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| "They're not actually color-coordinated like that, right?" "No, they're not, but it sure looks neat." |
After the final chapter of Ring ni Kakero was serialized in Issue #44 of Shonen Jump in 1981 in "full-color" (read all about it in the aforementioned Trivia Track), Masami Kurumada took a break in order to get ready for his next series. Eleven issues later, in early 1982, Kurumada returned with the two-part debut of his next serialized manga (his third overall), Fuma no Kojirou/Kojirou of the Fuma. I say "two-part" because FnK's first chapter was technically split up across two issues. First there's the January 10 special, which was a small collection of five one-shots by various artists (including Akira Toriyama's Escape, as well as Outlaw Man, an early Hirohiko Araki story), and in this special issue was a 61-page "prologue" for FnK. The following day, Combined Issue #3-4 featured the "true" first chapter of FnK, which started the issue with full-color opening pages, i.e. "lead color" (plus red-tinted "all-color" for the remaining pages). In fact, FnK's next two chapters would also start their respective issues with lead color status, showing just how venerated Masami Kurumada was at that time, and the same would later be true for Otoko Zaka's first three chapters in 1984; Saint Seiya's debut in 1986, though, would only get lead color for Chapter 1. For the tankouban release, the prologue became the first chapter, while the first serialized chapter would be combined with the second to become the second tankouban chapter; combining serialized chapters into one for the tankouban was a regular thing at the time.
Now, yes, due to how Shonen Jump (& any manga magazine, really) is published, this two-part debut for Fuma no Kojirou technically happened at the very end of 1981, not the start of 1982. However, if we focused that minutely on silly stuff like that, then we'd have no real idea as to when any manga actually began, so screw it! Anyway, think of this whole "two-part debut" factoid as a freebie, because now we truly begin with our first piece of FnK trivia.
A Father's Fatal Finale
We start off in a bit of an odd fashion by moving straight to the end of the manga, but there's good reason for that. Fuma no Kojirou maintained seemingly very high interest for the large majority of its run, it didn't start really dropping in Jump's Table of Contents placement until the final 11 chapters, yet it still came to an end after a run of just (barely) two whole years & 96 weekly chapters, which were compiled into 42 chapters across 10 volumes. Considering the good will he had accumulated with Ring ni Kakero & the apparent interest in the story he was telling with Fuma no Kojirou, why did Masami Kurumada bring it all to an end? Not just that, but why did he end the final story arc, the Fuma Rebellion Chapter, in such a fatalistic fashion? By the final page, only two of the major cast (Kojirou & Ryoma) were left alive, almost as though Yoshiyuki "Kill 'Em All" Tomino had been given the reins. Back when I reviewed the FnK manga in 2015, I simply thought that Kurumada wanted to finally move on to Otoko Zaka, the series he always intended to be his magnum opus, but eventually I was pointed out the actual reason... and it's more tragic, yet also illuminating.
In the author's note for Volume 10 of Fuma no Kojirou, Kurumada apparently revealed that his father had passed away during FnK's serialization, upon which his interest to continue making the series dropped. I never owned the original 10-volume release of the manga, my review was based on the 6-volume bunkoban (which didn't include author's notes), so I never knew of this, but upon hearing this explanation everything kind of made sense & came together. It's only natural that Kurumada wouldn't be as interested in continuing to make manga on a weekly basis after finding out about his father's passing, and suddenly the large amount of character deaths in the Fuma Rebellion Chapter also made sense, since Kurumada was likely in a darker place at the time, mentally. It also explains why, after FnK's final chapter came out in Issue #43 of Shonen Jump in 1983, Kurumada wouldn't return to weekly serialization for close to a whole year, when Otoko Zaka debuted in Issue #32 of 1984, and the only thing he did during that time was the second installment of Raimei no Zaji, which appeared in Issue #13. Finally, Kurumada's decision to even debut Otoko Zaka could have partially come from a newfound feeling of "Life is Short" following his father's death, and decided that he should finally start telling the story he had always wanted to tell.
