Ring ni Kakero vs. Ring ni Kakero 1: When a Measly "1" Makes All the Difference

October 12, 2021 (or somewhere thereabout) will mark the 40th Anniversary of the final chapter of Masami Kurumada's first hit manga, Ring ni Kakero. Aside from being one of my personal favorite manga of all time, this specific anniversary is important, historically, in the annals of Weekly Shonen Jump, as RnK was the first time Jump ever had given a final chapter the top position for an issue, i.e. it was the first thing readers saw when they opened up Issue #44 of 1981. Not just that, but it had both full-color opening pages, i.e. "lead color", & red-toned "all-color" pages for the rest, something that would only be exactly duplicated with Dragon Ball & Slam Dunk's respective finales in the mid-90s; if you want more info on that stuff, I covered it earlier this year. Following a falling out in the early 90s, Kurumada would leave Jump (& Shueisha) for the rest of the decade, before returning in 2000 with next-gen sequel Ring ni Kakero 2. With this new manga in the works, it was decided to reprint Ring ni Kakero, but this time things would be different.

Even the logo was changed to reflect what
the sequel's logo looks like.

Prior to Kurumada's return to Shueisha in 2000, Ring ni Kakero had received three releases: The original 25-volume tankouban release from 1978-1983, the 15-volume wideban release from 1992-1993, & the 15-volume bunkoban release from 1998-1999. Aside from the latter two containing more pages/volume than the first, they're pretty much exactly the same, & this is perfectly normal for most manga re-releases. However, this fourth release wound up being especially different from the others. Released two volumes/month from September 4, 2001 to May 1, 2002 under the "Jump Comics Deluxe" label, which is what all Super Jump manga (like RnK 2) were published under, Ring ni Kakero 1 was an 18-volume "Deluxe Edition" release of the original series, now given a "1" in the title to differentiate it not just from the sequel, but also all of the prior releases of the manga. Yes, despite everything you read online, including the manga's own English Wikipedia page, the "Ring ni Kakero 1" manga PREDATES the Ring ni Kakero 1 anime, by about 2-3 years, and in fact the anime technically lists this specific release (right down to the "1" & JCDX label) in the "Original Work" part of the opening credits of every single episode. Not just that, but if you visit Masami Kurumada's own website, he lists Ring ni Kakero & Ring ni Kakero 1 as completely separate works in his catalog.

So what's so special about this "Deluxe Edition"? Isn't it just yet another reprint of the first series, only now with a number in the title, for whatever reason? Oh, if only it were just that simple...

This comparison shows off all
the various forms of script changes.

First, let's start with something that applies to the release, as whole: Script Changes. Being only the second serialized work Masami Kurumada ever did, it's understandable that his skills as a writer were likely not to a standard that he would later deem to be acceptable. Therefore, every volume of Ring ni Kakero 1 features some sort of edits & minor reworking of lines, though nothing that would constitute outright brand new dialogue. Instead, it's stuff like the removal of excess ellipses, which Kurumada did rather rampantly in the original version, as well as truncating what characters would say here & there, i.e. removing superfluous writing, resulting in everyone getting to the point in a much more concise fashion. In the original version, it wasn't too rare for some pages to be filled with characters just talking & talking & talking (especially early on, when it was more of a character drama), and in RnK1 a lot of that has been reduced to a much more reasonable amount. The conversation-heavy pages still remain the same overall, but now it just reads smoother & is much easier on the eyes, in general; Kurumada also implemented kanji for some words, in place of just hiragana. Kurumada also removed racist insults that appeared in the original version, like "White Pig" & "Yellow Monkey", regardless of whether it was spoken by a "good guy" or a "bad guy". He also changed a line very early on that uses the Japanese word "kichigai", which while technically just meaning "lunatic" has become considered in extremely poor taste in modern Japanese; the line now simply reads "Shouki kayo?/Is he sane?". This is stuff that you likely would only really notice if you literally had each version side-by-side, which is what I did for this comparison, but it adds up in the long run.

