Retrospect in Retrograde: The Fuma no Kojirou OVAs

Following up a massive success is a tough proposition, to say the least. You now have these major expectations that didn't exist previously, and should you not meet those you run the risk of failure. This is especially true in the world of manga, because not everyone is an Akira Toriyama or Rumiko Takahashi, who can follow up a major hit (Dr. Slump or Urusei Yatsura, respectively) with a second, arguably bigger smash (Dragon Ball or Ranma ½, respectively). Some, though, manage to follow a major hit with something that, though not similarly successful, is still a decent enough hit. A perfect example of that latter situation is with Masami Kurumada, who in late 1981 finished Ring ni Kakero, the "SF Boxing" manga that made his name known to the Japanese populace & would influence so much manga that Shueisha would deem it "The Hot-Blooded Fighting Manga Bible" in 2014. Naturally, Shonen Jump readers were excited for what Kurumada would follow that up with, and a few months later, at the start of 1982, they found out with Fuma no Kojirou/Kojirou of the Fuma, a story revolving (ostensibly) around ninja. While it seemed to be a success of its own merit for the time, though obviously not on the level of RnK, the manga still wound up ending after only a solid two years, finishing up at the very end of 1983, after 10 volumes. My theory is Kurumada prematurely ended FnK in order to finally start working on the series he had been planning out for a decade, Otoko Zaka, only for said series to fizzle out after not even a year. Kurumada would then aim for the mainstream, creating Saint Seiya in 1986, and here's where we return to Fuma no Kojirou.

Saint Seiya was a bona fide smash hit during the second half of the 80s, arguably influencing more people than they realize (in particular, what people associate Dragon Ball with was likely due to Toriyama being encouraged to follow Saint Seiya's lead). It was such a instant hit that Toei Animation debuted a TV anime adaptation before the manga was even a year into its run, which itself wound up becoming a big hit, especially around the world (except for "North of Mexico", of course), and would end in April of 1989, after 114 episodes; the manga would run until late 1990. Likely seeing that Seiya's anime was coming to an end, though, producers from MOVIC, retail arm Animate, & CBS Sony Group obviously wanted to continue riding whatever wave of Saint Seiya popularity was still cresting, before it crashed. The end result was Fuma no Kojirou (later given the subtitle Yasha-hen/Yasha Chapter), a six-episode OVA adaptation of the first story arc of the FnK manga that came out during the summer of 1989, with the first episode coming out only two months after Saint Seiya's final episode aired; they started working on the OVA before the show finished, obviously. Sales must have been good, as the following year saw Fuma no Kojirou: Seiken Sensou-hen/Sacred Sword War Chapter, a six-episode OVA adaptation of the second story arc that came out during the fall of 1990. Finally, after a two-year hiatus, a 50-minute OVA titled Fuma no Kojirou Saishushou: Fuma Hanran-hen/The Final Chapter: Fuma Rebellion Chapter, which adapted the third & final story arc of the manga, came out at the very end of 1992; today, the entire thing is generally counted as a single, 13-episode series. There were five DVD releases covering all three OVAs in Japan throughout mid-2001, put out by SME Visual Works (the former CBS Sony Group, & now currently known as Aniplex), but nothing else since; admittedly, it'd be nice to see these be given an HD remaster & Blu-Ray release.

I reviewed each of these OVAs long ago, the first in 2010 & the other two in 2012, and at the time there was no English translation whatsoever, fansub or official, for any of them; there was supposedly one back in the old VHS fansub days, but it's never surfaced. Today, however, there is actually an English fansub out there, though most of it (read: 11 of the 13 episodes) is based on a Spanish fansub, which means that it's mostly a translation of a translation. Sadly, though the translation itself is okay, the video quality is that of a multi-generation copy of a VHS tape, & Fuma Hanran-hen's fansub literally just plasters English subs over the Spanish subs; it's the best we got, sadly. Still, with Masami Kurumada having returned to Fuma no Kojirou recently with the Jou no Maki/Prelude Chapter prequel manga, and an "Ultimate Final Edition" of the original manga planned for a November release, I'd say now's as good a time as any to finally give these OVAs a new, comprehensive look, and see if I feel any differently about the anime adaptation of "Masami Kurumada's Fourth-Most-Well-Known Manga".