It'd take a long time, but in 2019 Kurumada finally produced a proper "Epilogue/Final Chapter" for Fuma no Kojirou, and while it's only 14 pages long, it does give FnK the proper send-off it never really got back in 1983. Also, the death of Kurumada's father had the added benefit of Kurumada himself laying off smoking for the most part, as he admitted to have smoked an average of 5 packs/day until that point; I'm sure his lungs have thanked him heavily for that for the past 39+ years.
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| Not Pictured: King Arthur, the Hindu Lasya dance, & Zion |
Name References-R-Us
In the Ring ni Kakero Trivia Track, one of the things I brought up was the numerous amount of name & terminology changes that series received in the decades since it was first serialized. While Fuma no Kojirou hasn't had any of that in the 40 years since it debuted, it too has something really interesting when it comes to names. Namely (ha!), it's in just how many characters' names are a direct reference to someone or something historical, religious, or both. The two most obvious ones are Kojirou & his main rival/ally Musashi Asuka, who are definitely named after real-life rivals Sasaki Kojirou & Miyamoto Musashi, while Kojirou's Fuma Clan "brother" Ryoma is more than likely named after Sakamoto Ryoma, though the two share no kanji in their names, unlike Kojirou & Musashi. Also of note is the name of the "Legendary Strong Sword" that Kojirou eventually wields, Furin Kazan, which is a direct reference to Takeda Shingen's iconic battle standard of "as swift as the wind, as gentle as the forest, as fierce as the fire, as unshakable as the mountain". As for the rest of the cast introduced during the Yasha Chapter & the Fuma Rebellion Chapter, Hakuo Academy's Ranko Yagyu & Himeko Hojo are actually indicated to be descendants of the old Yagyu & Hojo Clans (with the Fuma usually portrayed in fiction as protectors of the Hojo), while the various ninja from the Fuma & Yasha Clans have names that are are more or less emblematic of either their abilities (Kirikaze, Raiden, Anki, Shimon, etc.) or their character (Shoryu, Shiranui, etc.). The only other referential name from these two arcs would possibly be Kousuke Mibu, whose last name is likely a reference to the Mibu Clan that was around during the same Warring States period as the Hojo Clan.
However, it's with the second story arc, the Sacred Sword War Chapter, that Kurumada really went gung-ho with referential naming. Similar to his fellow Cosmo Warriors Kojirou, Musashi, & Ryoma, Soushi Date's last name is a kanji-accurate reference to Date Masamune, while his first name might be a reference to Okita Souji, as "Soushi" is a common variant used for Okita's first name in fictional stories. The real fun, though, comes from the Chaos Warriors, who are mostly all seemingly named after something notable. David, Arthur, & Nero are very direct references, right down to David's Japanese pronunciation ("Dabide") being how Japan's refers to King David (modern day "David" is done differently in katakana), Rasha & Shion can either be interpreted in Japanese pronunciation or what they likely are referencing (Lasya & Zion, respectively), while Shura is more than likely meant to be a reference to the entire story arc's focus on Saṃsāra ("Rinne" in Japanese), i.e. the cycle of death & rebirth, as the word "Shura" can be used in Japan to refer to one of the six realms of reincarnation. That just leaves guys like Cosmo's Sigma & Chaos' Oz & Jackal, which are much more vague in what they might be referencing. Oz is an actual name of Hebrew origin, but it could also just be Kurumada referencing The Wizard of Oz, while Jackal could just be referencing the animal, & Sigma has way too many things it could be a reference to. Finally, minor character Ryuoin Cruz is likely named in part after the Ryuoin Temple in Ota, Tokyo, which was revered as a hospital during the Warring States period; just like Sigma, "Cruz" has way too many possible references.
What's all the more amusing is that instead of simply relying on katakana for these blatantly-not-Japanese names (as well as Rasha, Shion, & Shura), Kurumada instead used ateji like a madman, so they all use phonetic kanji, though katakana is still used as the furigana when reading these names; even "Chaos" has ateji, while "Cosmo" would use the kanji for "chitsujo/social order" in the anime. It's sheer insanity from Masami Kurumada, and I love it.