Also seen throughout this version of the manga are Name & Terminology Changes. I've brought this up before on the blog when I celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the manga's debut in 2017, but in the original version Kurumada was not subtle at all when it came to some things. For example, early on Kiku gives Ryuji some weighted supporters that he'd strap around his wrists & ankles, so as to increase muscle strength, and in the original version they were called the "Power Wrist" & "Power Ankle", respectively. Kurumada used those names because they were actual products being sold at the time, and the manga apparently actually helped increase sales for them while it was running in Shonen Jump. Meanwhile, Kenzaki trained his arms using the "Apollo Exerciser", the real life alternate name for the Exer-Genie, after it got a lot of public attention for being used by astronauts in various Apollo program missions, including the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing. Understandably, Kurumada likely didn't want to risk copyright infringement come the new millennium, since he was going to refer to & show these items in RnK2, so RnK1 changes the names of these items to the "Dragon Wrist", "Dragon Ankle", & "Galaxian Exerciser". I also imagine Kurumada probably thought it was weird to have both the "Apollo Exerciser" & later an actual character named Apollon (the Greek spelling for "Apollo") in the same manga, as they have no relation whatsoever.

However, name changes also apply to characters, as well. The big one would be with one of the members of Black Shaft's makeshift Team America during the "Pacific War" Chapter. In the original version, this man was named "N.B. Forrest", in reference to Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate lieutenant general during the Civil War & the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The reason for this was because the self-proclaimed "King of the South" in the manga was also a KKK Grand Wizard, and would proclaim the superiority of white people, in comparison to a black man like Shaft or the Japanese that make up Golden Japan Jr.. To this day, Nathan Bedford Forrest is a controversial figure, to say the least, so it's no surprise that Kurumada decided to change this character's name for RnK1, now calling him "Mr. Whitie" (subtle); his KKK Grand Wizard status remained, however. Another reason for the name change is that Kurumada would introduce his son in RnK2, Sugar Whitie, and it likely just made more sense to remove any & all relation to an actual historical figure.

Beyond that, other name changes are really more typographical fixes. One of Team Germany's members sees the name on the back of his jersey changed from "Geepels" in the original version to "Göpels", because "Geepels" is just silly looking & not appropriately German. Also, yes, while the name is a reference to the Nazi Party's Joseph Goebbels, it's not exactly meant to be the same name, as "Goebbels" in Japanese is written as "ゲッベルス", while the character in RnK(1) is written as "ゲッペルス", replacing the "be" with a "pe"; yes, it's a minor difference, but it's enough to warrant a different name. Meanwhile, fellow German boxer "Göring" gets his spelling changed to "Gehring", which I guess is more accurate to the katakana pronunciation. However, the RnK1 anime would use "Geepels" & "Goering" (yes, a THIRD spelling!) in 2011, so I just give up. At least Greek Jr. Boxer Balkan/Vulcan's superblow didn't go through yet another name change this time around, like how it originally was "Dead End Fire" when the chapter featuring it was first serialized, before originally conceived as "Damned Fire", but only because of a mistake in publication, so the tankouban wound up being where "Shocking Fire", the correct name, was first properly seen.

But, still... Geepels. That's just hilarious.

You know what, I can kind of
almost tell that this was drawn later.

In regards to any Art Changes, there really isn't anything brand new being drawn here, as Kurumada's art style in 2001 was definitely not the same exact thing as it was back from 1977 to 1981, so any brand new drawings would definitely clash with the original drawings. However, there are some minor differences to be seen, namely some extra shading on some pages, where in the original they looked rather flat. RnK1 also moves around where some chapters begin & end, or even split really long ones into two chapters, which necessitates the removal of some ancillary panels to accommodate the new chapter title placements; there are also a small handful of pages or panels being moved to slightly earlier or later than in the original version. That said, there is one page featuring art not seen in the original tankouban release, namely in the chapter "The Miraculous Boomerang" (see: the image on the right), but this page was first seen in the wideban release, so it's not new for RnK1. There's another instance like this image later on, but in that case it was to fix a notable error, and I'll get to it when it's relevant.

The table of contents on the left comes
from the wideban, but the point is made.

