One Last Ride into the Winds of Saṃsāra: A Look at Fuma no Kojirou: Ultimate Final Edition

Masami Kurumada's Fuma no Kojirou/Kojirou of the Wind, the manga he did after finishing up Ring ni Kakero, has never really had the benefit of being given a proper farewell. The original 1982-1983 run looked to have been ended early by Kurumada himself, as his father passed away during that time, which in turn killed his enthusiasm for continuing the manga; the death also made him quit smoking, too. While I do still feel to some small extent that Kurumada also finally just felt ready to start making Otoko Zaka (life is only so long, after all), his father's death would also certainly explain why the last story arc of FnK, the Fuma Rebellion Chapter, was so fatalistic, nearly becoming a Yoshiyuki Tomino-esque "kill-em-all". Regardless, the original manga's ending was rather sudden, with Kojirou defeating the villain of the arc, followed by literally just a handful of pages that end with Kojirou running into the distance with the flag of the Fuma Clan; it didn't feel like much of a resolution. Twenty years later, Kurumada had a second chance with 2003's Fuma no Kojirou: Yagyu Ansatsucho/The Yagyu Assasination Pledge, a full-on sequel, drawn by former assistant Satoshi Yuri, that was meant to show how Kojirou would become the leader of a new generation of Fuma ninja. Unfortunately, that went into indefinite hiatus in 2006, and today it still remains unfinished after only 16 chapters across three volumes, & a 17th chapter that was serialized but never got collected.

It would take another 13 years for Fuma no Kojirou to be given one last chance at a proper finale.

Look, I don't make the rules here...
"The Greatest Comic Writer" is Kurumada.

In July of 2019, Akita Shoten announced that Kurumada would be drawing a brand new Fuma no Kojirou short story, subtitled Jou no Maki/Prelude Chapter, in Champion RED magazine the following month that took place before the original manga's first arc, the Yasha Chapter. When the manga, which would run for three issues & total 75 pages, debuted that August, it was also announced that there would be a brand new re-release of Fuma no Kojirou starting the following November. Titled the "Kyukyoku Saishuban/Ultimate Final Edition" (& released by Shogakukan, of all publishers; there's even an official Twitter page!), it would collect the entire 10-volume manga across three giant tomes, each over 700 pages long, & would include all of the original color pages, title splashes, & end-of-chapter text, 100% reproduced from the original Shonen Jump run, as well as bonus content. November's Volume 1 contained the entirety of Prelude Chapter, followed by all of the Yasha Chapter. December's Volume 2 housed most of the Sacred Sword War Chapter, which was literally half of the entire series, plus a 15-page "rare illustration" gallery, with some images that had never been seen by readers before. Finally, January 2020's Volume 3 was home to the rest of the Sacred Sword War Chapter, all of the Fuma Rebellion Chapter... And a brand new, never before seen, 14-page Tsui no Maki/Final Chapter epilogue; after almost 40 years later, Kurumada was able to give this series a proper sendoff. Naturally, I pre-ordered all three books as soon as I could, and now they've all arrived together, so instead of a traditional "review", I'll just go over what the Ultimate Final Edition brings to the table, as well as what these two new "Chapters" do for the overall story of Fuma no Kojirou.