Dissidia Final Fantasy: Wholesale Ripoff of the Sacred Sword War?
Whereas one can easily find all manner of direct references, homages, & tributes to Ring ni Kakero & Saint Seiya in other works, it is admittedly way tougher to do the same for Fuma no Kojirou, or at least find one that you can definitively state is a reference to it. For example, one of the Sacred Swords is Nero's Raikouken, a name that would sound familiar to fans of SNK's The King of Fighters, since Benimaru Nikaido has a super with the same exact name (though the kanji for "ken" is changed to reflect a fist, instead of a sword). While that is likely a direct FnK reference (as KOF makes a metric bunch of anime/manga references, including numerous Kurumada ones), I feel that there's a reference that's even better, and relates to a much larger franchise, though it's seemingly never been admitted. However, while something like KOF's Raikouken is a simple loving reference, this one goes so far that one could levy the use of the term "ripoff".
Originally conceived of as as Kingdom Hearts spin-off, Dissidia Final Fantasy by Square-Enix first came out on the PSP in Japan on December 18, 2008, followed by international release in mid-2009. It was a 3D fighting game that pit the leads of various Final Fantasy games against their respective villains, and would receive two follow ups (Dissidia 012 & Dissidia NT) over the next decade, expanding the roster to include more characters from more FF games. However, it's the general plot & concept of the overarching Dissidia storyline that I want to focus on, because it definitely rings a bell. You see, Dissidia details the battles fought between two forces, Cosmos & Chaos (or Materia & Spiritus in NT), with each side summoning its own cadre of warriors to fight against the other in a seemingly eternal conflict on "World B", a war that repeats itself over & over throughout various "cycles" of time; Dissidia 012, in particular, details the 12th conflict & retells the first game's 13th conflict. Meanwhile, the Sacred Sword War is a battle fought between two forces, Cosmo & Chaos, with each side summoning its own cadre of warriors to fight against the other in a seemingly eternal conflict on "The Sacred Land", a war that repeats itself over & over every 4,000 years. Both FnK's SSW & Dissidia focus on its gathered warriors not truly understanding why they've been gathered & for what purpose, though there are some who do recall some elements of a prior conflict, the concept of winners & losers are more or less pointless in the grand scheme of things, and eventually an overarching concept or entity is revealed that is responsible for the conflict constantly reprising itself over & over (Saṃsāra in FnK, Shinryu & Cid of the Lufaine in Dissidia). Really, the only thing Dissidia doesn't have is a direct analogue to the Sacred Swords themselves, but considering that you have the various Final Fantasy heroes & villains, that's understandable.
Does that make Dissidia Final Fantasy a "wholesale ripoff" of Fuma no Kojirou's Sacred Sword War? Maybe not 100%, as Dissidia's plots do differ very much from the SSW on the whole, but while I don't think it's ever been outright admitted by the sub-franchise's creative producer & character designer Tetsuya Nomura, I should point out that he would have been the ideal age when Fuma no Kojirou was first serialized, as he was 12-13 years old at the time. Therefore, I think it's very reasonable to guess that Nomura might have been... "inspired" by Masami Kurumada's manga; they're just too similar to be pure coincidence.
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| Satoshi Yuri's artwork was actually rather nice for this series. |
The Forgotten (& Unfinished) Sequel
Until 2000, Masami Kurumada wasn't really interested in creating sequels or continuations of his prior work, instead constantly creating brand new ones once his previous one had finished, or was just straight-up cancelled. The start of the new millennium, though, changed everything, as Kurumada has since focused primarily on reviving his old stuff, whether it's Ring ni Kakero 2, the revival of Otoko Zaka, or the various Saint Seiya expansions (Next Dimension, Episode Zero, Origin, Destiny, or the multiple spin-offs done by other artists). However, there's one return that's always forgotten about, even though it's actually one of the earliest, predated only by RnK2 & Saint Seiya: Episode.G (plus 2002's Saint Seiya: Gigantomachia, if you include novels). Debuting in Akita Shoten's Champion Red magazine in late 2003, Fuma no Kojirou: Yagyu Ansatsucho/Kojirou of the Fuma: The Yagyu Assasination Book was a direct sequel to the original manga, taking place roughly four years or so after the Fuma Rebellion Chapter, with artwork by Satoshi Yuri, who from what I can tell may have been a former assistant of Kurumada's who has since gone on to work in the anime industry as a part of Barnstorm Design Labo.