However, there is one major art change to go over, but it's one that didn't happen in 2001. In 2014, to celebrate Masami Kurumada's 40th Anniversary as a mangaka, Shueisha put out digital releases for most of his entire catalog (with only a couple being ignored). This specifically included Ring ni Kakero 1, NOT the original version, but in this digital release we saw a very notable change that didn't exist before. In the original version, Team Germany were shown using the Nazi Swastika as their insignia, and this was maintained for the original physical release of Ring ni Kakero 1, right down to having Volume 10's cover be Ryuji punching his way through a "Hakenkreuz", as Germany calls it; yes, it is an awesome image, isn't it? However, when RnK1 was digitally re-released, Volume 10's cover was changed to that of Volume 15 from the original tankouban. Not just that, but the chapter "The Revived Hakenkreuz" was renamed to "The Revived German Spirit", and the reason for that is simple: Literally every single Swastika was replaced with an eagle insignia, though it doesn't exactly reflect the real life Bundesadler or the Nazi-era Reichstadler, likely for legal reasons. While I can only directly verify this for Volume 10 via an online preview, as I don't own the digital release, I think it's more than reasonable to assume that this applies to literally every single appearance of Team Germany in the manga. To be perfectly honest, I fully support this decision, as the usage of the Swastika for Team Germany had no real purpose other than to establish that these are "bad guys" for Golden Japan Jr. to defeat (& later redeem as allies), and the RnK1 anime had already done the same thing prior to 2014. Personally, I commend Masami Kurumada for going the extra mile & finally removing the stigma of "The Germans are Nazis!" from Ring ni Kakero. This doesn't retroactively effect the original physical releases in any way, but it's the thought & effort that counts.

Kurumada even made sure to change the barely noticeable ones!
Talk about attention to detail.

But enough of the general changes seen throughout the entire 18-volume run... Let's get into the nitty gritty stuff and go over the MAJOR CHANGES that warranted Masami Kurumada listing Ring ni Kakero 1 as a separate work from Ring ni Kakero. In particular, this will focus on the first 6 volumes of RnK1, which equates to roughly the first 10/11 volumes of RnK, as that's where the majority of these changes happen. This isn't mere coincidence, either, as the point where the changes become less prevalent is pretty much when the manga switches over fully from the Ashita no Joe-influenced character drama it debuted as to the Team Astro-influenced "SF Boxing" action spectacle that it became legendary & influential for. Simply put, the wide majority of the changes in RnK1 are done for the sake of fine-tuning the pacing of the early part of the story (namely the first two story arcs) so that the reader can get to the "main" part of the story faster, i.e. when the focus switches over to Golden Japan Jr. & their fights. Quite honestly, I think the easiest way to address this is to simply go over these first six volumes, in order.

The short-lived English scanlation
for RnK sourced from the wideban.

Volume 1, oddly enough, is the only RnK1 book to feature color pages, in this case reproducing the opening pages to the first chapter, "Kiku & Ryu", as they appeared when the manga first debuted. Considering the historical importance of the final chapter, it's interesting that the color wasn't reproduced there, as well. Anyway, things immediately change with the second chapter, because we get our first example of excised content. In the original version, the second chapter saw Ryuji & Kiku get lost in Tokyo after arriving, & getting separated before finding each other again. RnK1 removes literally all but two pages from this chapter, "Terrible Tokyo", with said exceptions due to them introducing the Sanjou Family, who become relevant in the next chapter, "The Millionaire Sanjou Family". In turn, the first four pages of that chapter are replaced with the two surviving pages from "Terrible Tokyo", altering the story to make it seem like Ryuji & Kiku happen to meet the Sanjous immediately upon arriving in Tokyo, who then take them in not long later; seven pages from this chapter focusing on Kiku are also removed, mainly for the sake of pacing. Beyond that, Volume 1 of RnK1 more or less remains the same as the original, outside of the chapter "Ryu Fights Alone" being split into a new chapter, "To An Interesting Tomorrow", which is where the use of "kichigai" was changed.

