yume since 2014. The story follows the interactions of 16-year-old Hana Nonomura and 26-year-old Takane Saibara after Hana takes her sister’s place in an arranged marriage meeting with Takane. The series received a live-action television series and…

Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae (manga/novel/anime)

Sabu to Ichi Torimono Hikae (佐武と市捕物控, Sabu and Ichi’s Detective Memoirs), sometimes translated as Sabu and Ichi’s Detective Stories/Tales and Sabu and Ichi’s Arrest Warrant, is a Japanese manga series by Shotaro Ishinomori originally published in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from 1966 to 1967. In April 1968, the series moved to serialization in the first issue of Big Comic, where it was published until the series ended four…

Rainbow Parakeet (manga)

Rainbow Parakeet (七色いんこ, Nana-iro Inko) (German: Regenbogenfarbener Papagei) is a manga series created by Osamu Tezuka dealing with the adventures of the eponymous phantom thief. Collected in seven volumes, it has been published in France by Asuka. Plot Rainbow Parakeet is a genius as an actor, and a thief at the same time. As he is not a full-time thespian, he is usually hired as a replacement. During the…

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (manga/anime)

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (Japanese: パンティ&ストッキングwithガーターベルト, Hepburn: Panti ando Sutokkingu wizu Gātāberuto) is a Japanese anime television series produced by Gainax, as well as a series of tie-in media developed around it. The series ran from October to December 2010 on BS Nittele (a free-to-air satellite service of Nippon Television). In English-speaking areas, the series has been licensed by Funimation (now Crunchyroll) for distribution in North America, and Manga…

Ode to Kirihito (manga)

Ode to Kirihito (きりひと讃歌, Kirihito Sanka) is a Japanese manga series by Osamu Tezuka. It was originally serialized in Big Comic in Japan from 1970 to 1971 and was published in English translation in 2006 by Vertical Inc. This series is about a heroic young doctor named Kirihito Osanai and his efforts to cure a strange disease that deforms its victims so that they…

Naka no Hito nado Inai! Tokyo Hero Project (manga/game)

Naka no Hito nado Inai! Tokyo Hero Project (中の人などいない! トーキョー・ヒーロー・プロジェクト) is an adult Japanese visual novel developed and published by ALcot. It was released for Windows as a DVD ROM on August 31, 2012, and released as a regular edition on February 22, 2013. A manga for Tokyo Hero Project was published by Enterbrain, and serialized in Enterbrain’s Tech Gian magazine. Media An audio CD was released by ALcot on December 28, 2012, entitled Naka no…