The plot saw Kojirou, a returning Soushi, & a new Fuma ninja nicknamed "Tora" take on a mysterious group called Karma, which plans to sacrifice Himeko in order to revive their "King", Indra, so as to take revenge against the Yagyu Clan. As part of the setup we also were introduced to Renya Yagyu, Ranko's brother who's on the hunt for the Furin Kazan (which the Yagyu Clan originally owned), while Karma's leader Zenon also managed to temporarily revive Kojirou's old Fuma brethren to act as new foes for our titular hero. However, the revived Fuma ninja actually take the chance to test Kojirou & see if he's truly worthy of becoming the new Leader of the Fuma Clan; also, there's a masked man named "Mumyou" working for Karma who is obviously just Musashi. Overall, there's a lot to like about Yagyu Ansatsucho, including little details like making Komomo (a Fuma girl only seen in the OG manga's prologue) into a relevant character & actually using the names of the Four Heavenly Kings as Saint Seiya-esque titles for Karma's main villains, collectively called the "Four Sword Kings". Unfortunately, in mid-2006 the manga entered an indefinite hiatus after just three volumes, and nearly 16 years later it's remained unfinished to this day. We were left with our heroes about the face off with the Four Sword Kings (in fact, "Virūḍhaka" was never revealed!), Renya's fate was left unknown after being taken out by Mumyou early in Volume 2, and even Ryoma's whereabouts were never revealed (he only ever appeared in a single flashback panel). Not just that, but the three tankouban that were released didn't include the 17th chapter that was serialized, which apparently explained what happened to Musashi in the interim between the original series & Yagyu Ansatsucho; meanwhile, Sigma was barely referenced just once. If I had to guess, the manga still had another 2-3 volumes to go, since it was starting some major fights.
I did review Fuma no Kojirou: Yagyu Ansatsucho back in 2013, and I was sad to see that it ended on such a cliffhanger, because it really did have the potential to be a great follow-up to FnK, and was easily the second-best story arc, after the Sacred Sword War.
The First Kurumada Anime to Skip TV
In my re-review of the Ring ni Kakero 1 anime last year I brought up the idea that Masami Kurumada simply wasn't interested in an RnK anime back in the 70s or early 80s, hence why one didn't happen until 2004. Some people did point me to a couple of interviews from Kurumada around that time that showed that he was in fact up for it, but all of them pretty much indicate that by the time he was finally interested, no one wanted to do it anymore, likely because it was when the manga was ending, i.e. fewer promotional opportunities. That's why, when making Saint Seiya, Kurumada precisely aimed for a title that would make companies salivate at the opportunity for cross-promotion, with Bandai & Toei biting within a half of year of its debut for toy/game & anime rights, respectively. The Seiya anime was a massive success for its time, running from late 1986 until early 1989 for 114 episodes, plus four theatrically-released movies, but even by the time Seiya was losing its appeal, there were some who still wanted to try to make some money of their own from it, even if not directly.