Volume 2, though, is where things truly start changing regularly, as all but one chapter in this book sees some sort of alteration or removal. "Wait, Mother!" removes two pages early on for pacing, plus two panels are removed from last page. "The Shitamachi Boxing Gym" only has its first & third pages kept, as those establish Zoroku Omura bringing Ryuji & Kiku to his gym & taking them in as his kids, and makes those two pages the end of the previously-mentioned chapter. Meanwhile, successive chapter "The True Strength of a Pro...?!" is the first chapter of RnK to be 100% omitted from RnK1, as it focuses more on introducing Rokusuke "Rock-san" Ohno (or "Roku-san", if you're pedantic), an Omura Gym regular who aims to go pro. This will be something we see more of, as Rock-san originally became a deuteragonist in this early part. The next chapter, "The Second Punch", sees its last 17 pages excised & replaced with a two-page spread of seemingly random manga pages being strewn about, with a mention of Ryuji learning how to box. The reason for this change is because the next two chapters, "Go, Rock-san!" & "A Man's Horsepower", are both 100% omitted from RnK1, due to their focus on Rock-san & his journey to go pro; those strewn-about manga pages come from these chapters. After the next chapter goes by completely untouched, the remaining chapters ("The Power Wrist's Death Blow", "Dragon & Tiger, Once Again", & "The Time of Battle") simply see pages removed for pacing (4, 12, & 6, respectively), while the last one is also split into a second chapter, "Dragon & Tiger Clash!"; also, the aforementioned "Dragon Wrist" alteration. To help illustrate things better, Volume 2 of RnK1 started within Volume 2 of the original version & now ends within Volume 4, because of three whole chapters (plus almost the entirety of a fourth) being omitted!

Volume 3 is another case in which nearly every chapter sees some sort of page removal, starting with "The Phantom Right", which sees four pages (including a two-page spread) removed, & "A Young Man's Consent", which has 6 pages removed. The same is true with "Dragon & Tiger Becomes Sublime!", which sees 7 pages (including a two-page spread) removed, while the following chapter, "A Pro Boxer's Awareness", is the fourth chapter to be 100% omitted from RnK1, due to its focus once again on Rock-san. The next chapter, "The Two Wings: The Power Ankle", is a massive combined chapter (made up of many, many serialized chapters), so much so that Kurumada wound up removing 47 pages and even fused it together with the next chapter, "Eve of the Decisive Battle!", which itself saw 16 pages removed, all because of both pacing reasons as well as lessening the focus on Rock-san; also, the aforementioned "Dragon Ankle" alteration. By this point, we're now entering Volume 6 of the original version & getting into the main part of the second story arc, starting with the chapter "Tough Guy! Noboru Tsujimoto", which sees 12 pages removed. In this case, it's just to keep the fight moving as a faster pace, and I also noticed that Tsujimoto's "kukuku" laugh was changed to "hehehe", which was interesting. Finally, this book ends with "The Achilles Heel!", which is now renamed to "Tsujimoto's Weak Point" and has 10 pages removed for pacing, including the explanation as to where the term "Achilles Heel" comes from (i.e. it slowed down the pacing), hence why the chapter title got changed. This is also another larger combined chapter, so much so that the last 20 pages that didn't get removed get moved over to the start of the next book.

Rock-san also had a subplot
regarding Setsuko,
a woman he liked.

Midway into Volume 4 is where we reach the point where the anime starts adapting from, but before that we still get a good amount of removed content. The chapter "One Chance for Victory!" has 37 pages removed for pacing, while the following chapter "A Tearful Punch" sees another 21 pages removed. This is mainly because, in the original version, Ryuji's fight with Tsujimoto would be interrupted with bits involving Rock-san's first match as a pro, giving readers two concurrent fights at the same time; obviously, the focus needed to be solely on Ryuji this time around. The next chapter, "Froggy Rokusuke's Strenuous Battle!" is another near-complete omission, as all but 10 pages near the end are removed, once again getting rid of Rock-san's pro boxing story, but keeping (most of) everything regarding Ryuji's time in the Metropolitan Tournament. Also, the end of this chapter would be split between the aftermath of Ryuji vs. Tsujimoto & the lead-in for Ryuj vs. Kenzaki III, marking the start of the anime adaptation. As for the rest of the Metropolitan Tournament Chapter, the next four chapters ("The Starry Sky's Final Match", "A Single Shooting Star", "Farewell! Golden Arm", & "A New Departure!") all see pages removed for pacing (17, 16, 4, & 8, respectively), mainly due to them focusing more on the real-life pro boxers who are attending the event & explaining things to their fellow attendees, instead of just letting Ryuji & Kenzaki's fight do the talking. Moving into the Champion Carnival Chapter, the next two chapters, "The Champion Carnival Appears" & "Fighting Champion Ishimatsu Katori", also see removals, but it's nowhere near as much as before (6 & 4, respectively), though the latter chapter also begins 18 pages earlier, mainly for better flow.

What the hell, Kurumada?!
No wonder he removed these pages for RnK1.