The Fuma Clan of ninja were renown for their services towards to Hojo Clan during the Sengoku period, but have continued to exist in secret ever since Japan became unified. Today, Hakuo Academy is going through troubles, as rival school Seishikan has been poaching exemplary students from all over the metropolitan area, resulting in numerous schools having to close down; Hakuo is the last school resisting. With the leadership of Hakuo in the hands of Himeko Hojo, the granddaughter of the previous principal, she sends her friend Ranko Yagyu to find the Fuma Clan, as the Hojo are in need of their assistance once again. The Fuma agree to help, sending a young ninja named Kojirou, especially once they realize Seishikan has enlisted the help of the Yasha Clan, an old rival clan of the Fuma's from the Sengoku period. This conflict will only be the start of Kojirou's battles, though, as he later becomes involved in the Sacred Sword War between the forces of Chaos & Cosmo that's been 4,000 years in the making, as well even later having to fight a coup by his own kind, calling themselves the "New Fuma Clan".

Fuma no Kojirou pays heed to an older style of storytelling, one where characters are defined more by their actions & convictions than in more subdued ways that are showcased through now-traditional character development arcs; also, storytelling tended to err on the side of simply getting to the point, rather than drag things out. For example, Episode 3 of Yasha-hen introduces a crap ton of characters all at once (the 8 Yasha Generals, plus Ryoma, Kouu, & Ryuho, three of Kojirou's fellow Fuma), only for three of them to die by the end of that very same episode, one of them without ever saying a single word; a fourth dies minutes into the next episode. Still, you do get a feel for the likes of Kouu, Byakko, & Shien, as their actions during battle allow for just enough of their personalities & flaws to show through. For example, Kouu is maybe a bit too confident in his skills, which results in his death when his main attack is thwarted, while Shien dies because he decided to give his foe a romanticized death, which in turn lowers his guard for a moment. Meanwhile, Byakko disguises himself as Kouu to infiltrate the Fuma, only to find out that Kouu had a younger twin in Shoryu, throwing an immediate wrench into his plans; fun stuff like that. This also stretches into Seiken Sensou-hen, as Soushi Date & Sigma, the two new heroes who join Kojirou, Ryoma, & former enemy Musashi Asuka as the Cosmo warriors, are introduced rather quickly & with nary an explanation as to who they are. Soushi simply explains that his Sacred Sword guided him to Kojirou & Musashi, though he'd get a proper backstory in the unfinished Yagyu Ansatsucho sequel manga, while Sigma is at least explained as having been sealed away 4,000 years ago, waiting for the next War to begin.

As I've stated before, Fuma no Kojirou is split up across three story arcs: Yasha Chapter, Sacred Sword War Chapter, & Fuma Rebellion Chapter. I already went into each arc's respective strengths & weaknesses in my review of the manga back in 2015 (has it really been four years?!), but here's a quick recap. The Yasha Chapter's main attraction is the 8-on-9 battle between the Fuma & Yasha, but nearly every battle happens rather quickly, with only two (Musashi vs. Ryoma & Musashi vs. Kojirou) actually being given any time to really help develop the characters. The Sacred Sword War Chapter is easily the best part of the entire series, showing a literal battle against destiny itself, as the forces of Chaos & Cosmo wind up being nothing more than gears within the machine of Saṃsāra, the Buddhist concept of karma-ordained birth, death, & reincarnation. While the new characters are given little real development, and the battles are mostly over rather quickly, it's the feeling that said battles aren't really in the hands of the warriors themselves that makes the arc so cool, and the entire arc in general feels like one that could never be told in Shonen Jump today; I still feel that it's one of Kurumada's best stories, in general. As for the Fuma Rebellion Chapter, it has a great concept & a good villain in the form of the mind-controlling Shimon, but it's just too short to really make a full impact; the fact that it's nearly a "kill-em-all" gives it notable brownie points, though. This also affects the OVAs to an extent, mainly in that it takes close to half of Yasha-hen to get to the real meat of the Fuma/Yasha battles, while Fuma Hanran-hen is only a single, double-length OVA, which necessitates getting through the story quickly; it's a short arc to begin with, but still. Seiken Sensou-hen, on the other hand, actually fares the best, as it's more or less equally split between the two halves of the arc, but I'll bring up why a little later.