In particular, retailer Animate, its merchandise division Movic, & the CBS Sony Group (which eventually would morph into what's now Aniplex) decided to produce their own anime adaptation of a Masami Kurumada manga, with animation done by J.C. Staff, and literally just two months after the final episode of Saint Seiya aired on TV Asashi in April of 1989, the first two episodes of the Fuma no Kojirou OVA saw release that June, becoming the first Kurumada anime to be released straight to home video. Over the next two months, the remaining four episodes of this OVA would come out, adapting the Yasha Chapter. Sales must have been good, especially since the production brought in character designers Shingo Araki & Michi Himeno, and screenwriter Takao Koyama, from the Seiya anime (plus a crap ton of seiyuu), so in late 1990 another six episode OVA, Fuma no Kojirou: Seiken Sensou-hen, saw release in a similar fashion that adapted the Sacred Sword War Chapter. Finally, two years later in late 1992, a 50-minute OVA titled Fuma no Kojirou Saishushou: Fuma Hanran-hen saw release & adapted the "Final Chapter", the Fuma Rebellion Chapter; over time, the entire OVA trilogy would be treated as a 13-episode anime adaptation of the FnK manga. After those initial VHS & LD releases, the Fuma no Kojirou anime saw release across 5 DVDs in Japan throughout mid-2001 by SME Visual Works (the middle part of the eventual evolution from CBS Sony Group to Aniplex), with the first sextet of episodes now being given the subtitle of Yasha-hen. Unfortunately, those DVDs quickly became ridiculously expensive to purchase, even by Japanese Region 2 anime DVD standards, and these OVAs really could use an HD remaster & Blu-Ray release; just saying, Aniplex, there's a 40th Anniversary to celebrate this year.
Since the FnK anime's release, which is honestly a rather good adaptation of the manga (though the direct start of each story arc is skipped over, oddly enough), Masami Kurumada's creations would eventually see more OVA adaptations, namely 1997's B't X Neo, 2003-2008's Saint Seiya Hades trilogy, 2009-2011's Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, & you can even count 2018's Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho & Netflix's CG reboot of Saint Seiya from 2019, which were both ONAs/Original Net Animations. While Saint Seiya got everything started on TV, Fuma no Kojirou did the same without it; also, FnK gave us those outstanding OP & ED themes by J-Rock band Night Hawks.
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| Serialized Chapter 3: Kojirou helps out Hakuo's sports teams! Serialized Chapter 57: An battle with Earth-shattering swords begins! |
An Understated But Important Transition
Finally, we end with the big question: "Is there any real legacy to Fuma no Kojirou?" After all, Ring ni Kakero would become the "Hot-Blooded Fighting Manga Bible", the urtext that essentially all shonen action manga have continued to follow to this very day, Saint Seiya is up there as one of the most influential anime & manga the world over (minus "North of Mexico", of course), and B't X also has its own status as a beloved cult-classic in some circles. Even Otoko Zaka & Silent Knight Sho both have their own legacies because of their infamous cancellation-induced non-endings ("未完/Incomplete" & "NEVER END", respectively), so is there anything like that for FnK? In my opinion, there is a legacy to the series I lovingly call "Masami Kurumada's Fourth-Most-Well-Known Manga", and it's in how it helped act as a final, if heavily understated, transition from the sports/school-related stories that action manga (especially in Jump) tended to succeed the most with to more of a "pure action" style that would become the norm, and that's actually reflected in FnK's story itself.
As I've detailed in a video panel about the "True & Secret History of Shonen Action Manga" in the past (which was updated last year), a lot of what we would consider "standard" in what Japan likes to call "fighting manga" comes from various sports manga that came before them. While there were certainly action-based manga that were influential in their own right, like Kamui-den, Otoko Ippiki Gaki Daisho, & Babel II, it's also easy to see why the likes of Star of the Giants, Ashita no Joe, & Ganbare Genki wound up becoming massive icons that literally inspired the Japanese populace as a whole, both in taking up the respective sports that each focused on as well as entering the manga industry to tell stories in a similar fashion. For the best proof of how prolific sports manga once was, at two different points in the 70s, Jump had three different long-running baseball manga at the same time(!); today the magazine can't even keep one running for more than 20 chapters. Manga like Team Astro & Kurumada's own Ring ni Kakero then upped the ante by having their characters be even more larger than life, performing feats that are by all means utterly impossible in real life, but at the same stay true to that "rising above all odds & pushing past your limits" thematic that is inherently built into any sports story; after all, everyone loves an underdog story. What was seen with Fuma no Kojirou, however, was a direct & literal transition from sticking with that sports-related focus to one that continued that same thematic, only without the need for a sport (or even a school) to even be seen.
