For most anime fans, the chances are more than decent that they got their start with the medium in some way via an anime adaptation of a popular shonen manga. However, the majority of the most influential "shonen anime" come from a wide variety of different directors, even if they came from the same animation studio. For example, Fist of the North Star was by the late Toyoo Ashida, Dragon Ball had Daisuke Nishio (alongside Minoru Okazaki before DBZ), & Saint Seiya was by Kozo Morishita (1st half) & Kazuhito Kikuchi (2nd half), despite all three coming from Toei Animation. However, there is one anime director who was consistently directing shonen anime at the same studio, and for roughly 20 years would be behind seven different adaptations, some of which would become iconic in not just Japan but also abroad... And yet I bet almost none of you actually know who he is.
I think it's time we finally celebrate Noriyuki Abe, possibly the most prolific shonen anime director you never knew of, despite likely having watched (& loved) something he directed.
Born on July 19, 1961 in Kyoto, Noriyuki Abe would graduate from Waseda University with a degree in Architecture before joining Studio Pierrot in 1986. Abe would make his proper debut in 1988 with Norakuro-kun as a storyboarder & episode director, positions he would continue to fill for the next few years for Heisei Tensai Bakabon, Karakuri Kengo-den Musashi Lord, Ore wa Chokkaku, & Marude Dameo, all for Pierrot, before going freelance in 1990 & working on Honou no Tokyuji: Dodge Danpei for Animation 21 and the original Chibi Maruko-chan anime for Nippon Animation, working on a single episode for each in 1992. However, despite going freelance, it would be with Pierrot that Abe would define his legacy with, as in late 1992 he made his debut as a series director... And it'd be for the anime adaptation of what is today one of the most beloved, iconic, & influential Shonen Jump manga of all time.
Debuting in Japan on October 10, 1992, Yu Yu Hakusho was a part of Fuji TV's long-storied history of running anime at 6:00 pm and/or 6:30 pm on Saturdays, replacing Marude Dameo; Pierrot had actually been making anime for that time slot since Osomatsu-kun Season 2 in 1988. Based on the then-still-running Shonen Jump manga by Yoshihiro Togashi (his second series, overall), the story of Yusuke Urameshi being given a second chance at life after getting himself killed to save the life of a young boy & his soccer ball from an oncoming car (i.e. Yu Yu Hakusho takes place in an alternate Captain Tsubasa universe!) by becoming a "Spirit Detective" is one that really doesn't require any real introduction. In Japan it's a legendary series, one that has influenced future mangaka & works, even as recently as Gege Akutami's Jujutsu Kaisen, & the anime even won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize for Best Anime two years in a row (1994 & 1995). In a region like North America, YYH helped establish & solidify an entire generation of anime fandom through its TV runs on Adult Swim & Toonami. The anime would run all the way until January 7, 1995 in Japan for 112 episodes (sources in English don't realize that two episodes got pre-empted for other programming, so it skipped two weeks), becoming the longest anime to ever run on Fuji TV's 6:00/6:30 pm time slot, beating out both the original Yatterman series from the 70s & GeGeGe no Kitaro's third series from the 80s, which both ran for 108 episodes. It ran for so long, in fact, that Togashi had already ended the manga by the time the final episode aired, which allowed the anime to not only adapt all the way until the end, but even expand on the final story arc, which Togashi admitted to ending hastily due to his own "selfishness", i.e. he got tired of doing it. To many, Yu Yu Hakusho remains one of the greatest anime of all time, which definitely says something for not just its source material, but also for the directorial skills of Noriyuki Abe... And this was his debut as director! Abe would also direct the first YYH theatrical film in 1993 (though not the second one in 1994), the Eizou Hakusho series of OVAs from 1994 to 1996, & even returned to the series for a pair of OVAs in 2018.
However, back to 1995, Abe had no time to rest & cherish his success, as the very next week after Yu Yu Hakusho's final episode aired, Abe's sophomore TV effort as director would debut... And it was something that he first had the chance to hint at a couple of months prior.