Volume 5 is where the changes start slowing down a little, but it also has the last complete removal. Namely, the chapter "A Carnation for Mother's Day" is the fifth & final chapter to be 100% omitted from RnK1, in this case because it literally has no real purpose in the overall plot, instead telling a one-off story about Ryuji & Rock-san helping find a carnation for an old lady they meet on Mother's Day; absolutely nothing is lost by its complete removal. The next chapter, "The Third Death Blow Punch", has 7 pages removed for pacing reasons, and the same is true for successive chapters "The Champion Carnival Begins" (4 pages), "The Miraculous Boomerang" (6 pages), "Rolling Thunder" (4 pages), & "The Best 4 Line-Up" (1 page). The last one mentioned is also yet another longer combined chapter that gets split up into a second chapter, "Noble Boy vs. Fighting Champion". As you can see, less & less is getting removed, as Rock-san's relevance as a deuteragonist is now over, though there still is one last bit of old story to deal with. Namely, the Champion Carnival Chapter originally featured more cutaways to Yamaguchi prefecture, showing off the horrible life Chiyo Takane (Ryuji & Kiku's mother) was having with her abusive new husband, Tomizou. One notable removal for RnK1, for example, sees Tomizou bash Chiyo in the head with a (likely not empty) glass bottle, leaving her knocked out in a bloody heap! This lead into Tomizou finding out about the Carnival, so he originally headed over to Tokyo in an attempt to bring back his stepchildren. This is where we get to the removed content in "Burn! The Final Match", which sees 10 pages removed that mostly involve Tomizou finding Kiku outside the arena, only for her to beat the crap out of him. In RnK1, Tomizou never goes to Tokyo, while Chiyo just suddenly watches Ryuji vs. Kawai from a hospital bed; even the anime just had her watch the match from a friend's house.

Interestingly, Season 2 of
the RnK1 anime featured its own
scene where Kiku made rice balls.

Finally, Volume 6 honestly doesn't feature much in terms of changes, but it is the last book to feature anything removed to a notable extent. Namely, the chapter "The Legendary Boomerang!" has 19 pages removed, once again for pacing reasons, in this case a bit about Kiku making rice balls for Japan Jr., but wanting Rock-san to deliver them, as she doesn't want to directly assist them at this point. Beyond that, we're now into the Pacific War Chapter, and the rest of the book is essentially the same as in the original version, minus the aforementioned tightening up of the script, though the next chapter, "The Shikishima's Japanese Man is..." does begin 10 pages earlier than before, and is split into a second chapter, "Raid Captain Ishimatsu". And, really, that more or less becomes the norm for the remaining 12 volumes of Ring ni Kakero 1. Some chapters begin earlier or later than before, & the occasional panel gets removed to accommodate new chapter title placement. A few chapters bleed into the next respective volume and/or are split up into multiple chapters, like how "Sicilian Dandy" in Volume 8 bleeds into Volume 9 & those remaining pages are then split into two new chapters, "New Punch Complete" & "Ishimatsu's Iron Fist of Anger"; same with Volume 10's "Held vs. Genius" being split into "Galactica Magnum". In fact, Volume 11 of Ring ni Kakero 1 (the end of the World Tournament Chapter) is the only book to feature absolutely no major changes from the original version, outside of the standard fine-tuning of the script. Volume 12, meanwhile, would see a trio of chapters being split into new ones, namely "The Twelve Gods of Greece" into "Revival! Japan Jr.", "History's Strongest Jr." into "A Group of Stars Flow", & "Mark of Betrayal" into "A Faraway Call", though in the last case it's actually the first half that's split into its own chapter (i.e. the second one listed actually comes first).

By this point, any removals
were because of redundancy.