When it comes to history, though, the original Fuma no Kojirou manga acts as a sort of transition from the old, semi-realistic, sports-centric style of shonen action to a newer style, one in which the mangaka's imagination is the only restriction. Obviously, Kurumada was inspired here by the likes Sanpei Shirato's Dagger of Kamui & Mitsuteru Yokoyama's Babel II when it came to the use of ninja & super-powered attacks (not to mention dressing everyone in gakuran, even though literally none of the characters are actual students), but what he did with Kojirou is most certainly an early form of what series like Fist of the North Star & Dragon Ball would go on to define for an entire generation & beyond. We have ninja who all have various abilities, like summoning the elements (wind, lightning, fire, etc.), creating illusions within fog, or using seemingly harmless things like feathers as deadly projectiles; the primary weapon for most also come in the form of bokken. Then, as if that wasn't enough, Musashi & Ryoma are soon revealed to be "Psychic Soldiers", literal ESPers who can do things like create shadow-less holograms of themselves or trap their foes inside mirrors that they can then shatter with a killing blow; Shimon's mind-control is likely under this category, too. It all comes to a head with the Ten Sacred Swords, though, which all have spectacular abilities, like unleashing deadly beams of light, rending the Earth itself to create bottomless pits that foes are forced to fall into, using the absorbed souls of "evil" beings to steal the life force of an enemy (yes, this is seriously Sigma's sword), or being able to compress the space around someone into nothingness. To be fair, this kind of "mystic sword" concept wouldn't be followed up by other series, at least in Jump, instead focusing more on a person's own personal skills, whether it be martial arts, assassination techniques, or sheer gumption & hot-blooded determination. If anything, the closest thing to a successor to Fuma no Kojirou's Sacred Swords would be the various Zanpakuto in Bleach, and considering that Tite Kubo was heavily inspired by Saint Seiya in making that manga, it wouldn't be a stretch to guess he also took some inspiration from Kojirou, as well. Not just that, but the whole "Cosmo vs. Chaos" concept of the Sacred Sword War would also completely be taken from wholesale by Square-Enix for the Dissidia Final Fantasy games.

In terms of accuracy to Kurumada's manga, the OVAs stay true for the most part, but there are some scenes that are either altered slightly, or straight up cut out. For example, in the Yasha Chapter, Kojirou's fight with Kosuke Mibu, which is the first real fight of the entire series, is turned from a single fight in which both ninja take each other out into two fights, with Kojirou outright losing the first one; Mibu took mercy on him. Amittedly, though, this does result in the first two episodes both ending with Kojirou suffering a total defeat. This was mainly done so that the OVA can skip over two chapters where Kojirou helps out Hakuo's sports teams & fights a trio of Yasha brothers; they contribute nothing to the plot, so their exclusions make sense. Meanwhile, Musashi's sickly sister Erina is introduced right from the start, giving Musashi his character development earlier on, rather than shoving it all into the second half of the arc. As for the Sacred Sword War Chapter, everything involving Cruz Ryuoin & the Hida Clan, who are destroyed by Chaos warrior Shion to showcase the strength of the Sacred Swords, has been excised, hastening the pace of the first half of the arc slightly; whether that's for the better or not can be down to debate. Most interesting of all, though, is that all three OVAs cut out the direct beginnings of each arc, so we don't see Ranko & her crew trek up the mountains in search of the Fuma, Lady Yasha reveal to Himeko & Ranko how exactly the Yasha Clan relates to the forces of Chaos (or how Kojirou & the others knew to hurry back to their home, only to find it destroyed), or find out just how New Fuma member Raien got knocked out at the start of the final OVA; the last of which actually results in a little over the first 10% of the Fuma Rebellion Chapter being cut out. It's also a pretty brisk adaptation in terms of pacing, as it is covering 10 volumes of manga over the equivalent of 14 episodes, but the original manga had a similar pace to it, to start with; again, that old-school accelerated storytelling. Seiken Sensou-hen is hit with this faster pace the hardest, as that arc was literally half of the total length of the manga, so it has the most removed that did admittedly help tell the story, especially at the start.