Debuting in mid-1993 in Shonen Jump, Ninku by Koji Kiriyama is an interesting little series, namely because it's relatively short length (at least initially) belies the popularity, influence, & impact it has had. Despite only running for two years & ending in mid-1995 after 9 volumes (which included some start-&-stop moments separated by short hiatuses), the story of the once-disbanded Ninku Corps, lead by the young Fusuke of the Wind, has maintained a bit of a legendary status in Jump's history, and was very instrumental in inspiring a certain ninja story a few years later; the key art says it all. Anyway, following a pilot film produced in late 1994 for Jump Super Anime Tour '95, Noriyuki Abe & Pierrot's TV anime adaptation of Ninku would debut on January 14, 1995 & run until February 24, 1996 for a total of 55 episodes, as well as a standalone short film for the '95 Summer Toei Anime Fair (which remains the sole piece of Ninku to ever see official English release, interestingly enough). Despite the manga ending while the anime was airing, the anime isn't exactly a 1:1 adaptation, instead focusing on the Imperial Army that broke up the Ninku, rather than the rogue Ninku that the manga focused on, and featured many original stories. That's not to say that the Ninku anime was a failure, though, as it still averaged around a 12.6% rating & maxed out at 22%, which are the kinds of numbers that anime don't tend to reach these days, not even the consistently top-rated Sazae-san. As for the manga, Kiriyama would eventually get the chance to continue the story he wasn't able to properly finish, as from 2005 to 2011 he made Ninku Second Stage: Etonin-hen for Ultra Jump, which ran for an additional 12 volumes; there's also the Ninku Zero book, which contains some side stories & the original manga one-shot.
So, after two hit action series in a row, what was next for Hiroyuki Abe & Pierrot? Well, how about something fairly different, but still from the same magazine?
After two action series, it was decided that the next Jump manga to be adapted by Abe & Pierrot for Fuji TV would be Midori no Makibao/Makibao of the Green, a horse racing/gag manga by Masaaki Tsuno, better known by his pen name Tsunomaru. Debuting at the very end of 1994, the manga showed the trials & tribulations of Midori Makibao, a diminutive white mule who goes from mere ranch animal to a potential race horse legend, both to defeat his newfound rival Cascade & to free his mother Midori, who had been taken away from the ranch to pay off debts. Manga critic Fumanosuke Natsume also found numerous similarities to Ashita no Joe, to the point where he deemed Tsunomaru's manga to be a "tribute". Midori no Makibao would go on to run in Shonen Jump until the start of 1998 for 16 volumes, becoming Tsunomaru's most iconic work, and from 2007 to 2016 would serialize in Weekly Playboy magazine a two-part next generation sequel, Taiyou no Makibao/Makibao of the Sun & Taiyou no Makibao W, revolving around Makibao's nephew, Hinode Makibao, and his own time as a race horse/mule; it would total 36 volumes (16+20). As for Noriyuki Abe's anime adaptation, it would run from March 2, 1996 (starting the week after Ninku's finale) to July 12, 1997 for 61 episodes, and similar to Ninku had some differences from the manga, namely in featuring numerous anime-exclusive characters & not killing off a specific character near the end, unlike the manga, so as to not leave the family viewing audience with a sour aftertaste. Also, unlike YYH & Ninku before it, Makibao's manga was still running by the time the anime came to an end. The Midori no Makibao anime would also see a consistent life after its initial airing, receiving numerous reruns on Kids Station throughout the 2010s, and at the start of 2021 it started airing on Green Channel, a horse racing network; talk about a perfect home.
In the grand scheme of things, the Midori no Makibao anime might not be one of Noriyuki Abe's most iconic anime, but it showed his knack for not just action but also comedy, and its overall length, second only to Yu Yu Hakusho, wouldn't be surpassed by Abe for close to a decade, proving its staying power. Following Makibao's final episode, it was decided that Abe & Pierrot would return to action, but this time from a different magazine source, though that certainly didn't stop Abe's next anime from being compared to Abe's first, even to this very day.
I've written about this before, but there's definitely a difference in general style when it comes to the major shonen manga magazines, specifically Shonen Magazine, Shonen Sunday, Shonen Jump, & Shonen Champion. In particular, where Jump can be considered the "Soul" of shonen manga, due to its general focus on determination, camaraderie, & earning success, Sunday can be considered the "Heart", due to its general focus on interpersonal relationships, real life similarities, and perseverance on remaining upbeat. Sunday, like it's very name, is meant to feel relaxing & fun to read, so while there are action series in it, they don't really feel too similar in execution to what Jump is known for. However, a notable exception to all of that was Flame of Recca by Nobuyuki Anzai, which at the time of its debut in early 1995 was a pure "battle manga" in a magazine which at the time was filled with romantic comedies & sports series, which helped make it stand out in Shonen Sunday & resulted in a 33-volume run that would end at the start of 2002. This also helped make Flame of Recca an easy pick for anime adaptation, with Noriyuki Abe & Pierrot's take debuting on July 19, 1997 as the newest show to air in the same time slot as Yu Yu Hakusho had just a couple of years prior. I bring up YYH specifically because Flame of Recca has pretty much always been compared to that series for its entire life & beyond, as despite the obvious aesthetic differences (ninja-inspired conflicts vs. battles against demons) the actual execution itself was very similar. In fact, I seem to remember once finding proof that the Recca anime was even directly promoted back in the day in Japan as essentially "From the Studio & Director of Yu Yu Hakusho!", though I can no longer find it. Unfortunately, aside from being constantly compared to an iconic work, Flame of Recca's anime had its own problem, as during its run Fuji TV was looking to finally bring an end to its long-running anime time slot. After Episode 31 aired on March 28, 1998 the show got moved over to Fridays at 4:30 pm, & aired exclusively in the Kanto region, with the old slot now airing the music show Music Hammer, ending a nearly 23-year run of anime; anime would return to the time slot later in 1998, but would only last another ~3.5 years.