In fact, we wouldn't see another example of entire pages being removed until Volume 13 of RnK1, which sees "The Eternal Death Struggle" (from RnK Volume 18) & "Zeus' True Character" (from RnK Volume 19) each get 2 pages removed, simply because of redundancy, as the next pages in both cases were the same things as before with different artwork; obviously, these were separate serialized chapters fused into one. Beyond that, the remainder of RnK1 volumes continue the usual standard of script tightening, moving the start & end points of chapters over a few pages here & there, the chapter "Fate of the Kaiser Knuckle" gets renamed to "Clash! Kaiser", Volume 14's "Departure to a Bloody Fight" bleeds into Volume 15 & becomes "Kenzaki Enters the War", Volume 17's "New Champion Kenzaki" is renamed to "Only One Opponent", etc. Really, the only really notable changes to be found in the last five volumes of RnK1 would be "A Golden Moment" in Volume 15 (during the Ashura Chapter), in which an infamously lazy 2-page splash for Special Rolling Thunder originally only had three punches shown instead of five (this change was actually first done for the wideban, but still worth bringing up), while "The Time to Rule the Left" in Volume 18 had its original title splash page removed, since the start was moved back two pages. Also, "Magnum vs. Telios" originally had a checkerboard design with alternating positive/negative images for a splash page that's now shown in all positive, to make it easier on the eyes. Finally, as I indicated earlier, the last chapter "Good-bye, Ring" (which was originally "Dear Ring, Forever!" when first serialized) is printed in monochrome, instead of the "full color+all color" format it was originally printed in back in 1981; to my knowledge, this still has yet to be reprinted in its original color glory.

Neat little "twist" in how RnK Vol 20
is re-used for RnK1 Vol 14, right?

As you can see, Ring ni Kakero 1 is much, much more than just a fourth format of release for Ring ni Kakero. Instead, it's more along the lines of a "Director's Cut" that, in some ways, results in a different overall product. However, unlike most examples of this kind of "cut", which almost always results in there being more content than in the original product, Masami Kurumada instead went in the opposite direction, excising content for the sake of creating a more streamlined & focused story for the first 1/3 of the RnK1 books. Ring ni Kakero is interesting in how it started as more of a semi-realistic character drama, before switching over to an "SF Boxing" action spectacle, and since the series is more known & renown for the latter category, it does make sense that Kurumada felt it necessary to make more radical changes to that early part of the manga, while leaving the remaining 2/3 of the books with only more minor changes that are shared throughout the entire release, as a whole. While I can certainly understand if some fans don't like seeing stuff removed from those earlier chapters, let alone five whole chapters being omitted in their entirety, I can attest that this new format does make for a much more focused early portion. Back in March of 2011 I wrote a quartet of pieces that give a chapter-by-chapter overview of what happened in the "pre-anime" portion of Ring ni Kakero, and at that time all I owned was all 18 volumes of Ring ni Kakero 1. In fact, I didn't even own the original 25-volume release until this year, just to make this article; my review of the manga from 2013 was based solely around RnK1. Those "101" to "104" overviews, though being very basic, do show that the changes Masami Kurumada made don't really harm the overall story being told in those "pre-anime" volumes, unless you really loved Rock-san just that much. I won't go as far as to say that they're superior to the original, but they don't do any real harm, either; they just trim the fat.

That being said, I would hazard a guess & say that Masami Kurumada himself might feel that Ring ni Kakero 1 is the superior version of his manga. As I mentioned early on, Kurumada lists RnK & RnK1 as separate works on his website, Ring ni Kakero 2 uses the name changes seen in RnK1, & the version of the manga that received a digital release (complete with a few additional changes) is RnK1. For all intents & purposes, Ring ni Kakero 1 is the canon version of Masami Kurumada's first hit manga. While I'm extremely positive it would never happen, if this manga was to ever get licensed for release outside of Japan, it would be Ring ni Kakero 1 that would be released, & specifically the 2014 edition. It'd be 18 volumes instead of 25, it'd be "Dragon Wrist & Ankle" instead of "Power Wrist & Ankle", it'd be "Galaxian Exerciser" instead of "Apollo Exerciser", it'd be "Mr. Whitie" instead of "N.B. Forrest", it'd be all about Ryuji early on instead of sharing the spotlight with Rock-san's pro boxer journey, & Team Germany would most certainly NOT be Nazis; that last one alone at least makes the chances merely 0%, instead of negative. I'm sure that would likely annoy some people, as they'd argue that this would result in "missing content", but I can only call it like I see it, and that's just the way it looks to be.

At the same time, though, Greek philosopher Plotinus defined "The One" as the ultimate reality and source of all existence. Considering the historical importance that Ring ni Kakero has as the "bible" of shonen action manga, I think that "1" in the Deluxe Edition's title is more than fitting.

Ring ni Kakero © 1977-1981 Masami Kurumada

Ring ni Kakero 1 © 2001-2002 Masami Kurumada