Of course, as mentioned early on, these OVAs were obviously made in an attempt for MOVIC & Sony to take advantage of Saint Seiya's popularity at the time, especially with that anime coming to an end. I bring this up again because this is so obvious from a production standpoint, as though J.C. Staff was brought in to handle the animation itself, on behalf of Animate-Film, three specific staff were hired: Shingo Araki, Michi Himeno, & Takao Koyama. Yes, the duo who gave the Seiya anime its iconic visual style & the screenwriter who not only wrote nearly half of Seiya's episodes but also was the head of series composition for the entire Sanctuary Chapter were hired for these OVAs. The end result is that Araki & Himeno's visual style has been carried over exactly, making this J.C. Staff OVA look more like something from Toei Animation. In fact, for a while, many thought these OVAs were actually done by Toei; even I wasn't sure in my original Yasha-hen review in 2010. Meanwhile, though Koyama would write all of Seiken Sensou-hen by himself & bring in two younger writers to help with Fuma Hanran-hen, he did something interesting with Yasha-hen. While he wrote the first episode himself, Koyama gave five students of his their very first solo episode writing jobs, with one handling each of the successive episodes. Of these five, the most notable are easily Satoru Akahori, Katsuyuki Sumisawa, & Naruhisa Arakawa, who wrote the last three episodes, respectively. Akahori would go on to be the creator of numerous successful franchises during the 90s, like NG/VS Knight Lamune & 40, Sakura Wars, & Saber Marionette. Sumisawa would head up the writing for iconic series like InuYasha, Yakitate!! Japan, & Gundam Wing; in fact, I got his episode of Kojirou on LD autographed a few years ago, & he was happy to see it. Meanwhile, Arakawa would become best known as a writer for tokusatsu, heading up Kamen Rider Kuuga & various Super Sentai entries, namely Abaranger, Dekaranger, Gokaiger, & Akibaranger (a.k.a. some of the most beloved shows); he's also done his fair share of anime, too.

I wanted a cool image featuring the Sacred Swords,
but this was the best I could find.

Not only that, but these OVAs also brought in a handful of animation directors, key animators, & in-betweeners from the Seiya anime, either reprising their jobs or graduating to a higher position, so recognition goes to Horinobu Saito (Animation Director), Hiroya Iijima (Key Animation), Katsuya Nakamura (Character Design Assistance), Kyoko Chino (Animation Director & Key Animation), & Shizuo Kawai (Animation Director). In terms of staff who didn't return from Seiya, the entire thing was directed by the late Hidehito Ueda (H2, Transformers: Armada/Micron Legend), who was known best for being a "reliable hand" type of director for many lesser-known productions, and that follows through here, as all of the OVAs stay true to the Kurumada style & act as a good follow up to the Seiya anime. As for the music, it was composed by the late Toshiro Imaizumi, who really made his mark in Japan for being an expert in arrangement for musical acts like folk duo Fukinotou, Maiko Itou, Sayuri Ishikawa, & George Yamamoto. In fact, Fuma no Kojirou is one of only two anime Imaizumi ever did music for, with the other being 1991 cult favorite OVA Judge (another MOVIC/Animate/Sony production), but at least he made it count, because the soundtrack for these OVAs are excellent. Instead of a grandiose, orchestral feel, like what Seiji Yokoyama did for Seiya, Imaizumi instead mixes together a more dramatic & mysterious feel with some elements of hard rock, resulting in Fuma no Kojirou sounding notably different than Saint Seiya, which is great.