Easily the most notable thing about this new release is in how it's being presented. If you were to take a look at the table of contents of tankouban for older manga that were serialized weekly, you wouldn't find the usual 9-10 chapters that make up your standard weekly manga volumes. Instead, they were liable to range anywhere from 2-10, with the occasional chapter weighing in at an excess of 100 pages! Obviously, the mangaka didn't produce a massive, 100-page chapter in a single week, nor did they take a break, only to return with that many pages all at once; it'd also create problems for the publisher, too. Rather, the compiled volumes, regardless of format, often had multiple chapters combined into one, usually because they all fit a common plot point & it made more sense to simply treat them as one overall chapter. It's also possible that the mangaka originally intended for a chapter to be this big, but had to split it up for serialization purposes, & had to wait until the tankouban for it to truly be "complete". This was common up through around sometime in the 80s, so the end result is that Fuma no Kojirou's original run wasn't spread across 42 chapters, like it is in all of its previously collected releases, but rather ran a total of 97 chapters, to reflect the exact number of issues it ran in Weekly Shonen Jump across both 1982 & 1983; combined with the new content, the manga now totals 100 chapters (101, if you count Final Chapter). For example, the chapter "The 4,000 Year Dream", from the Sacred Sword War, runs for 72 pages in all of the previous releases, but was originally comprised of smaller chapters titled "The 4,000 Year Dream", "The Name of the Emperor's Sacred Sword is...", "Illusion After Illusion...", & "Fuurin Kazan's Mutiny", all of which are around 20 pages long; the extra total page length here is due to blank pages between each chapter & the original title splashes. To be fair, though, this is probably the most egregious example, as most collected chapters in FnK were simply made up of just two serialized chapters, three at most.

A benefit of this change, however, is that each & every chapter now has all of the extra text at the start & end, either to hype the reader for what's about to happen or to intrigue them for what will come the following week, in order to keep them reading. Also, every single splash page that starts each chapter has been retained, which themselves feature their own "hype" text. This results in current readers being able see amusing little bits of promotion, like the first chapter calling Kojirou "The Superhero of '82" & stating "You still don't know what a real Kurumada manga is!", or the page shown at the top of this article that deems Masami Kurumada as "The Greatest Comic Writer" (which, to be fair, wasn't without merit, since it wouldn't be until the mid-90s that Akira Toriyama & Takehiko Inoue would do full-color final chapters). This also results in pretty much every single chapter now featuring the credit "Masami Kurumada & Shinwakai", with the latter being the collective name of Kurumada's assistants, at the time. This included people like Jun Tomizawa, who'd later create Business Commando Yamazaki & become a judge for the Silent Manga Audition, & chief assistant Toukichi Ishiyama, who would find himself a niche in yankii manga (& maybe is the inspiration behind Otoko Zaka's Toukichi Kuroda?). The Shinwakai team, which literally means "Gathering of the Gods", had been previously featured in a series of gag one-shots Kurumada made from 1979 to 1983, later collected in a single volume called Jitsuroku! Shinwakai/The Authentic Gathering of the Gods! (which I have yet to fully read & review), so it made sense for Kurumada to co-credit his assistants during Fuma no Kojirou's run; it'd be like if Nobuhiro Watsuki co-credited his "Watsuki-gumi" during Rurouni Kenshin's run.

However, the main attraction of this new release is obviously the 100% accurate (to my knowledge, at least) recreation of every single page that was originally colorized in the Shonen Jump run. Now, to clarify, there are two forms of "color pages" that run in Shonen Jump (& pretty much the majority of manga magazines, for that matter). The most well known is when it's "full-color", like it was a Western comic, but that is usually reserved for either title splashes, like the one shown above, or just a handful of pages at the very beginning of a chapter, though the latter is still rather rare; Yakitate!! Japan even used full-color at the end of a chapter for a brilliant gag. The more common one is what could probably be considered "partial-color", where the pages are fully colored, but based primarily around a specific color or tone, for the most part. For example, some of the chapters in Fuma no Kojirou are done with a light red tint to it, so while characters still feature natural skin & clothing colors, the environments around them are colored primarily with reddish tones; it's both a stylistic choice as well as a way to save money for the publisher on coloring. What surprises me the most, however, is that there are entire chapters in this re-release that are done in partial-color, sometimes even in a row! For example, the second, third, & fourth chapters of the Yasha Chapter are 99% printed with that reddish tone, minus a page in each chapter, usually early on, that's in black & white. Easily the most shocking thing for me is that there is actually a single chapter, "Musashi Dies on the Battlefield!!" (the penultimate part of the Yasha Chapter), which is done entirely in full-color, though with a strong stylistic choice by featuring all sorts of other unnatural colors for dramatic effect. It's wild to see something like that done for a manga that wasn't at its finale, especially since that just doesn't happen anymore.