The Flame of Recca anime would end after 42 episodes on July 10, 1998, and since the manga was still far from over by this point, this naturally resulted in the anime featuring numerous changes to accommodate things. The actual ending would be adapted, however, via the PS2 fighting game Flame of Recca: Final Burning in 2004, with Pierrot returning to handle the anime cutscenes, though Noriyuki Abe would be replaced with Waruo Suzuki (Duel Masters) for directing. At this point, Noriyuki Abe (who had changed the kanji for "Nori" with Recca's final episode) had literally been directing shonen anime for TV for nearly six whole years straight, almost all of it in the same exact time slot(!), and it's easily arguable that all four of the shows he directed were influential series in their own rights. Before we move on to what shonen anime TV series came next for Abe, though, let's take a detour to an interesting case of "What if?".
Shonen Jump has a long history of producing pilot anime short films as a way of gauging interest for potential anime adaptations, or even just to help promote one that's already on the way, and I've covered a fair portion of them on this blog, mostly through Demo Disc; unfortunately, this stopped after 2013. However, I'd argue that the strongest overall collection of these pilots happened for Jump Super Anime Tour '98, which was part of Shonen Jump's 30th Anniversary celebration, and I've actually given each of the three pilots produced for this roadshow their own individual reviews in the past. The best of them all is easily One Piece: Defeat the Pirate Ganzack!, which was Production I.G.'s look at what a hypothetical One Piece anime could have looked like before Toei's still-running anime debuted, while Seikimatsu Leader Gaiden Takeshi! is a rare instance where the pilot actually never resulted in a later TV series. Relevant to our subject, though, is the pilot film for Hunter × Hunter, based on the manga by Yoshihiro Togashi, creator of Yu Yu Hakusho. Debuting in early 1998, H×H is technically still running to this day in Shonen Jump, though Togashi has put it on repeated & long hiatuses ever since 2006 for a variety of personal reasons (mainly his health), and hasn't had a new chapter as of this piece since September 2018; it's currently at 36 volumes. Regardless, to say that H×H was an instant hit would be putting it lightly, as this pilot was created before the manga even turned a year old, and it's not surprising that Shueisha decided that Noriyuki Abe & Pierrot was the team to go with for the test drive, considering their history with Jump, and especially YYH. As for the pilot itself, I feel it's honestly the weakest of the three JSAT '98 pilots, but that's simply because it's nothing more than a solid & enjoyable alternate take on the very beginning of the H×H story; it kind of pales in comparison to One Piece's outstanding pilot, or the sheer weirdness of Takeshi!. Still, it makes for an interesting view into an alternate world, and it's definitely worth a watch; Kenji Utsumi even got to reprise his role as the ship's captain for Madhouse's 2011 TV adaptation.
However, our world's history went in a different direction, as Nippon Animation & director Kazuhiro Furuhashi would be given the reigns to produce a TV anime adaptation of Hunter × Hunter from 1999 to 2001. In a great irony, however, this first H×H TV anime would air in that very same Fuji TV time slot that Noriyuki Abe & Pierrot had ruled over for the majority of that decade, during that ~3.5-year revival for anime I mentioned earlier. However, Abe & Pierrot's time with Fuji TV wasn't quite over just yet, as in mid-1999 they'd return on a different day & time slot, and with an anime based on a manga from yet another weekly shonen magazine.