This also extends to the theme songs, which are split up across two performers. For Yasha-hen & Seiken Sensou-hen, both the two OPs & EDs are performed by hard rock band Night Hawks, while for Fuma Hanran-hen the new OP & ED are performed by Hidemi Miura. Night Hawks' songs, OPs "Don't Go Away" & "SHOUT" and EDs "Good-Bye Marry" & "On My Way", are almost all 150% pure hot-blooded rock, with "On My Way" being the odd man out by being a completely acoustic ballad. Of them, the two Seiken Sensou-hen themes are my favorites, with "SHOUT" being, possibly, my favorite Kurumada anime theme song of all time, as it simply nails the general aesthetic of the man's work (even if only coincidentally), while "On My Way" is a beautiful slow song to balance things out; fittingly enough, bassist Shinji Matsumoto would later help perform the soundtrack to Guilty Gear XX. Meanwhile, Miura's songs, OP "Kaze no Soldier" & ED "Ano hi Kaze no Naka de...", match better with the anime soundtrack in general, which isn't surprising as Imaizumi did the composing & arranging, while Masami Kurumada himself wrote the lyrics. While he had already done lyrics for songs related to Saint Seiya, this would be the first time Kurumada wrote the lyrics to theme songs for the anime adaptation of his manga, which would become a more common thing during the 00s; see: Ring ni Kakero 1 & the Saint Seiya Hades OVAs. Sadly, though there are three official OSTs covering all the OVAs, only five songs in total by Imaizumi are included across them, not including Fuma Hanran-hen's theme songs, so I have a feeling that the full score has never been released. Night Hawks would also record new versions of "SHOUT" & "On My Way" for their 1994 album The Midnight Hawks, a "Best of" release, and while the former sounds mostly the same (just some slightly different acoustics & a new outro), the latter might arguably be better than the version used in the anime.

More recently, in 2016, Marina del ray (the group that has done music relating to all of Kurumada's major works) produced four songs for the CR Fuma no Kojirou pachislot machine, one of which featured Yuka (of Dragon Ball Z & Kiddy Grade fame), and they are honestly some of the best songs the group has produced in its history; a shame that, like their B't X song, they're exclusive to pachislot. Luckily, as the link shows, the CR Kojirou songs are actually legally available to purchase outside of Japan over at Amazon, as well as iTunes.

Being an OVA, it could get away with some of Kurumada's
more violent imagery, though plenty was still altered.

The sheer amount of reprisals don't just apply to the staff, though, as 19 seiyuu who played roles in Seiya return for various roles in Kojirou, though only five are in major roles. Leading everyone is Keiichi Nanba (Pisces Aphrodite & Julian Solo/Poseidon) as Kojirou, and he does an outstanding job at being the rambunctious & headstrong main character; definitely different from the performance Toru Furuya gave as Pegasus Seiya right before him. Then we have Hideyuki Hori (Phoenix Ikki) as Ryoma, making him the only one to play a major role in both productions; really, not much else to say here, as Hori delivers his usual & fitting gruff performance. Sho Hayami (Sea Horse Baian) is Musashi, and he nails the character very well, portraying both the young man's powerful self-assuredness, as well as his more vulnerable moments. Shigeru Nakahara (Delta Megrez Alberich & Sky Cloth Sho) plays both Kouu & Shoryu, which makes sense, and he does well enough with the (admittedly limited) time both characters get, in the long run. Finally, Yusaku Yara (Sagittarius Aiolos & Gamma Phecda Thor) plays the giant Ryuho, who gets to do even less than Nakahara, sadly, but does the best he can.

The rest of the Seiya veterans, who mostly get what are essentially glorified cameos, include the following: From Yasha-hen we have Yoku Shioya (Siren Sorrento) as Shien, Masashi Hironaka (Galaxian Wars Announcer) as Raiden, Ryo Horikawa (Andromeda Shun) as Anki, Banjou Ginga (Cassios) as Kurojishi, Kaneto Shiozawa (Aries Mu) as Yosui, Kazuhiko Inoue (Ohko) as Kosuke Mibu, Michitaka Kobayashi (Sagitta Ptolemy) as Kabutomaru, & Toshihiko Seki (Epsilon Alioth Fenrir) as Reira. From Seiken Sensou-hen, there's Kurumada anime regular Bin Shimada (Beta Merak Hagen) as Shion, Chiyoko Kawashima (Ghost Saint Geist) as the Cosmo Goddess, Hirotaka Suzuoki (Dragon Shiryu) as the Chaos Emperor, Masami Kikuchi (Andromeda Saint-in-training Spica) as David, & Takeshi Kusao (Wolf Nachi) as Oz. Finally, we have Hideyuki Tanaka (Leo Aiolia) & Mami Koyama (Ophiucus Shaina) rounding things out as the Fuma Leader & Ranko, respectively; nobody in the New Fuma Clan is voiced by a Seiya veteran, oddly enough.