It's also important to bring up that, while the color pages are a primary selling point for the release, they aren't exactly evenly spread out. The first book features seven colored chapters for the Yasha Chapter, primarily done in partial-color, and each of the three parts of Prelude Chapter feature a couple of full-color pages at the start. After that, the second book only has a scant three chapters featuring any color pages, though each of them are half full-color, half partial-color; the gallery at the end is in full-color, however. Finally, the third book has absolutely no color pages, which is probably a good indicator of how Fuma no Kojirou was doing in the last third of its run; it wasn't bombing by any means, but it's likely that it had lost some of its luster in the eyes of Shueisha. In comparison, it's a little surprising that Final Chapter doesn't have any color pages, or that it wasn't even done in full-color to start with, but I'm honestly just shocked that Kurumada even drew a new finale, in the first place. Regardless of whether a page is in color or B&W, though, all three of the books come in outstanding quality, with pages that deliver in either bright & vibrant color or stark & sharp black-on-white. There is some bleed through, i.e. you can see through to the other page, but it requires you to put a page directly in front of a light source to see happen, so it's not something that would normally happen during a casual read. In terms of size, each book is slightly taller & wider than your standard B6-size tankouban, and in terms of thickness each book is about the same as three Jump tankouban. Amusingly, enough, I own the first giant tome for Team Astro that came out back in 1999, and while it has slightly fewer pages than any of these books, it's actually a bit thicker, due to the paper stock used; still, I'd say that the Fuma no Kojirou books are of a better quality, over all.

But one can argue that all of this is just extra bells & whistles to decorate a manga that, while not terrible, is admittedly not Masami Kurumada's finest. I've more than praised its merits & aired my problems with the series as a whole in the past, most recently last year, while I've seen others somehow get the idea in their heads that Kurumada was going to do some gigantic ninja war that simply never got to be told. The latter point honestly kind of confounds me, as the only indication of such a storyline even being a minuscule possibility is that ruling over the other existing ninja clans was the plan of Shimon, the VILLAIN of the Fuma Rebellion Chapter, which Kojirou & Ryoma fought to prevent from happening in the final battle. Seriously, our heroes wouldn't want anything even approaching seeing MORE ninja senselessly dying, especially after what their own clan just went through. There is literally nothing else in the story to indicate a ninja war would even happen, except for the destruction of the Hida Clan during the Sacred Sword War Chapter (& even that's a big stretch), and if Kurumada really wanted to do such a story I think he would have done so in 2003, in place of the battle with Karma that Yagyu Ansatsucho told (& never finished). Still, while it is outstanding & awesome to see Fuma no Kojirou reprinted in such excellent quality & color (where appropriate), easily the most appealing "feature" of this new release comes in the form of the new content, Prelude Chapter & Final Chapter... So let's talk about them.

The three-part Prelude Chapter takes place sometime before the Yasha Chapter, and is all about Kojirou, Ryoma, Kouu, & Kirikaze chasing after a masked man claiming to be "Father Fuma", a legendary ninja from the Fuma Clain's past, after he steals the Fuma Mumeicho (literally "The Nameless Book of the Fuma"), which contains all of the secrets regarding the Fuma Clan, while Kojirou was lazily performing guard duty over it. In true Fuma no Kojirou fashion, Kurumada wastes no real time getting straight to the point, as the story starts immediately with Kojirou being bested by Father Fuma & stealing the book, followed by his brethren being tasked by the Fuma Leader with getting it back, Kojirou bullishly following after them, & Kouu being defeated at his own game by Father Fuma after everyone splits up. Part two details Kirikaze & Ryoma's attempts to stop Father Fuma, while the final part shows Kojirou's battle. Overall, it's a fun little short story that doesn't interfere with the main story that follows, while adding in bonus character development, both obvious & subtle, like showing how Kojirou learned his special move Fuma Reppu (a move he literally only uses once in the manga), hinting at Kouu's knack for scarring (if not simply killing) his foe in defeat, or indicating how Ryoma learned to hide his shadow when creating his psychic "shadow clones". The true identity of Father Fuma is honestly pretty easy to figure out, but in turn does give extra meaning behind the events. Obviously, it can't really do anything major, but it's enjoyable for what it is.