After finishing up Flame of Recca, Noriyuki Abe took a well deserved break from TV anime for a little bit, though he did draw the storyboards for Episode 15 of Trigun & Episode 16 of Saber Marionette J to X. On January 4, 1999, Abe returned to directing for TV with Microman, The Little Giant, a 52-episode series based on Takara's Microman line of toys, & while we won't be focusing on that show here, it is notable in that Microman was the first anime in which Abe not only directed the show itself but also acted as "sound director", which meant that he was now also personally directing the voice talent when they recorded their lines. The same was true for Abe's next shonen manga adaptation, Great Teacher Onizuka, which debuted on June 30, 1999, so for the rest of the year Abe was directing two TV anime for Pierrot, both in regards to staff AND cast. Based on the Weekly Shonen Magazine manga by Tohru Fujisawa, which itself was the sequel to Fujisawa's Shonan Jun'ai Gumi, GTO was more like Midori no Makibao in that it was a mix of drama & comedy, and like Abe's prior adaptations there were various changes from the manga, both minor & more notable. While not quite as legendary & iconic in stature as something like Yu Yu Hakusho, Ninku, or even Flame of Recca, the GTO anime is still highly regarded as a classic, and whenever you see a new series that focuses on a non-traditional teacher helping their students maneuver through life, you will eventually see someone compare it to GTO. Fujisawa has also kept the series alive through four different sequel & spin-off manga, currently with GTO: Paradise Lost, which has been running in Weekly Young Magazine since 2014.
While GTO started airing Wednesdays at 7:00 pm on Fuji TV, it too would only stay there for the first 10 episodes before moving over to Sundays at 7:00 pm, where it'd end on September 24, 2000 after 43 episodes & two "omnibus" episodes. After GTO would come Abe's next TV series, Ghost Stories (which is known most for its infamous English dub by ADV & director Stephen Foster), which would run for 20 episodes in the same time slot as GTO had ended on. Following that, Abe would mostly work as a storyboard artist for specific episodes of Super GALS!, Final Fantasy: Unlimited, Kaze no Yojimbo, & Hajime no Ippo. Abe would also direct one of the OP sequences for Hikaru no Go, as well as the direct the 3-episode OVA Kinniku Banzuke: Kongou-kun no Daibouken!, based on the athletic competition show of the same name. After all of that, Abe would return to directing TV with 2002's Tokyo Mew Mew for Pierrot, based on the shojo manga from Kodansha's Nakayoshi magazine, and after that series ended after 52 episodes in early 2003, Abe would return once again to shonen anime, though this would also mark his second anime to focus around mysteries.
Debuting in Weekly Shonen Magazine in mid-2001, Detective School Q was a detective manga written by Kindaichi Case Files' Seimaru Amagi, one of the seven pen names used by Shin Kibayashi, and was effectively the spiritual successor to Kindaichi, right down to Fumiya Sato doing the artwork, following its original finale in 2000; DSQ would run until mid-2005 for 22 volumes. On April 13, 2003, TBS debuted an anime adaptation of DSQ, with Abe & Pierrot once again joining forces, replacing... Japan's version of Survivor; I am not joking. Once again, the DSQ anime featured changes from the original manga, though in this case Abe actually directly addressed it in an interview, stating that he simply didn't want fans of the manga to instantly know everything from the start, which makes sense. Also, in what seemed to become a recurring thing with Abe's shonen manga adaptations, DSQ moved time slots during its initial run, moving from Thursdays at 7:00 pm to Saturdays at 5:00 pm after Episode 21, this time replacing the GetBackers anime. This change in time slot also resulted in a move from TBS' national network to its regional network, and in turn TBS wouldn't air another anime on its national network for another 12 years, until Kamizawa Wanda in 2016. After 45 episodes, Detective School Q's anime would end on March 20, 2004, understandably not resolving the overarching mystery between main character Kyu Renjo & the organization "Pluto", since the manga was still running. Also of note is that the last 15 episodes of DSQ were aired in 16:9 instead of 4:3, likely by cropping the sides & zooming in on the image, though this was fixed in late 2009 (likely for re-runs).
Following DSQ's final episode, Noriyuki Abe would once again take a break, thought this time it was an actual "do nothing" hiatus. At this point, he had directed 9 TV anime (plus a handful of movies & OVAs) across 14 years, most of which were adaptations of shonen manga properties. Whatever the reason for this hiatus, it was most deserved in retrospect, because what came next would be his biggest & longest work to date, and one that will most likely go down as his most iconic. About seven months after Detective School Q finished, Abe reunited once again with Pierrot, this time to adapt to TV their first Shonen Jump property in close to seven years...