I just find this image of Musashi getting shanked by his
little sister Erina with a Sacred Sword to be highly amusing.

Meanwhile, in reverse, i.e. seiyuu who first voiced a character here & would go on to voice a Kurumada character in later productions, Yasha-hen includes Nobuo Tobita (Aires Shion in Saint Seiya Hades Sanctuary) as Kirikaze, Jurouta Kosugi (Misslim in B't X) as Kagerou, & Koichi Yamadera (Saga in Saint Seiya: Legend of Sanctuary) as Rinpyo. Next, Seiken Sensou-hen features Kazuki Yao (Taurus Harbinger in Saint Seiya Omega) as Sigma, Kenichi Ono (Cerberus Dōlé in Saint Seiya Omega) as Arthur, a young Takehito Koyasu (Wyvern Rhadamanthys in Saint Seiya Hades, Black Shaft in Ring ni Kakero 1) as Shura, & Yasunori Matsumoto (Dr. Zaji in B't X) as Soushi. Finally, for Fuma Hanran-hen, we have Toshiyuki Morikawa (Napoleon Baroa in Ring ni Kakero 1) as Muma, & Kenyuu Horiuchi (Metal Face in B't X, Libra Dohko in Saint Seiya Hades) pulls double duty as both Byakko in Yasha-hen & Shimon in Fuma Hanran-hen. Without a doubt, if you're intimately familiar with anime based on Masami Kurumada's manga, you're going to recognize a ton of voices.

Fuma no Kojirou is probably the biggest conundrum for me as a fan of Masami Kurumada's works, and the re-watch for this re-review reminds me why. This is a series chock full of so many cool concepts, potential, & even ambition, with the major problem affecting all of it simply being "I wish there was more of it". The Yasha Chapter goes by way too fast considering how many characters are in it, and the whole reason for the clans fighting each other (i.e. the battle for school supremacy) is more or less ignored once the main fighting begins. The Sacred Sword War Chapter remains the highlight of the entire series, even if it completely stops being a ninja manga (I mean, the War itself happens on the Moon!), but it also begs for expansion, because the concept is just that damn good. Finally, the Fuma Rebellion Chapter is simply over before you know it and just can't really follow up the destiny breaking story that came prior, though the nigh-"kill-em-all" execution keeps it memorable. When it comes to the OVAs the same remains true, and since then we've already seen how this series can be improved upon. In 2007, General Entertainment produced a live-action J-Drama/tokusatsu adaptation of the Yasha Chapter, and it remains the absolute best take on that arc, expanding heavily on the characters & concept; I hoped for more, but General Entertainment went bankrupt in 2011. Today, I'd totally love to see a new anime adaptation of Fuma no Kojirou, a 2-cour (24-26 episode) one that includes everything from the original manga & even includes some extra bits from later works (like at least acknowledging Soushi's backstory), but as it is today, I still do enjoy these OVAs. They remain an accurate adaptation of the manga, with only a few changes & removals, and it is nice to see an English translation for it, even if it isn't an ideal one. This series isn't one of Masami Kurumada's absolute best works, there's good reason why I call it his "Fourth-Most-Well-Known Manga", but it's got spunk...

Unlike Ed Asner, though, I like spunk!

Manga © Masami Kurumada/Shueisha

Fuma no Kojirou: Yasha-hen © 1989 MOVIC/SME Visual Works (now Aniplex)

Fuma no Kojirou: Seiken Sensou-hen © 1990 SME Visual Works/MOVIC

Fuma no Kojirou Saishushou: Fuma Hanran-hen © 1992 SME Visual Works/MOVIC