As for Final Chapter, it brings things back to where the manga originally started, showing Himeko Hojo & Ranko Yagyu, the women who hired the Fuma Clan to help save Hakuo Academy at the very beginning, trying to locate the Fuma Clan's home, only to get attacked by some last remnants of the Yasha Clan. They're seemingly saved by Kojirou, though, who disappears back into the wind, like the wandering soldiers his clan is meant to be. Compared to the original ending, Final Chapter is easily a marked improvement, bringing things full circle somewhat, and it technically even keeps Yagyu Ansatsucho canon to the timeline, simply by not doing anything to directly contradict it; that series doesn't exactly give Hakuo (&, in turn, Himeko & Ranko) a good future, though. In the end, neither of these new additions really add anything truly substantial to the overall plot of Fuma no Kojirou, but they're still really cool to see happen; the first is a neat little extra story for old time's sake, & the second is the proper epilogue the series needed.

When this new release was first announced, there was a little bit of confusion regarding it. After all, there are more popular & iconic manga from Masami Kurumada's catalog to re-release, like B't X, Ring ni Kakero, & especially Saint Seiya. Also, this was likely a bit of a sudden thing that got sprung onto Kurumada himself, as he started 2019 out by announcing a new run of Otoko Zaka chapters that January, only for it to never actually start back up, while Kurumada wound up doing Fuma no Kojirou: Prelude Chapter in Champion RED for three months in the Fall, instead; that Otoko Zaka run finally started up this month, however. At the same time, though, I can definitely see why Fuma no Kojirou was chosen for this "Ultimate Final Edition", because it was still a successful & influential series in its own right, a recent video shows that FnK maintained a high "ranking" in Jump's Table of Contents for most of its entire run (at least until around the time the Fuma Rebellion Chapter started up), and at only 10 volumes it was also a series that didn't require a long release schedule. Regardless of the reason why this new release even happened, though, Fuma no Kojirou: Ultimate Final Edition more than fulfills its moniker, as it truly is the best possible way to read this series, and I'm extremely glad to own it, because we all know it'll never see any sort of release in English, official or otherwise.

However, this new release was obviously just a proof of concept for a bigger endeavor, as in December 2019 (during FnK's new release) it was announced that Saint Seiya would be getting its own "Final Edition" release later in 2020, complete with "new original stories". I'm guessing those will be Saint Seiya Episode Zero, Saint Seiya Origin, & Saint Seiya Destiny, side story short series that Kurumada has been doing for the past couple of years (& have yet to be collected as tankouban) that correspond to various points in the original manga, namely before the first chapter, the Sanctuary Chapter, & the Poseidon Chapter, respectively. I'd imagine that Kurumada will do one in the future relating to the Hades Chapter, & maybe even one tying directly into Next Dimension that'll be exclusive to this new release, ala FnK: Final Chapter. Considering the extra content, I'd expect at least a 9-volume re-release from this, especially if it matches the style that FnK got; my guess is 4 for the Sanctuary Chapter, 2 for the Poseidon Chapter, & 3 for the Hades Chapter.

One can only hope that, following Saint Seiya's new release, we'll also see "Final Edition" releases for B't X or Ring ni Kakero in starting in 2021, especially for the latter; a 100% accurate reprinting of the original full-color final chapter has been long overdue.

Fuma no Kojirou: Ultimate Final Edition © Masami Kurumada