Prior to late 2004, the longest anime Noriyuki Abe had directed was Yu Yu Hakusho at 112 episodes across ~2.25 years, and Pierrot itself didn't really have something absurdly long (like Toei Animation would often do) until Naruto in 2002, and even by this point it hadn't quite reached YYH's length yet. However, things would change for Abe on October 5, 2004 with the debut of Bleach, the anime adaptation of Noriaki "Tite" Kubo's manga that had debuted in Shonen Jump back in mid-2001. Similar to Ninku, there was a pilot anime produced by Abe & Pierrot for Jump Festa Anime Tour 2004 to help act as a primer for the later TV series, and there is something to be said for Bleach's initial similarities to Yu Yu Hakusho, but in the long run there's no doubt that Bleach would go on to not just become one of Pierrot's biggest hits, but also arguably the most iconic anime Noriyuki Abe would ever direct. Come the end of 2007, Bleach would not only match YYH's length but continue on even further, not coming to an end until March 27, 2012, after ~7.25 years & 366 episodes! While it first debuted Tuesdays at 7:30 pm on TV Tokyo, it did move around four different times, though considering the sheer length it's not that surprising. During all of this, Abe would also direct a second Jump Festa OVA & four theatrically-released movies, all telling original plots, on an almost-yearly basis from 2005 to 2010. Now, yes, the sheer length of Bleach's anime, combined with the fact that Kubo was nowhere near the end of the manga yet (that wouldn't happen until 2016), does mean that this anime is also infamous for its variety of "filler arcs", to the point where two of them ("The New Captain Shusuke Amagai" & "Zanpakuto: The Alternate Tale") literally put the main storyline on hold in order to tell these (essentially) hypothetical plots, instead of fitting them in-between manga-adapted storylines & treating them as semi-canon. Bleach would also be the sixth & final anime that Abe would act as sound director for, allowing him to truly mold the anime how he wanted, both visually & audibly.
In the end, Bleach allowed Noriyuki Abe to not only have a truly massive hit anime to call his own, but also wound up becoming a consistent part of English-speaking anime fandom for 12 straight years, as Yu Yu Hakusho ran on Adult Swim & Toonami from 2002 to 2006, while Bleach ran on Adult Swim from 2006 to 2014! Sadly, Abe is not currently planned to be a part of the upcoming Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War anime that will debut in October 2022, as Tomohisa Taguchi (Akudama Drive, Twin Star Exorcists) will be directing, but I wouldn't be surprised if Abe eventually finds his way on at some point, likely as a storyboard artist or episode director for at least one episode, as is his style when not directing.
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Following Bleach's end in 2012, Noriyuki Abe continued to keep himself busy, doing storyboards & the occasional episode direction for shows like Tsuritama, Naruto, Gatchaman Crowds, Nisekoi, Hajime no Ippo Rising, & Knights of Sidonia. He'd return to directing in 2014 with Black Butler: Book of Circus, and has since also directed both seasons of Heroic Legend of Arslan, Divine Gate, Kochoki: Young Nobunaga, & most recently Arad Senki: Gyakuten no Gear in 2020; he also directed two of the theatrical movies for Seven Deadly Sins. However, his most notable work post-Bleach was for Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, where he acted as "General Director" for the first 104 episodes, i.e. he was essentially supervising the "Series Director", in this case Hiroyuki Yamashita (Eps 1-66) & Toshiro Fujii (67-104), before Masayuki Kouda took full control of the anime to this day.
However, while I'm sure Noriyuki Abe will continue to be a part of the anime industry for a good while (he's only 60, so he's still got a good number of years in front of him, hopefully), I think it's safe to say that his reign as the seeming "King of Shonen Anime" has come to an end. While there are plenty of other directors who have directed similarly iconic & generation-defining shonen anime, if not even more iconic, I don't think there's anyone who had a run quite like Noriyuki Abe, both in terms of overall length as well as general consistency. You have true icons in Yu Yu Hakusho & Bleach, an understated influence in Ninku, beloved cult classics in Flame of Recca & GTO, an ability to go in different directions in Midori no Makibao & Detective School Q, & even a hint at what could have been with the Hunter × Hunter JSAT pilot, and all with the same anime studio in Pierrot. I've long wanted to cover Noriyuki Abe here, and I feel there's no better way to have done so than in 2022, which will mark the 30th Anniversary of his debut as a director.
Godspeed, Noriyuki Abe, and all the best in the future.
Yu Yu Hakusho © Yoshihiro Togashi 1990-1994 © Pierrot/Shueisha
Ninku © Koji Kiriyama/Shueisha・Pierrot
Midori no Makibao © Tsunomaru・Studio Shogun/Shueisha・Pierrot
Flame of Recca © Nobuyuki Anzai/Shogakukan・Fuji TV・Pierrot
Hunter × Hunter Pilot Film © Yoshihiro Togashi/Shueisha
Great Teacher Onizuka © Tohru Fujisawa/Kodansha・Fuji TV・Aniplex・Studio Pierrot
Detective School Q © Seimaru Amagi・Fumiya Sato・Kodansha/TBS・Pierrot
Bleach © Tite Kubo/Shueisha・TV Tokyo・Dentsu・Pierrot
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