Initially, the Yasha Chapter literally begins with the Fuma Clan being hired to assist Hakuo Academy, as their students were being poached by rival school Seishikan (which is revealed to be helped out by the Yasha Clan), and it was specifically students who were good at sports, while the third serialized chapter of the manga sees Kojirou assist the likes of the baseball & soccer clubs in winning matches. However, it's obvious that Kurumada likely felt that the sports aesthetic would only stifle the story, so after that exact chapter there is literally never a single mention of any sport whatsoever, and very quickly the whole "assisting rival schools" element is essentially ignored in favor of just letting two groups of ninja fight using their various skills, plus two who have literal psychic powers. Come the Sacred Sword War Chapter, the start of the FnK story may as well have been an completely different series, as now we have two sides being forced to fight a battle of pre-ordained destiny that they seemingly have no control over, wielding mystical swords of such immense strength that no mortal should have command over; also, this arc has pretty much nothing to do with ninja. In many ways, especially in execution, Kurumada told a story that only he was allowed to tell at that time, & I'd argue that the Sacred Sword War Chapter couldn't be told the same way today in Shonen Jump. Finally, the Fuma Rebellion Chapter brings things more in line with its blatant Kamui-den influence, detailing a civil war within the Fuma Clan, though there's still some psychic powers tossed in for fun; Babel II was obviously another big influence. I mean, seriously, a school is nowhere to be seen by this point, yet all of the ninja still wear gakuran. Reading the last chapter of FnK, you pretty much forget that school & sports were even the entire reason for its plot getting started. I should mention that there was also Buichi Terasawa's Cobra running at the same time in Jump, but that was completely influenced by pulp novels & science fiction, blazing its own trail.
However, right as Fuma no Kojirou was entering its final nine serialized chapters, a new series by Buronson & Tetsuo Hara called Fist of the North Star debuted in Shonen Jump. While its two initial one-shots in Fresh Jump earlier in 1983 featured a modern-day school setting & had its lead as an age-appropriate teenager, obviously following what had worked in the past, by the time the serialized version debuted at the end of that same year it had transformed into a post-apocalyptic martial arts story starring a somewhat older & more somber lead, who is the Kenshiro that is now an icon. It quickly became a new smash hit, and with it having dropped any & all elements of school & sports from Chapter 1, though still obviously following the lead that someone like Masami Kurumada had fully established by then, Fist of the North Star would wind up being considered the first true modern example of a shonen action "fighting" manga, and that is honestly completely fair. Combined with Dragon Ball's debut at the end of 1984, that style of storytelling had its undeniable icons, and Kurumada himself would take advantage of that momentum when he debuted Saint Seiya at the start of 1986, being able to reintroduce his take on this style to a new generation of readers.
However, I would argue that Fuma no Kojirou still set that transitional stage into motion, and it definitely deserves respect for that.
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And that's six (plus one bonus) pieces of neat, important, or at least interesting little trivia regarding Masami Kurumada's Fuma no Kojirou. While I don't really expect too much to be happening for its 40th Anniversary (I'd still be up for a new anime adaptation, though), it was already teased that some sort of new FnK manga is in the works for 2022, with it looking to star Musashi Asuka, so that's at least something to look forward to. As always, while this isn't my favorite Masami Kurumada title of them all, there's still a lot to really like about FnK, and I wish it was more easily available in English, outside of a fansub for the anime that's a translation of a Spanish fansub (so it ain't perfect), because it's at least something that people should try out, in general.
Fuma no Kojirou (Manga) © Masami Kurumada
Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy © 2008, 2011 Square Enix Co., Ltd.
Fuma no Kojirou: Yagyu Ansatsucho © Masami Kurumada・Satoshi Yuri
Fuma no Kojirou (OVAs) © Masami Kurumada/Shueisha © 1989, 1990, 1992 Aniplex/MOVIC
Good read, thanks for sharing.
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